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J. Donnelly's book - a *real treasure* ?


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Post: #20
04-11-2007, 11:55 AM
Giancarlo (Italy) Offline
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Hi Forum.
I just made a search on Amazon.com for the book by James Donnelly:
"An Introduction to HP48 System RPL and Assembly Language Programming"
and it came up with 1 used and rated as much as 377.24 USD + 3.49 USD for shipping...!!! Yikes!
I knew it could be a "good" reading, but did not expect it to be such a "precious" one :/
What are your thoughts about that?
Would it be worth to get it anyway or is it definitely over-estimated ?
And why should it be so highly-priced?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Best regards.
Giancarlo

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Post: #21
04-11-2007, 12:04 PM
Valentin Albillo Offline
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Hi, Giancarlo:

    I can't comment on this particular book's contents, but as far as its price goes, it is vaaaaastly overpriced.

    This is not uncommon with books sold in Amazon by third parties, at all. I've recently found several old books I was interested in, and they had outrageous prices just because they were the only one being sold, not because they were particularly good or special.

    Seems to me a kind of TAS-syndrome or so, where the seller realizes he's the only one offering that particular book and fixes a ridiculously high price just in case some sucker takes the bait.

Best regards from V.
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Post: #22
04-11-2007, 12:24 PM
Giancarlo (Italy) Offline
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Hi Valentin.

Quote:
Seems to me a kind of TAS-syndrome or so, where the seller realizes he's the only one offering that particular book and fixes a ridiculously high price just in case some sucker takes the bait


Frankly speaking, it was my very same impression - right a TAS-style approach.

That's why, in my deep ignorance, I asked myself - and some more knowledgeable people -

if there was something I was sensationally missing or it was "the same old story" :-)

Your feedback shed a sharp light - as usually :-)

Just to fullfil the subject: in your opinion is there any alternative

to a contemptous refuse of the "blackmail"? :-|

Think I know the answer....

Thank you for your feedback.

Warmest regards.

Giancarlo
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Post: #23
04-11-2007, 01:03 PM
Namir Offline
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Valentin,

I agree with you. For some reason many third party Amazon sellers offer old books at outrageously high prices. Recently I put some my old "Data Structures" books (once that I used as references) on Amazon and noticed the high prices. I put my books at $10 to $15 ranges and have actually sold three so far!!!

Namir

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Post: #24
04-11-2007, 12:18 PM
Dave Hicks Offline
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A while ago I was looking for a book on investing and personal finance. It had gone out of print but had a good reputation. It was available Used on Amazon for prices ranging from $300 to $9400. A few weeks later another seller got a bunch of new/remaindered copies and priced them at $6. I decided to go for $6 instead of $9400. ;-)

It was a fairly good book. It was compact, concise and a "quick read" for its field. It was definitely worth $6 and it was probably worth its original $19.95. The guy selling at $6 had an impact on the market: now you can buy it new for $18.21 or used for $264.94, but no one is asking $9400.

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Post: #25
04-11-2007, 12:27 PM
Giancarlo (Italy) Offline
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Hi Dave.

Thank you for this piece of experience :-)

Don't you think as if a "TAS virus" is creeping in more and more market places?

Warmest regards.

Giancarlo

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Post: #26
04-11-2007, 01:00 PM
Don Shepherd Offline
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OK, am I the only one in the world who does not know what TAS stands for?

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Post: #27
04-11-2007, 01:53 PM
Thomas Okken Offline
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Quote:
OK, am I the only one in the world who does not know what TAS stands for?

The Auction Site, a.k.a. eBay. Why they don't simply call it by its real name I don't know!

- Thomas

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Post: #28
04-11-2007, 02:19 PM
Valentin Albillo Offline
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Hi, Thomas:

Thomas posted:

    "Why they don't simply call it by its real name I don't know!"

      I think some people call it TAS just in case Mr. Hicks eventually decides to filter posts having the term "eBay" on them, in which case, referring to the site as TAS would help to avoid the forceful removal to another section or whatever.

      In my case, it's just that I'm a life-long trekkie, and in that evil world the term "TOS" is an endearing acronym which automatically gets read as "The Original Series", and "TAS" simply reminds me of "TOS". :-)

Best regards from V.
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Post: #29
04-11-2007, 02:56 PM
Walter B Offline
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Hi, Valentin, Thomas, Don,

IIRC TAS was invented here for pure fun shortly because of the long written history of TOS in this forum. TOS stands for "that other site" whose name must not be mentioned here for reasons buried in the past. TOS covers HP XLI (hope you can decode that).

Best regards, Walter

Edited: 11 Apr 2007, 2:57 p.m.

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Post: #30
04-12-2007, 11:43 AM
Ed Look Offline
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<evil grin>
You Trekkie! TAS = "The Animated Series" !!

(Who wants to bet Starfleet's tricorders are direct descendants of a HP-33C HP-41CX, HP-42 HP-48GX, HP-49G+, ..., etc.?)

LOL!

</resumes usual smiley self>

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Post: #31
04-11-2007, 04:02 PM
Ed Look Offline
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Ah, actually, with the HP-48G AUR, a little time, practice, and urgency due to necessity, one can actually learn RPL fairly well!

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Post: #32
04-12-2007, 08:20 PM
James M. Prange (Michigan) Offline
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Quote:
Ah, actually, with the HP-48G AUR, a little time, practice, and urgency due to necessity, one can actually learn RPL fairly well!
UserRPL, yes, but the AUR isn't much help with SysRPL or assembly language.

Regards,
James

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Post: #33
04-12-2007, 10:56 AM
Virgilio Guillen Offline
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Hi,

Try http://www.calcpro.com, that's where i bought my copy years ago.

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Post: #34
04-13-2007, 02:41 AM
Giancarlo (Italy) Offline
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Hi Virgilio.
Thank you very much for your simple and effective suggestion!

I went to calcpro.com, found the book, ordered it for less than 50 USD

(as the post by James M. Prange's below in the thread states), including shipping to Italy!! :-)))

Now it *should* be on its way to Europe, despite the outrageous price listed on "The Other Book Store" (TOBS) ;-))

Warmest regards and thanks to all those who responded.

Giancarlo

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Post: #35
04-12-2007, 12:17 PM
Ren Offline
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So I cut and pasted

"James Donnelly: "An Introduction to HP48 System RPL and Assembly Language Programming"

into Google and this link came up on the second page.

http://members.tripod.com/~area48/faqsport.txt

Not being fluent in whatever language it came up in, I appeal to my
fellow (multi-lingual) members to help me out.
Is it perhaps a text copy of the book?

Ren

dona nobis pacem

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Post: #36
04-12-2007, 12:28 PM
Giancarlo (Italy) Offline
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Hi Ren.

The page that came up is written in Portoguese and it is the FAQ

PORTing of the HP48 FAQ.

It's not a text copy of the book (would have been mostly surprising).

Thank you for your feedback.

Best regards.

Giancarlo

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Post: #37
04-12-2007, 04:05 PM
Ren Offline
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Quote:
Hi Forum.
I just made a search on Amazon.com for the book by James Donnelly:
"An Introduction to HP48 System RPL and Assembly Language Programming"
and it came up with 1 used and rated as much as 377.24 USD + 3.49 USD for shipping...!!! Yikes!
I knew it could be a "good" reading, but did not expect it to be such a "precious" one :/
What are your thoughts about that?

Giancarlo,

Now you've gone an done it!
I did mulitiple web searches for that book...
The Amazon one seems to be the only one available for sale.

If you do buy it at that price, it will hopefully bring more
copies out of hiding and onto "That Auction Site" where we'll
see a regenerative buying spree by members of this forum trying
to enhance their calc collections with rare calc books!

B^)

Of course I did not check for inter-library loan...

Ren

dona nobis pacem

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Post: #38
04-12-2007, 08:54 PM
James M. Prange (Michigan) Offline
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Well, it is a very good book, but note that it's an
"Introduction". Also, it's written for the 48 series, so it
doesn't include the new capabilities and changed entry points for
the 49 series.

Note that there's quite a bit of information on these topics
available at http://www.hpcalc.org/.

As for that price, well, maybe someone will be able and willing to
pay it, but I see that it's listed for US$29.95 at
http://www.calcpro.com/.

In case the book doesn't include the floppy disk that's supposed
to come with it, the example programs are available at
http://holyjoe.net/hp/HP48.htm.

As far as I know, Dave doesn't have permission to include James
Donnelly's books on the MoHPC CD-ROM set / DVD-ROM. If he ever
gets permission, I'd be happy to scan this and a few others.

Regards,
James

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