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#1
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Collected Works
As most know by now, I collect modern first by my favourite writers and
focus on "complete works" by any given writer. Even cookbooks are added to the stew. So, the old question. For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? An example. Robert B. Parker has over 50 titles to his credit. Mostly the Spenser books, but a few stand alone books and two other small series. All first/firsts and in very good to fine. Some limited editions, some signed directly, others by bookplate, but all are there. It would be a shame to break up the set, even if a single buyer for the whole is harder to find. So, for the "complete works" what sort of enhancement to the valuation would be appropriate? +10%? More? Less? Willow |
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#2
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Collected Works
In article Lp8fg.215575$WI1.43755@pd7tw2no,
"Pangarune Corner" wrote: Even cookbooks are added to the stew. Cookbooks ... stew ... nyuck! :-D So, the old question. For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? I wouldn't add a dime. If anything, I'd expect a discount. For me, as well as for most collectors I know, much of the thrill is in the chase and the individual joys of finding a new piece to add. What's the point of buying a complete collection of anything? Not much fun in that, for my money. |
#3
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Collected Works
Hi Willow:
Unfortunatly, I have to agree with Scot, given that I follow the same collecting focus as you (find an author one likes and obtain everything by them). No one really wants a complete set, everyone just wants to complete their own. Perhaps if it was a set desirebale enuf to make it into an auction house, you might get a dilletante with money looking to fo from zero to xixty in nothing flat. O/W, we just have to chase the complete set for the fun of it. Some of the signed sets I have complete or nearly so are Hiassen, Mosley, Nick Hornby, Hijuelos, Ishiguro, Amy Tan, Alice Hoffman, and Jim Crace. Nothing particularly rare or valauble, but fun to create and good reading. I also have complete sets of Saramago and Coetzee, unsigned. I hope one day to luck out but Nobelists tend not to do your average book signing, especially when they have to travel to the USA. Denton On Wed, 31 May 2006 03:52:11 GMT, "Pangarune Corner" wrote: As most know by now, I collect modern first by my favourite writers and focus on "complete works" by any given writer. Even cookbooks are added to the stew. So, the old question. For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? An example. Robert B. Parker has over 50 titles to his credit. Mostly the Spenser books, but a few stand alone books and two other small series. All first/firsts and in very good to fine. Some limited editions, some signed directly, others by bookplate, but all are there. It would be a shame to break up the set, even if a single buyer for the whole is harder to find. So, for the "complete works" what sort of enhancement to the valuation would be appropriate? +10%? More? Less? Willow |
#4
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Collected Works
Pangarune Corner wrote: As most know by now, I collect modern first by my favourite writers and focus on "complete works" by any given writer. Even cookbooks are added to the stew. So, the old question. For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? I don't have the knowledge or credentials comparable to those of the other two replies, but I'd reach the same answer using slightly different math. I think that there is a bit of a premium for the time and organization involved in having assembled a complete set of anything. However, the premium would be measured not from the sum of the individual prices but from the value of an accumulation of 60 books by an author. If I bought 60 out of 100 possible items from any collecting catagory, I'd expect a substantial discount from the total of the 60 individual prices. Thus, a complete collection of 60 out of 60 items would go for more than the other 60, but no premium compared to the individual prices. chiwito |
#5
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Collected Works
Pangarune Corner wrote:
For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? I think it probably depends on what, precisely, you are talking about. Valuation for insurance purposes? For resale? And what kind of "run"? One that a collector might reasonably expect to assemble him- or herself? An archive of some sort? All the volumes in a particular series? Most of what I collect myself doesn't really come in "runs", but a lot of the material I buy and pass on probably comes under that heading. There are many serial publications, or multi-volume editions in the Japanese publishing world, and there is a kind of pattern to the pricing of them. Basically, one would expect a complete set to cost more per volume than an incomplete set, but less than the cost of buying each volume individually. For example, I had only assembled ten of an eleven-volume set of books on Japan's war with Russia in the late 19th century when someone inquired after it and I sold it incomplete. Had I located the final volume I would have considered it well-priced at $650-$700; in the event, though, I sold ten of the eleven volumes for $500, and am still looking for the remaining volume, which - if I ever locate it - I would hope to pass on to the buyer for around $50. But if I got a request out of the blue for a single volume I might have to charge up to around $80 for it. Similarly, I'd sell a 9-volume set of the Hinotori manga series for $80 (that's the second edition; I have yet to put together a complete set of the first), but would ask more for odd volumes (at least $10 apiece), but if someone wanted the set at a time when I only had eight of the nine volumes, I'd probably let them have it for, say, $60 and charge an extra $10 or so when the missing volume turned up (which, in this case, it invariably would, in the course of time). I know these examples are taken from my own, rather obscure, corner of the book-collecting world, but I think they illustrate a general principle. I would expect to pay less per volume for an incomplete set of, say, the serial publication of a Dickens novel (usually 20 parts issued in 19 monthly installments) in the original wraps than for a complete set. On the other hand, assembling a full set from odd volumes would probably, in the end, turn out to be more expensive than buying a complete set intact. It would seem that the most cost-effective approach over a short period would be to buy an incomplete set and then hunt out the missing volumes. Over a longer period of time, assembling sets from odd volumes is probably a good idea since, if one's collector's nose is working properly, the first volumes acquired should have increased in value over the period of collecting. Let's say that at the end of a five-year quest you had put together a "run", and that volumes which you bought for $20-$50 are now selling for around $60 apiece (reality is never quite as tidy as this, but for the sake of argument these figures will do). Your set (let's say it's of 20 volumes) might only fetch $1000 (compared with $1200, if sold off piecemeal), but you'd still have acquired it at a very good price and, if you did ever decide to sell, settling for $1000 for a single transaction would be a lot cleaner and quicker and less hassle than sticking out for $1200 over 20 separate transactions. There may be other areas of book-collecting where these rules would not apply, and I can think of exceptions even as I type, but I think this is probably a reasonable rule of thumb in the majority of cases. John http://rarebooksinjapan.com |
#6
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Collected Works
John R. Yamamoto-Wilson wrote: There are many serial publications, or multi-volume editions in the Japanese publishing world, and there is a kind of pattern to the pricing of them. Basically, one would expect a complete set to cost more per volume than an incomplete set, but less than the cost of buying each volume individually. I know these examples are taken from my own, rather obscure, corner of the book-collecting world, but I think they illustrate a general principle. I would expect to pay less per volume for an incomplete set of, say, the serial publication of a Dickens novel (usually 20 parts issued in 19 monthly installments) in the original wraps than for a complete set. On the other hand, assembling a full set from odd volumes would probably, in the end, turn out to be more expensive than buying a complete set intact. I agree with Mr. Y-M's analysis; in fact it is exactly what I tried less articulately to say. In other hobbies which involve complete sets or runs, such as comic books and sports cards, the same valuation would definitely apply. Going back to Ms. Willow's original question, I would expect the same pricing to apply to complete collections of catagories, such as all the works of a given author. Again, the full "set" should go for less per book than individual titles but more than an incomplete accumulation. chiwito |
#7
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Collected Works
Scot Kamins wrote:
I wouldn't add a dime. If anything, I'd expect a discount. For me, as well as for most collectors I know, much of the thrill is in the chase and the individual joys of finding a new piece to add. What's the point of buying a complete collection of anything? Not much fun in that, for my money. Is the point that Will is the only "book collector" here that does not understand this concept lost on anyone at all? Can anyone say "dillitante"? I knew that you could.... (hmmmm...can anyone spell "dillitante"? I'm guessing I can't ) |
#8
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Collected Works
Scot Kamins wrote: In article Lp8fg.215575$WI1.43755@pd7tw2no, "Pangarune Corner" wrote: Even cookbooks are added to the stew. Cookbooks ... stew ... nyuck! :-D So, the old question. For valuation purposes, what would you add to the basic price of each of the books for a complete run? I wouldn't add a dime. If anything, I'd expect a discount. For me, as well as for most collectors I know, much of the thrill is in the chase and the individual joys of finding a new piece to add. What's the point of buying a complete collection of anything? Not much fun in that, for my money. That is a rather large oversimplification. For one thing, simply having all the books by one author would not mean that the collector has no more books to hunt for. What is to stop the collector, even though he has purchased all the books by one author in one fell swoop, from proceeding to collect books by other] authors? There are lots of other things to consider also. For instance, let us imagine a new collector who has only recently become aware of those wonderful Edgar Rice Burroughs Ace Paperbacks from the 1960's with the covers by Roy Krenkal and Frank Frazetta. Now, these ooks have been getting scarcer and scarcer. Yes, you can still find a number of them on Addall, but you certainly can't find anything close to all of them offered in near-fine or fine condition. It is reasonable to conclude that it might take someone a few years to hunt down all of the books in that Ace series, and of course, if the books were purchased singly on the net from many dealers, there would be a number of annoyances caused by dishonest or generally clueless sellers. All right, so what is wrong with our new collector buying the entire Ace collection, providing he can find it offered on ebay or wherever? As to price, for something as rare yet popular as this run of paperbacks in near-fine or fine condition, I think a wise seller a should ask two or three times what the books may be offered for singly, once he adds up the prices for all the books. [Memo from the upstairs office.] |
#9
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Collected Works
Denton Taylor wrote: Hi Willow: Unfortunatly, I have to agree with Scot, given that I follow the same collecting focus as you (find an author one likes and obtain everything by them). No one really wants a complete set, everyone just wants to complete their own. In my other post I focused on the fact that there are all sorts of variables involved here, any number of which could inspire a collector to buy a complete set of works by an author ---and even pay several times per book what single books from the set might be priced at invidually, such as the Ace E. R. Burroughs paperback run from the 1960's with the Krenkal/Frazetta overs. [I might have added that would NOT apply in many other instances, such as with those very common complete paperback Narnia sets. In that case, the sets are so common that there is no good reason for anyone to pay more per volume when buying a complete set. Conversely, the Ace/Burroughs books in my example were not marketed as a "set" in the first place, though they have proved so enduringly attractive to collectors that "complete sets" of them are highly prized.] Even so, I will agree that often complete sets of authors are not very desirable. Many authors have published one or a few good books yet have missed the mark with quite a few others. A collector might be delighted with a First of "Little Big Man" and "Rabbit, Run," but how many people would want to dedicate their shelf space to the complete works of Thomas Berger or John Updike? Or how about a complete set of John Galsworthy -- now, for most people that would prove a dust-gadthering shelf-hog if there ever was one. Of course, it is far more common for a collector to go after the complete works of a very few authors at most. I am sure there are a great many people who would love to have the complete works of Jack Kerouac or Charles Bukowski, and many others would want the complete works of Philip K. Dick Even so, in general the other poster is correct in suggesting that most people don't want the complete works of an author. In my view that is because while they might enjoy one or more books by the author, they don't have enough interest in the person's other works to wish to devote the shelf space to them. [...] [Memo from the upstairs office] |
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