I see there are used copies listed at Amazon. Sellers with thousands of ratings generally have bots that set the book prices. For obscure, out-of-print books,

I see there are used copies listed at Amazon. Sellers with thousands of ratings generally have bots that set the book prices. For obscure, out-of-print books, the volume of buyers is really low. I've heard cough that if you want to acquire one of these books less expensively, that the best plan of action is to also try and sell a copy (which of course you don't have). Certain automated bots will then try to under-bid you in order to keep the coveted lowest price slot. You keep reducing the price until it meets you budget. Remove your listing, and then buy from the lowest priced source. The downside is if perchance someone were to try and purchase your non-existant copy. You'd have to cancel that order. But since there is no transaction, the buyer can't give you negative feedback. Of course Amazon doesn't like you canceling orders, so they'll cancel you account if you have a cancellation rate greater than 5%. Its fun watching the different algorithms compete and thinking about what you'd do in those situations (or so I've heard). Of course this strategy probably works better if the book isn't the subject of massive coverage just before you want to buy.