I love the internet for so many reasons. One of them is that I can pretty easily get out of print books for reasonable prices. Like A Miracle of Rare Design : A Tragedy of Transcendence. I read this book years ago, and it stands out in my mind as one of my favorite by Mike Resnick. It has been out of print since 1996, but when I was looking for it online today I found that Amazon had it available as an e-book for $5.59. I thought “Hey, that’s great! Even though it’s out of print, I can download it and read it!”. Then I saw that it was also available in Mass-Market Paperback used for as low as $5.99 w/shipping, in VG condition. Wow! I’ll take me one o’ them! So, I went ahead and ordered it. Blam! Ordering over the internet couldn’t be easier. Within moments of thinking “I wonder if I can find a copy of that book…” I find it and order it for less than the cover price and none of the hassle of trying to print it out of my own printer. Amazon.com makes ordering quick and easy, even with other vendors/used products/small orders.
Which is when I notice that they also have the Hardcover edition available for as low as $5.09 w/shipping. Sometimes I’m so dumb.
Anyway, a drawback of using Amazon.com to order used books through 3rd parties is that there’s no easy way to cancel an order, even if you’re a dumbass. I’ll take the Mass Market Paperback and be happy with it, but man o man, I could have saved $0.90 and got the hardback edition. Then again, maybe I’ll order both and see if I can cancel the Paperback. They certainly haven’t shipped it yet; it’s only been 15 minutes.
