Book Hauls!

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Went to the local library book sale and got a bunch of anthologies and one old magazine.

 

[K. Riehl]

Picked up the January 1932 Astounding. At 15% of normal price. Only 20 issues left to complete the set.

 

[maeda]

Picked up the January 1932 Astounding. At 15% of normal price. Only 20 issues left to complete the set.
View attachment 28331

the whole run? omg, that is respectable effort
I'm curious, what does '15% of normal price' mean?

 

[K. Riehl]

I won a Ebay auction. "Normal Price" is the buy it now price listed by multiple sellers. I got it for $38 while it is listed as buy it now for $300- $400 from a few different sellers. Book dealers normally would list this for $400-$500 at Very Good/Near Fine.

Many people believe that the cover story from this edition was the inspiration for King Kong.

 

[J-Sun]

Went to the local library book sale and got a bunch of anthologies

You just need a volume 1 & 2 to have a complete set.

 

[maeda]

I won a Ebay auction. "Normal Price" is the buy it now price listed by multiple sellers. I got it for $38 while it is listed as buy it now for $300- $400 from a few different sellers. Book dealers normally would list this for $400-$500 at Very Good/Near Fine.

Many people believe that the cover story from this edition was the inspiration for King Kong.

Ah, ebay auction, tnx
Although i'm not an expert on vintage magazine market, those prices they are asking seems crazy
Fortunately most of it can be found on Archive online

Really nice book arrived in my mail today, The Art of John Harris: Beyond the Horizon
Had it on my wishlist for some time, but the price was a bit high so i always bought something else, finally i pulled the trigger because it's gonna be out of print soon.
He is my personal favorite in the SF field today, some pic from it:

 

[Allegra]

Two P.G. Wodehouse's stand alone books:

Summer Moonshine
Hot Water

 

[Uruss]

The Elric of melbibone Saga - Michael Moorcock

The Name Of The Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Bloodstone - Karl Edward Kane.
Coldfire Trilogy - C. S. Friedman

Thomas Covenant Trilogy and the second trilogy: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen R. Donaldson

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

The Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb

The Black Company book 1 - Glen Cook

Mistborn book 2 and 3 - Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson

The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson.

Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson.

The Ploughmen - Kim Zupan

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

You just need a volume 1 & 2 to have a complete set.

I forgot to mention this one, which extends my coincidental numerical run by one more.

 

[Caledfwlch]

I love a good trawl of boxes of book at jumble sales, second hand shops and car boot sales!

Over the last 3 years, by such means I have gotten 3 Doctor Who Books, from the early 90's til 1997 Virgin New Adventures Range for £1 each, and sold them for between £50-£65 each! Lungbarrow and Dying Days could be as rare as Hen's Teeth even not too far past their publishing date, especially Dying Days as it was the last of the range, and the only 1 to feature the 8th Doctor, and I think for various reasons it also had a far more limited print run than was normal for the range so Collectors who want the full NA Set are desperate to get missing copies in decent condition, the 3rd was RTD's VNA Novel "Damaged Goods" which of course was set mainly on a Council Estate in London, and featured a chavy London lass called Rose Tyler.... not sure how rare it is or ever was, but I suspect the value increased since RTD brought the Show back on air, seeing as in some ways it is a prototype for some elements of New Who, which has of course since its return happily borrowed from the VNA Range, with the awesome Human Nature being fully adapted into a 2 parter. The copy of Dying Days which was near mint that I managed to find went to an extremely happy chap at Uni in Ireland, Dying Days was the very last Novel he needed to complete the entire collection of both Virgin New Adventures (all 7th Doc except for Dying Days) and the Virgin Past Doctor Adventures (various novels utilising the classic era doctors)

The money raised went on more books for myself, and computer parts & games I mostly trawl to find stuff I haven't read, but its nice to run into stuff I know or suspect is worth a bit of money if in good condition, since it assists in purchasing more. I don't really have a collectors mindset, I read books, if I really love them I sometimes keep them, if not or if space is short, as I have a very small flat I donate them to charity shops. I still apparantly have around 6 large boxes filled with books in the attic of my ex fiance's Father's House in Leeds, be nice if I can afford to get it collected one day, I can't remember whats there, but I think there were several books of potential value, thankfully my ex fiance was not into books, so likely has no clue if they are worth anything, everything else of mine that did have value she sold! didn't even share the cash, which was rude lol

My local Library usually has a big shelf full of books that are old, or in poorer condition for 25p and 50p, often get some good stuff there, like some old Starwars EU Novels. We have an Oxfam Bookshop, which got in a load of Star Wars EU Novels, including several of the awesome X Wing series, so I enjoyed re-reading some "old friends" as books can be, then donated most back, except for certain X wing Novels, as my Brother pretty much mugged me for them, well he gave cash, insisted on it! but I had no choice, they filled the big ugly gap in his X Wing collection, as he is an avid collector of certain things, and he had been trying to fill his X Wing collection for years, couldn't find them anywhere, and the only ones on places like Ebay were ridiculous prices. The X wing novels are awesome sauce, all the way! Especially the running joke about an Ewok X Wing Pilot. I forget which EU Book it was, but I do recall there being an Ewok Gangster!

 

[pambaddeley]

Darn! I had loads of those Virgin New Adventures volumes and gave them away .... oh well!

 

[AE35Unit]

Scored a copy of Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds free from bookmooch.com
I started to read it years ago but never finished it. I hope to correct that soon.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I bought from Kinokuniya - the best bookstore in Sydney:

• Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs (friend's recommendation)
• Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey - I didn't realise there was another 'Kushiel' book, I freaking loved the other ones so this was a nice surprise
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (two friends' recommendation!)
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (because it won the Hugo and sounds different)

 

[Tim Murray]

I bought from Kinokuniya - the best bookstore in Sydney:

• Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs (friend's recommendation)
• Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey - I didn't realise there was another 'Kushiel' book, I freaking loved the other ones so this was a nice surprise
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (two friends' recommendation!)
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (because it won the Hugo and sounds different)

A 1965 printing of Tolkien' LOTR trilogy in a box set with the ring graphics set in the front of the book cover. Each being three different colors matched by the colours on the edges of the pages. Years ago I used to own it. Another first edition (not very valuable) to add to the Dune series, father and son.

 

[Uruss]

Single book, but i finally found The dragonbone chair" at a local used shop.

 

[Extollager]

Arrived today: the Fimi and Higgins critical edition of Tolkien's address "A Secret Vice," and Sebastian Haffner's memoir Defying Hitler. Not too long ago, de la Mare's Collected Poems and Smith's How (Not) to be Secular, an introduction to the thought of Charles Taylor.

 

[steelyglint]

A few recent items found in donations to the Book Relief shop....

DU MAURIER Daphne = Rebecca (1938 Gollancz 1st) Sadly, no dust wrapper, and not in the best of condition. Still £40-50 range.

REIFENSTAHL Leni = People of Kau (1976 Collins 1st) Wrapper a bit worn, but book fine. Interesting author (Hitler's favorite film-maker), but the half-title bears inscriptions and signatures from 8 main cast members of the 1970s BBC production of Poldark. Dominic Winter suggested a £70-100 price range.

BYRON = The Giaour (1813 Murray 3rd) bound with
= Bride of Abydos (1814 Murray 8th) and
= The Corsair (1814 Murray 4th)and
= Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte (1814 Murray 4th) Disbound (no boards or spine panel), otherwise clean, tight and positively glowing with health for a 200+ year-old bit of a tree. We've got some boards of appropriate size from a similarly aged item (just boards and part of the same donation - I didn't tear apart another 200 year-old item to get them), and our most recent addition to the staff just happens to be a bookbinder and conservator working a placement from the Jobcentre. An item in original binding might fetch £250-300 or more. This one will cost maybe £40 to rebind and hopefully we can get £100 for it - that's pretty cheap for an early Byron.

GIBBS Philip = The Battles of the Somme (1917 Heinemann 1st) Lacking dust wrapper, this would normally be priced at £20 or so. However, this copy has an inscription on the end-paper, 'To Captain Faunthorpe - who is directing photographic operations at the front - has given to the world more vivid pictures of the Somme battles than could be written in words by his friend and admirer - Philip Gibbs. France. April 1917.' A very nice association/presentation copy, pushing the price up to the three figure level - just.

There are a few more with incomplete research, but I don't think we've found our 'Bay Psalm Book' yet. There were no elephant folios, so no Audubon's Birds either, and we're still waiting for the withdrawn 1865 edition of Alice's Adventures, though I wouldn't mind coming across a Hobbit 1st to keep us going until it arrives.

.

 

[steelyglint]

Seems Simon is getting his work cut out for him.

Today a lady came into the shop and asked if I would take a look at some books she wanted to donate in case they weren't 'good enough' for us. I was quick to assure her that the only unacceptable condition designation for donations is 'currently on fire'. Before Simon arrived I was willing to have a go at putting anything back together, be it 50p paperback or £50 hardcover (anything over that and I'd chicken out, scared of doing more harm than good). Now there's a pro on the premises the possibilities are seemingly endless.

I went with her to her car anyway. The books were all big, heavy and of some age - they looked 19th century to me. Indeed, they turned out to be mostly 19th, though there were a couple of 18th century items in there, too. We thanked her for her donation, assured her that we'd be able to tend the wounds of the books, and she went on her way happy and lighter.

When we actually got around to taking a closer look there were a couple of surprises awaiting us. One hefty tome, both boards loose, turned out to be a 1730 first edition about the 'Grand Tour'. There's a nice copy on ABE right now for a tenner under £1,000. A set of four small volumes, all in need of serious attention, are the 1772 edition of John Dryden's 'Works of Virgil' - in decent shape they usually fetch £600-1,000.

I'd let the lady know just what it was she'd given to us, but she didn't give us any details. Just that the books were her husband's and he had died 20 years ago. She was just 'downsizing'.

.

 

[dask]

While I've cut my book hunting way down and have been donating books I don't think I'll ever read to thrift stores, the public library freebie shelves, and those little roadside libraries springing up all over the place, I still found a few today that looked good enough to try for only fifty cents a piece:

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Wow. Weird cover on The Stakes are High. Guy flying into the zodiac?