What are the things that get on your nerves when collecting books?
Mine is when an out of print book is being sold as a collectible or just outrageous pricing.
I’ve been looking for the third book in the John Connor Chronicles (terminator series) since I have and read the first two. It’s a mass market paperback and I can’t find it for under 50 bucks. Had this happen with a few different novels and other books. Mostly with tie-in novels.
by supermikeman
6 Comments
You should see Black Library books – they’re the Warhammer publishing company. Most of their stuff is fairly limited runs, and it doesn’t seem uncommon for the hardcovers to hit $100 on ebay.
Different heights in books. Its mostly because I buy my books used, but I hate seeing the inconsistent book heights when I shelve my books.
When a series suddenly changes format/size/design. It happens more with graphic novels, but when logos and numbering on dust jackets change or a HC series goes to a different format and that uniformity is gone my inner collector demon throws a fit.
I expect things to get expensive when they go out of print.
I think that my only real pet peeve is when books in a series don’t get the same publishing treatment or when a book series gets reprinted, but then the reprints stop before the full series gets the treatment.
It’s purely aesthetic, but it’s really satisfying when the books are all together on the shelf and they have similar physical designs. I love the Parker series, and the University of Chicago Press released them all in paperback with bold covers; they look great together.
I was collecting the Sandman Mystery Theatre graphic novels, and they just never bothered to release the final volumes (which has happened twice).
I also collect some comics. I suspect a lot a scalpers there too, because you’d see out if print comics for double of triple the price. I don’t play that game.
It kills me when books have some random colored spine. Can’t we have just ONE hardback copy of each book that’s black so they all look nice on a bookshelf??