Re: [CR]dancing chain avail.

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing)

From: <themaaslands@comcast.net>
To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org (Classic Rendezvous)
Subject: Re: [CR]dancing chain avail.
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 23:55:40 +0000


Jan Heine writes:

"Why not order from Van der Plas directly toll-free at 877-353-1207 (or http://www.cyclepublishing.com) You pay list price, sure, but the money goes directly to the editor/publisher, who will spend it on new bicycle book projects. And you'll have the book sooner."

I believe I can help explain this as I have some experience in this area. I was the one to open up sales of The Wall Street Journal to all of the former Eastern Bloc countries in Europe in the late 80's and early 90's. I therefore had to not only set up subscription and newsstand sales, but also educate people who had no understanding of the functioning of free market sales mechanisms.

Firstly, Van Den Plas has decided that they want to deal with Amazon, so they obviously see nothing wrong with anybody purchasing from Amazon. Secondly, Amazon is earning sufficient money on the sale of every book at their discounted price to still make it worth their while to sell, this means that their cost is below this sale price, hence the payment per book deemed by Van den Plas to be acceptable is considerably below 25% below the cover price. Thirdly, with regards to getting the book earlier, I seriously have my doubts that this is true. From my considerable experience, all successful commercial publishers will first and foremost look after their major and/or most lucrative customers. Besides, Van Den Plas has already shown that they do not deem the book to be time sensitive, as they are the ones who have made all of us wait this long already. Lastly, in direct contrast to what you state, buying the book at super-inflated prices direct from the publisher apparently has no link to publishing further bike titles. I say this, because I was told by one of the authors, the late Ron Shepherd, that the initial print run only came about when the authors guaranteed to cover the printing costs. Furthermore paying super-inflated prices to VdP can just as well go to further support businesses like Amazon, as publishers generally base their pricing structure on the average sales price. Therefore, for every high margin book they sell, the more they can sell to low-margin sellers. Subsidizing low-ballers through high-margin sales to the really passionate is much the same situation of cynical magazine or newspaper publishers who charge their subscribers full cover price to help subsidize the substantial distribution and over-run costs of newsstand sales.

My suggestion is that perhaps one or more of the CR list sponsors might offer to become clearing houses for CR listmember purchases of the book. If you haven't checked the list sponsors out recently, I recommend that you do so now: WWW.bicycleclassics.com http://www.cyclart.com http://www.richardsachs.com http://www.campyoldy.com http://www.cyclesdeoro.com or http://www.velostuf.com Greg, Jim, E-Richie, Nigel, Dale and John have all willingly and openly contributed to our general benefit. I, for one, would not mind switching my order over to one of these guys, even if it would cost me a bit more than on Amazon. At least then, I have proof that it will go to support the list and our hobby. Besides, if enough of us decide to do so, it is quite likely that such a clearing house could perhaps even do a similar sales volume as Amazon on such a specialized item.

If you want more of these books, show publishers that there is commercial demand for such books. If do not yet have a copy of this book, I suggest that you buy it. Also think about hyping it to your cycling buddies, to your local bicycle shops and even neighborhood newspapers. Lastly, don't forget the possibility of donating it to your area high school, college alma mater or local township library. The same goes for other bicycle related books, including the children's book "His Finest Hour" written by list member Dave Neuhaus (ISBN: 1931382492 ). Both of these books are on my list for library donation in 2005.

--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ