A very expensive book.
Yesterday I met an editor who showed me a contemporary book on metaphysics priced at 85,000 euros (= $ 100,880.5500). Only 25 copies have been printed and 7 have been sold so far this year. I will not talk about the content, because I could barely read any of its 500 pages. But who can afford to buy something like this, even if it is a masterpiece? Would anyone be willing to pay that amount for something like that? Why?
Capitalism is evil
Capitalism is evil
Comments (63)
You know why. If you have more money than god you can diversify your asset basket in all kinds of fun luxuriant ways. Maybe you can own a few fractions of something stupid yourself, like a piece of energy devouring void (NFT), as a hedge against inflation... because fear tells you to diversify to keep up with the Joneses. There is never enough and you have to run to keep up. Or the heart wants what the heart wants.
Are you not a collector yourself? What is hiding in your closet? What blips and dots of an equity monster is writhing in your retirement account, squeezing the blood from human like organisms? A piece of the Amazon... Why spend $1000 dollars on a sofa when you can sit on the floor. Why spend $800 on a mattress when you could just sleep on a futon? Why rent a house for $3000/month when you can assemble a tent under an overpass on the urban outskirts.
Wait a couple of weeks and you will be able to download the PDF from Demoniod. :wink:
Well that sounds like fun. We will have $2950 a month to spend on booze, and the ladies. Or maybe just the booze, safer maybe.
An apartment, a bed, a mattress, a kitchen, a washing machine, a refrigerator ... are things that have immediate utility. You enjoy them. But what leads someone to buy such an expensive book (and also metaphysics)? It is crazy.
When a book is expensive enough, it is not shared, because the price gets cheaper.
When something is expensive enough, someone will make a knock off, photocopy or just photos of it and sell it cheaper. It is the content that is valuable, not the book itself, And they don't care about the value of the original.
Fun fact of the day, pirating happens.
So, who's the author?
The publisher called him Habib (?). Who is Habib? Does anyone know a metaphysician named Habib? An Arab, I guess. I knew of the existence of very expensive pictorial works. Nobody sells a Degas work, because of inflation. It is a stable value. But it is the first time that I find a limited edition of 25 copies of a book. It's crazy.
Do you work for the KGB or something like that?
No. But dropping $100,000 for some of the answers I am looking for would be a basement level bargain. So again, what is the title of this book? Finding 100k isn't all that hard.
Unless I can see that there are opportunities to make a lot more, I will skip.
Quoting Book273
Yeah, definitely. Err well no, it is hard.
It will have a title. I would call it the Maltese Falcon, because it is too expensive, even if it deserves it. A book is not a bag of gold coins.
I thought it already had one? The mystery deepens.
If a bitcoin can go from $40 to $50,000 in a couple of years anything is possible.
The world has gone mad ... or always was.
It's a matter of perspective. I have seen paintings that look like they were painted by a colour-blind drunk sell for millions of dollars. A page from the Guttenberg Bible sells for $250,000.00 I would love to get a chance to look over this book... maybe add it to my library.
I don't know anything else. The information escaped a bookbinder's assistant. She was a bit drunk. When I asked out of curiosity, she was fired, ergo ...
The plot thickens . . .
Paying a fortune for a jewel seems outrageous to me, but I get it. Paying a fortune for a painting, the same. But paying € 85,000 for a book (metaphysics!?) Is crazy. If you have that much money, donate to Greenpeace or adopt a child. It is not a matter of perspective.
I am eyeing up a lovely book for my wife, current asking price is $35,000.00 It would look quite nice in the library.
I can not believe it. The world has gone to hell.
I just signed up to tell you something: you must be a very young person. There are more things in heaven and on earth than your philosophy imagines, little Marxist.
Because I choose to use my money for something that I find valuable and not for something that you agree with? That is a very egocentric method for determining going to hell.
I agree that the world is exceedingly disappointing currently, but it has nothing to do with book prices or what people choose to do with their money. I find our general culture of fear and rights violating far more concerning than what people do with their money. Media will lead us to hell on earth, no doubt about that in my mind, but really, do what you like with your money, that's why it is your money afterall.
PDF link? j/k
Is the same.
I know the editor. He is a ruthless capitalist. That book will be in the public domain when frogs breed hair. The book he sells is written in Spanish. When do you think he will translate it into English if he makes enough money publishing a handful of books in Spanish?
One guy trades in gold or diamonds. This I can admit. They are stupid goods for stupid people. But a guy who traffics in cultural property, be it science articles or philosophy treatises... well, it is something inadmissible.
Culture must be in the public domain.
You must be very foolish, little Shakespeare.
I am not going to help you. What you want to do is against my principles.
Also, what is worth that kind of money to you?
What arrogance! I never know if you are Marxists for being arrogant or you are arrogant for being Marxists.
For whom? I wouldn't give a cent for the whole book. Also, find out, it is in free pdf.
Quoting Primperan
And I don't know if you are so daring for being ignorant or so ignorant for being so daring. Dickhead.
I'm shaking.
All right, smart guy. That book, if it exists, will be traceable. We know that:
1. The title will be Habib's Metaphysics or something like that.
2. The Author will be of Arabic origin, but he has written in Spanish.
3. The edition of that book is very limited.
*****
3. There are only three places in the world where producing this type of valuable object is profitable: USA, Germany and Japan.
2. Immigrants from Spain, Turkey, Pakistan and Syria have converged for generations in Germany.
4. Germany has next to home: the Freeport Luxembourg, where there are no taxes and customs fees do not exist, and the Geneva.
*****
I bet the editor is probably German.
(With a little help of reddit)
You get high, right?
My heart is crying out of grief and pain.
The book exists.
The author too. His name is Adel Habib. Lebanese. Phoenician.
The first book sold for € 25,000. The seventh book, for € 85,000. The book was later discontinued.
The publisher is an American based in Kaiserslautern. His name is Harry Pross.
I have the email addresses.
What do you think, smartass?
Well. You seem informed. But Pross did not cancel the edition of the book. It so happened that a single buyer bought the remaining 18 books and bought back some of the others that had already been sold. He made his move. The guy sucks. He hijacked the book.
I have the book. I have acquired the editing rights. It's really good. I need an American publisher. See if you are interested in editing it there.
Okay. I am sending you the email of the author: [email protected]
Ask for his personal email there, because that email gets a lot of spam due to the fact that it matches the name of a Jordanian audit firm.
Tell me what you boasts and I'll tell you what you lack!
Quoting Primperan
You should distribute the book freely. I have written to the author to prevent him from of scammers. The book publishers will march behind the harlots into the kingdom of heaven.
It depends. A book can have artistic or documentary value. The work of Descartes that you find in any library is not the same as the book that Roosevelt used to read. The object may be the same, but the documentary value is not. The Discourse on the Method that belongs to Roosevelt has a market value of €50,000.
You have done well, although the rights to his work belongs to me and I purchased the few copies the last publisher sold. The good thing about a great unrecognized author is that no one bids enough for him!
:joke:
If an author is good enough, he should be known by as wide an audience as possible.
Life is hard. First duty of a human being is to survive. Second, is to live to the best of his ability. Marx said it: in society everyone sells their work. He wrote "sell" not "give gifts".
He also speaks of use value, exchange value and surplus value stolen by those who do not produce anything.
Supply and demand fluctuate. Getting people interested in acquiring a metaphysics book is a job. Often, a dirty work.
A good book might cost $20, but whichever way you look at it, $25,000 is a SCAM.
Most people are not interested in philosophy. They prefer to watch the NBA. You must not think of the majority. The big publishers sell books like bricks. An excellent product requires an excellent seller and an excellent consumer. That costs money. If you have to do a numbered, limited edition for 25 people, it's always better than doing it for the crowd. Whatever the price.
There is no way that people are interested in a subject that is beyond their financial means. You contribute to the ignorance of the majority.
People are not interested in cultural goods. Arustóteles did not write for everybody, but for the enlightened public. You have a very naive concept of your fellow men. You must be very young.
People cannot be interested in culture if cultural goods are inaccessible.
People are not interested in culture. People are more interested in the NBA or the butts of the Kardashian sisters. The world was always like this. Stinks. Three months before Spinoza died, she had a visitor. Who? Leibniz. Only Leibniz was interested in approaching the genius of The Hague when he learned that he was seriously ill. No one approached except another exceptional figure. Read Mathew Stewart's book, The Courtier and the Heretic.
This man deserved to have a better fortune... and a better publisher.
Let's go to a practical case. How much is a copy of Abel Habib's Metaphysics going to cost?
It depends. What price would you put on Spinoza's "Ethics" if there were only 25 copies in the world?
Don't answer a question with another question. How much?
It will only be sold in Switzerland and Germany.
There will be 24 unique books. The starting price will be €499979 (= $557897).
Thank you for providing us with the initial information.
Ok. How much money will the author receive?
1/3.
How did you hear about this author's book? Adel Habib is used to using heteronyms. Like Pessoa.