Gravity's Rainbow hardback sought

[jd]

I've spoken with someone pretty knowledgeable in regards to first
editions of books like The Recognitions and of Gravity's Rainbow and
he told me that the prices people are asking (the $900 is somewhat
damaged mind you) are ridiculous.  Now, that uncorrected proof might
be worth the 4k+, and that signed copy - wee-ow.  I imagine it's a
fake, but who knows.  But just a plain ol' first edition which tends
to hover around $2500, or $1500 for The Recognitions (I could have
gotten a perfect first edition for just over a hundred on ebay if a
bidding war didn't ensue - it actually sold for $100, I still kind of
kick myself for it, but...)....

What he told me was that trade books are pretty much worthless.  You
can never know how much the company has printed and they're apparently
somewhat vague about the number, so while a book from the 50s or 70s
might be at $2500 now, it might not be worth all that much in the
future once the fanboyism and the real numbers come out.  I don't know
if fanboyism is really going to die off for either of these books, but
the man I spoke with is an antiquarian book collector and seems to
really know his stuff (and the antiquarian bookstores in the area seem
to have a good deal of respect for him)... but basically the reason
they're that price seems to be because people are willing to pay the
price, not because they're really all that valuable.

Kind of a tangent but since someone posted that ABE link I figured I'd
pass on the two cents someone passed on to me.

On an unrelated note, I wonder how many first editions of Rising Up
and Rising Down McSweeney's printed?  Got mine for $80 and it's
flawless save for some minor wear on the third edition (never carrying
a volume in my backpack again)...  I see that it's going for anywhere
between $400 and $1000 on amazon now.

On 8/23/06, Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Thta's the English paperback that has been sold here in Germany in the 80s.
>
> Otto
>
> 2006/8/23, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>:
> >
> > This paperback one on ebay has an interesting cover I'd never seen before:
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/THOMAS-PYNCHON-Gravity-s-Rainbow-PICADOR_W0QQitemZ190023208208QQihZ009QQcategoryZ29224QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
> >
> > Cheers
> > JC
> >
>