Relating to "Search Costs"

In chapter four of Anderson's "The Long Tail", he mentions that one of the advantages of connecting supply and demand, one of the three economic triggers of reducing the costs of reaching the niches, is reducing "search costs". That rang a bell in my mind of a search for a Cannonball Adderly album that I once had and allowed to be stolen. It was one of my favorite pieces of music, and the album had been a gift from a beloved band director from my early youth. I physically searched retail record stores all around Memphis to no avail. I searched the small independent record and comic book stores around town, where providing the obscure was taken to the level of art, and again I had no success. I implored friends to search in other towns and cities they might visit always assuring them that I would pick up any costs they might incur. Again I struck out. This physical search went on for years, but I was very determined. Part of the problem was that the album was out of print and the label had never sold the master for distribution, and they seemed not to care to do so themselves. Finally one day, after I had had my pc for a while, my brother suggested to me that I search online for the album. I immediately began my search and, to my surprise and delight, I found not only several copies of the album, but also found out that the label - Columbia - had finally decided to re-publish the album on cd. Within days I had a copy of "Domination" by Cannonball Adderly, with orchestra directed by Oliver Nelson, playing much too loudly in my apartment. Suffice it to say that I was hooked on using the "Long Tail" from that day forward.