71 replies to this topic

[john winfield]

My mum's, aged 79, and 'losing it'. For a reason that doesn't matter she ended up with my Chevron/David Gordon book in her Retirement flat. I asked if she'd got it, and she said she couldn't remember where she'd put it.... I called and searched her flat, no sign, I was furious with her. I've had it since 1991, and recognise its worth. On the off chance and on my way out, feeling very angry, I looked in the communal Reception area downstairs where the Old Dears are encouraged to put books/magazines for others to peruse. Guess what I found? I was relieved on one hand, and miffed with her on the other. Another day or two, it could well have been in a Charity Shop being located by someone on here maybe!

 

Glad you found it! That Chevron/Derek Bennett book is one of my very favourite motor sport reads. Personal and informative. David Gordon did a great job.

 

My luckiest finds were some years ago: Joel Finn's Maserati Birdcage book for £2.80, and four Autocourses (1970-73) for £1 each! Those were the days....

[Lee Nicolle]

Never mind, the site gave us a picture of a nubile young wench purportedly inviting us to contact flirty singles - I guess that'll have to do...

Yes, bloody annoying getting adds,,but cosmetics and lingerie and fashion are NOT what the majority of users of this site are about

[Bloggsworth]

Yes, bloody annoying getting adds,,but cosmetics and lingerie and fashion are NOT what the majority of users of this site are about

 

Speak for yourself! In the '60s travelling up the escalators in London Underground stations was to be carried past an array of nubile young ladies displaying their attributes in a selection of bikinis, swimsuits, bras and panties. One would occasionally see a pre-pubescent youth stepping backwards down the escalator alongside a particular favourite...

Edited by Bloggsworth, 13 December 2018 - 08:56.

[Peter Morley]

Glad you found it! That Chevron/Derek Bennett book is one of my very favourite motor sport reads. Personal and informative. David Gordon did a great job.

 

My luckiest finds were some years ago: Joel Finn's Maserati Birdcage book for £2.80, and four Autocourses (1970-73) for £1 each! Those were the days....

 

The Birdcage Maserati book was remaindered, I bought a new copy similarly cheap while at university in the 80s. I'm always impressed by the prices being asked for copies on Ebay and wish I'd bought a few more at the time!

[john winfield]

The Birdcage Maserati book was remaindered, I bought a new copy similarly cheap while at university in the 80s. I'm always impressed by the prices being asked for copies on Ebay and wish I'd bought a few more at the time!

 

Fluctuations in second-hand book prices are always interesting. The going-rate six or seven years ago for 'good' condition copies of the Joel Finn Tipo 61 book was £60 to £80. Now it seems to have settled in the low to mid £30s.

[kayemod]

... I'm always impressed by the prices being asked for copies on Ebay and wish I'd bought a few more at the time!

 

Maybe, but "asked" is the operative word. I see books listed on eBay at wildly optimistic prices, and looking over my own bookshelves think "I must be a book £millionaire", but do those ambitiously priced books sell? If you click on "watch this item", you'll find that they often remain unsold when the listing ends. They're sometimes re-listed at the same price and fail to sell again, then the seller might re-list at a lower price, or give up. The ones I like are items that are listed at a silly price, but accept sensible lower bids as well. You're unlikely to be successful with a very low offer, but the tactic of underbidding has often worked surprisingly well for me. The only downside is my wife's reaction when the item is delivered, "You haven't bought yet another book have you?" She claims I already have more than some small public libraries.

[bradbury west]

Rob, I feel we should regard your final sentence as more of a reflection of small public libraries...
Roger

[john winfield]

Maybe, but "asked" is the operative word. I see books listed on eBay at wildly optimistic prices, and looking over my own bookshelves think "I must be a book £millionaire", but do those ambitiously priced books sell? 

 

I can't remember at what stage the feature becomes available to an eBay user (buyer or seller) but regulars can use the 'advanced' feature on a search. So, for example, an eBay search on Finn Maserati Birdcage currently shows seven results, ranging in price from £32.50 (inc p&p) to £160. Click 'advanced' in top right corner, select 'sold listings', press 'search' and you find that, recently, two copies have actually sold, one for £32.90, one for £74.60. Very handy for assessing the real, current market value....when faced with ridiculously inflated prices! (And don't ask me why someone shelled out £74.60....)

[john winfield]

Slightly OT, but maybe useful for those who weren't aware, bookfinder.com is a handy website when searching for books. It now includes eBay listings. But not charity/thrift shops.......

 

https://www.bookfind...20racing%20cars

[KBY191]

Found a copy of Jack Brabham's 1960 Motor Racing Book at a swap meet, very surprised to see that it was signed by the great man.

 

[Vitesse2]

The Birdcage Maserati book was remaindered, I bought a new copy similarly cheap while at university in the 80s. I'm always impressed by the prices being asked for copies on Ebay and wish I'd bought a few more at the time!

From memory, I don't think it was actually remaindered, but it was included in Osprey's offerings for the National Book Sale on at least one occasion. The end of the Net Book Agreement saw the end of the National Book Sale as well, but it was a three-week period when publishers offered backlist titles at a reduced price, with the proviso that they were non-returnable. It often meant they could shift the last few hundred copies at 50 to 75% off, rather than the peanuts the remainder merchants would have offered them or simply pulping the stock. Same thing applies to Georgano's Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport - Michael Joseph sold off the last few hundred of those that way.

[john winfield]

Found a copy of Jack Brabham's 1960 Motor Racing Book at a swap meet, very surprised to see that it was signed by the great man.

 

 

That's the book I grew up with! (Not your copy though, my brother had one.) Does it contain a photo of Jean Behra's frightening shunt at the Goodwood chicane, or am I getting muddled?

 

And Jack's autograph....the first racing driver's I ever asked for...on a bleak, wet day at Brands Hatch in April 1970, his day's work over after splashing round for nearly seven hours in the Matra with JPB.

Edited by john winfield, 13 December 2018 - 11:20.

[moffspeed]

Maybe, but "asked" is the operative word. I see books listed on eBay at wildly optimistic prices, and looking over my own bookshelves think "I must be a book £millionaire", but do those ambitiously priced books sell? If you click on "watch this item", you'll find that they often remain unsold when the listing ends. They're sometimes re-listed at the same price and fail to sell again, then the seller might re-list at a lower price, or give up. The ones I like are items that are listed at a silly price, but accept sensible lower bids as well. You're unlikely to be successful with a very low offer, but the tactic of underbidding has often worked surprisingly well for me. The only downside is my wife's reaction when the item is delivered, "You haven't bought yet another book have you?" She claims I already have more than some small public libraries.

Quite right. eBay is all over the place.

 

"Buy It Now" prices are often wildly optimistic - presumably the vendor works on the principle that there must be a mug out there somewhere...

 

As an example, a German seller last week asking £850 "Buy It Now" for a limited edition Michael Turner print of Hawthorn and Collins - the one that adorns the cover of "Mon Ami Mate".  I had the same print selling on eBay at the time, starting price of £65 which it just made in the last minute after minimal interest.

 

So, with notable exceptions, motor sport books and prints are not too saleable at the moment. However if you have any car mascots, old car club badges, vintage brass car models or similar then you are quids in....

[moffspeed]

'And Jack's autograph....the first racing driver's I ever asked for...on a bleak, wet day at Brands Hatch in April 1970, his day's work over after splashing round for nearly seven hours in the Matra with JPB."

 

 

...Black Jack driving around in a USAF style helicopter helmet with both ski goggles AND a visor - p623 of Georganos' E.o.M. if you're interested. 

[john winfield]

'And Jack's autograph....the first racing driver's I ever asked for...on a bleak, wet day at Brands Hatch in April 1970, his day's work over after splashing round for nearly seven hours in the Matra with JPB."

 

 

...Black Jack driving around in a USAF style helicopter helmet with both ski goggles AND a visor - p623 of Georganos' E.o.M. if you're interested. 

 

Thanks. Have just opened up my copy. Yes, a good shot. It can't have been much fun in the open Matra, but at least they didn't suffer wiper problems....

[Peter Morley]

From memory, I don't think it was actually remaindered, but it was included in Osprey's offerings for the National Book Sale on at least one occasion. The end of the Net Book Agreement saw the end of the National Book Sale as well, but it was a three-week period when publishers offered backlist titles at a reduced price, with the proviso that they were non-returnable. It often meant they could shift the last few hundred copies at 50 to 75% off, rather than the peanuts the remainder merchants would have offered them or simply pulping the stock. Same thing applies to Georgano's Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport - Michael Joseph sold off the last few hundred of those that way.

 

I remember it came from a book shop (probably in the Arndale Centre) that had cheap/heavily discounted books and I picked up most of their car ones - far more interesting than whatever engineering books I should have been buying (not that they would have appeared in the discount bookshop!).

It's very possible/lucky that I came across it during the 3 week promotion period.

[Peter Morley]

I can't remember at what stage the feature becomes available to an eBay user (buyer or seller) but regulars can use the 'advanced' feature on a search. So, for example, an eBay search on Finn Maserati Birdcage currently shows seven results, ranging in price from £32.50 (inc p&p) to £160. Click 'advanced' in top right corner, select 'sold listings', press 'search' and you find that, recently, two copies have actually sold, one for £32.90, one for £74.60. Very handy for assessing the real, current market value....when faced with ridiculously inflated prices! (And don't ask me why someone shelled out £74.60....)

 

I agree that it always pays to look at the sold items/completed auctions.

 

I'm always amazed how long people list things at what are clearly over-optimistic prices.

Given the amount of knowledge available now even the 32.90 could be over generous - particularly when you consider how many Birdcage Maseratis are younger than the book!!

 

Amazon used book prices can be equally amazing and you don't have the benefit of a detailed description etc.

[moffspeed]

Just an eBay snapshot - picking a motorsport title at random - Graham Hill's Life at the Limit in hardback.

 

A book that we have probably all enjoyed in the past and rejoiced in the simple account of less PC times. It was published in great numbers and, with all respect to the memory of NGH, was hardly a landmark in motor racing literature.  So the chances are you would eventually pick a copy up for posterity's sake at a charity shop or boot fair, be generous and give £5 perhaps - after all it's for charity.

 

eBay ?    Plenty available at present, all seemingly in good condition with dust jackets. "Buy it Now" prices for unsigned books vary from £15 to an eye-watering £130 for this "rare" book.  Top end for a signed copy without CoA is £350. 

 

Don't think there will be too many queues forming...

[john winfield]

Just an eBay snapshot - picking a motorsport title at random - Graham Hill's Life at the Limit in hardback.

 

A book that we have probably all enjoyed in the past and rejoiced in the simple account of less PC times. It was published in great numbers and, with all respect to the memory of NGH, was hardly a landmark in motor racing literature.  So the chances are you would eventually pick a copy up for posterity's sake at a charity shop or boot fair, be generous and give £5 perhaps - after all it's for charity.

 

eBay ?    Plenty available at present, all seemingly in good condition with dust jackets. "Buy it Now" prices for unsigned books vary from £15 to an eye-watering £130 for this "rare" book.  Top end for a signed copy without CoA is £350. 

 

Don't think there will be too many queues forming...

 

..and yet four signed copies have apparently sold recently, a paperback for £75, and hardbacks for £90, £117 and £395!  Unsigned, £28 and under.

[Gary C]

These popped up in one of my local charity shops this morning. I've added them to my collection

 

 

 

click on the pic for a larger image.

Edited by Gary C, 14 December 2018 - 12:47.

[bradbury west]

Frittering away the proceeds from the book then, Gary......?
Roger

[Gary C]

LOL. Yes,  but VERY slowly!