The scarce, rare, valuable and disgustingly expensive book thread

[Moontravler]

I can't remember how it all started, but ever since I can remember, I have loved hunting around used bookstores and flea markets for nice little bargains. The crowning glory of such an excursion, would be if you found a book that is either unavailable elsewhere, or if you came away with paying 25 cents for a book that would normally tug $25 out of your wallet.

After having lurked here at the Chrons for a while, and seeing people chortling about finding books they had been searching long and hard for, it occurred to me that it would be nice to start a thread where we can chat about hunts and finds around scarce, rare, valuable and disgustingly expensive books.

I don’t have access to my book cases right now, but it would be nice if other Chrons members tell us about rare and hard-to find books they keep in a locked glass case, somewhere in their possession…

(Just don’t tell us where you live… )

 

[Stephen Palmer]

One of my former colleagues at Waterstones in E----- had a proof copy of The Northern Lights - now worth an absolute bomb.

As for me, nuthin'...

 

[biodroid]

There was a Stephen King first edition hardcopy of The Tommyknockers that I should have bought even though it was quite pricey at a second hand shop by me.

 

[GOLLUM]

HMM...well I've already posted on the other thread with respect to themed collections.

Some more prized possessions include:
50th anniversary, leather-bound edn. of LOTR with Gold Gilt pages.
2 near-mint volumes of Karl Edward Wagner's Kane (OUP).
Various personalised signed copies incl. Mieville, Gaiman, Silverberg, Shaun Tan, Jeffrey Thomas and Feist.
1st edn issues of E.R. Eddison's Worm Ouroboros
Ligotti's Nightmare Factory
Various other limited small press publisher edns. (OUP)

I don't focus so much on rare items unless it's the only way to gain a particular work. 95% of my collection would consist of books published in the past 20 odd years.

As per the other thread, I'm more interested in collecting the contents rather than it needing to be an old edn. Collecting old edns seriously means having to take proper AND professional care of those items, insurance, increased security etc. which frankly is not something I'm realistically interested in pursuing.

 

[iansales]

I have a first edition of Lawrence Durrell's 1935 debut novel, Pied Piper of Lovers. There are apparently no more than a dozen copies left in existence.

I have also books signed by John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin, Gordon Cooper, Alan Shepard, Harrison Schmitt, Gene Cernan and Wally Schirra. I have one signed by Neil Armstrong, but I think it's fake.

 

[AE35Unit]

Well being a David Attenborough fan I was amazed to find a copy of Life on Earth going for a tenner in a book stall years ago. Not only was it a first edition but it was signed!! Wonder what its worth now....
I also have a first edition of Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell-not putting that on bookmooch....

 

[GOLLUM]

Well being a David Attenborough fan I was amazed to find a copy of Life on Earth going for a tenner in a book stall years ago. Not only was it a first edition but it was signed!! Wonder what its worth now....
I also have a first edition of Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell-not putting that on bookmooch....

Certainly signed items can carry greater weight but it often depends upon the condition of the book as well things like scarcity, author's reputation/standing etc.. Often unwrapped (never used) items will carry even greater value in the market and of course HBs almost always are the choice of the collector.

 

[AE35Unit]

Certainly signed items can carry greater weight but it often depends upon the condition of the book as well things like scarcity, author's reputation/standing etc.. Often unwrapped (never used) items will carry even greater value in the market and of course HBs almost always are the choice of the collector.

Aye well mine is a HB, with dustjacket. Theres just a little fading on the back but no matter, I aint selling it ever-am a huge Attenborough fan!

 

[GOLLUM]

Yes I should have mentioned, if you have the dustjacket that can often increase the price appreciably.

I'm like you. I collect books to keep and treasure them with an eye to passing them on to later generations; not to sell for profit as it were. The idealist in me perhaps...

 

[AE35Unit]

Yea me and my brother used to go round to all the book stalls,, collecting books.
What do you reckon a first edition of Fritz Leiber's a Spectre is Haunting Texas is worth, in yellow Golancz jacket?

 

[j d worthington]

I've no idea on that one, but the Gollancz wouldn't be a genuine first edition; that would be the Walker edition if we are talking about book publication, I believe; the original publication was as a serial in Galaxy magazine though....

Hmmm... I seldom go for any book because it is rare, valuable, etc.; but with my interests, I've ended up picking up a fair number of items that fall into those categories. Certainly the oldest I have is an edition (3rd edition, at that) of Sir Samuel Garth's The Dispensary, which dates to 1699....

Then there oddities like the Newgate Calendar (4 vols. in 3), which date to the early nineteenth century; or the first printing of Michael Moorcock's The Great Rock-n-Roll Swindle (later reprinted as "The Gold Diggers of 1977 (Ten Claims That Won Our Hearts)" -- the original form was as a tabloid or newspaper. (Some years ago, when Mike was doing a signing and I brought that in, he was astounded. Even he hadn't seen a copy of that since it was first published, apparently....)

My copy of the two-volume Complete Strange Stories of Robert Aickman (Tartarus Press) cost me a little over $100 when I bought it... now it seems to be going for around $1000....

I have a fair number of rare or collectible books by Harlan Ellison and Michael Moorcock, not to mention a few by Tolkien; several hard to find things by or about H. P. Lovecraft; a goodly number of older and rarer things dealing with the weird genre (several dating from the early nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, including both The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Alraune -- the latter with dust jacket -- by Hanns Heinz Ewers) as well as Julian Hawthorne's 10-volume "Lock-and-Key Library" and a 6-volume set of Tales from Blackwood (the magazine); a bound set (incomplete) of The Athenaeum from the 1820s to 1840s; a number of signed books from various writers; Boris Karloff's scarce And the Darkness Falls.... and so on.....

But, again, this is because I have a variety of interests, and in no single occasion here did I seek out a book because it was rare or valuable; it just happened to be a book I wanted very badly to get, and that was the only way I could get it....

 

[Clansman]

I found a first edition, first print of Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, first book in the Wheel of Time, shortly after his death in a 2nd hand book shop. In mint condition, and they didn't know what they had. Had a price of $25.00. Quietly, and holding my breath, I bought it, brought it home, checked on line. My jaw dropped.

The price for one of these on the market right now is ridiculous. About $1,000.00, so if I sold it, I would make 3900%. But I'm not selling it, as I have a complete run of hardcover first prints, except The Great Hunt (for which I continue to look, but will not pay a lot for).

I do have a first print of The Silmarillion, but so does everyone else. Unwin and Allen did an absolutely massive first printing run for that book.

My pride and joy is a signed copy of the massive US hardback Ships of Merior by Janny Wurts.

 

[AE35Unit]

I've no idea on that one, but the Gollancz wouldn't be a genuine first edition; that would be the Walker edition if we are talking about book publication, I believe; the original publication was as a serial in Galaxy magazine though....




....

Well, this is the book i have.
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54336818

I dont know why I bought this particular copy-should have just got a cheap paperback and then just passed it onto bookmooch. But I dont want to just give it away if it is worth some money (I've seen some silly priced pb eds of this going on ebay!)

 

[Pyan]

When I was very young, about 45 years ago, our local library had a first edition, first printing of The Hobbit on the shelves - the one with the original story of the Birthday Present in it...I wish I'd kept it - worth the replacement book fine of £2 as it was then...

I do have a first print of The Silmarillion, but so does everyone else. Unwin and Allen did an absolutely massive first printing run for that book.

*sigh* me too...

 

[Talysia]

I don't have anything like that myself, but my Mum found a hardback, second impression copy of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids, a couple of years ago for £1.95.

I keep looking through the second hand/charity shops in hope of finding something myself, though.

 

[Omphalos]

I spend a LOT of time in bookstores and have found a lot of fine, signed books for very little. I have a bunch of mint Lois McMaster Bujold books, all signed, first hardback editions from NESFA that I paid cover price for. I have a fine, first edition of Legacy of Heorot signed by all three authors that I picked up for $10. I have a signed first edition of Ender's Game.

Then again, Ive paid through the nose for some others. Like an Easton Press edition of the Foundation series signed by Asimov. Paid $150 for that.

There is a signed edition Ive been watching on AbeBooks for some time now. Its a first edition of Dune inscribed by Herbert over to Vincent Price. A few years ago someone wanted $5,500 for it. Last time I looked I think it was up to $9,500. I hope he never sells it.

 

[AE35Unit]

Ive paid through the nose for some others. Like an Easton Press edition of the Foundation series signed by Asimov. Paid $150 for that.
.

Wow thats a rarity, as I know that Asimov very rarely signed books! A true treasure that one!

 

[Omphalos]

Wow thats a rarity, as I know that Asimov very rarely signed books! A true treasure that one!

Didn't know that.

I found a signed pb copy of Pohl's This is the Way the Future Was and bought it for a buck. Even told the seller that he had a signed copy. I think he let me have it at his asking price because im such a good customer at that shop.

 

[iansales]

There is a signed edition Ive been watching on AbeBooks for some time now. Its a first edition of Dune inscribed by Herbert over to Vincent Price. A few years ago someone wanted $5,500 for it. Last time I looked I think it was up to $9,500. I hope he never sells it.

I nearly bought a true first edition of Dune about five years ago. It was going for about £800. It'd probably be worth 3 or 4 times that now. I do have signed, numbered slipcased editions of God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse Dune and The White Plague, though.

 

[Omphalos]

Those are the Scribner's editions, Ian? The ones with rusty-reddish boards? I think you showed me a pic once. I found some guy on e-bay who was trying to sell a copy of the Heretics edition with a lean in the spine for like, $175 or something. I thought about it but refrained.