'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:
http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
P
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
Cheers,
Antonio
--
Zen and the Art of Ruby Programming
http://antoniocangiano.com
Math-Blog: Mathematics is Wonderful!
http://math-blog.com
On Aug 9, 1:35 pm, Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
> for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>
> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
> Phttp://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>
> Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
>
> Cheers,
> Antonio
> --
> Zen and the Art of Ruby Programminghttp://antoniocangiano.com
> Math-Blog: Mathematics is Wonderful!http://math-blog.com
Muggles love lisp
On Aug 9, 3:35 pm, Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
> Phttp://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>
You can tell the people buying Queinnec's book are likely buying other
stuff as well. Currently, Jaynes' "Probability Theory: The Logic of
Science" is #2 (also $3.95 CDN), "Numerical Methods of Statistics" is
#4 and "OpenGL SuperBible" is #24. Those three were not on the list
yesterday when I ordered LiSP.
"Antonio Cangiano" <·········@gmail.com> wrote in message
·····························@g12g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
> for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:
> http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>
> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
> P
> http://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>
> Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
Nice one, thanks :)
Aaron
Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> writes:
> 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
> for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:
> http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>
> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
> P
> http://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>
> Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
I've ordered it...
I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't what it seems to be; chapters.ca
once had "Common Lispcraft" listed at $1.95, and when I got it, it was
actually the teacher's guide, with answers to the exercises from the
book, as opposed to being the book itself...
--
let name="cbbrowne" and tld="cbbrowne.com" in name ^ ·@" ^ tld;;
http://linuxdatabases.info/info/nonrdbms.html
I'm a Lisp variable -- bind me!
Christopher Browne <········@ca.afilias.info> writes:
> I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't what it seems to be; chapters.ca
> once had "Common Lispcraft" listed at $1.95, and when I got it, it was
> actually the teacher's guide, with answers to the exercises from the
> book, as opposed to being the book itself...
I shared your doubts, but a guy I know ordered it three weeks ago at
the discount, and he reports he got the full, normal copy. I held off
writing about it on Planet Lisp until I heard his report.
Zach
From: Larry Elmore
Subject: Re: Lisp in Small Pieces for $3.95 on Amazon.ca
Date:
Message-ID: <%U5vi.48$jU4.30@trnddc02>
Zach Beane wrote:
> Christopher Browne <········@ca.afilias.info> writes:
>
>> I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't what it seems to be; chapters.ca
>> once had "Common Lispcraft" listed at $1.95, and when I got it, it was
>> actually the teacher's guide, with answers to the exercises from the
>> book, as opposed to being the book itself...
>
> I shared your doubts, but a guy I know ordered it three weeks ago at
> the discount, and he reports he got the full, normal copy. I held off
> writing about it on Planet Lisp until I heard his report.
Huh. Figures. I bought it two months ago at full price. :-(
On Aug 9, 2:35 pm, Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
> 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
> for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>
> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
> Phttp://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>
> Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
>
Evidently, a few too many people picked it up at the error price --
amazon.ca has fixed it and now lists the price as CDN$94.40.
I knew it was too good to be true!
On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:41:51 -0000, John Stoneham
<··············@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Aug 9, 2:35 pm, Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
>> for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>>
>> It is currently the best seller on Amazon.ca outselling Harry Potter :-
>> Phttp://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/702-4773773-1124811
>>
>> Just a heads up for those of you who didn't hear about this yet.
>
>Evidently, a few too many people picked it up at the error price --
>amazon.ca has fixed it and now lists the price as CDN$94.40.
>
>I knew it was too good to be true!
Geez ... it was CDN$76.something a day ago. Seems Amazon is increasing
the price with the interest.
George
--
for email reply remove "/" from address
On Aug 12, 12:41 am, John Stoneham <··············@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 9, 2:35 pm, Antonio Cangiano <·········@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 'Lisp in Small Pieces' sells for $51.35 on Amazon.com but it is listed
> > for only $3.95 on Amazon.ca:http://amazon.ca/o/ASIN/0521545668/
>
> Evidently, a few too many people picked it up at the error price --
> amazon.ca has fixed it and now lists the price as CDN$94.40.
>
> I knew it was too good to be true!
Just a reminder for anyone who reads French, "Principes d'implantation
de Scheme et Lisp" is an updated edition, and is in print at
Paracamplus: http://paracamplus.com/?CGIRunMode=products
On Aug 11, 5:41 pm, John Stoneham <··············@gmail.com> wrote:
> Evidently, a few too many people picked it up at the error price --
> amazon.ca has fixed it and now lists the price as CDN$94.40.
>
> I knew it was too good to be true!
And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
mine,
in any case.)
--Eli
On Aug 14, 7:35 pm, ·······@gmail.com wrote:
> And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
> mine,
> in any case.)
Mine too, apparently. They didn't send me any notice, but I can't see
the order in my Amazon account. Anybody knows if this is legal
according to Canadian law? They were displaying the price of 3.95 CAD
and even sent a confirmation...
Bests,
-- Richard
Richard Szopa <·············@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
>> mine, in any case.)
>
> Mine too, apparently. They didn't send me any notice, but I can't see
> the order in my Amazon account. Anybody knows if this is legal
> according to Canadian law? They were displaying the price of 3.95 CAD
> and even sent a confirmation...
I say you buy a lawyer friend of yours lunch and a beer to write 'em a
letter. It'll still be cheaper than buying the book outright, and
they'll almost certainly send it to you.
The dirty secret is that they're making a packet from folks who ordered
the cheap books (there were several) along with full-priced others: they
cancelled the cheap parts and charged the expensive bits...
--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
Writing merely correct [let alone efficient] C++ code is really fucking
hard. It's like trying to carry on a conversation with someone who
randomly pokes you in the eye with a stick. --Joe Knapka
In article <························@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
Richard Szopa <·············@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 14, 7:35 pm, ·······@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
> > mine,
> > in any case.)
>
> Mine too, apparently. They didn't send me any notice, but I can't see
> the order in my Amazon account. Anybody knows if this is legal
> according to Canadian law? They were displaying the price of 3.95 CAD
> and even sent a confirmation...
I don't know what Canadian law is about it, but if it's similar to US
law I think it's legal. I remember many years ago there was a case
where someone made a mistake and put an incredibly low price for
something in a newspaper ad (like a new car for $2,000 instead of
$20,000), and the court ruled that the vendor was not obligated to sell
for that price.
In the case of electronic commerce, the confirmation can hardly be
considered to prove that the vendor truly intended to sell at that
price. Everyone knows that the confirmation is generated automatically;
all it confirms is that the order was successfully received. No human
sanity checking is involved, and the same system that displayed the
wrong price will obviously "confirm" it.
It's not considered bait and switch if it was truly accidental.
--
Barry Margolin, ······@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
Barry Margolin <······@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> In article <························@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
> Richard Szopa <·············@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Aug 14, 7:35 pm, ·······@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> > And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
>> > mine,
>> > in any case.)
>>
>> Mine too, apparently. They didn't send me any notice, but I can't see
>> the order in my Amazon account. Anybody knows if this is legal
>> according to Canadian law? They were displaying the price of 3.95 CAD
>> and even sent a confirmation...
>
> I don't know what Canadian law is about it, but if it's similar to US
> law I think it's legal. I remember many years ago there was a case
> where someone made a mistake and put an incredibly low price for
> something in a newspaper ad (like a new car for $2,000 instead of
> $20,000), and the court ruled that the vendor was not obligated to sell
> for that price.
>
> In the case of electronic commerce, the confirmation can hardly be
> considered to prove that the vendor truly intended to sell at that
> price. Everyone knows that the confirmation is generated automatically;
> all it confirms is that the order was successfully received. No human
> sanity checking is involved, and the same system that displayed the
> wrong price will obviously "confirm" it.
>
> It's not considered bait and switch if it was truly accidental.
FYI, I noticed that the "small pieces" part of my order was indeed
cancelled yesterday. This morning, I received an email indicating the
following:
-----------------------
In accordance with our posted policies on pricing, we're unable to
offer items that have an incorrectly posted price. Therefore, we have
cancelled this item from your order.
We realize we can't make up for the inconvenience and disappointment
caused by this error, however, we'd like to offer you a $10 gift
certificate that you may use toward a future order at
Amazon.ca.
-----------------------
And the policy described is indeed posted:
<http://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=918710>
A $10 "gift certificate" is also not entirely a kick in the teeth...
--
(reverse (concatenate 'string "gro.mca" ·@" "enworbbc"))
http://linuxdatabases.info/info/lsf.html
"Over the centuries the Indians developed sign language for
communicating phenomena of interest. Programmers from different
tribes (FORTRAN, LISP, ALGOL, SNOBOL, etc.) could use one that doesn't
require them to carry a blackboard on their ponies." -- Alan J. Perlis
On Aug 15, 11:04 am, Christopher Browne <········@ca.afilias.info>
wrote:
> A $10 "gift certificate" is also not entirely a kick in the teeth...
Considering I ordered two books that were mistakenly priced at $3.95,
I got two $10 gift certificates. I guess I can get LiSP for a mere
$74.40 now.
LiSP can be found on abebooks.com for less, although not my much.
On Aug 15, 12:01 am, Barry Margolin <······@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> I don't know what Canadian law is about it, but if it's similar to US
> law I think it's legal. I remember many years ago there was a case
> where someone made a mistake and put an incredibly low price for
> something in a newspaper ad (like a new car for $2,000 instead of
> $20,000), and the court ruled that the vendor was not obligated to sell
> for that price.
Disclaimer: I actually am a lawyer (although not in Canada). Canada,
except in Quebec, follows the English common law tradition, as does
the United States. That's not to say that contracts are treated the
same, but contract law is usually treated fairly consistently in
English common law systems.
That disclaimer aside, the instance you cited above regarding the
newspaper ad is an instance of a request for an offer (as is a
coupon). The dealership was saying "Who wants to offer $2,000 for this
car?" (or, in the case of a coupon, "Who wants to offer me 10% off the
regular price?"). That's not a contract. When a person shows up and
says "I do, I do!!", that is still not a contract. When the dealership
says "OK, I accept your offer." THEN you have a contract. In a common
law system, negotiations in the course of establishing the terms of
the contract are never binding.
The difference in the Amazon.ca situation is that, after Amazon's
request for an offer of $3.95, and the consumer's actual offer of that
same amount, the offer was accepted by Amazon. The confirmation email
is evidence of the acceptance of the offer, in which they said (in
effect) "We accept your offer of $3.95 and in return will ship you
this book." That is a valid contract under any English common law
system.
>
> In the case of electronic commerce, the confirmation can hardly be
> considered to prove that the vendor truly intended to sell at that
> price.
Yes it can; see above. It doesn't matter that the book SHOULD have
been selling for a higher price. Under the common law system,
consideration doesn't have to be "adequate". And there is a famous
common law case where a contract was found legally binding in which
one person agreed to sell a car for a penny to another.
> Everyone knows that the confirmation is generated automatically;
> all it confirms is that the order was successfully received. No human
> sanity checking is involved, and the same system that displayed the
> wrong price will obviously "confirm" it.
Yes, it verifies that the order (your offer) matches the selling price
(their request for an offer at that price), and that your payment
method is valid, and also confirms their promise to ship the items by
an estimated date. Sounds like a valid contract to me. As to whether
any "human sanity checking is involved", there may be, there may not
be, but it doesn't matter: a human could easily make the same mistake,
possibly even larger mistakes (and they quite often do) hence the need
for an automated verification system in the first place. After all, a
human put the automated system into place.
However, this does bring up the point of whether the contract is
voidable due to the mistake. Generally, mistakes as to terms do not
allow a contract to be voided, unless the unmistaken party knew of the
mistake that the other party was making, and took advantage of that
fact in entering into the contract. Hmmm, sounds awfully familiar...
But, even in such a situation, the courts are hesitant to void a
contract unless it involved something fundamental such as the
identities of the parties (e.g. you thought you were buying it from
Barnes & Nobel instead of Amazon). The thing that the courts will look
for in a "mistake in terms" dispute that is not so fundamental is
whether consideration has been received. In other words, had your
credit card been charged already? If so, you have an enforceable
contract, which MAY be voidable if you knew the asking price was a
mistake and that was your sole reason for entering into the contract,
but which would likely still be upheld.
In the online e-commerce world, drastically reduced prices are quite
common. $3.95 for a book, paperback at that, does not ring the
inequity bells of justice, and Amazon.ca would have a hard time
proving you knew the price was a mistake.
Bottom line: SUE THEIR SOCKS OFF! <g>
P.S. I won't address the difficulty of suing for breach of contract in
a foreign country.
JohnS wrote:
> On Aug 15, 12:01 am, Barry Margolin <······@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> I don't know what Canadian law is about it, but if it's similar to US
>> law I think it's legal. I remember many years ago there was a case
>> where someone made a mistake and put an incredibly low price for
>> something in a newspaper ad (like a new car for $2,000 instead of
>> $20,000), and the court ruled that the vendor was not obligated to sell
>> for that price.
>
> Disclaimer: I actually am a lawyer (although not in Canada). Canada,
In which case you might want to have a look at the "Concluding the
contract" section in http://www.out-law.com/page-426 and express an opinion.
Well, not an opinion, if that's billable ;-) But you might have some
interesting "not an actual opinion" thoughts. Depending on Ts&Cs to
that extent in a consumer contract strike me as a bit unreliable,
perhaps, but I'm merely a layman.
-dan
JohnS <·············@gmail.com> writes:
> However, this does bring up the point of whether the contract is
> voidable due to the mistake. Generally, mistakes as to terms do not
> allow a contract to be voided, unless the unmistaken party knew of the
> mistake that the other party was making, and took advantage of that
> fact in entering into the contract. Hmmm, sounds awfully familiar...
> But, even in such a situation, the courts are hesitant to void a
> contract unless it involved something fundamental such as the
> identities of the parties (e.g. you thought you were buying it from
> Barnes & Nobel instead of Amazon). The thing that the courts will look
> for in a "mistake in terms" dispute that is not so fundamental is
> whether consideration has been received. In other words, had your
> credit card been charged already? If so, you have an enforceable
> contract, which MAY be voidable if you knew the asking price was a
> mistake and that was your sole reason for entering into the contract,
> but which would likely still be upheld.
I am not a lawyer either, but as an economist I took a few semesters
of law. Continental law systems have a rule called "laesio enormis",
which allows the contract to be voided if the price is extremely
disproportionate to the value of the object sold (there are
exceptions, eg auctions). The origins are in Roman Law. However, I
remember our professor telling us that countries with English-type
legal systems (GB, USA, Au etc) does not have a rule like this. I
don't whether French influences have shown up in Canadian law, you
would have to check with a lawyer.
Best,
Tamas
On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:07:52 -0000, Richard Szopa
<·············@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Aug 14, 7:35 pm, ·······@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> And now Amazon.ca is cancelling orders at the $3.95 price. (Well,
>> mine,
>> in any case.)
>
>Mine too, apparently. They didn't send me any notice, but I can't see
>the order in my Amazon account. Anybody knows if this is legal
>according to Canadian law? They were displaying the price of 3.95 CAD
>and even sent a confirmation...
>
>Bests,
>
> -- Richard
Disclaimer - I am not an attorney.
But I would try to challenge it, particularly if you live in the US.
I'm not sure how the international aspect would play out given that
Amazon is global and Amazon.ca might just pass off the order to the US
- but I would think that Amazon.ca would be considered a separate
entity and any business it does with US customers would be bound by US
law.
In the US vendors are required to abide by incorrect price marking
unless the pricing is expectedly unreasonable or grossly incorrect -
which in general is up to a court to decide. What that means in
practice is that a customer should reasonably expect an automobile
offered for $3.95 to be Mattel rather than Mercedes, but for $39,500
one should reasonably expect Mercedes rather than Mattel. I think a
case can be made that a book for $3.95+shp is a perfectly reasonable
expectation.
I would definitely challenge if they ship the book and charge more
than the confirmation price.
George
--
for email reply remove "/" from address
George Neuner <·········@comcast.net> writes:
> [...] I think a
> case can be made that a book for $3.95+shp is a perfectly reasonable
> expectation.
The more so when we expected a 1st edition and knew there was alread a
2nd edition selling in France...
Wasn't the edition clearly mentionned near the $3.95 price?
--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
NOTE: The most fundamental particles in this product are held
together by a "gluing" force about which little is currently known
and whose adhesive power can therefore not be permanently
guaranteed.