"But they would not get that price any more, the credit crunch has put paid to that."

True - but that small fact doesn't deter them! As a glance at abe.books will show; high prices being asked for unsigned copies. A lot of the more expensive ones seem to be bought by other dealers, and so spend a lot of their time on aircraft over the Atlantic, being moved from one high-priced bookstore to another, when their real place ought to be on my shelf! In an ideal world...