Well, I finally did it...

[Subnuts]

I've been looking for a copy of John Roberts and Alan Raven's British Battleships of World War Two for years now. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a copy in good condition for under $250 in a long time. The authors apparently had a falling out in the early 80s and refuse to have any of their books reprinted. Someone was offering a water-damaged copy for $50 on Amazon a few years back, but I thought about it too long and somebody snatched it up.

So, I found an "almost new" copy on Amazon yesterday for $115 (apparently unread, but with the owner's name on the title page), and grabbed it, with a little hesitation, of course. I've never spent that much on a book before, but since this book is one of the "holy grails" of naval reference books, and usually goes for two or three times that much, I didn't feel too bad. Still, I'm gonna treat this book like it was signed by Jesus when it arrives.

Rule of thumb: no matter how much a naval reference book costs when originally published, it's always best to grab it while it's still in print. If you sit around waiting to buy it cheaper used, it'll go OOP and become a collector's item overnight. I still kick myself in the behind for not grabbing a few really tempting books while they were still in print.

[Sailor Steve]

I've been going through that for awhile now. For a long time I've been collecting the Coway's Warship series, and have all twelve of the original volumes and the first four yearbooks. Last year I put in a pre-order on the 2012 Yearbook, and had to cancel it. Several months later the price had tripled. This year I pre-ordered and stuck to it, and got it for five bucks cheaper than the opening price. I've spent quite a bit on some other old books, and consider myself lucky to have gotten them for the price I did. Of course I was unaware of most of the older references when they were printed, or just didn't care at the time.

Congratulations on your find!