Dann Cutter

Waldport has a Wednesday market. It is about 15 miles south of Newport.

Just ordered my second copy via Amazon (US) today (they had a 'like new' copy for $453, in stock). This one I will keep, as I shamefully sold my first copy of MC (for double, so the shame is somewhat lessened by the happy profit dance). It has been an interesting study in supply and demand for this title. 25,000 copies will be here by late summer, but yet still, while slowly creeping down, pricing remains in the 180% range used. That curtain will, I imagine, slowly close unless specific details on shifts in printing quality are made known (Re: Tsunami supply effects etc). The error list was a red herring initially causing an effect but most folks took the hour or so to nicely pencil or ink in the corrections, which frankly has more caché to personal perceived value I think. As such, I don't think the first printing will matter in terms of collectibility price for years - it may but I doubt it. So, how the supply of the second printing affects the secondary market would seem to be leading to a likely collapse. Given the timeframe, unless for specific purpose, I would wager the current actual sales at inflated pricing has more to do with 'positional good' than collector's value. It has been fascinating watching the flow of this process as much as has been made public. Appreciation to Nathan's folks for the blog postings which let us observe an insight into the process of the reorder and sales numbers.

At some point as well, (referring to errata, printing etc) we need to be concerned with assigning too much fault such that either the next printing does not sell as well, or Nathan et al are discouraged from tackle other topics of import to flesh out the series (pastry, baking and brewing/distillery come to mind). At the same time, an overly sycophantic response is also not helpful. I take Nathan's posting regarding the errors as what it is - a professional taking pride in his work and ensuring continued quality. The number and severity of some the errors are concerning but not overly - nor does product cost really factor into it, as I spent more on my nuclear engineering textbook two years ago; MC has really no obvious comparison in the cooking literary world right now. It's big, it's complex and we are first users. I find the errata response more than satisfactory. Truth be told however, my history with this text has been one of an amateur home cook arguing with myself concerning the initial cost vs need aspect. (I had cancelled, reordered, almost cancelled, then waited to see if it shipped). 10 years from now I am sure that Nathan's initial payback period will have passed, and low cost versions (or electronic versions) will exist. Even for the next printing and likely the one after that we all will still fundamentally be early adopters. Looking at pinnacle cooking texts; often they are referenced in terms of the decades of different printings. I regretfully solved mine the way my schooling suggested - selling my copy during this last lull in supply for a profit in order to buy again at a lower cost later. No sale lost of MC, but certainly, I forfeit the 1st printing and access for months - and frankly felt somewhat disheartened doing so. The errata, though appreciated immensely, never factored into it.