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book price decline

S

Steven Ballard

Senior Member
Hi all, back in england after spending a while down under, one thing i wouldn't sell was my beloved and rare book collection before i went.
although upon returning, I can't help but notice the books aren't fetching anywhere near what they were only last year?
 
Reckon the market is saturated Steven.
 
Depends what you are selling...have a look at some of the prices on Coch-Y-Bonddu...i was hoping to get a copy of Chris Turnbull's tench book - £100 and some of the books i have seem to be going for a similar price.
 
Prices seem to fluctuate quite wildly on a lot of these old books Steven. I don't think there's been much of a declind in book prices in the last year so you are probably just witnessing the day to day vagaries of the ebay market.

In fact, depending on what you are looking at, you could say that prices have shot up. The Perch Fishers recent release has more than doubled in a very short time, as has Hooked On Floats by Jeff De La Mura. One that I have followed from time to time on the Bay is Waiting For Waddle by PhilThompson and it's pretty much just as expensive as it's always been.

Just out of interest, what particular titles were you looking at?
 
I was looking at my original copy of peter wheats 'fighting barbel'. I have seen copies going for 50-60 quid recently, whereas I paid £90 for mine several years ago.
And various other titles i can't think of at the moment, it was just something that crossed my mind.
cochy-bondu has always been very over priced I think.
 
There's been a high influx of new Barbel books in recent years to fill the historically pretty sparse book shelf.
Reprints/second editions of books have driven prices of first editions down as well-Tony Miles's Elite Barbel being one.
Bottom line what was a relatively niche market with not a great deal of titles-market forces therefore driving prices up-has now become flooded and not so specialised a field.
 
We should all have invested in ''Somewhere Down the Crazy River '' by Boote and Wade, that title seems to hold it's value :)
 
Mike Hodgkiss said:
We should all have invested in ''Somewhere Down the Crazy River '' by Boote and Wade, that title seems to hold it's value :)
Click to expand...

I got lucky with that one. About five years ago I sent an email to Jeremy asking if he had any copies left. "Yes mate," came the reply, "yours for thirty quid...."

Should have bought the lot off him.
 
A brilliant book, it has to be said. One of the very best in fact as it's more than just a fishing book. It's an adventure on a grand scale all retold by two fine writers.

I see that PB seems to no longer have a web presence anywhere now, seemingly having worn out his welcome with random precision. Depending on your point of view this is either regrettable or a blessing. I must admit, I fell into the former category, being able to enjoy the best of his input and ignoring the worst. Either way, it's a shame he never felt the urge to publish accounts of his fishing exploits elsewhere. If they'd have been half as good as SDTCR then I'd have loved to have read about them.
 
Stephen you are right Ebay fishing book prices have been low for the last year or so, i bought a third copy of the fighting barbel for £15 about a month ago,how could i not at that price.its a buyers market. Cocy-bondu sold copies of SDTCR for £5 in their bargain bin about 10 years ago,wish i had bought all their copies then instead of just 2.
 
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