Shop of Horrors

[Keith Robinson]

Ah, okay, first edition it is then. I could have checked but was being lazy! Still, the idea of paying that kind of money for a book is plain daft to me. I guess this is what separates the serious collectors and the casual as-long-as-it's-fairly-old collectors! It's not even in great condition. I'll take my $30 version, with nice clean jacket, any day!

[Tony Summerfield]

So would I, Keith, but then again I paid less than £10 for my first edition. I would rather have a reprint in a nice dustwrapper than pay a fortune for a first edition, in a wrapper that is pretty awful, any day!

[Pippa-Stef]

£300? £300?

OUCH! I would never spend that much on a book, unless it was incredibly rare or something, but the Money? Why does money make the world go round?

I once got four EB's Famous Five's for £40, thats a Tenner a book, and they were a mixture of first editions, second and third impressions!

Could someone possibly clear something for me? What are Second and Third Impressions? Are they like Second Editions?

Ta!

[Kate Mary]

I would never fork out £300+ for a book either. I consider myself a reader rather than a collector and am quite happy with reading copies as long as they have the original unabridged texts.

A second impression is a reprint which is identical to the first edition, a second edition may differ from the first e.g. type reset, new cover or new illustrations etc. and if you see a bookseller describing a book as 'first thus' this is also just a reprint, but it should be the first printing of that edition.

Kate.

[Pippa-Stef]

Thanks Kate Mary!

[Keith Robinson]

£300? £300?

£300 = about $490

I could buy a computer for that much! Just the other day I saw some brand new XP machines being sold off for $500 at Wal-Mart. Hmm, book vs. computer... book vs. computer... hmm...

[Kitty]

Add me to the 'any edition, as long as it is unabridged' club. To call most of my EBs shabby would be to flatter them. I've also noticed transcripts that sometimes float around the internet for certain vintage out of print authors. This is probably an ethical issue for many people, but while incredibly rare books remain out of print, there will always be a demand for electronic text versions, I suppose.

[Lenoir]

I’m not fussy either. If I was, I still wouldn’t have a complete set of Methuen Find Outers as most of them are pretty shabby.
However, the other day I felt like reading the Mystery of the Pantomime Cat, and instead of taking the grubby hardback off the shelf, I took out my colourful well kept dragon paperback and started reading that. Page 33 has a printer’s fault – it is abnormally large and has to be folded in.

[Keith Robinson]

Okay, a new record, surely?

Mystery Island - Starting at $1,500.00

You'd think the seller would at least supply a picture of the goods. I also love how shipping is extra.

And, I was very excited to discover that Tony has been wrong all along about Enid's first published novel:

The Ragamuffin Mystery, written in 1923

[Tony Summerfield]

Okay, a new record, surely?

Mystery Island - Starting at $1,500.00

You'd think the seller would at least supply a picture of the goods. I also love how shipping is extra.

And, I was very excited to discover that Tony has been wrong all along about Enid's first published novel:

The Ragamuffin Mystery, written in 1923

No point in giving a picture for Mystery Island, Keith - this copy doesn't have a wrapper so it would just be plain boards!

I will need to adjust the Book Listing to put The Ragamuffin Mystery in the proper place!!

[Tony Summerfield]

How on earth someone can say that the Famous Five books are in the public domain absolutely staggers me. This is a flagrant breach of copyright and I am surprised that ebay haven't stamped on it.

[Lucky Star]

Have you reported it to ebay Tony? Sometimes they can be very slow to react on this kind of thing. I note that the seller ssays that the listing "meets all ebay rules and regulations". I wonder why he feels it the need to add that?

[Aurélien]

Interesting...hmmm

Guess some folks live in an unreal world. More work for the lawyers, then.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'

[Eddie Muir]

How on earth someone can say that the Famous Five books are in the public domain absolutely staggers me. This is a flagrant breach of copyright and I am surprised that ebay haven't stamped on it.

I wonder if ebay are aware of the breach of copyright in this instance. Do you know the procedure for reporting it to them, Tony?

[Dick Kirrin]

The seller hasn't been around for long, only since February. Maybe they are interpreting some rules very liberally. It will be interesting to see how long they stay around.
If what they say was incorrect, and an infringement of copyright has indeed been committed (I'm not a lawyer and therefore cannot have the last word on the issue but if Tony says so that's good enough for me), they are also deceiving their would-be buyers.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin