[quote=""Misfit""]Good gravy, look at the
prices for this used at Amazon US.

[/quote]
And it's out of print! I keep saying that if ever the day job goes pear-shaped, I could live on the proceeds of the sale of one book, not thousands!
The thing is that with UK hardcovers, unless you are a multi-million seller like Philippa Gregory or Bernard Cornwell, print runs of these editions are only for the library, keen reader and collector market and publishers will produce very conservatively - and I mean very conservatively. In the case of APBC you are looking at 3,750 copies of the hardcover worldwide. These had all sold within 5 months of publication, but they didn't reprint and waited for the paperback. The print run for The Time of Singing is larger - just over 4,000 and they have sold more than three quarters of the stock already - which is why I am saying on my website and on my News blog for those wanting it for Xmas to get it now, because although a reprint is likely this time around, it's not a 100% given and even if there is, if the timing isn't spot on, they may not have any in mid December.
Hardcover copies of The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion are also worth holding onto because they had lower print runs in hardcover than APBC. My hardcover print runs are increasing each time, but only in small increments, and this is the way of the UK market. Paperbacks are obviously different.