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Very reasonable. At least I know I have to order the book from my mailorder dealer. Can’t complain too much.

The going price for the other Absolute titles of the same base price is $45 and change. So an extra few bucks would be nice. (not as nice as $13 for the book though:) )

With respect to items sold by Amazon.com, we cannot confirm the price of an item until you order; however, we do NOT charge your credit card until after your order has entered the shipping process. Despite our best efforts, a small number of the items in our catalog may be mispriced. If an item’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation.

I’m a bit of a whore for beautiful publishing … I’ll actually appreciate, and gush to others about endpapers. So take what I say with a grain of salt. :)

First is the size – these are practically coffetable books or art books. They can become impractical – if you’re the kind of person like my wife who dozes off while reading in bed and occasionally drops the book on her nose, Absolute Watchmen could send you to the hospital. But it achieves the same effect as a beautiful art book – it lets the art breathe and be examined. Obviously, the Perez volumes (JLA/Avengers and Crisis) really allow the detail to shine, but even other artists’ work shines as it increases in size.

Then there’s the production values – rich paper, often bound-in bookmarks, beautiful coverstock, etc. The bonus materials vary – Planetary doesn’t have much, but Watchmen and Crisis are packed with stuff.

There’s no doubt about it – these are collector’s pieces, books that you’ll have for a long time. If you just want to read the books, I suppose it’s overkill. Then again, a digest sized book of Rembrandt would give you a reference for what the pictures looked like, wouldn’t it? They are utterly gratuitious, like the back-of-Previews statues, but you can also open them up and read them. :)

It’s Marvel’s oversized hardcovers that got me back into comics, but once I discovered the Absolutes, I fell in love.

Ray, I know it’s a pipe dream, but it may give an interesting example of sales velocity for discount pricing. I wish I knew more about how to see Amazon sales figures, because I’d like to see rankings and orders both now and after they fix the mistake.

I’m such a fan of the format that I’m even considering books I might not consider in a standard trade/hardcover like Absolute Kingdom Come.

I’m actually sort of curious about the Absolute format, and have been wanting to see one to see what they are like.