When can saving $60 actually end up costing you hundreds of dollars?

When you find a Fine/Fine 1st HC of this one at your local Half-Price Books, a $75 book for just $15:



Admittedly, I've been wanting to read it since the series project was first announced a number of years ago...but then I realize it's the just first $75 volume of a proposed many (8?) $75 volumes, and I get a little obsessive about things of this sort...   

Fortunately, the Kent State University Press that puts these out appears to do so once every 18 to 24 months (volume 3 has yet to appear some 18 months later), so I suppose that's not too bad.  Now I just need to find a screaming deal on Volume 2.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RonClinton,

I think you've worked it out, Ron: put aside a few dollars a month, and you accumulate enough savings to buy each new volume as they slowly appear!

The next volume is nearing completion, by the way. Jon Eller (the editor) was busily writing the introductory material at the beginning of this year, and the whole thing will be going to the press soon (if it hasn't already gone).

A lot of work goes into these volumes: locating the correct manuscript, not an easy task; transcribing the text and carefully comparing the text to other versions of the same story; producing all the scholarly "apparatus" (the minutiae at the back that most of us don't read, but which is really the main value of these books from a historical/academic point of view); and preparing the introductory and contextual essays that allow the reader to make sense of the collection.

If it were the only thing Jon Eller did, it may not take long to do. But it's just one of many tasks which occupy his time at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies!

Thanks for the insight, phil, and the general update on Volume 3. I need to hurry up, then, and find a deal on Volume 2 (or just bite the bullet) before I find myself already falling behind.

Ron, tell me about it.

I rushed to buy the first volume, but the landscape has changed dramatically since then. I've lost about 80% of my income, my local currency has depreciated sharply, and import duties add an extra sting to the already high outlay. All that is bad enough, but there are postal delivery problems as well.

So, sadly, I haven't bought Volume 2 yet, but I'll keep looking for a practical way to acquire it!

Glad to know I am not the only one still waiting to purchase Volume 2! I really enjoyed Volume 1 and do want the others!

The reason the price is so high is because university presses often don't publish their books under the usual trade-pricing parameters. For example, the 'wholesale trade rate' between publishers and distributors has traditionally been 55% off the cover price since like the 1920's.

The reason for this is because it gives Amazon, Amazon jobbers, ('also available from these sellers...') bookstores, and other wholesalers some wiggle room to make a profit. When presses don't do this, all of those entities will be reluctant to list the book for sale. Nothing in it for them.

Amazon will list the book at full retail, but they don't make much money on it either. But then university presses aren't generally in the book selling business to make a profit, or hit the NYT bestseller list. They are usually subsidized in one way or another.

Robert the Publisher Guy...registered US trade publisher. One option is to search out Ingram and try to establish an account with them. You might still get the book(s) a lot cheaper. Ingram, the yearly publishers of the tome 'Books in Print,' are the largest distributor of books on Planet Earth. Most bookstores, or book wholesalers, have an account with them. If you can convince them you are a reseller somehow, you'll not only pay less for any book available, but get early copies of any book you desire. You just have to get an account with them. Most of the time you will pay half price or less.

Failing that, try Amazon for the book. It's cheaper there from certain sellers. No worries buying cheaper at Amazon, not generally. Amazon is fairly ruthless. When a vendor screws customers, Amazon pays you back what you deserve, and then deletes the vendor's account, never to return. The vast majority of vendors at Amazon won't risk that. Check for positive ratings before you buy.

Here is a link to the book at Amazon right now: (notice cheaper prices available, looks like they DID release at the trade rate)
http://www.amazon.com/Collecte...ries+of+ray+bradbury

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Robert M Blevins,

Great insights, thanks Robert.

One other dimension to the academic press business as it relates to collections like these: the licensing of the copyrighted material is usually predicated on a limited print run. So it's not like HarperCollins publishing a Bradbury short story collection, where they can print as many as they like, and can take advantage of economies of scale.

I bought the first one new, but since then my income has fallen to about 20% of what it was, the exchange rate is sharply worse, and the import costs are pretty punishing as well. So I just can't justify the expense, and I'll look out for a used copy.

I do hope that Eller and Touponce remain alive to the possibility of a popular edition, though I'm aware that prof. Touponce said, some time back, that it was hard to get a publisher interested.

I love the scholarly content, but if push came to shove, I'd settle for something like that Far Territories paperback of Summer Morning, Summer Night.

A quick update on COLLECTED STORIES volume 3: I hear that the tentative plan is for June 2017.

Still a lot of typesetting, design and proof-checking to be done.

I *just* pulled the trigger on the second volume at $53.91 from a secondary Amazon seller, having bought the first at a very good price some time back. I can't even express how incredible I think these collections are, and I can't wait to have the full set of 8 (hopefully) in my hands and fully read someday. Great to hear that Volume 3 is imminent!

--SKot