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Hi George,

In respect to your hunt for used books, you are likely aware that there is a
small industry which is worth mentioning that is reprinting long out of
print books on demand. The cost is quite a bit more than the $3 you quoted,
but is still very reasonable if you want something that otherwise may not be
available.

FYI, I was just presented with a copy of HO 211 "Ageton" published in 1943
by our then Hydrographic Office. It is amazing what was compressed into a
single tiny little book.

What make this particular book noteworthy is that it was autographed to me
by Bob "Crip" Crippen who was the first commander of STS 1, the Columbia
space shuttle, and later the commanding officer of the Kennedy Space Center.
It was from his personal library.

This is not an attempt to sell it. It is not for sale, but it is a neat
little book that someone may not know about.

Joel


----- Original Message -----
From: "George Huxtable" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 4:35 AM
Subject: Buying secondhand maritime books. Was: How was GMT originally
established ?


> Bill Allen wrote, referring to "The Marine Chronometer" by Rupert Gould-
>
> > I tried to searched Abebooks (I think I did it properly), but I
> >will try it again and periodically in the future.
>
> and-
>
> >By the way, I purchased the Andrewes book on the lunar symposium (that
> >you mentioned).  It looks fantastic -- thank you for that insight.
>
> This was   "The Quest for Longitude", ed, William J H Andrewes, Harvard,
> 1996. I would be interested to know how much Bill had to pay for his copy,
> if he doesn't mind telling.
>
> ===============
>
> Buying secondhand maritime books.
>
> I am something of a book-freak, the problem being that there's now little
> free wall-space left at home, to put more bookshelves against. Books are
> bought for their content, not as a "collector" looking for increasing
> value; so I don't mind them being a bit grubby as long as they are intact.
> If an old book is really falling apart, it will then be cheap to buy,
which
> might make a rebind, or retightening, worthwhile. Within reach of Oxford,
> there are many local bookbinders, as you might expect.
>
> I am a denizen of secondhand bookshops, at which you can sometimes find
> remarkable bargains in maritime books. For example, I 've found in a local
> shop a copy of Norie's Navigation of 1900 for ?2 (about $3). This is the
> combined volume, text and tables, of over 1000 pages (they were often sold
> split). The interesting aspect of this edition is that the tables relating
> to clearing lunars had not yet been culled.
>
> Being a regular customer, I get catalogues posted to me from several
> maritime bookdealers in the UK. Of course, having been sorted and listed
by
> a specialist, they are no longer cheap.
>
> But my book searching isn't confined to the UK, and I often find stuff at
a
> lower price in the US or Canada, which compensates for the shipping cost.
>
> Mostly, I use www.abebooks.com to find my books, and this has worked well,
> so far. You search by author and title, and if lucky come up with a list
of
> several booksellers who have it in stock. If you use "advanced search",
you
> can specify what country or countries the seller must be in, if you wish,
> and specify cheapest-first in that listing. Prices are always quoted in
> $US-equivalent, but of course you have to pay in the seller's local
> currency.
>
> One problem is that you sometimes find that the book has already been
sold,
> but the dealer has been slow to remove it from the abebooks "shop-window".
>
> Having found your book at a dealer, you can click on that dealer to find
> his details, and do the rest directly with him, by phone or email, which
is
> what I always do.
>
> Alternatively, abebooks offers the opportunity to buy directly through
> them. In that case they will charge a 10% commission to the dealer, so the
> prices he lists on abebooks will have already been boosted by 10%. I don't
> buy that way.
>
> If you are buying directly from a dealer, you can use that as an argument
> to ask for a 10% discount on the price he has listed on abebooks, and will
> often succeed.
>
> When buying "blind" like this, I have found the book-trade to be generally
> honest and to describe the condition of the books on offer fairly. I
> usually pay by credit-card, but a few small US dealers ask for cash. They
> are usually happy to hold the book for a week or so, long enough to
acquire
> the necessary dollar-bills and post them off. This might seem risky, but
it
> appears to work.
>
> I understand that amazon books also offers a second-hand service, but
> charges dealers a 20% commission.
>
> It would be interesting to learn about the experiences of other maritime
> bookworms, with any hints and tips.
>
> George.
>
> ================================================================
> contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at
> 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
> Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
> ================================================================

   

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