# What single item would you like to own?



## K. Riehl (Feb 9, 2007)

This is a thread for the collectors. What single item would you like to own as the centerpiece of your Science Fiction and Fantasy collection? Think of two things, something you might discover, and something that would be impossible to aquire but would be really cool to have. 

I have always wanted to find a Tamerlane 1st edition.

It would be really cool to have the orginal manuscript of Alice in Wonderland.
Too bad the British Museum already has it

Think big!


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## Dr. Atomic (Feb 9, 2007)

YOU are one sick puppy, asking a collector an impossible question like that. So I'm going to cheat. I've got four (main) collections: Vintage sf books, vintage toy robots, vintage toy ray guns, and sf art. I'll do an "impossible" and a "barely plausible" from each... That's the best I can do. 

*BOOKS* (Impossible) H.P. Lovecraft's _Shunned House_, unbound but collected, or _Fahrenheit 451_, asbestos edition. (Barely Plausible) First hardbound edition of _Fahrenheit 451_. (This is ignoring things like Shakespeare's Folios or the Constitution...)

*TOY ROBOTS* (Impossible) Sankei Robot 5, blue or silver. (Barely Plausible) Lilliput Robot.

*TOY RAY GUNS* (Impossible) Clear 1950s Pez gun, used for display purposes at stores. (Actually Plausible) Space Patrol Auto Sonic rifle... I almost _had_ this one...

*ART* (Impossible) Any original pulp cover by Frank R. Paul. (Plausible, but just barely) Anything by John Harris or Richard Powers.

Man, I hate questions like that...


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## K. Riehl (Feb 9, 2007)

Heh, heh,heh,...

I remember being offered the asbestos 451 and thinking $200? thats crazy!
what was it? 3 years later? I saw one sell for $2500.

Ah well..the one that got away


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## Allegra (Feb 9, 2007)

K. Riehl said:


> Think big!


 
Okay...can I say I want an antique library?


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## Curt Chiarelli (Feb 9, 2007)

Allegra said:


> Okay...can I say I want an antique library?



Ah, good choice! But you'll need to populate those shelves!

Well, the title of this thread asked what single item would you like to own. I find that such a limitation is a torment as great as never being able to afford the objects of one's desires. So, here goes . . . .

The Brothers Hildebrandt original acrylic painting entitled, _Captured By the Orcs_. Retail value: $60,000 USD. Location: undisclosed private collector (damnit!).









This painting has great personal signifigance for me. In 1978, when I was only 12 years old my 7th grade art teacher, Mr. Jerrold Tibstra introduced me to the illustrations that the Brothers Hildebrandt did for the 1976, 1977 and 1978 J.R.R. Tolkien calendars. The first image I set eyes upon was this painting and it literally changed the course of my life as my new career path became commercial art.

And failing_ that _acquisition I think I could feel comfortable with this one as a consolation prize, _The Seige of Minas Tirith_ by the same gentlemen.


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## Dr. Atomic (Feb 10, 2007)

K. Riehl said:


> Heh, heh,heh,...
> I remember being offered the asbestos 451 and thinking $200? thats crazy!
> what was it? 3 years later? I saw one sell for $2500.



I _wish_ I could get it for $2500... it's at about $12,000 now... Something like that. Oh well... I kinda figure I don't need _all_ my internal organs. I can sell the doubles...


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## ScottSF (Feb 10, 2007)

I would settle for the original R2D2 used in the 1977 star wars.


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## Chun the unavoidable (Feb 12, 2007)

One of John Brunner's Twin-Tube Wishing Machines!

My old first-edition "Sirens of Titan".


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## Nesacat (Feb 12, 2007)

The impossible:
The library at Miskatonic University and its contents.

Artwork from Lovecraft's cat's of Ulthar.


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## Pyan (Feb 12, 2007)

*The impossible?*
The _Millennium Falcon_ parked in the back garden.

*Possible?*
A first edition _Lord of the Rings _and _Hobbit _to go with my _Silmarillion_.
*
Probable?*
None of the above, alas!


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## Nesacat (Feb 12, 2007)

The possible:

First editions of Lovecraft's work
First edition of Orson Scott Card's Treason
First edition of Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit
First Edition of the Gormenghast trilogy


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## Pyan (Feb 12, 2007)

Stretching the original premise a bit there, Cat!
Now choose _one_ of those! (he he he *cruel laugh*)


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## SpaceShip (Feb 12, 2007)

The Time Machine from The Time Machine.


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## Allegra (Feb 12, 2007)

SpaceShip said:


> The Time Machine from The Time Machine.


 
LOL that'd make two of us!!


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## Pyan (Feb 12, 2007)

Why not a TARDIS? then you two could travel in space as well as time! Umm...do you think they'd take a slightly battered starship in part-exchange?


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## Nesacat (Feb 12, 2007)

The Tardis with Dr Who? (Ecclestone please)

Just one ... sigh ... how about one for each life ... I'm good to go then Pyan.


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## HoopyFrood (Feb 12, 2007)

Ooh, I'd love to own the TARDIS. And like Nesa, I'd like the Doctor to go with it...although David Tennant version, please!

Ah, I'd also love to have an original Dalek or something. Or maybe Black Dalek Sec, he's _sehr_ cool.


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## Nesacat (Feb 12, 2007)

Alright ... so we new need two of the Tardis and one Dr each. Oh yes please to a Dalek. .... exterminate ... exterminate


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## Allegra (Feb 12, 2007)

Nope guys, you are getting bit greedy here. Only one item, remember?


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## HoopyFrood (Feb 12, 2007)

Grr...all right, all right, it would have to be the Black Dalek, then. (I'll get David Tennant through other means )


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## Nesacat (Feb 12, 2007)

Ummm ... alright then ... The Tradis and the Dr. We can go kidnap (invite) a Dalek.


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## Pyan (Feb 12, 2007)

Rather you than me - I wouldn't go _near_ one of those things!


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## Allegra (Feb 12, 2007)

pyanfaruk said:


> Why not a TARDIS? then you two could travel in space as well as time! Umm...do you think they'd take a slightly battered starship in part-exchange?


 
Good thinking and very business-minded, I must say.


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## bruno-1012 (Feb 12, 2007)

I would have to go with a painting of a LOTR scene that a friends sister had in her room.

Large, mountains snow covered, horse and rider looking into valley. captivating.

The other is a painting that is in the National Library of Scotland and it is an artists impression of Thomas Bouch's design for the Forth Bridge.  This is the bridge that was started but he got pulled from the job after the Tay Bridge disaster and only a small pier (column) was built.  The Fowler/Baker structure that has stood for the last 100+years is a replacement.

The bridge was designed as a suspension bridge (for trains????)

If I can't get that then I would like a holodeck


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## Talysia (Feb 12, 2007)

I'd have any piece of art by Yoshitaka Amano.  His paintings of fantasy and Japanese mythology are beautiful.


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## nixie (Feb 12, 2007)

The Tardis with Eccleston, sounds an ideal present


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## Who's Wee Dug (Feb 13, 2007)

1st edition of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
And I did put back a 1st edition of The Colour of Magic because it had a tiny tear at the bottom of the spine as it was the last one,I thought I will come back in a week or two and get another copy, Boo Hoo there was only 504 printed and someone made a mistake and sent 400 to the states which left a 100 for the UK when it should have been the other way round now it is worth in the region of £8,000. Not that I would be selling it though.


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## The Ace (Feb 13, 2007)

Tuck your tongues back in Ladies .  Definitely a transporter, so I could travel instantaneously to all those shows we have to do.


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## Nesacat (Feb 13, 2007)

Talysia said:


> I'd have any piece of art by Yoshitaka Amano.  His paintings of fantasy and Japanese mythology are beautiful.



They are indeed. I loved the work he did for Dream Hunters. It was surreal and beautiful. Like walking through a dream.


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## K. Riehl (Feb 16, 2007)

Nesa,
First editions of Cards' 1988 version of Treason are available from Bookfinder.com for $15 to $60. 
It's a expanded and rewritten version of A Planet Called Treason published in 1979. This is also available from Bookfinder for about the same price.


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## Steffi (Feb 16, 2007)

There's an edition of Stephen Kings The Stand bound like an antique book and presented in a box.

I wouldn't mind the Orb of Aldur or or the trinket which holds a galaxy in Men in Black.


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## Serin (Feb 25, 2007)

I would love my own Stargate! 

More realistically, I would love a cuddly Nighteyes. (from the Robin Hobb Farseer Trilogy)


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## The Wanderer (Feb 25, 2007)

Not sure about item, but to 'Jaunte' from place to place like in Bester's 'The Stars My Destination' would be useful


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## The Wanderer (Feb 25, 2007)

Oh I know an Anti-Entrophy Do-Hicckey like 'Ubik' Spray

I am Ubik, therfore I Am


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## Talysia (Feb 26, 2007)

Steffi said:


> I wouldn't mind the Orb of Aldur or or the trinket which holds a galaxy in Men in Black.


 
I definitely agree about the Orb of Aldur!  Now that would be an interesting item to own!


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## alicebandassassin (Mar 2, 2007)

a realy comfortable rocking chair to read in


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## Blue Tyson (Mar 13, 2007)

A device with every SF book ever on it, that fits in my pocket.


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## GrownUp (Mar 14, 2007)

Easy. The Millenium Falcon.


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## tangaloomababe (Mar 14, 2007)

On that Dr Who theme why not an original Dalek or a cyberman.  If I had to pick only one it would be the Dalek.


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