CompuServe Messages

Jan, thank you for your excellent thoughts on the pricing of CDs, specifically the OED. I agree with your comments about the current state of pricing of CDs. Some of the problem, I'm sure, relates to the newness of the field. Remember how much blank beta tapes cost when betamax recorders were the only option on the market? I think I used to pay $30 per tape for tapes that now cost three dollars. Remember how much 1.44Mb floppies used to cost just a few years ago? Look at the suggested price of Encarta. For a product that appears as though it's going to blow the socks off the competition, it's priced well below other "multimedia" CD encyclopedias currently on the market. Maybe the folks at OED need some competition <grin>. At the current price of somewhere around $900, I'll never buy the CD version of the OED (I already own the "compact" printed version.) At a price of $250-300, I would add the OED to my "seriously consider purchasing" list. At $100-150, I'd go out and purchase it today. I hope the OED people get the message soon about the overpricing of their product and the potential market that might open up if they'd consider lowering their price. I'd be pleased to fire off a letter to Oxford University Press and/or the distributors of the OED expressing my thoughts on this. If you'll post the address, I'll do it immediately. Allen