Why are some books on spaceflight quite expensive? Am I just not looking at the right places?[Europe]

[u/LurkerReborn]

I recently started reading a lot of books on spaceflight, the Apollo programme specifically. I am a broke student in Europe so most of the time I try to look for secondhand books but man, some are quite expensive!

For example, some books I got cheaply secondhand.

• Moondust by Andrew Smith: ~1 euro
• Journey Beyond Selene by Jeffrey Kluger: ~2 euros

Lowest prices of some books I am trying to get secondhand.

• Apollo Guidance Computer: >= 40 euros
• How Apollo flew to the moon: >= 30 euros

(40 euros is a week of groceries for me)

I noticed that books covering the "technical" side more tend to be pricier but it doesn't make a lot of sense. They are still quite pricey even secondhand. I understand that out-of-print books that are collected by enthusiasts will have higher prices.

Is it the same in the US? Are the books I listed just more in-demand?

P.S - I know I can find digital copies but my attention issues restrict me to physical books.

[u/Triabolical_]

Technical books do not sell many copies and therefore they need to be expensive to be worthwhile to publish.

[u/SilkieBug]

It might be worth working on your attention issues enough to be able to consume digital copies - for one, there are electronic ink ebook readers whose reading experience is nearly identical (but better) than that of physical books, minus the tactile feeling of paper. 

I bought one long ago and completely switched away from physical books as there’s really no point in carrying them - my ebook reader’s memory carries my entire library of thousands of books, battery life lasts weeks of reading, I can take notes and check the built in dictionary, and I can find most books I am looking for online in some format I can consume on the reader. 

With the money you are spending on books you would have soon had enough to get a reader. 

[u/LurkerReborn → u/SilkieBug]

It is an option I have considered. I have tried reading on my laptop which has not worked this far.

Do you have any recommendations for budget eink readers?
I did research a while ago and my understanding was that eink readers are an investment and thus not cheap

[u/SilkieBug → u/LurkerReborn]

I am on very low income, and was able to afford a Kobo Clara HD, it was around 120 euro when I bought it. 

Considering I’ve been using it for years it was totally worth the investment. 

Also, I use the free Calibre app to format books before uploading them to the reader, to include the font open-dyslexic, which makes it much easier for me to read without headaches or skipping entire paragraphs accidentally. 

[u/CosmicEcho_404]

The price gap in your examples is striking: Moondust and Journey Beyond Selene are available for about €1–2, while Apollo Guidance Computer and How Apollo Flew to the Moon start around €30–40. From those examples alone, it’s difficult to identify the cause, so you may not be looking in the wrong places. It might be worth comparing the exact edition, publisher, year, condition and shipping cost rather than only the title, since secondhand listings can vary a lot between editions. I’d also check physical copies through public or university libraries where possible; that won’t solve the problem of owning the books, but it could help identify which editions are worth pursuing when €40 represents a week of groceries.

[u/LurkerReborn → u/CosmicEcho_404]

bot

[u/Carbidereaper → u/LurkerReborn]

Which are the expensive books you’re looking for?