Most expensive book you purchased

[NickAdams]

What was the most expensive book you purchased?

Title, author, price.

Marble Faun and Green Bough, by William Faulkner- $100.00

[andave_ya]

DON'T LAUGH! but I don't think I've spent more than 7 dollars on a book in my entire life! Those are the ones I get from the bookstore. The rest are from library sales, in which case they're usually 50 cents, and from the thrift store, which is about a dollar. And I've gotten some tremendously good deals that way!

[NickAdams]

andave ya,

What was your best find?

[one_raven]

$200 on a Taschen boon on Marilyn Monroe by the man that was her boyfriend when she was making the transition from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn.

Almost $200 at Strand in NYC on a prgram from a exhibition of DaVinci's work at the Louvre in the 50's.

[Athos]

75.00 on a hard cover copy of the Princess Bride, first edition.

That's a lot for a 16 year old.

[mtpspur]

If we stick to books (not pulp magazines or comic books--$400 for a coverless Shadow Vol 1, Number 1 way back in the late 70s--alas long gone and $500 for Amazing Fantasy #15 (1st appearance Spider-Man) also long gone; then book-wise paid $40 for an edition of Treasure of the Lake by Rider Haggard which was the last book in the Allan Quaterman series I was missing and had not read to that point.

[one_raven]

I did bid over $4,000 on a first edition "Through the Looking Glass" with Lewis Carroll's handwritten notes in the margin for changes to be made to the next edition, but I lost the auction.

[bazarov]

30$ for hard golden cover of Dr. Zhivago.

[Schokokeks]

DON'T LAUGH! but I don't think I've spent more than 7 dollars on a book in my entire life! Those are the ones I get from the bookstore. The rest are from library sales, in which case they're usually 50 cents, and from the thrift store, which is about a dollar.
He he, same for me, Andya ! ;)
I usually take books out from the library, and if I buy any at all, I rarely spend over 15 $.

[Morrisonhotel]

I don't I've ever spent more than £20 on a book (unless I needed to buy an anthology for university (in which case, I spent £35 on one)). The best buy, however, was a geology book which cost me £1 from a second-hand bookshop and is actually worth about £90.

[Nossa]

30 pounds for The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 :D

[Niamh]

€45 on a 1912 edition of J.M.Synges The well of the Saints.

[vheissu]

Usually I try and get books from charity shops....but if I really want one I'll get it new. I think the most I've spent was £8 for The Magus by John Fowles.
Academic books are terribly expensive!I have a huge one, Molecular biology of the cell which was £55. I guess it was worth it, it has most things I need and is very detailed, but still...

[kandaurov]

As far as I can remember, 20€, for a portuguese translation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Half of my library consists of Wordsworth or Penguin publications, which only cost 3€. Didn't even intend to read it, but The Count of Monte Cristo's 900 pages for 3€ is just too good an opportunity to miss :)

[ennison]

A book on 'Dredging'. Highly technical engineering stuff. Cost me about £70. That was many many years ago.
I've also spent over £50 on a second-hand edition of Steele-Commager's book 'The Blue and The Gray'
Ah extravagance!

[Fango]

30$ on a one volume edition of Lord of the Rings (by Tolkien) about 4-5 years ago. Best buys though are from second-hand stores, you can find incredible bargains there.

[shortysweetp]

$30 on a hard cover Brother Odd by Dean Koontz. Third book in the series and I couldnt wait for it to come out in paperback. I have another series of 5 where every book cost $15 and I bought them all at once. I dont think I ever leave the bookstore spending less than $50 especially when i go after my birthday (I always get gift cards to a bookstore)

[Idril]

I have spent the most money on Lord of the Rings books. I spent 75$ on the 50th anniversary edition of the book. I also have the edition with Alan Lee paintings, that was 50$. Then I have not one, but two copies of The Silmarillion with pictures by Ted Nasmith because he added a few more pictures in a later edition, those were both around 35$. Oh, and I almost forgot, I have The Hobbit with Alan Lee pictures, I suppose that was around the same price as The Silmarillion. I'm such a nerd. :blush: :lol:

[NickAdams]

One Raven,

The large Taschen books are very expensive at Strands, even though they are mark downs. I couldn't imagine the original price.

Wow! $10,000.00 would have been a bargain.

[andave_ya]

best finds would be
(all are one volume books)

The Complete Unabridged Sherlock Holmes
The Complete Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (antique from 1947)
7 book set of works by E. Phillips Oppenheim dating from about 1916 (find at a garage sale for 20 bucks!) :thumbs_up :D
And I do have LOTR in one volume but at the thrift store it cost me less than 5 dollars.

Speaking of which, can I ask you where to get the History of Middle-earth books from, Idril? On Amazon they go really easily into the 90-dollar range which there is no way I can afford.

[Idril]

Speaking of which, can I ask you where to get the History of Middle-earth books from, Idril? On Amazon they go really easily into the 90-dollar range which there is no way I can afford.

My local Barnes and Noble had the early ones, 1-5, quite cheaply, just regular paperback prices. I think I got 6-8½ there as well, same pricing but those last 4 I had to special order, which I was able to do through B&N, however, they were a little more spendy but still nowhere near 90$, I think they usually ran in the 20-30$ price range.

[andave_ya]

thank you so much! I'll have to look into those, for sure.

[kathycf]

Bleah, $100 for a book about American Art. College bookstores in the US are such a rip off. I try to buy used copies but they didn't have any for that particular one...now I go online for most books as it is cheaper.

For personal use, I can usually find books that I like for under ten dollars (well under $10) by frequenting thrift shops, library sales and garage sales.

[byquist]

Snow in the Kingdom, by Ed Webster -- autographed by remains of frostbit fingernails -- $29.95

[Jamesmazingness]

50 dollars on a photoshop manual, but reading wise, I'd say 30 dollars on "The Divine Comedy"

[Stieg]

$120 for the two volume hardcover set of The Complete Robert Aickman. Also paid upwards of $50-65 for multiple hardcover volumes of Arthur Machen's works.

[Annamariah]

The most expensive book I've bought has probably been some schoolbook (they cost far too much!). The most expensive novel cost maybe about 30€.

I usually buy my books second hand, which means they cost something like 0,20-5,00 €

[Nick Rubashov]

I've spent about $100 for The Complete Far Side, a collection of every Gary Larson cartoon evar. Same goes with the Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, cost me about $100.

[supertux13]

I just recently purchased a copy of Bruce Dickinsons, The Adventures Of Lord Iffy Boatrace for $150

[Adolescent09]

A Massive National Geographic World Atlas/Almanac/World Records and Photos that was temporarily exclusively selling at Barnes & Noble for around 350$. I (or should I say my mom?) ended up purchasing it for only 230$.The gargantuan tome is about three feet tall and comes with an adjustable floor-pedastal to prop the book on in a corner. To this day it remains one of the most beneficial assets to my fundamental knowledge of world events. I consider it worth every penny it cost.

[Reepicheep]

The prize of my collection is the leather-bound 'More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide' by Douglas Adams $70. I also have the 'Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces' I remember it was pretty close to that price also. The Most expensive book I've ever seen was a First Edition The Hobbit on Ebay. The bid was over $7000, which if I were a billionaire I would have gladly paid for it.

[one_raven]

A Massive National Geographic World Atlas/Almanac/World Records and Photos that was temporarily exclusively selling at Barnes & Noble for around 350$. I (or should I say my mom?) ended up purchasing it for only 230$.The gargantuan tome is about three feet tall and comes with an adjustable floor-pedastal to prop the book on in a corner. To this day it remains one of the most beneficial assets to my fundamental knowledge of world events. I consider it worth every penny it cost.

That sounds like an excellent book.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

[Orual]

30 pounds for The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 :D

Heh, I bought the fifth edition of this anthology for fifty cents.

The most expensive book I've ever bought was probably a 25 dollar C.S. Lewis anthology.

[Domer121]

I would have to say....20 dollars for a book about Dogs... don't ask me why..I went through a phase where I had to know EVERYTHING about them... these days when that happens..I go to the Library..:)

[aeroport]

Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged
$130 or thereabouts.

[chasestalling]

webster's third new international dictionary for about $110.00

[hockeychick8792]

I never spent that much on a book. A matter of fact I am reading this GREAT novel "Snow Falling on Cedars", that I bought at a yard sale for 25cents.

[paulweller]

I don't really buy expensive books. The most expensive I got myself is Nick Hornby's About A Boy for $15.00.



__________________
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2007 Lexus SC Mark Levinson Audio System by Lexus U.S.A. (http://www.who-sells-it.com/cy/lexus-u-s-a-2009/2007-lexus-sc-mark-levinson-audio-system-8644.html)

[RoCKiTcZa]

i bought a multi-awarded book last year for something like $6... "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer. Just last month I walked into a book sale and found one selling for only 80cents!:( Last month my grandaunt came to visit and bought me a copy of "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom. It cost $18!!!:eek:

[RoCKiTcZa]

the encyclopedia set was around $300, though.

[SteveH]

Do you mean "book" or "volume"? One of my most expensive books is an edition of Richardson's 'Pamela', from 1808 or earlier, in four small volumes. They're very shabby, but basically sound. A previous owner, one Anne Moss, wrote her name in three of the volumes (three times in one of them - it looks as though she was practising her signature) in beautiful copperplate handwritimng, and in one wrote the date, October 1808, which is how I know it's at least that old - there's no printed date of publication. It cost me £80, as far as I can remember. I've also got a four-volume edition of Scott's complete 'Waverley' novels, each volume being the size of a breeze-block with about 1,000 pages. It was published in the 1860s. Most expensive single volume? Probably an edition of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary dating from the 1810s (can't remember the exact year), and published in the USA. Can't remember how much it cost, but it wasn't cheap.

All the above were bought on odd occasions when, unusually, I had money to spare - normally I'm near-boracic.*

Oh. and I've also got a Shakespeare First Folio in quite good condition.**

*Boracic lint - skint. Cockney rhyming slang.















**Unfortunately, it's a photographic facsimile, published in the 1950s. Very nice thing to own, though.

[Niamh]

The prize of my collection is the leather-bound 'More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide' by Douglas Adams $70. I also have the 'Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces' I remember it was pretty close to that price also. The Most expensive book I've ever seen was a First Edition The Hobbit on Ebay. The bid was over $7000, which if I were a billionaire I would have gladly paid for it.

The most expensive book i came across was a first edition "The Aran Islands" By J.M.Synge and illustrated by Jack Yeats, with both of their signatures. €17,000. If only i have the Money!

[one_raven]

I just passed up a two-volume set of a 1939 english language printing of Mein Kampf yesterday on a street booksellers table in NYC for $100.00.
I wish I had the cash on me to spend!

[Pensive]

About two hundred rupees (two pounds): Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.