The One(s) That Got Away

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The One(s) That Got Away

1CJR93
Editat: nov. 22, 2020, 6:14 pm

There are a few Folio editions that I have passed up on and will always regret!

Three of my White Whales are:
- Moby Dick
- The Great Gatsby
- Labyrinths (Borges)

Which book or books keep you staring at your shelves and wondering what might have been?

While we may never find those elusive copies, perhaps this thread will allow us to find peace with our disappointments.

In anticipation of the next bookshelf and the Folio editions to come!

2RRCBS
nov. 22, 2020, 11:42 am

For me, the three volume Dante set. Someone posted a picture of it the other day and I checked Abe again, so expensive! On the list of books I will probably never acquire due to price.

3NLNils
nov. 22, 2020, 11:48 am

>1 CJR93: Moby Dick SE is my first experience with the book becoming popular after selling out. I bought it at release and it was slammed for being printed and bound in China (Hong Kong). It went sort of dormant and on selling out it became sought after. The book was reprinted from the Random House edition, so it is not lost in that sense. The same thing happened with the earlier LE, surging in the aftermarket but this was before I became a regular customer of the Folio Society so I learned of this afterwards.

4Conte_Mosca
nov. 22, 2020, 12:05 pm

Candide LE

It is probably the only volume I regret not picking up when I had the chance.

5Pellias
nov. 22, 2020, 2:39 pm

I once had a tremendous offer on Wind in the willows LE for about £550. I spent one day too many and another member on this site bought the whole `shibang`

I will never be given such an offer again, and that is fine. I have accepted it. I would have bought that edition more for vanity than the actual connection to my f.ex childhood

-

Standard volumes such as `Martian Chronicles` - but that is as described, a standard edition and nothing to regret really, as it will show up sooner or later anyway, and `A brief History of time`

-

Must be some others from the velum set then. Rime of the ancient mariner and maybe just so stories.

-

Oh, and Mort and Small Gods standard. Never to be reissued again, likely, for a long time at least. Those can be expensive secondhand.

-

The Dante set for me too, and I will probably await a new printrun someday if something doesn`t fall down my lap.

-

Out of vanity again, I regret a little bit that I did not actually buy the signed bookmark edition of The Shining for collective purposes.

-

.. and lastly (probably not). Birds Drawn LE with (Sir) David Attenborough. I had the chance and can only bite myself.

6folio_books
nov. 22, 2020, 2:51 pm

>1 CJR93:

You'll be searching a long time for Ficciones, Cap'n. The only Borges title published by Folio so far is the sought-after Labyriths (2007).

7Retronaut78
nov. 22, 2020, 2:54 pm

In 2017/18, before the FAD had quite taken hold, I dithered over a copy of the Rubaiyat fine edition (IE Niroot Puttapipat illustrations but not the Ltd Ed) for £48.50 delivered. It sold and I'm still kicking myself.

8duonkha
nov. 22, 2020, 2:57 pm

1996 Leatherette Jane Austen set - somehow managed to miss the notifications 3 times this year already ...

9Pellias
nov. 22, 2020, 3:03 pm

>6 folio_books: Ah. Mystery solved.

10folio_books
nov. 22, 2020, 3:24 pm

>8 duonkha: Leatherette Jane Austen set

I've said this before but it's worth saying again, it's not leatherette, faux leather or whatever you choose to call it. I call as my witness the venerable Folio 60, items 375-381: Thirteenth printing 1996 ... "One thousand copies were bound in full blue-green leather, blocked in gold with a new design, with a dark green cloth-covered slip case bearing the title 'The Folio Jane Austen' for the first time."

11Comatoes
nov. 22, 2020, 3:31 pm

I become jealous every time I see someone with this book: Birds Drawn for John Gould Edward Lear the most wonderful book in my eyes. I could have gotten it on 10 monthly payments when Folio Society was offering it. I don't know why I didn't purchase it... This is the only book I will purchase first if I ever become a millionaire or if I ever get several thousands of freely available dollars, whatever comes first :)

12CJR93
nov. 22, 2020, 4:14 pm

>6 folio_books: aha! That’s why I can’t find a copy... (thanks for the heads up, I’ll have to edit the original post)

13kdweber
nov. 22, 2020, 4:33 pm

>12 CJR93: Might I suggest the 1984 LEC edition of Ficciones.

14Bacon.And.Eggs
Editat: nov. 22, 2020, 5:16 pm

Great question. While I’ve shed tears for missing the wonderful LEs already noted by others, my grail is Finnegans Wake, preferably in original shrinkwrap. (Edited to add this is a plea to anyone that has a copy and is willing to part with it!)

15katielouise
nov. 22, 2020, 4:48 pm

The Sound and The Fury (regular edition)
War and Peace (most recent two-volume edition)
Book of the New Sun (didn't even realize it was up for sale until after it was gone)
Mort
Small Gods
Temple of Flora (LOVED this one but it was far out of my budget when I was younger - I'm so sad that now that I have more money, there are fewer top-notch LEs)

I think those are the ones that have been introduced since I've been collecting FS that I always kind of figured I'd get around to and then they sold out and haven't been restocked. I thiiiiiink there's going to be a standard edition of Book of the New Sun so I don't need to worry about it?

16Xandian97
nov. 22, 2020, 5:07 pm

As a recent FS collector, I really regret not having bought the Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace when it was available. It's especially annoying since I've worked in Indonesia for several years as a conservationist in tandem with Operation Wallacea, with a grant from the Wallace fund.

Also want to get my hands on The Golden Bough, and Religion and the Decline of Magic, just because they were my favourite books back during my History A Level.

17CJR93
nov. 22, 2020, 5:15 pm

>13 kdweber: Wow, that is a very nice edition! Thanks for the suggestion

18Chemren
nov. 22, 2020, 5:46 pm

News from Nowhere. Somehow missed this one when it was offered.

19terebinth
nov. 23, 2020, 3:56 am

>15 katielouise: Temple of Flora (LOVED this one but it was far out of my budget when I was younger - I'm so sad that now that I have more money, there are fewer top-notch LEs)

Then why not indulge yourself now? There are several offers on ABE, mostly close to new condition, on both sides of the Atlantic and mostly priced below the original £795 even though only 600 copies were eventually produced. Admittedly none are quite such bargains as the copy I bought from Ardis a few years back for if I remember rightly around £320: as I recall he had two or three examples at the time and had gradually lowered the price as they failed to sell. Still, it's a book that would surely be £1200+ were it to be published today, and more than that if they didn't make the mistake of expecting to sell almost 2000 copies! Don't be sad any longer, buy it! :)

I can't say I've any biting Folio regrets of my own. Johnson's Dictionary is about the nearest I've come to one, I was a member at the time of its publication and had already bought an LE or two but I don't think I heard of it before it was sold out. I just kept watch on eBay and elsewhere, and an as-new copy came my way a few years later for slightly below the price on publication.

20terebinth
nov. 23, 2020, 4:05 am

>18 Chemren:

Not much help if the Folio binding of News from Nowhere is the element you love (as I've probably confessed here before, I detest it with a vengeance), but the V&A Museum / Thames and Hudson publishes a very acceptable hardback facsimile, with sewn binding and introduction by Rowan Williams, for around £20.

21English-bookseller
Editat: nov. 23, 2020, 4:26 am

With reference to one of the above posts, ABE Books has copies of the Folio Society 'The Golden Bough' for sale.

I declare an interest on this post!

22marianable
nov. 23, 2020, 5:42 am

>21 English-bookseller: To confirm; by declaring an interest, are you saying that it is you that is selling the copy listed on ABE? That you are a professional book seller and are using this forum to advertise books that you are selling?

Is this acceptable??

23English-bookseller
Editat: nov. 23, 2020, 6:02 am

Good question.

I have not hitherto advertised any of my books posting on this forum and this I suggest is not a case of a straightforward breaking of the rules - in my opinion.

But when a FSD posts that they cannot buy a copy of a particular FS book because it is gone, can I not point out that ABE has quite a few copies for sale from various booksellers? I disclosed that I had copies for sale because it felt right to do so.

I will take my lead on this issue from any general view of this FSD group.

24Kainzow
nov. 23, 2020, 6:38 am

Luckily I managed to get Labyrinths for 35 pounds when I was at uni.
It was pretty rare at the time, but was not that expensive either.

So far, my biggest regret includes books that were lost in transit.
- Candide
- Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Mort
- Small Gods
- I, Robot

And then:
- War and Peace (I was a student and couldn't afford it even when it went on sale. Shame that it went out of print. I own Anna Karenina and the Tolstoy Stories Set).
- Beloved (one of my favorite books ever)

There's also Writer at War and Empire of the Sun, but maybe I'll look for them on the secondhand market. Those listed above seem they're going to be hard to find. :|
I'm still undecided whether I should keep on collecting Folios. I guess I'll wait for the forthcoming collections and decide.

25CLWggg
nov. 23, 2020, 6:39 am

>23 English-bookseller: The group page for Folio Society Devotees says:

Can I sell my Folio Society books through FSD?
The Library Thing terms of use prohibit the selling of merchandise on the LT site. However, long term users of FSD are tolerated when they sometimes (not regularly) direct others to their profile where they may list books they may wish to "swap" (sometimes for money). Negotiations must be via private personal messages and certainly not openly in the forum. This toleration depends on the goodwill of the FSD community, and is not tolerated if you are new member who has contributed little or nothing to the forum, or if it is suspected that you are a commercial bookseller.
(My bolding for emphasis.)

The way I interpret this, if you are a commercial bookseller and point other forum users towards a platform which includes your own listings, then this would be in breach of LibraryThing's rules. (I would, however, commend your honesty in declaring your interest, even if it does then leave you open to accusations of breaking the rules!) So I for one feel that you would be best advised to delete your post above, but would be interested to hear the views of others!

26affle
nov. 23, 2020, 6:40 am

>23 English-bookseller:

Your post seems unobjectionable to me. The fact that >22 marianable: joined LT today seems to make sockpuppetry a distinct possibility - that is certainly against the ToS, and if you are concerned you should alert the authorities, who take a dim view of that particular offence.

27Conte_Mosca
Editat: nov. 23, 2020, 7:22 am

>23 English-bookseller:
>26 affle:

I also think the post was unobjectionable, and was within the spirit of the ToS. Someone indicated they wanted to try and get hold of a copy of a certain book. That led to a response making the general statement that there were copies available on ABE, with no reference or link to a particular seller, and then openly disclosing that they happened to be one of those sellers. But it was a response to a specific post, it didn't explicitly promote his own sale, or provide a link to it, and made open disclosure of a potential interest. I think we have bigger things in life to worry about.

28CLWggg
nov. 23, 2020, 7:07 am

>26 affle:
>27 Conte_Mosca:
In that case, I withdraw my interpretation above!

29UK_History_Fan
nov. 23, 2020, 7:07 am

>27 Conte_Mosca:
Well said and agree. Nothing in the OP or response suggests this forum will turn into a commercial marketplace or open the Pandora’s box of ubiquitous sales promotions. >21 English-bookseller: handled it in an open-minded and above-board forthright manner.

30ubiquitousuk
nov. 23, 2020, 8:20 am

>29 UK_History_Fan: Did someone call my name?

I mostly regret having missed The Foundation Trilogy. This is due in equal parts to the fact that I would like to have it and that it was subject to a ridiculous discount in the 19/20 new year sale. But I didn't buy it. Stupid!

31Kainzow
nov. 23, 2020, 9:08 am

>30 ubiquitousuk:
Won't it get reprinted soon?

32folio_books
nov. 23, 2020, 9:32 am

>26 affle: The fact that >22 marianable: marianable: joined LT today seems to make sockpuppetry a distinct possibility - that is certainly against the ToS, and if you are concerned you should alert the authorities, who take a dim view of that particular offence.

Agreed, Alan. I was more concerned with the complaint than the action which caused it. >23 English-bookseller: has behaved commendably since joining us, this piece of nonsense being a good example

33sekhmet0108
nov. 23, 2020, 1:28 pm

I regret missing out on :

- Mort
- Small Gods
- Beloved
- Eugene Onegin (the illustrations are gorgeous in that one)
- We

More than anything i regret not being a Folio Society member in the 90s and 2000s (was busy learning to talk and walk), which i consider to be their golden age. Books and bindings like Lost Illusions by Balzac, Shakuntala, Germinal by Zola and all the wonderful sets would never be produced by the current FS.

34bacchus.
Editat: nov. 23, 2020, 1:45 pm

There's been a few, but my biggest regret is not buying Tutankhamun

35katielouise
nov. 23, 2020, 4:46 pm

>19 terebinth: Temple of Flora might be on my Christmas list ;D

>33 sekhmet0108: What a shame some of us were too young to buy things then!

36Willoyd
nov. 23, 2020, 6:11 pm

>4 Conte_Mosca:
Candide LE It is probably the only volume I regret not picking up when I had the chance.

There are a fair number around on the secondary market, from about £320 upwards, so is it that you reckon this has gone too high now? If so, what do you reckon a reasonable price would be?

37bookish_elf
nov. 23, 2020, 9:25 pm

>24 Kainzow: There is a chance that these might just turn up.

I wish I had the FS books by Henry James, Tolstoy and the complete collection of Dickens. I did not know about FS then. Had I known or at least someone in my family had known about FS I would have ended up with a lot more books.

38Charon49
nov. 23, 2020, 10:04 pm

>31 Kainzow:

I think the reprint for foundation should be next year which is great for it’s one of my big regrets to but I fear it may be reintroduced with folio’s recent higher pricing.

I’ve just recently got my hands on history of Japan and tales of genji so the main regrets left for me would be book of the new sun which should by all reports be remedied next year sometime as well with a regular edition release.

39Kainzow
nov. 23, 2020, 10:54 pm

How do you all feel after missing out on these books?
I still feel so down and pretty discouraged to carry on collecting. :(

40wwfield
nov. 23, 2020, 10:55 pm

Hoping for 4x reprints here.
-We (which was lost in the mail and sold out by the time I had asked for a replacement)
-Little Women
-The Martian Chronicles
-Additionally my copy of Foundation Trilogy has a crooked spine on the third volume, and I was too late to get that replaced.

41duonkha
nov. 24, 2020, 12:48 am

>40 wwfield: I believe "Little Women" is confirmed to be reprinted next year.

42Conte_Mosca
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 2:46 am

>36 Willoyd:

Well I baulked at £175 when it was available with a £20 discount voucher, so I definitely baulk at £320 now. I don't regret it that much! :-)

I am not a huge fan of the LE programme to be honest. I don't object to it per se, but it is not really for me. For 50+ years my family have bought into the Charles Ede vision of great books within the price of everyman. The LE programme doesn't gel with that, and with a family, mortgage, and other bills to pay, these are not prices I can justify paying. If others can, all power to their elbow and I do not in any way begrudge them that, but I am just not in that position. Even though I have quite a few of the early FS "Special Binding LEs" from the days before the formal LE programme was initiated, all of those I picked up at absolute bargain prices. But every now and again, there has been a LE that has tempted me, Candide being one. But much as I admire it, £320 is, for me, too much to pay for any book. Maybe if I won the lottery ... although that is unlikely as I don't do the lottery :-)

43terebinth
nov. 24, 2020, 3:38 am

Fortunately LEs are within the price of this lifelong slacker book nerd, or I'd probably have drifted away altogether by now. I don't know how long it is since I bought a standard Folio book outside the sales, but so far two or three LEs a year win me over. £40+ for Folio's general offerings just hasn't much appeal when there are usually older books on the market at £10 - £50 that I'm far more drawn to reading, always letterpress, sometimes in limited editions and/or on hand-made paper or in fine bindings. For Night Thoughts and Birds for John Gould, though, I merrily forked out close to a month's income each time.

44NLNils
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 4:34 am

>43 terebinth: Interesting viewpoint to read. What I wonder about being active here and a little on FB, is where the money suddenly is coming from? If the plea much stated here is that FS is outpricing itself, why are the specialist presses then value for money? If I look at the prices of the SFF publishers, or the more traditional fine presses, or just Easton Press, The Folio Society is by far the most cost-effective option. And it isn't close. Shipping from everywhere nowadays is expensive due to the halt on commercial aviation and its lost cargo space. I for example was interested in the Thornwillow Frederick Douglas ($195 list price half-cloth), until I came upon the shipping and handling quotes:



How does that make you feel?

I'm not immune to the effect caused by upping the high end of the market, the also lifting mid range seems somewhat of a bargain. That is the same fallacy as can be seen in the smartphone market. My actual financial situation puts a hold on that quick. Bills are still a fact of life. I for one am grateful for The Folio Society and hope it will last.

45joco30
nov. 24, 2020, 8:51 am

>42 Conte_Mosca: For 50+ years my family have bought into the Charles Ede vision of great books within the price of everyman. The LE programme doesn't gel with that

Well, if everyman is able to buy 10 books for 39.95 each, then one book of 390 is just as well within the price of everyman. It's only a matter of preference.

46terebinth
nov. 24, 2020, 9:02 am

>44 NLNils:

Yes, shipping is a deterrent to international orders: I haven't noticed any particular change in charges since Covid-19 arrived, which doesn't mean there hasn't been one. I wonder how Tartarus Press manages to sustain its lately renewed policy of offering free worldwide shipping, when their books are typically substantial sewn hardbacks in small editions priced at £35 - £40.

47Willoyd
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 9:59 am

>45 joco30:
Well, if everyman is able to buy 10 books for 39.95 each, then one book of 390 is just as well within the price of everyman. It's only a matter of preference.

And a fundamental change in the vision. More to the point, you have been rather selective in your choice of quote. Let me finish the sentence off for you: and with a family, mortgage, and other bills to pay, these are not prices I can justify paying.

48terebinth
nov. 24, 2020, 11:48 am

A perfectly valid perspective: but family, mortgage and even to an extent those other bills are still largely matters of preference for most of us, albeit some options once taken up aren't lightly to be reversed.

49RRCBS
nov. 24, 2020, 12:42 pm

I personally think Everyman’s Library better matches the “reach of the Everyman” vision...FS books are more expensive.

50Conte_Mosca
nov. 24, 2020, 1:10 pm

>47 Willoyd: Thanks, you saved me providing a response to what was a rather tenuous argument!

>48 terebinth: Absolutely a matter of choice of course. But I am very happy to a have a wife and family, and a nice roof over my head. I fully accept that is a choice I make with financial consequences, and others are free to choose their own paths. I was just responding of course to a post asking me where, effectively, I set my limit, and I explained why. And in that respect, having made my choice, I now prefer to keep a roof over my head and not have my wife divorce me ;-)

>49 RRCBS: That selective part of the vision, certainly (and I do like Everyman Editions). But that was only third of vision statement. The full vision was "1 to produce editions of the world's great literature, 2 in a format worthy of the contents, 3 at a price within the reach of everyman". What FS had done so well for so long is achieve all three. Of course nowadays, 1 is debatable, 2 still holds up by and large, and 3 has (for standard editions) been pretty good for the most part until recently when prices for standard editions have gone a bit haywire. Until the last few years, standard editions haven't cost that much more than a standard hardback edition, but of course LEs fail to meet that last criteria which is why, by and large, I have eschewed them.

51Cat_of_Ulthar
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 1:25 pm

>14 Bacon.And.Eggs:

Having picked up Ulysses when it was on sale, I have to agree with you. I am and will be kicking myself for missing out on that one.

The other title I wish I had picked up is one of those 'wonderful LEs': The Surinam Album. At the time it was simply beyond my means. I don't think it's gone quite as mad second-hand as Finnegan, though, so hope might spring for a splinter of time at least.

52Cat_of_Ulthar
nov. 24, 2020, 1:22 pm

>43 terebinth:

'lifelong slacker book nerd'

lol. Are you talkin' 'bout me? :-)

53RRCBS
nov. 24, 2020, 3:12 pm

>50 Conte_Mosca: Really? I started buying FS books around 2010 and they were about 3 times the cost of a hardback (for fiction say $20 vs $60).

54ntenBroek
nov. 24, 2020, 3:15 pm

That SE of Moby Dick is haunting me. The prices for the odd copy that appear on Ebay are ridiculous. And I found my way to the Folio Society by looking for good copies of Patrick O'Brian, which I found! On the secondary market! For too much money!

Mostly I wish that I had found the FS years ago. On the other hand I've had so much fun hunting down their books that I can't feel too bad about the ones I've missed.

55Willoyd
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 4:43 pm

>53 RRCBS:
Yes, but I'm pretty sure Folio books have always been more expensive in your part of the world.

Here in the UK, a quick check through my library shows that in 2010 fiction hardbacks were generally selling for £16-18; history books were selling for £20-25. Looking through the FS 2010 prospectus, the majority of their catalogue was selling for between £20 (19.95 to be precise) and £30. Some went into the thirties, a few higher.

56RRCBS
nov. 24, 2020, 4:29 pm

57Willoyd
nov. 24, 2020, 4:42 pm

>56 RRCBS:
Oops, sorry - I've just been editing my post too, as I had realised I wasn't sure which set of dollars you were referring to, and wanted to add the info I've just checked out.

58Jayked
nov. 24, 2020, 5:14 pm

To Canada this year:
FS, James Bond book: $74.95 plus $18 postage plus $5 tax.
Book Depository, Shuggie Bain hardback (Booker prize): $26, no postage, no tax.
That's around 400%

59RRCBS
nov. 24, 2020, 5:36 pm

>57 Willoyd: wow - expensive for regular hardbacks. Those were similar to actual price in Canada but Amazon and Chapters almost always offer 40% off.

60Willoyd
Editat: nov. 24, 2020, 6:02 pm

>58 Jayked:
Same books in UK:

James Bond £38 + £6 postage = £44
Shuggie Bain £15 no postage (that's full price, Amazon is £11.50)
So, around 300% here, or just under 400% if working on Amazon price. Very different to a decade or so ago.

>59 RRCBS:
Those were the RRPs; pretty standard prices for UK. As you say, you can now get discounts through Amazon etc, but not through most bookshops here. Even with Amazon prices, still looking at a hefty hike in the relative price difference in the past decade.

61RRCBS
nov. 24, 2020, 6:12 pm

>60 Willoyd: I agree about FS price hike. I was just pointing out that even 10 years ago, a Folio book was still much more expensive than a hardback and, to me, not priced for the Everyman.

62Conte_Mosca
nov. 25, 2020, 3:01 am

This thread has taken an unexpected turn. My point was that I can't justify the price of LEs as they, for me, do not meet my definition of "being within reach". We have now got onto whether standard editions are affordable! I think therefore that must only reinforce my original point! :-)

That said, I think that is is a stretch to say that standard editions up to say £40 are not within the reach of Everyman within the spirit of the original FS vision. The hike of many standard editions to up to double that is, I agree, a definite stretch (and a stretch too far for me). As for some of the comparisons, come on be fair. You can't compare a discounted hardback from Amazon of the Book Depository with a full price book from FS. If you do that, you should compare lowest FS sale price. Nor should you include postage.

It is not untypical for new full price hardback books to cost c£20 (or more). Look through the prospectus from 2010 and you will find plenty of FS titles in the £24.95 - £29.95 range. That is the kind of comparison I had in mind, and a difference I could justify paying (in my opinion, within reach of most of us) for criteria 2 in my post above. What I couldn't justify was paying several hundreds of pounds because, whether you define me as Everyman or not, that is not realistically within my reach.

I can only speak for my own personal experience in the UK, where I choose to purchase books from independent book stores wherever possible in order to support them. I have no experience of buying books in other geographic territories.

63English-bookseller
Editat: nov. 26, 2020, 5:49 am

There was once a professional golfer's shrewd comment that they drive for show and put for dough.

Looking at some of the prices charged by some Private or High End Press publishers, their high delivery costs might be where they make their money.

64terebinth
Editat: nov. 25, 2020, 4:23 am

For an amusing three-minute exercise, I went to the earliest Folio prospectus in our files (1951) to find the price range of its books - from 13s. 6d. up to 31s. for the hand-coloured Handley Cross - and compared them to that year's median annual UK salary (£350). "Everyman" (assuming him to be an average sort of working chap) would have had to spend between 1/225 and 1/518 of his gross annual income to provide himself with a Folio book: today's "everyman" reaching as resolutely into his £30,800 gross salary would be ready to pay from £59 to £135 a time for his Folio pleasures. Of course, many other things have changed to influence, in both directions, his willingness to do so.

65wcarter
nov. 25, 2020, 4:51 am

>64 terebinth:
This very well demonstrates that allowing for inflation of both wages and books, the FS books today are of a similar relative price to those published 70 years ago, and today's most FS books are of a far higher quality with regard to binding and slipcase, although early books were printed letterpress (if that matters to you).

66Jayked
nov. 25, 2020, 7:42 am

As I think I've mentioned before, the price of early FS books was in exactly the same price range as those of general publishers. If the quality was less, the quality of most British publishers was frankly shoddy, which was why FS existed.

67terebinth
nov. 25, 2020, 8:15 am

>66 Jayked:

To be fair, the mainstream British publishing industry was still reeling from wartime restrictions on paper quantity and quality (to be fair in the other direction, it never really recovered). Things had been very different in the '20s- '30s, especially in that many authors' new fiction was available in reasonably priced limited editions, usually signed and on high quality paper, often large.

68red_guy
Editat: nov. 25, 2020, 10:00 am

And of course, Charles Ede's fourth (unwritten) commandment was:

4.) Books printed shall be out of copyright and have no colour printing unless you count that mad woman with her stencils - which would have affected costs considerably.

I still think that books are still reasonably priced, and in fact as a member from the supposed 'golden age' of 1971, I did find books much harder to afford back then than I do now, and also to choose. I remember getting my joining offers gleefully and then sitting trying to work out which four to fulfil my requirements with from sometimes a pretty miserable list.

I am sure that's why there is such a preponderance of the cheaper ' Folio book of / Cream of / Best of/ Wit of / Treasury of/.....' straight-to eBay jobs which don't trouble us so much as they did then. And that's not taking into account the biannual sales which can see up to 50% reductions and which form the way a lot of customers buy their books.

69Jayked
nov. 25, 2020, 1:09 pm

>68 red_guy:
Sorry, that's nonsense. A good many books printed during his proprietorship had colour illustrations, some by better artists than those appearing later: e.g. Edward Bawden for Vathek, 1958; Alistair Grant for Bel-Ami. Even a minor publication like The Young Visiters was hand-coloured, like The Jorrocks series. Whether illustrations were coloured or monochrome was dictated by what was most appropriate to the text, not by what would sell books to those unlikely to read them.
1971 was the year that Ede sold his interest in Folio, so for me it was hardly the start of a golden age.

70abysswalker
nov. 25, 2020, 2:15 pm

>65 wcarter: do you by any chance know the transition year (or years) when Folio shifted from letterpress to offset?

71wcarter
nov. 25, 2020, 3:37 pm

>70 abysswalker:
Most before 1980 were letterpress, most after then were not.

72red_guy
nov. 25, 2020, 3:51 pm

>69 Jayked: I was really thinking of the first books just after the war, which I thought we were talking about. ... but anyway, it was a sort of a joke. The pochoir illustrations are absolutely extraordinary, and I do have a few of them, including The Young Visiters. Nevertheless, works from the public domain are cheaper to produce than the royalty-encumbered books of today, and that would have helped Folio's production costs enormously.

As for a golden age, it seems to be a moveable feast depending on who is talking about it. My view is that we are in the golden age in these last few years, ( although Covid has probably unbalanced this year's offerings), with the largest, broadest and most interesting lists that I can remember since I have been collecting. I wouldn't buy all of it, but my wish list is still far bigger than I am likely to purchase.

73Willoyd
nov. 25, 2020, 4:31 pm

>61 RRCBS:
I appreciate that. And my post was to point out that whilst that may well have been true in Canada, it wasn't in the UK. That was underlined by the fact that one need hardly ever have paid the full advertised price for a book then. For instance, aside fron sales, books were usually available with 10% off if ordered early, and the presentation volume/equivalent price helped as well.

74bookish_elf
nov. 25, 2020, 10:46 pm

I think FS might have increased their price due to the endless printing of money happening today. Also if they increase the price it means that they are able to sell at that price. Why is GOT priced 125 pounds and not 1250 pounds, just for the simple reason that the latter is not a price they could sell at. With social media and internet FS has a bigger outreach than before and they sell to people all over the world. Even if we take the top 1% of the world it is a sizable population and one certainly doesn't need to be in the top 1% to buy FS books.

75Jeremy53
nov. 25, 2020, 11:54 pm

>74 bookish_elf: Yeah, I have to admit, after 20 odd years of buying Folio books directly from them, I've stopped lately. I am in Oz, so the shipping seems pricier than ever, and the retiring of the membership made the experience a little less special. But mostly, the cost, and that's despite a better wage than ever - I'm just umming and ahhing over the last two Hitchhikers books to complete the set...

76Conte_Mosca
Editat: nov. 26, 2020, 4:02 am

>73 Willoyd:

That's a really good point in considering the relative cost of FS books, at least up until membership ended. The joining / re-joining offer (which could often be negotiated) effectively brought down the real cost of each of the 4 books we had to purchase to maintain membership. And I suspect I was far from being alone in making almost all of my other purchases in one of the two annual sales at a hefty discount (usually 50% or more). It always felt to me as though FS books were "priced for sales", i.e. marked up for 9 months of the year on the full understanding that the majority of sales would come in the 3 months of the year during the sales and/or to offset the cost of joining offers. I never considered the RRP of an FS book to be its "real" price, as It was a price I almost never paid. And in those days, very few titles sold out quickly enough not to make a sale, so sales weren't just for the unwanted crumbs off of the FS table. Almost everything except LEs ended up heavily discounted in a sale at some point. And that is I guess why - in my head - I considered FS as adding real value for little difference in cost to a standard trade hardback (that was also in the days before Amazon became so dominant with its heavy discounts on trade editions).

77katielouise
nov. 26, 2020, 4:23 am

>39 Kainzow: "How do you all feel after missing out on these books?
I still feel so down and pretty discouraged to carry on collecting. :("

Not to make fun but... that's a bit silly. There are so many Folio Society books that you can still buy, whether new or secondhand. There will always be another one to want, and another one to feel you missed out on. Becoming ok with possibly missing out on things is the only way to get through life.

And the majority of books that I "missed out on," I now own, and I often enough bought them at lower prices than new. Others which I felt I missed out on I find now that I don't care about. There are a handful which I do still wish I owned, but I just periodically look for them secondhand, and I find that hunt to be part of the fun, whether or not I find the book I want at the right price.

78Pellias
Editat: nov. 26, 2020, 11:38 am

>69 Jayked:

Hey !

1971 was the year that Ede sold his interest in Folio, so for me it was hardly the start of a golden age

Just a thought. That sprung out of from that comment, not specifically directed to you, but anybody.

-

So, why is Charles Ede`s vision still relevant in 2020 for devotees? If I owned FS (sadly I lost out in the bidding round) I would have wanted to create my own thing, not being "shackled" by a vision created in the aftermath of WW2. Owners are free to create their own business model are they not, it sort of lies in the name of ownership, upon the times they live in. I`m not picking sides, but that seem logic to me.

Edited for humorous attempt ..

79Conte_Mosca
nov. 26, 2020, 3:48 pm

>78 Pellias:

Not really feeling that one I am afraid. Having a vision to produce great literature in a great format at an affordable price (to paraphrase) hardly seems like a shackle. It seems as appropriate a vision for 2020 as ever.

80Pellias
nov. 26, 2020, 4:10 pm

>79 Conte_Mosca: My point is, did the new owners buy Ede's vision along with the FS when he sold in '71. That is my point. I am only curious, that 's all, nothing else.

Also. FS sold limited editions back then also. Was they within the reach and meant for everyman? Again, only curious.

81SF-72
nov. 26, 2020, 5:03 pm

>79 Conte_Mosca:

I see it the same way. A really positive motto, and a shame to drop it. And it's not like that seems to have happened right after the change but fairly recently.

82Pellias
nov. 26, 2020, 11:59 pm

>81 SF-72: I think most of us do see it that way. Not many like a negative motto. But, that positive motto that came with Ede can sometimes be seen nowadays as connected to an argument used against the more modern Folio Society like they broke some norms and was not true to their customers, when Ede left the building 50 years ago. That can be sort of a confusing argument when it is no longer as relevant as it is described as it once was.

Personally it is nice with "affordable editions" for everyman. Everyone should be able to afford a book. To be fair there are other publishers out there more sensible in price for that. FS is sort of luxury, kind of, and if FS was to downgrade their books to make it affordable to everyone then likely this devotee page on librarything would not excist as it does, and the market would be different.

I and many probably like me, have nothing to compare with, and just want gorgeous books (within a pricerange we can afford from time to time of course).

I am by no means saying FS are perfect in everyway as I know them, they do slip up now and again. But that often falls back to what would come in conflict with a personal preferance of mine.

83Conte_Mosca
Editat: nov. 27, 2020, 2:16 am

>80 Pellias:

I can't speak for John Letts and Halfdan Lynner who purchased the Folio Society in 1971, although given their output and pricing during the years 1971-1982, I strongly suspect they shared Ede's version. Lord Gavron, who purchased FS in 1982, certainly did and was very clear in stating so. He was a keen bibliophile, so FS was more than just a business for him. When he died in 2015, his heirs brought in editorial and marketing leadership from the Reader's Digest, and it seems to have gone downhill from there.

I have never really fully embraced the LE programme, but in the past it was only ever a small sideline, and didn't, in my view, conflict with their core vision. Recently, however, it seems to have come very much (too much) to the fore.

And as for affordability, it isn't about who does things more cheaply. It is that combination of "in a format worthy of the contents" and "within the reach of Everyman". That doesn't mean the "most affordable".

84Pellias
nov. 27, 2020, 4:23 am

>83 Conte_Mosca: I see the point about the worthy content and everyman. Sorry for dumbing that down. But please do not call me stupid. I would not tolerate that !

I can and will not debate against the longtime FS customers out of respect of their own experiences, because they are private and not necessarily always mine, which is fine. I have only been active (though very) since 2014. I too have seen a difference, that those that found FS after me again did not experience.

The membeshipmodel from the Gavron`s was a nice thing to be a part of, even for a short period of time.

I sort of miss the origin of this post though. Discussing is fine, sometimes I learn something, but it often doesn`t lead anyplace new (that was not for you my friend >83 Conte_Mosca:) but 50 posts of rants, well, I have read much of it before, haha

85Conte_Mosca
Editat: nov. 27, 2020, 7:09 am

>84 Pellias:

Of all the things I might say, I would never call you stupid, my folio friend! You are anything but that!

And what was this thread about anyway? I have forgotten 😁

EDIT: Oh yes. The ones that got away. The one LE I have a pang of regret for missing, but won't buy for extortionate amounts on the secondary market because I can't afford it. But we won't go back around in circles ;-)

86Kainzow
nov. 27, 2020, 12:05 pm

>77 katielouise:
True, true.
You have a point.

Once things get back to normal, I'll get myself some books still on my wishlist.
Plus, I've realized that I'm only missing out on the Folio edition, not the book itself - which I can easily get in paperback.

87Pellias
nov. 27, 2020, 2:07 pm

>85 Conte_Mosca: Thank you. Glenn would (but he would wrap it up in some argument - only kidding). Now - you just found the blueprint for the thread, and now there is nothing left to talk about (spoilsport)!

88NiecyG
Editat: nov. 28, 2020, 7:27 pm

I regret missing out on the LE of Moby Dick, Liber Bestiarum, Leaves of Grass and the Master and Margarita. I wish folio would republish the last two.

89U_238
nov. 29, 2020, 12:19 am

>88 NiecyG: You can find Leaves of Grass relatively cheaply every now and then.

90dogwizard
nov. 29, 2020, 12:57 pm

Mort and Small Gods. Why did I wait so long?