Harry Potter and the Chancers of eBay Here's a Friday morning poser for you: a US book distributor accidently sends you a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pretty well a week before the official launch of what's expected to be the fastest-selling book of all time. What do you do? Yup. You immediately stick it on eBay to see if you can't get your snout in …
The "XBOX 360 Syndrome" strikes again! Nobody actually wants this tripe, with the exception of anyone under the age of 14 who may well enjoy it, it's just an excuse for money grabbing scumbags to milk every penny out of gullible planks!
I'm sure most people would agree, there are far, far more entertaining books out there for kids, with much more depth. Crikey, I'd even put The Hungry Catepillar up against this fantasy, public-school tosh!
In my experience of using the post, if you get something a few days early, how are you going to get time for
a) the eBay auction to end
b) the postal service to get the product to the winner
all sufficiently before the rest of the world can walk into a shop anyway? It's certainly not going to be long enough to justify a massive premium, surely?
"...Bible, Koran..."
IMHO, theses were not the most *hyped* books. Everyone knows what they are, but not hyped like Harry Potter is.
Unless back then, the publisher of the Bible was doing some sort of marketing, showing the book with a catchy title like "Jesus Christ and the Holy Grail", where the main character do some sort of magic like turning water into wine, walk on the water, heal wounds and so on.
Hey. Wait a minute. That's just like Harry Potter, after all!
Harry gets popped by the CIA, gets "extraordinarily rended" to some Eastern European country and then shipped off to Gitmo. Which he he waves his wand, mumbles a few words and turns into Sandals Cuba. I won't mention the sex scene, I don't want to get popped for pedophilia, and neither does el Reg.
Oh yeah, Dumbledore comes back and turns bin Laden into a pig. And turns all the food the Al Queda leadership eats into either ham sandwiches or roast beef and cheese.
It's a great book. Only 1100 pages. An easy read, if you have a week or so.
In truth, the book is due here tomorrow sometime between 11 am and 2 pm. Sometime between 11:01 am and 2:01 pm, I expect to lose my wife for about 12-15 hours. I guess I can surf porn in peace.
Oh no, a couple of books accidentally got sent out early. Could this be the start of the end of the world?
No it couldn't ..... for gods sake there are more important things going on in the world then a couple of books getting out early, why not put your money to better use rather then looking for people to sue.
This is like when the Frogs released HALO 2 a week early.
I just want to read the book/play the game w/o hearing OHHH DID YOU KNOW THAT....! crap.
I hope these people get a beatdown and Rowlings takes 'em to the cleaners. I also hope HALO 3 doesn't get released in Europe for another month after the US.
I really pity all of those ‘Grown ups’ who get all snooty and condescending about ‘Harry Potter is just for children’.
What a sad, narrow little life you lead.
Why don’t you try getting out of your own heads a little more, there is a big interesting world out there and it inspires the imagination and its fun.
If ye want a real spoiler, how's this;
Clearly since they didn't kill off Harry, this "last book in series" is a clever marketing ploy. I foresee there shall be another, where Harry and his crazy friends get together to bring back Ron from the dead. The opening chapter could read something like:
The chick who's name I can't spell: "Harry, we did it, Rons alive again!"
Harry: "Good to have you back Ron! How are you feeling?"
Zombie Ron: "Brrrrrraaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnnsssss....."
Everybody: "Oh Ron, ur such a gas ti...... oh wait!!!! AAARRRGGGGHHHH"
Now that's good reading!!!!!
One has to feel sorry for the sort of person who scathingly equates a child with a 'slow adult' and therefore demonstrates a complete lack of respect for either.
Of course, those of us 'slow adults' who have read and understood the moral themes in these books will probably be quite glad that J.K. Rowling's human values are likely to be influencing our children in the years to come, and not those who take pleasure in disparaging others. Her villains are those who would seek to elevate themselves by looking down on others and treating them as lesser creatures. Her heroes are those who can see beyond surface differences and give care, respect and courtesy regardless. More power to her.
And... and...
DUMBLEDORE KILLS HARRY IN PAGE 666!!!
Yeah, sure. Actually I could spill out a pretty funny spoiler on this one, and still not spoil the fun. I read the book in a new speed record (under 24 hours). Now I'm being bugged by all the lazy readers that want to know how it ends...
Now, why would I have bought that book from eBay before release date?? I would have got it after release anyway, and here in Mexico City it was pretty easy to get my hands on Book 7 w/o much hassle (no "sold out" problems).
Book 6 I pre-ordered in Amazon.com, only to find out the damn book would arrive 1 week after the official date; meanwhile a friend bought it on the release date, and I ended up reading HIS copy of the book. Mine arrived 1 week late, so it basically sits somewhere in my personal library now.
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