What's up with the price of "Unintended Consequences"?

[JAG2955]

It's through the roof now! When I bought my copy a year ago, I should have stocked up! Amazon is showing it at over $80.

I was going to buy a copy for a buddy here who wants to read it. I guess that he'll have to wait until we get home so I can let him borrow mine.

[Dub_James]

Probably something to do with the Messiah being in office. 'Unintended Consequences', indeed.

[workinwifdakids]

If the author is all right via Chris, then maybe someone can find and link a copy here.

Chris, can you find out how we can do a PayPal-type reimbursement to the author at the last in-print price?

[HTRN]

That's what happens to out of print books that lots of folks want.

Yup.
Go see how much "Stockmaking" by Alvin Lindn, or "The Modern Gunsmith" by Howe to see how bad it can get.


HTRN

[Frankingun]

Are those prices for the first printing with the name of one of the characters a little too close to a real gun-hating politician? I can't recall what that flap was about, but I thought there was a high demand for those. I have one from the second printing, so I have no point of reference.

[Netpackrat]

On the Frugal Squirrel forum, one of the admins posted and stickied a statement that is supposed to be from John Ross, that reads "All the web copies of Unintended Consequences are illegal and not
approved by me."

[Denis]

Which is absolutely what he MUST say or he will lose his copyright.

[nitpick mode] IIRC (but it's a long time since I was an IP lawyer), one doesn't lose copyright, since that subsists in any original work which meets the criteria. [/nitpick mode] However, it does become difficult to enforce through litigation a copyright if one has been proclaiming to all and sundry that one has no intention of exercising the subsisting right.

The fact that there is no mechanism for putting an orphaned work into the public domain before the normal copyright term expires - even if that is the author's wish - is one of the failings of modern copyright law. (The way to deal with it is for the author contractually to reserve the right to circulate the work if the publisher ceases to publish it regularly, but publishers don't like that...)

The old US system of a short copyright term renewable through periodic filings for a small fee was a pretty fair solution, IMHO. Blame Disney for the current situation!

[Johnnyreb]

So why hasn't there been a new edition printed since so many want one? Doesn't his publisher want to make money?

I had that book but left it in Texas when I moved and haven't seen it since. I was thinking just the other day of getting another one, but I guess that won't be so easy now.

[The Quiet Man]

You can usually find copies of this book at gun shows. There always seems to be a table or two that have nothing but books and this one is almost always represented there. Heh...it's where I got my copy! What I haven't been able to find...anywhere...is "The Ballad of Carl Drega" by Vin Suprynowicz. And Amazon's price for used copies is outrageous.

[Highspeed]

I read a 'grey import' version from the Web. Fat chance of buying it here.
It made me feel sort of uncomfortable for reasons I can't quite put into words.