Andre Norton Forum

Re: Scarcity

: Since we've just seen a couple of the less common titles fly by(*), I was curious about what really are the most scarce. Based mostly on watching the online sources for the past eight or nine months, I'd hazard something like the following list. I am counting original hardcover editions (as opposed to paperback and re-issues), but also including relative availability of ex-libes and later printings. The list is partly ranked, partly just clumped, and I'm considerably less certain about the second half.

: 1) Prince Commands : 2) Murders For Sale : 3) Ralestone Luck : 4) Follow the Drum : 5) Yankee Privateer : 6) Sword In Sheath : 7) Sargasso of Space : 8) Bertie and May : 9) Plague Ship : 10) Huon of the Horn : 11) Day of the Ness : 12) Ride the Green Dragon : 13) Outside : 14) Rebel Spurs : 15) Shadow Hawk : 16) Stand to Horse

I think that you have most of the books that are sought by collectors. Remember there are two things that make a book scarce - ok maybe 3. *The first thing is age. The older the book, the harder to find. PRINCE COMMANDS is the oldest, and hardest to find. *The second thing is print runs. How many books there ever were. Again the older the book the less the print runs were. MURDERS FOR SALE was a small print run, and only in the UK. *The third thing is state. If there are 3 million paper backs, most people will have one of those - leaving the 'firsts' to the collector.

I would add ISLAND OF THE LOST to that list, but maybe that is just for completists like me & Joe.

I was asked last month about a book MONSTERS LEGACY. Seems some pretty reputable book dealers had never heard of it. That book, like RIDE THE GREEN DRAGON, are children's books, and were badly marketed. You had to be, like me, haunting the lists in LOCUS and order the books from your local store. Both of these were remaindered VERY early.

The longer you are in the hunt. The less you need to find. Once you have found a book, you are less likely to notice when it comes up for sale - OR that it doesn't come up for sale ever again.

Notice that SWORD IS DRAWN isn't on the scarce list. I thought that it was strange that only one of the Sword Series books made your scarce list - but that is correct. There must have been a much larger print run for SWORD IS DRAWN (WWII underground) than the later SWORD IN SHEATH (post war adventure on the high seas).