Seriously, that's the price?

The wonderful thing about Amazon and ebay is they create a woldwide bookstore. No more long drives hoping to find the right thing. Driving to Bettes isn't even an option when you live next to the Pacific. But sometimes I'll see a price on a King item, and I think: "For real?"

Here's the interesting thing: Some people think that anything -- everything -- with "Stephen King" on it is: 1. Collectable. 2. Valuable. 3. Worth a billion dollars. In fact, a sign of a true amature is someone who either charges too much or pays too much for King items.

In our town there is a small used bookstore that has a Stephen King section. I bought a copy of Thinner (book club, no "King" evidence on it) for $5. But if you want a bookclub edition of The Shining, that will be $1,000. Yes, that is three zeros! This guy is selling bookclub editions for sometiems double and triple what they go for on Amazon.

Here's some of my findings on amazon:

Duma Key, signed -- $400.
Desperation, signed -- $1,300
Desperaton, 1st ed -- $149.99 (of course, other first editions of this book are 27.95)

These are actually poor examples. I guess signed bumps the price up, but there is such a gap in what a signed item might go for. First editions, unless really early books, aren't hard to get a hold of. The only book my wife cringed at when I put down the money was for a first edition of Wizard and Glass. But it wasn't that much -- in the world of book collecting.

I wonder sometimes if people look at the other listings for a book in the same condition before they list theirs.