World's greatest Leica nut?

[dhbebb]

<p>Are you the world's greatest Leica nut? Then prove it by buying this:<br /> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1874707340/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all<br>

Disregard this:<br>

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leica-Pocket-Book-7th-Seventh-Edition-By-Dennis-Laney-Erwin-Puts-Hove-Collectors-/140777802879?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c702cc7f<br>

It just wouldn't be the same!</p>

[astral]

<p>It's the "monochrome" edition, obviously!</p>

<p>I've seen memory cards and similar low value items listed at ridiculous prices on Amazon UK (and eBay): maybe they are exclusively for the extreme Leica nuts. That said, you can buy the Hove Leica Pocket Book cheaper than Amazon's (lowest) price from a couple of photo and bookshops - <em>if</em> they actually have left any in stock, that is.</p>

<p> </p>

[dhbebb]

<p>To anyone reading this - don't be confused - the first link was an Amazon listing offering a 7th edition (now superseded by 8th edition) of the Hove Leica Pocket Book for £1995. This page has now been modified and the reference to £1995 removed. If this makes you sad, there's still a copy of the 6th edition on offer for £441.06:<br>

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1874707219/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=<br>

from the same seller, so if you've got money to burn ...</p>

[dan_fromm2]

<p>David, the seller wasn't Amazon. Amazon offers space to, among others, booksellers.</p>

<p>I've discussed price setting with a bookseller friend. He tells me that nowadays many booksellers rely os pricing software. He doesn't know what algorithms or database(s) it uses, admits that it often generates very silly prices. Sometimes much lower than fair market price, if there is such a thing, sometimes far, far about.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>David, the seller wasn't Amazon. </em><br>

Oh yes - in fact it’s the same 3rd party seller in both cases. There was a time a few months ago when the 7^th edition of this popular book had almost sold out and the 8^th edition had not been published – possibly booksellers thought that someone might pay a premium price during this time. As you say, some used booksellers use pricing software, others seem to get out of bed sometimes in a whimsical mood and set some outrageous prices just for the heck of it.</p>

[baisao]

<p>This book allowed me to catch a unicorn, fly it over fourteen rainbows, and slay the fabled basilisk of Nikkor armed only with an all chrome 90mm Elmar. All this with my sidekick, a singing frog, my rag time pal. This so impressed Bar Refaeli that she right then and there proclaimed her everlasting love for me. (It was not to be, for I was so in love with the new "Sheikh 'Cron" that I scarcely noticed her) Silly thing! With this book I was able to travel back in time using a Wetzlar-Midland Capacitor and buy shares of Google at a ridiculously low price -- this book more than pays for itself-- making me a billionaire virtually overnight. </p>

<p>I lost the book (and my billions) in a bar bet with <a href="

Most Interesting Man in the World</a>. I had misused my fortune and fate took from me that which I did not truly appreciate. Even my rag time pal, the singing frog ran away from me, taking Bar with him. Despite all his 'interestingness', the Dos Equis guy knew nothing of the value of a Leica book, so he traded it for a six pack cheap beer and a corny joke. And this is how it came about that the very same book appears at this bookseller's brickless storefront.</p>

<p>Never take a bar bet and never under-estimate the value of an out of print Leica book.<br>

</p>

[astral]

<p>I commend the book <em>The Secondhand and Antiquarian Bookshops in Britain</em> to anyone interested in books ~ if you can get hold of one for less than an arm, leg, or other anatomical appendage. It is known to the cognoscenti as <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driff_Field">Drif's Guide</a></strong>.</p>

<p>It is a (very) critical guide to a type of bookshop that has now almost completely disappeared from Britain's high streets and, latterly, its shady back streets. It is notable in that it includes scathing condemnations of the excesses of the antiquarian (and collector's) bookshops and their owners, many of whom are described as "Book Fairies", meaning they have no concept of the real world or work, etc. Also, "Book Fairies" are owners who have a shop in which nothing is actually for sale, unless the customer is also a "Book Fairy" and duly obsequious. Secondhand booksellers loathed the book's critiques and observations on prices and owners attitudes.</p>

<p>I have a copy somewhere and consider selling it - for just £14,775 - to the first Book Fairy to bring the cash in hand and grovel convincingly: fore-knowledge of the entire book's contents is a pre-requisite for the purchase.</p>

<p> </p>

[dhbebb]

<p>I suspect that much of the attitude described by Alan is captured in the TV show "Black Books" with Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig. This comedy series revolves around a wildly alcoholic bookshop owner who drives away the few customers who enter his store with rude and irrational behavior.</p>

[astral]

<p>Yes, David, secondhand bookshops were once natural subjects for some irreverent humour as well as cheap-ish sources of interesting (if rather musty) books. However, they are fast disappearing, to be superseded by charity/thrift shops where the better books are sometimes 'creamed off' and sold elsewhere, or are overpriced as bookshop tradition demands. Also, the excentric owners have now largely been replaced by volunteers who have little knowledge of the books they sell.</p>

<p>One secondhand bookseller I met was named Plantagenet Somerset Fry (a one-time host - or contestant, I forget - on 'University Challenge' on BBC TV) and the author of a very readable, pivately published, book on the AD61 Revolt (Boudicca). He sported the obligatory polka-dot dicky-bow and white blazer and knew ~ probably had read ~ every book in his shop. He was of a breed that has almost totally expired, except in odd, timewarped, <em>Whicker Man</em> sorts of places like in Hey-on-Wye , or who live-on as caricatures in movies.</p>

<p>Nowadays, classic photography books of enduring interest do seem to all been snapped up by other people, never me. In particular, keep looking for the classic compendia of good photographs by leading photographers, but haven't seen one in years. Ho hum.</p>

<p> </p>

[astral]

<p>Tut tut. I truly meant to type H<em>a</em>y-on-Wye . . though maybe it should be<em> Way-too-High,</em> in reference to the 'book fairy' shops there . .</p>