Recently I posted to the forum three suggestions to help books that have languished in community pricing for years with little hope of ever being published. A lot of these books I am willing to pay the highest amounts given.
One suggestion was to, at some point, perhaps a year after a book has appeared in C}P, to add up the all the amounts that people said they were willing to pay for this resource, and if there was enough to send to publication, then let everyone pay what they said they were willing to pay.
A common objection to the idea is that people would then flock in at the end, bid the lowest, and get a steal.
But just as there is a cutoff on bids now, so with my idea, start from the top, with those who want this resource the most, and when you reach enough funds, then any lower bids won't win. This way, not knowing how much bidding is needed, everybody will bid according to the value of the books to them. If it's not high enough, then their bid doesn't succeed. And those who really want to the books published will get their dream. No, it won't be a unified price, but it a small price to pay for being able to get some books that we want.
