How much did your Aickman's cost you?

There is a popular conception that original Robert Aickman volumes are prohibitively excessive. I am here to dispense that moth. I mean myth.

We live in a fast world. People want today's things now or yesterday which is even worser. Hence the need to acquire or profilgate immediate collections of our latest new interests as soon as is possibly.

Take Rupert Aickman. People switch on ABE books and feint clean away at the prices being asked herein. Hundreds of dollary pounds they ask. Three days work or a month if you're a coal miner. But they should remember that the books they can see are those what haven't been sold.

I have acquired my collection of Aickmans over several years sometimes months in fact like buses they often come along at once. The mostly I have paid is £60 for a bright dustwrappity copy of 'Dark Entries' in the second impress; two years ago I fell upon a very decent dw'd copy of 'Powers Of Darkness' for a paltry £5 plus five quid postage from South Africa. I have two 'Intrusions'; a decent copy in dw I paid £50 for seven years ago, and a fine copy a friend gave me gratis last year. 'Sub Rosa' I acquired for a tenner because it is ex library. My copy of 'We Are For Dark' in dw was had for £20 via ABE because the seller thought the slightly rumpled edges merited a £200 price reduction.

So my point is: value [v] and price [p] is dependant upon disposable income [d], scarcity [s] and one's patience [o].

Thus the formula for the highest value of a book is:

v or p = (d x s x o)

I think.

All I know is that unless one is dying, patience is the worst policy. I mean best.

JK

PS. Are there any mathematicians here?

[hypnogeist]

The formula looks accurate, except I think you intended:

v or p = (d x p) / o

i.e. The greater the potential buyer's patience, the
smaller v or p becomes. The formula, of course, is vaild not
just for Aickman's works but for those of many other
collectible authors as well (and often for anything collectible).

Generally speaking, I agree with your formula. I say generally
because there have been instances when previously cheap books
have suddenly become exceedingly costly - such instances put
the lie to the o variable. Yet, historically, these instances occur
rarely, so o is mostly true and can be relied on (in general!).

Personally, I too have saved significant funds by having faith in o.
An interesting experiment that shows just how much the horror/
fantasy book collector can save if s/he cultivates patience is
to watch the price of various Arkham House titles for sale on
eBay over a 12 month period. Typically, the range between the
highest and lowest prices paid by winning bidders for a particu-
lar book is insane.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mathematician, not even close. Do enjoy
fiddling around with some of the field's less arcane disciplines
from time to time, though.

[bendk]

Cold Hand in Mine - less than $5
Painted Devils - less than $5
The Wind-Dark Sea - $15
Night Voices - $15

In the first three volumes listed there is no duplication of stories. Night Voices duplicates two in previous volumes: The Trains and The Stains, but has four new stories, so $15 is still a bargain. I don't own any collectible Aickman books and I really don't care to. I am more of a reader than a collector, but I will spend money on a book if there is a particulalry attractive edition. This, for me, means illustrated or with an attractive front cover illustration. This leaves out most Aickman books. I do enjoy his stories enough to track them down one by one in anthologies, though. A few I remember tracking down are:

Letters to the Postman
Cicerones
Hand in Glove
Compulsory Games
Visiting Star
The Insufficient Answer

(All of the anthologies cost less than $5)

There are still a handful of Aickman stories that I haven't read. It is a shame that you can't download them over the internet for $5 a pop like you can for some articles. I would gladly pay $5 per Aickman story.

[trieffiewiles]

I'd gotten Painted Devils and The Wine Dark Sea for around the same price as Benk got them. I agree in regards to being patient when looking to buy books like these, some of them do seem to be perpetually sold for unreasonable prices though.

I don't know, is Sub Rosa-Strange Tales that much harder to come by than the previous two I've mentioned? I've never seen Sub Rosa. . . listed at a price I would pay, well, hey I'll just check it right now. . .

Here we go, one available on Amazon at a bargain for $175-

Amazon.com: Sub Rosa: Strange Tales (9789997534187): Robert Aickman: Books

 

Amazon.com: Sub Rosa: Strange Tales (9789997534187): Robert Aickman: Books

Also 'starting' at AbeBooks for a modest $275-

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...b+Rosa&x=0&y=0

Are all the stories in Sub Rosa. . . originals, or might there be another reason this anthology is habitually far more insane in price than any of his others I can think of?

[jonathan122]

I am a mathematician, but I specialise in Pure Maths, and this looks far too applied for me...

The most I've spent on an Aickman book (or any book come to think of it) was £75 for Tales of Love and Death. I did think thrice about it, but it was in excellent condition, and £75 still seems to be a lot less than ABE or Amazon generally charge for it... A couple of months later I saw another copy for sale, but I didn't look to see how much it was.

I found paperbacks of Dark Entries and Powers of Darkness, and hardbacks of The Model and Painted Devils (with torn dustwrapper) for relatively decent prices - they're not in fantastic shape, but I can live with that. Copies of Intrusions and Night Voices set me back a bit more - about £30 each, possibly a bit more. I've got the stories in Cold Hand in Mine and Sub Rosa in the recent Faber & Faber reprints of CHiM, The Unsettled Dust and The Wine-Dark Sea - these turned out to be pretty shoddy editions (unusual for Faber), with typographical errors all over the place, so that was probably a false economy...

I found "The Insufficient Answer" in an anthology, and I already had the Tartarus Press book of Elizabeth Jane Howard's stories, so I haven't as yet splashed out on a copy of We Are For the Dark. I found The Late Breakfasters on the computer system of my local library - it had been taken out once in the preceeding 30 years! I read it a couple of times through, because I'm not sure when I'll see another copy again.

[trieffiewiles]

Quote Originally Posted by jonathan122

I am a mathematician, but I specialise in Pure Maths, and this looks far too applied for me... The most I've spent on an Aickman book (or any book come to think of it) was £75 for Tales of Love and Death. I did think thrice about it, but it was in excellent condition, and £75 still seems to be a lot less than ABE or Amazon generally charge for it... A couple of months later I saw another copy for sale, but I didn't look to see how much it was. I found paperbacks of Dark Entries and Powers of Darkness, and hardbacks of The Model and Painted Devils (with torn dustwrapper) for relatively decent prices - they're not in fantastic shape, but I can live with that. Copies of Intrusions and Night Voices set me back a bit more - about £30 each, possibly a bit more. I've got the stories in Cold Hand in Mine and Sub Rosa in the recent Faber & Faber reprints of CHiM, The Unsettled Dust and The Wine-Dark Sea - these turned out to be pretty shoddy editions (unusual for Faber), with typographical errors all over the place, so that was probably a false economy... I found "The Insufficient Answer" in an anthology, and I already had the Tartarus Press book of Elizabeth Jane Howard's stories, so I haven't as yet splashed out on a copy of We Are For the Dark. I found The Late Breakfasters on the computer system of my local library - it had been taken out once in the preceeding 30 years! I read it a couple of times through, because I'm not sure when I'll see another copy again.

We replied at the same time, and it looks as though you answered my question. I already have The Wine Dark Sea so all I need to get are Cold Hand in Mine and Unsettled Dust and looks like I'll have on hand all of the forbidden secrets for which a legitimate kvltist would have to pay $175 - $1000 for.

[starrysothoth]

I believe I've just read a little less than half of Aickman's stories. Though I really like what I have read so far, I'm very much sticking to the patience alluded to previously in this thread. I hope that Tartarus or another small press will publish a new edition of something like The Collected Strange Stories in the next decade or so.

An affordable volume or two of collected Aickman would be the best bang for one's buck. Or at least for those of us who know we like him, but aren't wild enough to put sizable amounts of time and money into a quest to track down all of Aickman's tales in their current form.

What's needed are verbatim, facsimilie reprint editions, not omnibus anthologies. In my opinion 'Powers Of Darkness' is one of the ten most important collections of weird fiction ever - and it has great artwork - which begs the question, why doesn't someone reissue a box set of the six or seven key volumes as they originally appeared rather than cram everything into heavy, unwieldly omnibus editions?

In fact this is the one secret gap in the marketplace. Publisher hubris prevents them from actually providing what the collector really wants. Collectors crave first editions in dustwrapper, not new editions with tedious introductions from vainglorious busybodies explaining that it has been their lifetime quest to see this or that obscure book made available to a wider audience. Nor do they want plain Jane print-on-demand reprints. No, what collectors really and truly want is facsimilie copies of original vintage volumes on better quality paper with perfectly reproduced dustwrappers. But does any publisher fulfill this need? Nope. They all insist on serving up a reheated dish in their own house style.

Changing tack, someone said the most they'd ever paid for a book was £75. Well, my highest outlay was circa £1500 for an 1851 first edition of Le Fanu's 'Ghost Stories & Tales Of Mystery' which I held on to for about a year before passing on for the same amount. Recently I splashed out a near four figure sum for a fine copy of Ernest Henham's superb decadent horror novel 'Tenebrae' which is a huge personal favourite of mine. But generally I tend to trade or swap books, which is how I recently acquired my copy of David Barnitz's 'Book Of Jade' and Blackwood's 'Wolves Of God' in original dw.

A year or two back I bought a rare item on Ebay: a scrapbook created and illustrated by Jane Loudon (nee Webb), authoress of 'The Mummy!' [1822]. It contained unique designs and unpublished poems. A furniture dealer found it in a chest of drawers when clearing a house owned by a spinster who lived near where the Loudon's owned a country residence.

Collectors need to think laterally. And tangentally. Even perversely. Books turn up in the oddest of places. You need to develop instinct and seize the opportunity when it arises. Then you can either keep the things you find or else trade them up for things you really want, like vintage Aickman first editions.

JK

[nomis]

Quote Originally Posted by Julian Karswell

What's needed are verbatim, facsimilie reprint editions, not omnibus anthologies. In my opinion 'Powers Of Darkness' is one of the ten most important collections of weird fiction ever - and it has great artwork - which begs the question, why doesn't someone reissue a box set of the six or seven key volumes as they originally appeared rather than cram everything into heavy, unwieldly omnibus editions? In fact this is the one secret gap in the marketplace. Publisher hubris prevents them from actually providing what the collector really wants. Collectors crave first editions in dustwrapper, not new editions with tedious introductions from vainglorious busybodies explaining that it has been their lifetime quest to see this or that obscure book made available to a wider audience. Nor do they want plain Jane print-on-demand reprints. No, what collectors really and truly want is facsimilie copies of original vintage volumes on better quality paper with perfectly reproduced dustwrappers. But does any publisher fulfill this need? Nope. They all insist on serving up a reheated dish in their own house style.

This isn't true for all of us, Chris. Personally, I'm not a fan of many original covers, and wouldn't be interested in seeing them reproduced.

[starrysothoth]

Quote Originally Posted by Julian Karswell

What's needed are verbatim, facsimilie reprint editions, not omnibus anthologies. In my opinion 'Powers Of Darkness' is one of the ten most important collections of weird fiction ever - and it has great artwork - which begs the question, why doesn't someone reissue a box set of the six or seven key volumes as they originally appeared rather than cram everything into heavy, unwieldly omnibus editions? In fact this is the one secret gap in the marketplace. Publisher hubris prevents them from actually providing what the collector really wants. Collectors crave first editions in dustwrapper, not new editions with tedious introductions from vainglorious busybodies explaining that it has been their lifetime quest to see this or that obscure book made available to a wider audience. Nor do they want plain Jane print-on-demand reprints. No, what collectors really and truly want is facsimilie copies of original vintage volumes on better quality paper with perfectly reproduced dustwrappers. But does any publisher fulfill this need? Nope. They all insist on serving up a reheated dish in their own house style. Changing tack, someone said the most they'd ever paid for a book was £75. Well, my highest outlay was circa £1500 for an 1851 first edition of Le Fanu's 'Ghost Stories & Tales Of Mystery' which I held on to for about a year before passing on for the same amount. Recently I splashed out a near four figure sum for a fine copy of Ernest Henham's superb decadent horror novel 'Tenebrae' which is a huge personal favourite of mine. But generally I tend to trade or swap books, which is how I recently acquired my copy of David Barnitz's 'Book Of Jade' and Blackwood's 'Wolves Of God' in original dw. A year or two back I bought a rare item on Ebay: a scrapbook created and illustrated by Jane Loudon (nee Webb), authoress of 'The Mummy!' [1822]. It contained unique designs and unpublished poems. A furniture dealer found it in a chest of drawers when clearing a house owned by a spinster who lived near where the Loudon's owned a country residence. Collectors need to think laterally. And tangentally. Even perversely. Books turn up in the oddest of places. You need to develop instinct and seize the opportunity when it arises. Then you can either keep the things you find or else trade them up for things you really want, like vintage Aickman first editions. JK

Hey, I'd be happy with either an Aickman omnibus or nicely reproduced editions as you suggest, if they would also be fairly affordable. I suppose I personally occupy whatever murky territory there is between reader and collector. I'm first and foremost interested in reading an author's work, but if I do happen to acquire pretty nice editions, I go through great lengths to preserve these books.

I like your collector's strategy. I hadn't given much thought to getting certain books I may already have or am not as interested in, and holding them as bargaining points for others who may have something I would want (or would want more). This is definitely an appealing alternative to just slinging around large sums of money. Thanks!