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  1. #1
    Contributing Member Atticus Thraxx's Avatar
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    Your most expensive firearms book?

    I got to looking up some of my books after looking up my copy of Peter Laidlericon's An Armorer's Perspective and it was going for $400. (That search turned up a very disturbing story about Mr. Laidler from 2017, but I'll leave it be) anyways I have a copy of Donald Bady's Colt Automatic Pistols 1896-1955 and Amazon is selling it for $912! And mine is first edition. Blew my socks off.
    So what's on your bookshelf that would command top dollar? Or Euro? Or whatever?
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    I have a lot more experience than expertise, still have both eyes and most of my fingers though.

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    A Collector's View - The SMLE Short Magazine Lee Enfield 1903-1989. It is 300 8.5x11 inch pages with 1,000+ photo’s, most in color, and each book is serial-numbered.  Covering the SMLE from 1903 to the end of production in India in 1989 it looks at how each model differs and manufacturer differences from a collecting point of view along with the major accessories that could be attached to the rifle. For the record this is not a moneymaker, I hope just to break even, eventually, at $80/book plus shipping.  In the USA shipping is $5.00 for media mail.  I will accept PayPal, Zelle, MO and good old checks (and cash if you want to stop by for a tour!).  CLICK BANNER to send me a PM for International pricing and shipping. Manufacturer of various vintage rifle scopes for the 1903 such as our M73G4 (reproduction of the Weaver 330C) and Malcolm 8X Gen II (Unertl reproduction). Several of our scopes are used in the CMP Vintage Sniper competition on top of 1903 rifles. Brian Dick ... BDL Ltd. - Specializing in British and Commonwealth weapons Specializing in premium ammunition and reloading components. Your source for the finest in High Power Competition Gear. Here at T-bones Shipwrighting we specialise in vintage service rifle: re-barrelling, bedding, repairs, modifications and accurizing. We also provide importation services for firearms, parts and weapons, for both private or commercial businesses.
     

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    Legacy Member capt14k's Avatar
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    Clawsons 1911 book $500.

    Hitler's Garands $350.

    Palokangus Finnishicon Arms Volume 1-3 $600.

    Karbiner 98k Volume 1-3 (4 books) not sure on price but Volume 3 I've seen as high as $300 and Volume II which is 2 books was nearly $200 to start IIRC.

    Biggest increase in value percentage wise Branko's Yugoicon Mausers paperback book. Paid $15 seen them selling for $200.


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    Advisory Panel browningautorifle's Avatar
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    I've always been fortunate when purchasing my hardcover books, never had to pay more than about $100CDN. The exception was when I bought a collection and netted several for $300CDN...Lee Enfield Story, Webley, Springfield by Brophy, a few others that escape me plus a few not so important pubs. It was a good catch.
    Regards, Jim

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    Contributing Member Atticus Thraxx's Avatar
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    Thread Starter
    Quote Originally Posted by capt14k View Post
    Palokangus Finnishicon Arms Volume 1-3 $60
    I'd love to have that one. If I could read Finnishicon.
    I have a lot more experience than expertise, still have both eyes and most of my fingers though.

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    Advisory Panel breakeyp's Avatar
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    Save your money with Bady's book. It is full of errors.

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    Contributing Member CINDERS's Avatar
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    1st Ed The Broad Arrow (MkI) limited Ed H/C No.211/300 signed by Ian listed on his site $1,500.oo/AUD

    I have lots of 1st Ed WWI Australianicon army (AIF) H/C books that range in the $4-600 AUD/Ea and some titles from WWII that are around the $3-400 range I mean I have chugged along collecting WW books for 44 years so its not really a flash in the pan effort.

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    Contributing Member Woodsy's Avatar
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    Several of my books are now getting ridiculous prices but mine are not for sale. I am still waiting for the latest h/c Broad Arrow limited edition. A good few of my books are signed and some are presentations from the authors to me (Goldsmith, Laidlericon, Skennertonicon, Rapley, etc).

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    Legacy Member capt14k's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Atticus Thraxx View Post
    I'd love to have that one. If I could read Finnishicon.
    Each chapter has an English Summary


  11. Thank You to capt14k For This Useful Post:


  12. #9
    Legacy Member Bruce_in_Oz's Avatar
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    First (only?) edition of Ian Skennertonicon's "Australianicon Service Longarms"; signed and numbered. Bought when first released, No idea what they sell for these days. Over the years I have bought most of his books. We lived in the same town for quite a while.

    Hard-bound "FAL" book by Stevens. This is the compilation of the three, previously published paperbacks. Vaguely remember paying about a hundred Oz for it when it was released in the early 1980's. (Straight-up retail books can get obscenely expensive here).

    First edition Reynolds "The Lee Enfield Rifleicon" Found at a gun show in the US about ten years ago. Stamp inside indicates it was "culled' from the VA hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming. Cost me $65. Complete with original dust jacket, wrapped in a well-fitted plastic protective cover.

    "Textbook of Small Arms" 1929. This is the 1961 reprint of the 1929 edition. Another "library cull", this time from the State Library of Queensland. $50 Oz, picked up at one of our local gun shows. I also have an original 1904 edition as well; another one picked up at a show.

    I didn't buy any of them as "investments", except as the investment in the knowledge they contain.

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    Legacy Member bombdoc's Avatar
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    My best (and most expensive) purchase so far is a set of Chinn "The Machine Gun", with all four volumes and the declassification letter..! Cost me £200 last year at the Trafalgar meeting at Bisley, which I thought was a bargain!

    For those of you who do not know this magnum opus, it was written by George Chinn for the US Bureau of Ordnance in 1951, and is THE book on machine guns and cannon. Many of the illustrations, which are superb, have been reproduced many times in later publications...

    Copies are on the internet, but nothing smells like the original!

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