The scarce, rare, valuable and disgustingly expensive book thread

I don't own them myself, but my grandmother has fourteen pages from Audobon's first edition (the Havell edition) of the Birds of North America.
 
I have signed second editions of Lord of the Rings, but they're in terrible condition :(

And, inevitably, a lettered edition of Gardens of the Moon, which is absolutely gorgeous. Deadhouse Gates also on the way this summer, each book costs around £250.
 
Rane Longfox said:
I have signed second editions of Lord of the Rings, but they're in terrible condition :(

And, inevitably, a lettered edition of Gardens of the Moon, which is absolutely gorgeous. Deadhouse Gates also on the way this summer, each book costs around £250.
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Yeh that's a bit rich for me mate.

Signed edns. of LOTR are still a pretty special item though.

Nice of you to drop in by the way.....;)
 
Oh yeah, we got em valued and they're probably worth about £1000 for the set. Significantly more if the dust jackets hadn't been ripped and that signature was on the title page instead of stuck in (my grandfather did some work with Tolkien, and couldn't be bothered taking all the books to be signed, curse his lack of a crystal ball!)

Nice to be back, even just a tiny bit ;)
 
Something like that. There are only so many complete editions extant. The entire book cost a thousand pounds when it was printed around 1830, so it was sold by subscription, that is, you'd pay your money for a month or three months and get about a dozen pages.
 
A thousand pounds in 1830? Isn't that like 10 million dollars in today's money? Thank god for the invention of the printing press.
 
They had the printing press. It's just that Audobon's paintings were made into gigantic engraved plates to print full page, life-sized illustrations of the birds.
 
Gollum- some of those are quite nice, but some seem to be very overpriced. Way Station for $7,500 ? I bought my VG-FINE copy for less than $200, and mine is signed.
 
Okay, I checked bookfinder.com and they list Way Station in the same condition in the $2,500 to $4,000 range. I guess I just lucked out in my purchase.

Regardless it is a valuable link because it gives you pictures and in some cases descriptions on identification of the editions. I sure do love the cover art on the Stapledon's.
 
Even $200 sounds astronomically high for a 1963 hardback with a so-so dust jacket. I have a second hand paperback which cost me forty cents and a new Manor Books paperback I bought new for a buck twenty-five. Even though I can empathize with collectors, being one myself, $7,500 for WAY STATION exceeds the bounds of socially acceptable behavior.
 
Two words...Market Forces.

Still, I would never pay more than 1,000 for any book and only then if it really was something I was particularly desperate to source e.g. final work in an author's oeuvre. The most I've paid for a book is around $250 Australian.

I'm glad the link has sparked some interest. I found it to be quite educational.
 
GOLLUM said:
Two words...Market Forces.

Still, I would never pay more than 1,000 for any book and only then if it really was something I was particularly desperate to source e.g. final work in an author's oeuvre. The most I've paid for a book is around $250 Australian.

I'm glad the link has sparked some interest. I found it to be quite educational.
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You can just say $250 now. No need to add attach "australian" to it :)
 
Way Station is a Hugo winner and Doubleday didn't print very many. Combine that with the fact that the book has a white cover and pages that tend to brown when you get a fine condition copy you can charge quite a premium.

I researched other sites and found the price runs from 2k to 8k in fine or signed editions.

The copy I picked up is only a VG copy(browning slightly bumped corners) in a Fine dust jacket thus I only paid a fraction of what a top condition copy will bring. I also had a seller that didn't mention that the book was signed. It may be a legit signature or it may be a fake.
 
I just picked up the original manuscript for Roger Zelazny's Last Defender of Camelot.

A lifelong dream to own any unique item by Roger and I finally do after 30 years of searching.
 
K. Riehl said:
I just picked up the original manuscript for Roger Zelazny's Last Defender of Camelot.

A lifelong dream to own any unique item by Roger and I finally do after 30 years of searching.
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I once had his autograph but gave it to a correspondent of mine whose favorite author was Zelazny.
 
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