#OED
Ric, since the OED is published by a University and a University's primary
purpose is to educate it seems to me that they could educate more people by
selling the EOD in high volume at a low price. They would most likely end
up with a larger return on their investment. Some of this money could be
invested in improving on the work by enhancing their retreval software,
adding illustrations, etc. In fact the profits could be used to reduce the
price of the print edition. Even a reduction to $400 would be
prohibitively expensive for most people. The street price on Microsoft
Bookshelf is $130 and I think the OED would sell better if it was priced at
$80 to $100 dollars. I think most people are unaware of the contents of
the OED and would think of it as an expensive dictionary. They are pricing
it above the price of a good CD-ROM encyclopedia (Compton's).