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rare books


gronksmil

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1 hour ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Very nice. I bought mine from Tom a few years ago but it wasn’t cheap.

I see another scarce one has just gone up on eBay - W.Linton Andrews ‘Haunting Years’ in a fine and very rare jacket. Sadly they want an eye-watering £750 for it.

I see the £3000 copy of ' Other Ranks ' has been greatly reduced , it's a snip at only £2000 now :) . I expect if and when they eventually reprint it they

will be lucky if they can get more than £60 for it .

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6 hours ago, Black Maria said:

I see the £3000 copy of ' Other Ranks ' has been greatly reduced , it's a snip at only £2000 now :) . I expect if and when they eventually reprint it they

will be lucky if they can get more than £60 for it .

It’s the £2.80 postage that puts me off.

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11 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

It’s the £2.80 postage that puts me off.

:D... that's true . I suppose at least the £750 Haunting Years has a jacket is signed AND has free postage !

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20 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Very nice. I bought mine from Tom a few years ago but it wasn’t cheap.

I see another scarce one has just gone up on eBay - W.Linton Andrews ‘Haunting Years’ in a fine and very rare jacket. Sadly they want an eye-watering £750 for it.

 

    Please,  you overstate the price- it's a mere £749.99.  May alter the decision to buy if you know it is actually a bit cheaper........

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

 

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1 hour ago, barkalotloudly said:

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

 

I would love to know how they arrived at that price , maybe they don't really want to part with it .

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I managed to get a copy of Other Ranks about a year ago for just under 200. There's a zero crept in there somewhere!

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3 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

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

 

 

   Woof, dear chap- I cannot locate the "Other Ranks" copy at £3000.  There is a copy of the Tilsley "Other Ranks" on Amazon at a mere £2000. Mind you, no DJ-so that  let's out one GWF member- but it does have an inscription.

   I don't know the book but rather perplexed as to why it is scarce. COPAC seems to be throwing up the National Library of Scotland  as the only UK holding. Says it was published by Cobden-Sanderson- perfectly normal publishers of quite literate stuff-and with rather an attractive line in typography and bindings. Haven't seen enough of their publications across the years to comment on whether their DJs were any good (In fact cannot recall seeing any C-S book with a DJ).

    Cheeky offers are OK to booksellers- A marked price ,after all, is merely an "invitation to treat". Depends on how words followed by "Off" you want to hear if the offer is too cheeky.

 

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    Says it was published by Cobden-Sanderson- perfectly normal publishers of quite literate stuff-and with rather an attractive line in typography and bindings. Haven't seen enough of their publications across the years to comment on whether their DJs were any good (In fact cannot recall seeing any C-S book with a DJ).

    Cheeky offers are OK to booksellers- A marked price ,after all, is merely an "invitation to treat". 

 

Checking my database I find I have 8 Cobden-Sanderson in jackets but aside from Other Ranks the rest are all Edmund Blunden. All typographical other than a re-issue of Undertones of War where they got over-exited and used a photo.

re: cheeky offers, I usually find they result in silence. There’s a copy of Hornung’s ‘Notes of a camp-follower on the Western Front’ on ABE at a rather hopeful £900. I offered what I thought was a not unreasonable £250 but no response. It’s still there.

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So, if I go hunting in my local second hand and charity bookshops what are the top 10 titles I should be looking for?

David

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1 hour ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Checking my database I find I have 8 Cobden-Sanderson in jackets but aside from Other Ranks the rest are all Edmund Blunden. All typographical other than a re-issue of Undertones of War where they got over-exited and used a photo.

re: cheeky offers, I usually find they result in silence. There’s a copy of Hornung’s ‘Notes of a camp-follower on the Western Front’ on ABE at a rather hopeful £900. I offered what I thought was a not unreasonable £250 but no response. It’s still there.

 

Well, the Cobden-Sanderson name betokens some preference to good typography and bindings.   As to cheeky offers, well, no great harm- though a small point is not to make a cheeky offer to someone you deal with regularly (or hope to). Silence may be golden-but it might just mean you have scotched your chances of favourable offers and perks in the future. My experience is that haggling is a curiously middle-class phenomenon-  that some of the M-C have some sort of notion that everything they want should be discounted. Mind you it can bounce back- I can think of one of my colleagues-well-known for modern literature from whom you would almost certainly have bought- when he comes round and offers you 20p a book all-in for your collection, you may find that cheeky offers is a concept that is two-way and bites back!!

 

1 hour ago, DavidOwen said:

So, if I go hunting in my local second hand and charity bookshops what are the top 10 titles I should be looking for?

David

  

      Not worth the effort.  Many charity shops  are stuffed when they have to deal with books without ISBNs (International Standard Book Number) or the barcoded version on the back. Started in the mid-1960s-so older books are a problem. Oxfam tries to look everything up -including checking older books against ABE. Usually Oxfam are absolutely hopeless on condition-most of their "desiderata" looks as if it has been tied to the back of a tractor and used to plough a good few fields. Others just shove the older stuff out to a company called "World of Rare Books" in Sussex. It lists everything on ABE,Amazon and Ebay but worth keeping a look on. I understand there are some booksellers who are allowed to purchase by poking around WOB- there is at least one regular lister on Ebay who has done so. For a long time, WOB junked the older stuff as well.  The smaller charity shops that are not part of a chain (say,local hospice) are worth keeping an eye on.

   It is to me-a grumpy old s-o-d- a bit disappointing when I take a peep at a local charity shop (on my way to tea and cake in a tea-room next door,I hasten to add- not worth a special trip) -just how often there are folk in there checking everything on ABE/Amazon with apps. on their phones.  The trick with secondhand/antiquarian bookselling is that you must be able to look at a wall full of books and just pull out the winner without having to check reference books or get on to databases. Nothing gives Your Humble more pleasure than seeing a dreary barcode checker working their way through a charity shop on their mobile phone-while I just pull the book off the shelves that is shouting at me. 

   A century on from the Great War, you cannot go far wrong with any Great War book published before the Second World War that has a good condition dustwrapper.As the Great War was such a cataclysmic experience for many who wrote about it, then a number of works tend to be in small print-runs- done for family,friends,old comrades. The plus side of this scarcity is that they seem to be disproportionately inscribed by the author compared to other branches of literature-something to look for that is more likely to turn up. A good tip is to check for inscriptions in even moderately common books- much more likely to turn up than rarities in dustwrapper. Good luck.

 

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2 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

 

re: cheeky offers, I usually find they result in silence. There’s a copy of Hornung’s ‘Notes of a camp-follower on the Western Front’ on ABE at a rather hopeful £900. I offered what I thought was a not unreasonable £250 but no response. It’s still there.

That came up for sale not long after a jacketed copy sold on e-bay for around £300 , don't know if it's the same one but may explain why they wouldn't

take your £250 .

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29 minutes ago, Black Maria said:

That came up for sale not long after a jacketed copy sold on e-bay for around £300 , don't know if it's the same one but may explain why they wouldn't

take your £250 .

 

The current run of upper-end prices for the Hornung is informative (taken from Bookfinder). Prices for copies without DW are about 100-150. The Linen Hall copy is probably best avoided. Books I have had from the Linen Hall Library have been in exceptionally poor condition,even as ex-lib. Mersea Books is a relister and does not have a copy of the book,hence his vague description.  The Parveen Papers one seems sensibly priced-wonder what the inscription says.  But the high price of this item may reflect that it is "collectable" in more than one area. It, of course, raises eyebrows as a rather costly Great War item when set against it's nearest rivals for interest, scarcity,etc OF OTHER GREAT WAR BOOKS.     But Hornung,of course, wrote the Raffles novels- and there is quite a collector base for crime fiction out there as well. From the description, the seller's likeliest buyer is probably going to be a well-heeled crime fiction "completist"

 

 

Linen Hall Library
via
AbeBooks

United Kingdom
Hardcover
Publisher: Constable, 1919
Used - Good. "Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front" by E.W. Hornung -published by Constable & Company , Ltd, London, 1919. No d/w, pps 260, first British Edition. Blue cloth boards with title and author to front and title author and publisher to spine. ( see seller's images )Edges are a little shelfworn and bottom edge has a felt-tip mark ( see images). Binding is good and internally pages are clean and bright. First free endpaper is signed by the Rev Dr D. Frazer-Hurst who features...
31. Parveen Papers
via
AbeBooks

United Kingdom
Hardcover
Publisher: Constable., London, Canada., 1919
Used - Good. 260pp. Boards are medium wear, ring marks, rubbing, age discolouration to contents, no inscriptions, signed note from author with permanent address. 500g Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall 0.0 (WW1, GREAT WAR, FIRST WORLD)
32. Merseabooks
via
Amazon.co.uk

United Kingdom
Hardcover
Publisher: Constable, 1919
Used - Good, Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days, This is a pre-owned, second-hand book. Condition: Good ASIN: B002K645NK
33. Merseabooks
via
Amazon.co.uk

United Kingdom
Hardcover
Publisher: Constable, 1919
Used - Good, Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days, This is a pre-owned, second-hand book. Condition: Good ASIN: B002K645NK
34. Lasting Words Ltd
via
AbeBooks

United Kingdom
Hardcover
Publisher: Constable, UK, 1919
Used. 1st Edition 1919. Incredibly rare with the wrapper. Ernest William Hornung was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. He was the brother in law to Arthur Conan Doyle. The First World War brought an end to Hornung's fictional output. His son, Oscar, was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres in July 1915. Hornung joined the YMCA, initially in England, then in France, where he helped run a...
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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.

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10 minutes ago, 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.

 

  No-just took the higher-priced ones. Mersea is a relister-It is quite easy to spot what is the likely one he is relisting lower down the list.

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   Woof, dear chap- I cannot locate the "Other Ranks" copy at £3000.  There is a copy of the Tilsley "Other Ranks" on Amazon at a mere £2000. Mind you, no DJ-so that  let's out one GWF member- but it does have an inscription.

   I don't know the book but rather perplexed as to why it is scarce. COPAC seems to be throwing up the National Library of Scotland  as the only UK holding. Says it was published by Cobden-Sanderson- perfectly normal publishers of quite literate stuff-and with rather an attractive line in typography and bindings. Haven't seen enough of their publications across the years to comment on whether their DJs were any good (In fact cannot recall seeing any C-S book with a DJ).

    Cheeky offers are OK to booksellers- A marked price ,after all, is merely an "invitation to treat". Depends on how words followed by "Off" you want to hear if the offer is too cheeky.

 

Worldcat says that Swansea and Oxford University libraries and the British Library also have copies of Other Ranks, as do several US libraries, one in South Africa and the Australian War Memorial.

 

https://www.worldcat.org/title/other-ranks/oclc/5692443&referer=brief_results

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  No-just took the higher-priced ones. Mersea is a relister-It is quite easy to spot what is the likely one he is relisting lower down the list.

I do wonder how they manage to sell anything , although they do come in handy sometimes . At least when you see a rare book listed by them

on Amazon you know that you will find a much cheaper copy available on Abe.

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Hi GUEST

 

by   relister  do you mean that the seller doesn't hold stock, just believes that he can get the item in time to flog it on to some poor mug?  I have noticed prices from mersea as being on the high side.

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  Yes Keith.  Most booksellers list on one or two systems-  ABE in my case (in past years) and Amazon are the favourites. As they say for product placement on TV .."other brands are available"  (Try Antiqbook?)    Thus, there is a market in "scraping" data from one listing and putting it on another where the original seller does not list. In the UK, it is usually those who list on ABE but not Amazon (in any of it's forms) but also any UK lister who is not on Amazon.com-that is, the North American market.  Usually at double-up or more. Problems arise because  the relisters can only ever give the vaguest of descriptions-"Used- Acceptable" in the Mersea case.  Thus, the original seller may have accurately recorded faults -which are not picked up by Mersea's vagueness. Of course, the customer orders on another system-expecting delivery to be in line with the terms on that system-and then the relister orders from the "real" bookseller.  Two sets of problems arise- the feedback for Mersea shows great dissatisfaction about condition of books- though the original lister is likely to have been truthful but Mersea has not been. Also,say, a customer orders off Amazon in the US-they expect the book to be there in a week. The relister orders from the UK bookseller,who gets the book underway in good time- but then has the end customer complaining about non-appearance or late delivery-unaware that the book is coming from the UK and from another seller.

    I have often wondered how they get past the rule that requires a book to be sent to the registered cardholder address-but,of course,the relisters use the customer card details. Most sellers beyond the Book Depository price on ABE or Amazon (especially) are likely to be Relisters. Murray Media, Irish Booksellers certainly are. The one to be very careful with indeed is Ergode Books in Richmond (or somewhere near) in Texas.

    I should add-as you are the moderator, that this is not defamatory as these problems with Ergode and Mersea are well documented- Have a look at what Amazon forum has to say about it-type Mersea Books, Amazon,Complaints into Mr.Google's Apparatus and you will have some fair warning. Ergode is thought to be a repeat offender in Texas,a lone-wolf-well-known to the Better Business Bureau in Texas. Mersea is strongly believed to have previously traded as "Southend-Books-and DVD" supposedly in Maldon. The address it/they/him uses pans out to be a row of terraced houses. The pictures of his vast stock warehouse are stock photos taken from elsewhere.

     One small tip is that IF a book is listed on Mersea, then it is usually listed somewhere else-so have a hunt round (Try www.bookfinder.com) and you will find the original "real" copy of the book. Always at less than half the price of Mersea. Only problem is that relisters cannot keep pace with the original listers selling the real books, so a fair number of Mresea listings are superseded anyway.

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Thanks. That's interesting and explains much.

 

Keith

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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.

 

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Yesterday a charity shop yielded 'Fields of Memory' by Anne Roze, a large format  look at the conflict through French eyes.

Also 'The White War' by Mark Thompson (paperback), a well written account of the Italian front, total  cost £1.25.

Agree that not many older books of merit can be found in charity shops, but did find 'War' by Ludwig Renn published in 1929 recently

at £2, also a first edition of 'The Real War' by Liddell-Hart (1930) for 99p. both lacking dust jackets sadly.

 

Mike.

Edited by MikeyH
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The problem with charity shops is that you know that all the really good books have probably already been sorted out and sent off to auction.

But sometimes you can be lucky , I came across this book in a local Oxfam bookshop a while ago . I had never heard of it before but the title

and jacket caught my eye and thinking it must be about a 19th century campaign I flicked through . It's actually a memoir by an Indian Cavalry

officer about a little known 'sideshow' of the war in eastern Persia. Tom Donovan recently listed a rather worn copy without jacket at £50 , my

copy is in very nice condition and so is the jacket and it cost me £20 . So some choice books can be had occasionally in charity shops , you just

need to keep your eyes open and be lucky !

faraway campaign.jpeg

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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

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