[Jukka Juutinen]

Lagarto, I have no doubt about Girbig's book age. And it does have something to do with its price. And it needs to be emphasized, that much of the cheaper price of the two books you listed (Caldwell, Shores) has to do with print run. Erik's post implies that fewer than 1000 copies were printed. Now, even with a print run of 2000 copies the unit cost is substantially lower than with 1000 copies.

Then another issue is the cost of photos. If I recall it right, Erik's book(s) do have plenty of photos from official German and Froggish (eerr...French, offense intented) archives that in the European archival tradition charge more or less exorbitant fees for the publishing rights of their photos, unlike the US National Archives who does not on the grounds that since the taxpayer has already paid for the photos they shouldn't be charged twice. I am not sure of ECPA fees, but the going price for official Finnish Army photos is a tad over 53 euros per photo for a single time publishing right plus scanning (incl. VAT). So, if the book has 200 such photos, that is over 10000 euros in total.

As for the font, I do also hate the font chosen, but large format books must have at least 2 columns, preferably 3 or 4, to be well readable, as the ideal column width is 5-7 cm.

Finally, some of Erik's pricing in the US must take into account that at some stage, not too long ago, you could buy 1.4 dollars or more with 1 euro, now it is down to 1.2. And that is a difference of over 15 %.