Holiday tipping is an exacerbated exercise in misery for those already ambivalent about their doorman. And for others, the need to make conversation is so annoying that it alone is enough to drive them into nondoormen buildings.

"I had one young guy who moved from a fancy condo doorman building in California where he had a very cheery doorman," said Hy Rosen, a senior vice president at Bellmarc Realty. "He wanted a building without a doorman, and his biggest reason seemed to be he didn't want to have to say hello to someone twice a day."

Michele Golden, another broker for Bellmarc, lived in two luxury buildings before buying a Chelsea loft that came with just a full-time superintendent. She doesn't miss the constant socializing, which she found cloying. "It's like a really good restaurant -- the lower key the service, the more I like it," she said. "When they're fawning all over me, I'm not enjoying that. I don't want service to be intrusive in my life."

According to the conventional wisdom, doormen make buildings safer. Many people believe that to go without is practically an invitation to being menaced -- or even dispatched -- on one's very doorstep. And isn't it a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman would sooner give up her colorist than her doorman?

Sort of, said Edward Herson, a vice president at Halstead Property. "If they come in from out of town, from anywhere west of the Hudson River, they definitely want a doorman," he said. But once they live here for a while, "if they are price conscious they want to give it up, because they feel safer in the city."

In fact, "Doormen" reports that while doormen and residents emphatically cite security as a major benefit, few could recall any security incidents at their buildings. (Of course, as the book points out, it is possible that the mere presence of a doorman deters miscreants before trouble breaks out.)

Able defenders or not, doormen add as much as 10 to 15 percent to the value of an apartment, according to Miller Samuel, a Manhattan appraisal firm. But the annual cost -- around $80,000 per doorman ($37,315 in salary, plus overtime, benefits, training and other expenses), according to the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ -- can put a disproportionate burden on smaller buildings, which have fewer units to share the expense.