BOOKSELLING ON THE INTERNET—HOW DO SELLERS DIFFERENTIATE IDENTICAL BOOKS? Use a search engine to find the current listings on the New York Times best-seller lists. Choose one hardbound book of fiction and one hardbound book of nonfiction from the top-five lists. Next, find the price, including shipping to your address, of your two books at both Amazon, www.amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble, www.barnesandnoble.com. Is one company less expensive? Identify the nonprice competition that might lead you to order from one company rather than the other.

MARKET SHARES—TOP-10 LISTSAdvertising Age, at www.adage.com, compiles statistics on the market shares of some familiar products. Click on Data Center and then on Top Line Data. Download the Fact Pack for the latest year. Select the top-5, top-7, or top-10 lists for five separate nonmedia products. In general, do the very top sellers in your lists advertise more or less than the sellers toward the bottom of the lists? Are there exceptions? Do you think the top-10 lists would get turned upside down if the pattern of advertising were turned upside down? Why or why not?