Years ago I found a first edition of Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22.” A pricing guide at the time had it worth hundreds of dollars. When I typed in “Catch 22” in a book collecting Web site today, there were thousands of first editions of the book for sale, for as little as $15.

The phenomena is the reason antique shops are nearly non-existent today. They can’t compete with an endless supply of cheap items on the Web.

Giving people easy access to a lot of low-cost goods should be a good thing. In this case, I’m not so sure.

Tim Krohn is a Free Press staff writer. He can be contacted at 344-6383 or

email him Tim by clicking here