Even when you're in a major international market like the United States it's frequently the case that books are nearly unobtainable, especially if they're older

Even when you're in a major international market like the United States it's frequently the case that books are nearly unobtainable, especially if they're older or limited printings of specialist material. Sometimes I'll get recommended an old SF book or a particular reference manual and it turns out that it had one run in 1985 and there are four copies available on the used market at prices between three hundred and three thousand dollars. Tons of works are one minor complication, like living in the southern hemisphere or not being rich, away from being effectively non-existent.