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does anyone have much experience of selling off occult books second hand - well the same could be said of any book that is out of print I suppose, my question is do they really sell for the inflated prices you see on amazon or ebay
for example New Avatar Power is listed for hundreds of pounds (when it is quite easy to find as a pdf) and John Mumford Magical Tattwa Cards are advertised £200-400 used the prices are very high
and thats another thing it seems to me like a lot of finbarr books are listed on ebay for more than they sell on the finbarr site
do you think items like that would readily be sold for the asking price

Yes, they do. I have sold many out of print books including NAP for hundreds of dollars. The special editions that sell for thousands really do move around collectors. These people hate the pdfs and find value in owning the work. Many claim to be magically charged talismans

It's no different from rare art, vinyl, and regular non occult books

fraterai wrote:Yes, they do. I have sold many out of print books including NAP for hundreds of dollars. The special editions that sell for thousands really do move around collectors. These people hate the pdfs and find value in owning the work. Many claim to be magically charged talismans

It's no different from rare art, vinyl, and regular non occult books

I bet you've made a couple of G's doing that ha? (;

Yes and no.
There is a guy that's been trying to sell his snakeskin limited edition for 700 dollars for about 2 years now. So far nobody has been interested. I offered him 50 bucks, but he never return my mail

However old books can certainly go for a hefty sum. I've lost several bidding wars on antique books. They have no problem reaching the 100 dollar mark. I imagine on a bigger market like in the states this price can go even higher.

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However, there is some funny business in the limited edition occult book area. A lot of these companies prints 100 books. Tells there costumer that it is only 50 editions, pre-sale all of them and then throw up one book at the time on ebay and such site, and that's when you get those insanely inflated prices.
I've seen more then one book hit ebay the same day as the official release and often for a higher price than they were asking for. And I've seen so many first edition "number 1" that it's ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if they print about 10 "number 1".

Des - can you name any specific publishers who have been caught inflating their own prices? Would love to avoid at all _cost_ [lol]

Esoteric knowledge isn't generally attached to a price tag. At least, not one associated with dollar signs.

More expensive, more rare, more ancient...

...Not necessarily relevant factors.

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/severedhead
http://nephilimpress.com/
http://www.ixaxaar.com/
http://scarletimprint.com/books/
http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/
http://www.salamanderandsons.com/
http://www.ishtarpublishing.com/
http://balkansarcanebindings.blogspot.se/
http://www.primalcraft.com/index.php?p= ... -Sacrifice
http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/ce ... of-heaven/
http://sitraahra.blogspot.se/
http://ouroboros-press.bookarts.org/
http://www.aeonsophiapress.com/
http://xoanon.co.uk/publications/the-dr ... -of-essex/
http://www.fieldsbooks.com/cgi-bin/fields/index.html
http://kerubimpress.com/

So for example, Dragon Book of Essex, are you talking about the 10 privately printed books they mention ("A private initiatic edition of ten copies") in the description or are you talking about some shadier method of duping? Sorry i'm a bit confused but very interested, and how do you know that all of these books have done this? You said you wouldn't be surprised but how do you know?

fraterai wrote:SYou said you wouldn't be surprised but how do you know?

By talking to other collectors and by watching the market. I was once offered number 1 of "exu", but I know the guy who owns that book. And when we looked in to it, there was another number 1 in turkey too.

Thank you very much for your input, but isn't it a bit of stretch to charge each of these publishers with this? Or is it really as simple as watching the prices? This is really sad i'm glad I was never more than simply inspired by most of these works

fraterai wrote:Thank you very much for your input, but isn't it a bit of stretch to charge each of these publishers with this? Or is it really as simple as watching the prices? This is really sad i'm glad I was never more than simply inspired by most of these works

I think you should be careful when somebody over the internet says something. I could be lying, or I could have misunderstood, or I'm just a pesky old troll.

Also this doesn't reflect bad on the author. Other than obvious frauds like E.A. Koetting, I think most of them have pure intentions but the funny business is done by the publishers/printers.

There is also a possibility that someone else is copying these books and printing them cheap in asia. Or that somebody close to the publishers are getting the books very quickly and posts them on ebay in the attempt to make a profit.

All I can say is from personal experience I have seen: Multiple copies of so called limited editions. Books showing up on ebay the same day as the book is published, and for inflated prices. And books that are supposed to be completely out of print still shows up on such a frequent rate that I can only suppose that they are printing new copies.

And I don't have a single shred of evidence.

That is okay! I was just seeking a deeper explanation of your conclusion, you have clarified well. Thanks for the info

This is frustrating for me as I am a student and managed to buy the tattwa cards from a boot sale second hand but still need a book called Magical Tattwa cards by John Mumford but it's over £100 I would be happy with the PDF but can't find it anywhere.

WalkingSoul you have a PM.

There is a known Australian book shark that operates by buying limited editions from Ixaxaar and other publishers and then relisting them on Ebay. This isnt done by the publishers in the main but unscrupulous people like him.

There was alot of arguement with him on Balkans Arcane bindings.. hes doing what general ticket touts do. Considering the market for limited editions is small, however, publisher DO still sell him some simply to get them shifted which is where he makes the killing down the line.

Publishers should black list him imho, but thats just my personal opinion on the matter.

*EDIT*

http://balkansarcanebindings.blogspot.c ... lping.html