Rick Anderson wrote: "Which, if you think about it [confidential pricing], is really pretty silly." Not really. Confidential pricing allows for price discrimination to take place (the charging of different prices to different customers based on their ability or willingness to pay). Price discrimination is practiced because it leads to a more efficient market and greater profits to the producer than charging a uniform price to all customers. It is normally practiced in markets where the producer has some monopoly power, which means that the customer cannot substitute one product or service for another. To answer Rick's question, how would Library A be lead to believe that it was getting a better deal than everyone else under the cloak of price confidentiality? The answer is *discounting*. In most states, hotels are required to post daily rate on the back of your hotel room door. This is "list price" and no one ever pays it. Everyone always pays a much reduced price, and because you don't know what the person in the next room paid, you come to the conclusion that your bargain $99/night room was a great deal, as long as you don't find out that the guy next door was charged $69/night. In the same way, most of the big publishers set "list prices" for their journals, and almost no libraries ever pay that price. Anyone who has been involved in negotiating for serials packages also knows that the first deal on the table proposed by publishers is never the one that is accepted. In sum, Rick's hypothetical scenario where everyone believes they are getting a good deal in world of confidential pricing is achieved by a combination of price discrimination and discounting. --Phil Davis