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AS eBay auction...

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RationalBiker

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I say it will sell, and quickly.  Why wouldn't it?

Well, as I suggested, $2000 seems to be lots of money to me for the book, though I agree someone may value it that much. However, it didn't sell "quickly" as it's during the last few hours of a 10 day auction. That's why I considered the auction of interest.

Why do you expect it to sell so easily at that price?

heres a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6900668292&rd=1

VES

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Well, as I suggested, $2000 seems to be lots of money to me for the book, though I agree someone may value it that much.  However, it didn't sell "quickly" as it's during the last few hours of a 10 day auction.  That's why I considered the auction of interest.

Book dealer and publisher, Fred Weiss of The Paper Tiger (www.papertig.com), just started posting on OO. He's probably the world's most knowledgeable dealer in Ayn Rand editions and I'll bet he has an opinion on this.

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Yes, noone even bid. Maybe I was wrong. I thought people would recognize it as a good investment, assuming a first printing in this condition is unique. Especially if the statistic floating around that compares AS to the bible is true. I've certainly seen antique books advertised for more than that.

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Yes, noone even bid.  Maybe I was wrong.  I thought people would recognize it as a good investment, assuming a first printing in this condition is unique.

The first printing of Atlas was 100,000 copies, so it's not that rare. A first printing of We the Living from 1936 is much rarer. Only 3,000 were printed, and many have been discarded or have disintegrated from age over the past 68 years.

I sometimes sell Ayn Rand collectibles at Objectivist conferences, and I have sold a We the Living first for $1,000. Someday it will be worth ten times that much.

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True, the price of Atlas 1st editions in very good condition have been steadily rising in price. Many dealers are now selling them for over $1,000. However a $2,000 opening bid for a copy which has been repaired - even "expertly" - is a bit much in my view. I have sold similar copies for under $1,000.

(I must add that I have not been following eBay lately, so I don't know if the seller in this case - who, btw, is a noted rare book dealer - might have felt it was in line with recent sales there.)

By way of comparison, and in follow-up to Betsy's comment, a comparable copy of "We the Living" (or "Fountainhead", for that matter) - with dust jacket - could easily go for over $5,000. I emphasize "with dust jacket" because the dj is 70-80% of the value of a modern first edition. The reason for the much higher price, as Betsy notes, is that those first editions, and in that condition, are much rarer. And those books with dj's - and especially dj's in good condition - are even rarer.

Fred Weiss

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, $2000 was perhaps a bit much for an opening big, but that copy did appear to be in incredibly good condition! My own copy is in decent condition, but it doesn't compare to that, and the dust jacket is missing. My grandmother gave it to me, never having read it. It's probably only worth a couple hundred.

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