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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

rare books


gronksmil

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5 hours ago, David Filsell said:

found a copy of Copse 125 in the gardening section.

 

 

 

Difficult to see the wood for the trees sometimes.

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6 hours ago, Maureene said:

Does Faraway Campaign have any other title?

 

I have seen it cataloged as Faraway campaign. [War experiences of an Indian cavalry officer in the Middle East]. and

Faraway Campaign. [An account of the campaign in Afghanistan, 1916-1919], and  I wondered if these are the same book, or two different books.

 

There is also a Leonaur reprint edition called Faraway Campaign: Experiences of an Indian Army Cavalry Officer in Persia & Russia During the Great War. 

 

Cheers

Maureen

They all sound like the same book to me.

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Dear All,

I have ordered the Tom Donovan copy of "Faraway Campaign" by F. James.

This was Major Frank James, 28th Light Cavalry (later 7th Light Cavalry), who was born on 10 May 1885 (First Commission 13 August 1904), and retired on 1 October 1925.

His War Services: 'Operations in Persia and in the Persian Gulf since 6 November 1914'. Apparently no rewards for his long and arduous service in that Sideshow.

This book will complement my copy of "Riding to War" (1993) by Gerald Uloth, late 28th Light Cavalry. The latter author was sparing with names ('my C.O...'), and the interesting photo of the 28th Cavy officers at Meshed, has no names - despite the central figure being possibly Major James...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

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Another recent e-bay purchase . Quite rare in the hardback first edition (1917) , not having a great interest in the war in Africa I really bought it

because.. a ) I like the pictorial front cover ..b) It has echoes of 'The African Queen' ..c) it was quite cheap !

in german gaols pictoral front.jpeg

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On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 20:46, Black Maria said:

You missed my one for sale on Amazon , a real bargain at only £35 ( no jacket ) :whistle: . Mind you I'm not surprised you couldn't find it , their

cataloguing in very poor , a lot of listings just disappear into the ether and are unsearchable.

yes this copy was in very good condition thank you !!!

D J..... a cheeky offer costs nothing except a bit of typing time and you will be surprised at the number of times a response is  received after a little while when the item has still not sold !

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On ‎14‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 09:08, David Filsell said:

Couple odd thoughts on buying.

Spend time browsing non military stacks - dealer friend once told me he found a copy of Copse 125 in the gardening section.

I sometimes get a feeling when standing outside a second hand bookshop that there,s something inside looking for me. And, strangely, far more often than not there is. I have never had such a feeling outside a charity shop.

 

the chap from Edinboro? have not heard from him in years often wondere4d where he managed to get his stock  from? I purchased some very good items from him 

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2 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

yes this copy was in very good condition thank you !!!

 

You're welcome ,  thank you for buying it and congratulations on finding it :)

Edited by Black Maria
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  • 2 weeks later...

None of them rare, but Ultimate Charity Shop Bargain Buy today:-

 

  '1915' Lynn Macdonald 1993, very clean first edition h/b with dust jacket.

'Forgotten Voices of the Great War', Max Arthur 2002, first ed. h/b with d/j, signed

'Forgotten Victory' by Gary Sheffield, 2002 p/back

And a WW2 title, 'The Decisive Duel - Spitfire vs 109' by David Isby, 2013 p/back

 

All four books for £1.00.

 

Mike.

 

Edited by MikeyH
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Am I alone in thinking any book with forgotten voices in the title is best forgotten?

Edited by David Filsell
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2 hours ago, MikeyH said:

None of them rare, but Ultimate Charity Shop Bargain buy today:-

 

  '1915' Lynn Macdonald 1993, very clean first edition h/b with dust jacket.

'Forgotten Voices of the Great War', Max Arthur 2002, first ed. h/b with d/j, signed

'Forgotten Victory' by Gary Sheffield, 2002 p/back

And a WW2 title, 'The Decisive Duel - Spitfire vs 109' by David Isby, 2013 p/back

 

All four books for £1.00.

 

Mike.

 

 

     Well done- I suspect the years 2019-2020 may see a post-centennial glut of the more mid-market books coming along. As they said on Police Five-"Keep 'em Peeled"

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3 hours ago, David Filsell said:

Am I alone in thinkingany book with forgotten voices in the title is best forgotten?

 

I find I enjoy them - excerpts from reminiscences of people from the time.

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On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 11:28, barkalotloudly said:

i think i will make a very cheeky offer on this book{other ranks} and see where it goes !!!

 

Did you get round to making a cheeky offer ?  I noticed the book disappeared shortly after we talked about it .

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4 minutes ago, Black Maria said:

Did you get round to making a cheeky offer ?  I noticed the book disappeared shortly after we talked about it .

no I did not as the book has done a vanishing act....should it make another appearance  my e-mail will be sent 

 

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20 minutes ago, barkalotloudly said:

no I did not as the book has done a vanishing act....should it make another appearance  my e-mail will be sent 

 

It has disappeared before ( seller on holiday ? ) so it may well reappear later , unless someone else got the cheeky offer in first .

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54 minutes ago, Black Maria said:

It has disappeared before ( seller on holiday ? ) so it may well reappear later , unless someone else got the cheeky offer in first .

 

 Or simply bought it at the asking price.  Which is what happens in comfortably over 95% of all book sales.  "Cheeky offers" are fine  (Ever try them in Tesco?)  but lack of response may often give the  refusal of your offer by default.   A good rule of thumb is to never make a "cheeky" offer to a bookseller you hope to do business with again ad/or has the type of book you want.  Booksellers are not that keen on offering books at realistic prices  to a customer is he/she merely wishes to chisel regardless. 

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28 minutes ago, voltaire60 said:

 

 Or simply bought it at the asking price.  Which is what happens in comfortably over 95% of all book sales.  "Cheeky offers" are fine  (Ever try them in Tesco?)  but lack of response may often give the  refusal of your offer by default.   A good rule of thumb is to never make a "cheeky" offer to a bookseller you hope to do business with again ad/or has the type of book you want.  Booksellers are not that keen on offering books at realistic prices  to a customer is he/she merely wishes to chisel regardless. 

purchased at the asking price? Warren Buffett look out!! my collection makes me richer than you !! made loads of repeat "cheeky offers" no problems I would suggest booksellers are very glad of somebody who is prepared to spend a bob or two on expensive books as I would suggest we are a DYING BREED 

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1 minute ago, barkalotloudly said:

purchased at the asking price? Warren Buffett look out!! my collection makes me richer than you !! made loads of repeat "cheeky offers" no problems I would suggest booksellers are very glad of somebody who is prepared to spend a bob or two on expensive books as I would suggest we are a DYING BREED 

 

    Woof-well done!!   And no black eyes along the way???    Your offers must have been sensible,rather than "cheeky".   The prices at Sothebys. Christies,Forum suggest that there are a fair few folk wi' a few tanners out there.  Just point a few my way please....    

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47 minutes ago, voltaire60 said:

 

 Or simply bought it at the asking price.

They may have done , maybe Elton John has ditched the flowers and decided to spend his money on rare WW1 memoirs :whistle:  That makes about six of us collecting

the stuff now.

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Just now, Black Maria said:

They may have done , maybe Elton John has ditched the flowers and decided to spend his money on rare WW1 memoirs :whistle:  That makes about six of us collecting

the stuff now.

 

   As Mick Jagger is one of the country's leading collectors of cricket books, then anything is possible.

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all joking aside I have just inquired about a very  scarce book by asking a few questions and making an offer regarding payment I have been offered a saving of 70-80 pounds {the book is 600+ } so there is room for bartering just have to pick your moment 

One thing I cannot get my head round is dealers buying from other dealers books that have been on the net for a little while and then  upping the price by 2/3 times what makes them think this is a sensible move? { the various books I have in mind have now been sitting on the  new various purchasers lists for several moths/years} all very strange!

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3 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

all joking aside I have just inquired about a very  scarce book by asking a few questions and making an offer regarding payment I have been offered a saving of 70-80 pounds {the book is 600+ } so there is room for bartering just have to pick your moment 

One thing I cannot get my head round is dealers buying from other dealers books that have been on the net for a little while and then  upping the price by 2/3 times what makes them think this is a sensible move? { the various books I have in mind have now been sitting on the  new various purchasers lists for several moths/years} all very strange!

 

     Woof-  A sensible piece of curiosity that -alas-shows ,on balance that both book dealers and book collectors are,generally, completely bonkers.  Think about it-  the price structure for books is a pyramid of tautology. For new books, it is even worse-why is it I can go down to Asda and buy a ream of A4 paper for £4 but if someone called a "publisher" covers it with coded inky squiggles it becomes a "book" and costs £100. And, like motor cars from Ford at Dagenham, the cost of the first "book" would be millions-while the run-on cost is usually little more than the raw cost of the paper. Hence, the variation in prices for new books. In economic terms it is a "discriminating monopoly"- that is, publishers control the supply and the price of books- of course, the library market comes first and at the highest price for non-fiction. Then come punters who may pay the price-then a series of "sales" and "remainder". Each is targeted at a particular market-and the trick with a discriminating monopoly is that those who are prepared to pay most are made to do so-ie the new price of the book.  Hence, sales and remaindering by Helion, Spellmount etc make a lot of sense-it is a staggered disposal of stock to get the most favourable price in each market.  There are many-like myself- who would do life on Devil's Island rather than buy a book at a full new price.

     

        As to OP books and collector's items-well, the market is incestuous and is a food chain. It used to be depressing in years long past to go to a military bookfair in London-and see the military dealers all having the same range of regimentals at the same price-they had all come to buy and all priced to within a fiver for the same book between the lot of them. Very depressing-though quite amusing as they all watched each like hawks in case one had a customer the other didn't know about.  Top trade booksellers  need a food chain to provide them with stock-yes, they can hit auctions like Napoleon on the battlefield-but many items are run to them. I could have a fair guess that the dealerr you have in mind may be based in inner west London-no names, so I will just refer to that colleague as "Oceana". They really don't care about anybody else's prices-they have a target market that is wealthy and not bothered if a book is a fiver or a tenner cheaper if they scrub around-they have sufficient wealth that they just want a good selection of books that either look good or have something "collectable" about them that makes them unique-hence the emphasis on fine bindings and association copies. Oceana is at the "conspicuous consumption" end of the market- people like you and I are at the "Tesco Clubcard" end of the market- but still an enjoyable game for us,eh?

 

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  • 2 months later...

A28131E0-C664-42A4-9430-A2B4B9F1A818.jpeg.68aeb8e9e5d89e8ceeb64e0ed37b7365.jpeg

Found this today.

’Romford to Beirut’ by E. Blackwell & E. Axe. The story of ‘B’ Battery, 271st Brigade (1/2nd Essex) in France and the Middle East. Both men were NCOs in the Battery. Published in 1926 in an edition of 500 copies this is the first time I’ve seen a copy in its jacket. Cyril Falls called it the model of a Battery history.

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Here's another of the 500! It was given to me some years ago by a friend whose great uncle had served in the battery. No DJ though.

 

 

P8057243.JPG

Edited by Chris_Baker
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44 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

A28131E0-C664-42A4-9430-A2B4B9F1A818.jpeg.68aeb8e9e5d89e8ceeb64e0ed37b7365.jpeg

Found this today.

’Romford to Beirut’ by E. Blackwell & E. Axe. The story of ‘B’ Battery, 271st Brigade (1/2nd Essex) in France and the Middle East. Both men were NCOs in the Battery. Published in 1926 in an edition of 500 copies this is the first time I’ve seen a copy in its jacket. Cyril Falls called it the model of a Battery history.

 

      As it is local to me, I picked up a copy in a local junkshop nigh-on 40 years back.   It's frontispiece  map is worthy of  putting up on the Forum.  Forget  London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, etc-   If I remember correctly (book is in store)..... a map of Europe and the Near East  with only 2 places marked on it........Yes, you've guessed.

Edited by Guest
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