Notable rare astrological book auctions - ongoing strand

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I thought maybe it would be tidier to place notable listings and results for rare astrological books in a dedicated ongoing strand within this board, so the other announcements in this board are not crowded out by too many separate strands having this one particular purpose!

I'll personally restrict my input on this to genuinely rare (mostly but not all of which will be at least half a century or so old) astrology books that are very hard to find at an affordable price, if at all, on the general used bookseller listings, and so when a copy does come up at auction it can be interesting to know about it and also to see what it fetches on the free auction market.

To begin with, a few interesting results (all fetching at least US $100) noticed on ebay last week and earlier in November:

1. What I presume to be a later hardcover edition of Sepharial's 'The Law of Values', published by the 'Astro Dynamic Publishing Company', and date-marked 1948 by a previous owner, confounded my every expectation by selling for an outlandish $399. I bid a lowly $35, which was the third highest bid, but there were two bidders who clearly thought it was worth at least $395, hence the result. If this was indeed a later edition, surely this price must be a mistake on the part of those two bidders? I just wonder what a 1920s Foulsham copy would fetch.... Needless to say, I'm happy enough with my Ballantrae reprint of this title!

2. A softcover first edition of Fakir Chandra Dutt's 'Market Forecasting' (1949), another classic financial astrology text, this copy not in the best condition but solidly bound all the same, sold for $164.49, to the second highest bidder on the 'Law of Values' lot. This too is available much more cheaply in a Ballantrae Reprint form.

3. A softcover first edition of L J Jensen's 'Astro-Economic Interpretation' from 1936 sold for $127.50. It is a pamphlet of just 28 pages, by the way. A previous listing of the same book early in 2006 sold for around $76, so this one seems to be consistently popular. It's otherwise available as an appendix to a reprint by the Lambert-Gann Publishing Company of another work by Jensen to this day, for a much more reasonable cost.

4. A hardcover first edition of James Langham's 'Cyclical Market Forecasting: Stocks and Grain' from 1938 sold for $110.07. This is also available very much more cheaply as a Ballantrae Reprint.

These results underscore a consistent observation: early and otherwise rare financial astrology books in early editions are highly collectible. I think (speculating somewhat here) a major reason for this is that there are many more active financial astrologers now than there were back in the early part of the 20th century, so the original numbers of copies printed have failed to meet with the continuing demand.

5. A 1789 first edition (in translation) of 'Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy' by Placido de Titis, as translated by Manoah Sibly, sold for $152. This is a lot lower than the asking price of booksellers for this title, something of a bargain really.

6. A 1937 second edition, complete in five volumes (without dustjackets), of A. E. Housman's edition of Manilius sold for $371.66 early this month (November 2006). Retailers generally ask for at least $500 for this edition, which is in high demand and therefore rare second-hand even though there are plenty of libraries around the world that have it, so this price was reasonably fair for an auction. The first edition in five volumes, published 1903-1930 sequentially, was limited to five hundred copies I believe, and I have not yet seen a complete set listed used. Even the second edition has become highly collectible, clearly.

7. An original 1645 edition of 'A Collection of Ancient and Moderne Prophecies' by none other than William Lilly sold for $751.00, even though it is just 54 pages long. A very popular auction with many bids. Mr. Lilly's original works are clearly in very high demand with collectors.

That's all for now! I'll try to update this strand once every week or two if anything noteworthy crops up.

Philip

Two I bought myself: DeLuce and Pearce

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First update here:

Unlike any of the books in Message 1, which fetched over $100 each, the following two were ones I personally bought on ebay this month (November). They both came in the $50 to $75 region in free auction bidding. I hope it doesn't seem terribly indulgent to provide a personal commentary on my interest in and other miscellaneous facts about these two books!

1. First edition of Robert DeLuce's 'Complete Method of Prediction' (1935) - $64, G+ condition, only about 75 pages long. No unsold copies listed on used book networks. I'm looking forward to comparing it with the 1960s paperback version that was enlarged mostly by the addition of a large number of tables. One of those books, like William Davidson's lectures on medical astrology, that is perhaps best known to absolute beginners to astrology in name only, thanks to its inclusion in Linda Goodman's list of recommended astrology books at the back of 'Love Signs' (at least, that is where I heard of it first, back in my absolute beginner days in 1995!)

2. First edition of Alfred Pearce's 'The Science of the Stars' (published Simpkin Marshall, 1881) - $68. Only fair condition at best: first page loose and front cover detached, according to description. This auction finished only last night. My maximum bid on this was $77, so the outcome was a fine cut, the second bidder offering $67.

I have not seen a first edition on the used book networks the whole year in any condition, and the only unsold second edition (published Glen & co, 1898) that I've seen all year is in even worse condition with a split right through the middle of the spine and previous owner stamps affecting the text throughout, listed at the equivalent of $78! And I'm as sure as can be that this is the only copy of either edition that has been listed on ebay in the whole of 2006.

It seems in fact that Pearce's shorter introduction to the principles of mundane astrology and other branches of the art (which is the one and same 'The Science of the Stars') is rare in any edition. I tried using the WorldCatLibraries database and found no copies of the first edition in any registered library, and only about three or four of the second worldwide. Presumably rather more are in private hands, but if a sound copy of either edition comes up for auction, I expect it would be worth at least $100-$150 at auction, maybe more so now that Pearce's reputation is on the rise again. Still, a copy with a detached front cover and one loose page is better than nothing, to my way of thinking....

Since nobody has ever reprinted 'The Science of the Stars' (not even the ubiquitous Kessinger), I look forward to making it available to the astrological community in some ready form next year if the chance arises and nobody else does first!

By the way, if anyone out there has a first edition from 1889 of Volume 2 of Pearce's 'Text-Book of Astrology' and is willing to part with it, it would be my pleasure to swap with something of interest and comparable value to you. (I hope the administrators don't mind this proposal being posted, but if so please feel welcome to edit out this paragraph!)

Philip

Swann Galleries auction 4th Dec 06: Agrippa and Butler

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There are very few astrological book listings at upcoming major auctions currently, wihch is largely why my posts in this strand so far have been confined to remarks about the rarer ebay results.

But at Swann Galleries on December 4th there are two much rarer books responding to astrological keyword searches at Americana Exchange (which is the most useful website I've yet found for looking for upcoming major auction house listings by keyword, though you really have to try to use keywords present in the actual titles of books you might be interested in since these kinds of listings do not provide the lengthy descriptions or categorisations that would lead to a simple search for 'astrology' for example turning up all the results it would on ebay - just a quick tip there anyway!)

One is a first edition in English of Agrippa's 'Three Books of Occult Philosophy' (1651) - estimate $2000-$3000. The high value of Agrippa's early editions in both Latin and English seems fairly typical of what I've observed in the last few years, that books with a broader occult appeal beyond astrology have much higher values for a given prevalence of copies than those strictly on astrology, owing no doubt to a greater volume of collectors.

The other is a book from 1680 reportedly called 'Hagiastrologia, or the most sacred and divine science of astrology' by one Samuel Butler, estimated at $500-750. This sounds to me like the kind of obscure title ideal for someone who already owns an astrological library complete with all the better known classics - I can honestly say that I'm a long way short of that position! I really ought to look this up in Gardner and Thorndike for further information. In fact I tried looking up Butler in the index of the 17th century volumes of Thorndike a couple of days ago, now I come to think of it, and failed to show up anything, but surely Gardner must have the answers? Or if Gardner doesn't, then no doubt Christopher Warnock would! :)

By the way, Swann Galleries does not accept credit cards, in case anyone here is actually interested in bidding on either of these! Just a warning there from experience of having made a previous enquiry....

Philip

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...a simple search for 'astrology' for example turning up all the results it would on ebay - just a quick tip there anyway...
It took me a little while to work it out, so this may save someone some time. Ebay's search facility is more sophisticated than it looks and you can use wildcards. Therefore, it's a good idea to search astrol* rather than astrology as that will throw up searches for astrology, astrological, astrologer and all the various European language variations. Even better is astrol* 17* (or whatever other number you want) and this will restrict the search to older texts.

And I assume you've already found Goofbay?

Kim
www.kimfarnell.co.uk

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I was prompted by these posts to dig out the catalogues that Crown and Spellman sent me when I purchased my copy of CA from them. It is enough to make you cry. Hundreds of beautiful rare texts just waiting to be purchased by those who can afford it. My interests stretch further than just astrology but most of what I am interested in is not that far removed. Unfortunately, I could barely afford the postage at the moment. Still, it is interesting to see what is there. I went through a stage where I bought some first editions from ebay but I try to stay away from it these days. I have neither the time or the money and I am very weak willed when it comes to books so I am just as likely to buy things I can ill afford.

Thanks for keeping us updated Philip. It is interesting to know what is happening.

Kim's ebay search tips, and some of mine

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Very useful to know, Kim - thank you! I wasn't aware of the ability to use the asterisk that way. And the date search sounds very useful too.

What I have gradually refined over the course of the past year is the following search:

(astrology,astrological,astrologer,astrologers,horary,zodiac,zodiacs,zodiacal,horoscopic, nativities,astrologia,astrologiae,astrologie,astrologique,astrologiques,astrologue,astrologues) -ford -mindwarp -mannering

(By the way, there shouldn't be a break or space between horoscopic, and nativities in the above, but I had to break up the text for viewing purposes as it made the page go too wide otherwise)

This usefully omits annoying results about the Ford Zodiac car, the many, many listings of the famous novel 'Guy Mannering, or the Astrologer' by Walter Scott, and any old copies of Smash Hits and similar magazines with features on the rock band Zodiac Mindwarp! I also left out the word 'nativity' in the singular since although there are a few astrological books with this word in, there are a lot more theological ones which tend to crowd out the results.

I run the search exclusively in the 'Books' category, generally in ebay.com as opposed to ebay.co.uk because although the latter picks up some results that ship only to the UK or Europe, the former picks up a lot that nominally ship only to the US, but experience has taught me that a certain percentage of these sellers can be persuaded to make exceptions for a serious-sounding buyer!

Also, I select the 'Auctions' tab only, not allowing any 'Buy It Now' results to appear. This is chiefly because if the 'all results' option is taken, an enormous volume of irrelevant results for the keyword 'astrologie' suddenly appears from Germany in particular!

Within 'Books', the subcategory (within ebay.com only - doesn't exist in ebay.co.uk in the same way) 'Antiquarian and Collectible' tends to pick up most of the more important older books, so can be worth checking first before trawling laboriously through the general results!

Then finally it's worth occasionally checking the search category 'Antiques - Books and Manuscripts'. This category does not even exist in ebay.co.uk, so you have to be in ebay.com to view it; and while it mostly contains manuscripts, it does contain some really old and valuable astrology books too, and just occasionally something more affordable which the seller should really have listed in 'Books' but hasn't done! A copy of Bonatti's 'Decem Tractatus Astronomie' was listed here repeatedly earlier this year, and eventually after changing the price many times the seller managed to sell it for a best offer of $5000, which was a fantastic buy for a book that normally retails at $10000, but completely out of the financial reach of virtually all of us here I'm sure! (I have a copy of the UMI print-on-demand hardcover reprint, which cost about $250 and is very clearly legible with the exception of a few marginal notes).

By the way, Kim, might I ask if you have any plans to release your two currently pdf-only books as hard copies in the future? I would be among the first to purchase if so! I have a Ballantrae reprint of Ramesey but am eager for the enlightenment afforded by your scholarly annotations. :)

I'll reply to Sue a little later today - on this strand and the other where she answered one of my posts, and will reply to Mark's posts there too in due course. (Apologies for my slow responses generally of late, by the way! I've been a bit tied up domestically with a baby to mind while my wife is trying to recover from pneumonia.)

Very best wishes,

Philip

Reply to Sue

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Dear Sue,

I fully agree with you about Krown & Spellman's listings, though I haven't seen a printed catalogue of theirs! They have a fine array of rare astrological books for sale to this day, although some of those remaining are probably unsold because of defects in their condition in my opinion. I have bought a couple of items from them and found their service to be efficient and reliable. I imagine that they must have bought a huge occult and astrological collection at some time several years ago or earlier, not all of the spoils of which have yet been sold.

They currently have no fewer than two first editions of Gadbury's 'The Doctrine of Nativities' for sale, priced at $1500 each. I was quite interested in these, but eventually managed to buy a copy on ebay for $650, lacking the frontispiece portrait but with all text, including the tables and the Doctrine of Horary Questions, complete. Having said that, the paper is rather fragile, and for study purposes the completely retyped Ascella edition is best except when it comes to the tables which were not reprinted in the Ascella edition. [As far as I'm aware, 'The Doctrine of Nativities' was one of Ascella's last publications, so probably very few copies of the Ascella edition have been produced, and I was lucky to buy one in 2003 when it was briefly available.]

They also have a defective 1676 edition of Coley's 'Clavis astrologiae elimata' for sale, priced at $1250. If it were not for the two missing pages in the main body of text, I am sure this would have sold by now. I expect it will do before long in any case despite those two missing pages, which could probably be restored with the help of a photocopy at reasonable cost I imagine. Some of the prefatory pages are also missing from this copy, and some of the tables at the end. A complete first edition of Coley is high on my lists of future wants when I have the money for it, but there is none for sale anywhere currently and nor could I afford it if there was one! It's a pity that most of the bound reprints of Coley are so heavily truncated. I've been trying to contact Carol Wiggers through her website about the JustUs reprint in this regard, since I suspect she will have done a more complete job, but have not heard back from her yet and have no idea if her reprint is still available even.

Krown and Spellman list identical prices on Alibris and Abebooks and other networks to those in their website-based catalogue. This means that they may be willing, if you ask politely and respectfully in advance, as I have no doubt any of the astrologers from this forum would do, to offer a 10% discount on their list prices for direct purchases from their catalogue, since they will be saving at least that much through your dealing with them directly in any case.

But by the sound of it you're in a similar situation to me currently of having run out of money for the more major purchases. Perhaps someone else reading this will find it useful however.

Other noteworthy items in the Krown and Spellman catalogue include some of Gadbury's more minor works. However, these are quite expensive for their length, and since Christopher Warnock has been generous enough to include pdfs of all of them on his Renaissance Astrology CD series (together with Coley and 'The Doctrine of Nativities' incidentally) I should think that most of us can do without original editions of these even if we have aspirations for originals of some of the best-loved works such as Christian Astrology!

Glad you appreciate the auction updates etc.!

Best wishes,

Philip

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What I have gradually refined over the course of the past year is the following search:
With wildcards, you can refine that to astrol*, horary, zodia*, horosc*, nativities, -ford -mindwarp -mannering. Another one I like is almana* astrol* and date.

There?s a sub category of books on ebay.co.uk of Antiquarian Books (Pre-1940), but a lot of people in the UK tend to ignore it when listing and an entry there usually implies that the price will be higher. Though I've noticed that prices have gone up over the last year or so for old astrology texts in general on Ebay. Old Raphael texts in particular seem to have risen in price.
By the way, Kim, might I ask if you have any plans to release your two currently pdf-only books as hard copies in the future? I would be among the first to purchase if so! I have a Ballantrae reprint of Ramesey but am eager for the enlightenment afforded by your scholarly annotations.
Afraid not in the near future. Ramesey would be problematic for me to produce at present in hard copy because of previous agreements. I assume the second one you refer to is the sex one? That's down to one day, when I have time to expand it. Unless you have an urge to read it in Serbian, where it does exist in hard copy :D

Kim
www.kimfarnell.co.uk

Various

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Thank you Kim for the further advice on keywords, and the information about your books!

As you might have guessed, I couldn't read Serbian for the life of me, but I'll keep an eye open for any future announcement you may make concerning a printed version in English. (By the way, does traditional astrology have a particularly strong following among Serbian-speaking people, or is it mainly your work and that of John Frawley that is particularly popular in those regions of Europe? Please excuse my complete ignorance in this regard - I'm just naively culturally curious!) I'm sure that even the existing version is a very well-researched compilation of wisdom on the subject, since you are a meticulous researcher and a very learned one at that!

What I did with my pre-existing keyword selection on ebay was save it as a 'saved search' so I don't need to type it all in again each time. The saved search feature also seems to save parameters such as whether it is in ebay.com or ebay.co.uk, and whether the search is worldwide (which I always tick manually otherwise) or specific to the country where the particular ebay site is based! So this saves time in any case, though I don't remember whether it saves the ticking of the 'Search for both title and description' box which always is needed.... But anyway, I also use the Saved Search feature to save searches for certain very particular book and author keywords, with email notifications attached when matches appear.

You might also have noticed that I omitted 'horoscope' and 'horoscopes' from my regular search as terms, since I've found these bring up large numbers of ordinary used magazines that happen to have a 'monthly horoscopes' feature in them somewhere but are otherwise completely useless for astrological learning and research purposes, and also a very large number of much more basic astrology books. I used to include them but I cut them out to make trawling through the results less tedious. However, certain significant books such as the terribly rare 'Horoscopes and History' by J.D. North could go missing on this basis, so I would input them as separate email-notifying searches, by preference.

Anyhow, moving back to the topic of the upcoming Swann auction for a moment: Gardner does indeed have it, on page 24 of his Bibliotheca Astrologica, only the title appears in what I presume to be Greek lettering that I don't know how to replicate here, but which resembles ATIAETPONOTIA' in appearance, with the proviso that what I have written as 'T' appears in fact as an 'L' would if reflected vertically through the x-axis on a mathematical graph, while the 'N' in fact appears as a vertically reflected 'V', and the 'E' as an 'M' rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. I am not sure of the names for these letters, presuming they are indeed Greek, but it is entry 192 in Gardner in any case, so perhaps someone with more knowledge can kindly explain! How this has become 'Hagiastrologia' for the purposes of the Swann listing, I dread to imagine....

Since Gardner's work was published in 1911, it would be theoretically possible to reprint it in its entirety online without fear of breach of copyright, and in fact that might be a useful resource if it hasn't already been done. But I'll limit myself here to his particular comments on the John Butler book:

'There are two title-pages, and the work is chiefly a diatribe against Dr. Henry More, the Platonist, with a long-winded sermon on things in general, and Astrology in particular. The Author was Chaplain to the Duke of Ormond; he began to study Astrology in order to confute it, but became instead a convert to the science, and an able exponent of its doctrines'.

Sounds to me as though Gardner found it a little tiresome despite its ultimate sympathies in astrology's favour!

I suspect that the price rises for old astrology books on ebay owe themselves in no small part to more people having broadband access than before and coming to realise what a lot of good books crop up there, which results in more bidders per book and therefore more of them fetching closer to the typical dealer retail price than previously. I fear that the publicity generated by this topical strand and others of a similar nature may indirectly increase prices still further, but as Tom has recently pointed out elsewhere, in a more impersonal sense it is generally healthy to fuel the demand for second-hand astrology books of rarity, both in order to increase awareness of their contents among astrologers (and strengthen the market for reprints in the process, making their contents more affordable to non-collecting astrologers too, albeit in reprint form) and in order to encourage the preservation of the remaining copies.

I've noticed that two first editions of Raphael's 'Manual of Astrology' from 1828 have fetched at least $300 this year, which is not far short of the typical dealer price of $500 or so for the original 1828 C.S. Arnold edition. I remember a couple of copies of the same edition, both in excellent condition, going for just over ?100 sterling each in early 2005 (I think), so this does seem to represent a notable price increase for this one title alone. I wonder to what extent your articles about the Raphaels have affected the used value of their books, Kim? I'm sure you've done them no harm at the very least, and the same must be true of the works of Sepharial. :)

Must go now, so this will be a sudden end....

Best wishes,

Philip

Latest ebay auctions of rare astrology books spotted

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These are still in their course, and I felt it might be more useful to advise before they expire in addition to noting the eventual prices.

1) Adrian Greenwood, a well-known antiquarian bookdealer in the UK, is offering a 1590 Scaliger edition of Manilius with some defects here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

The starting price is 195GBP, about $384 currently since the dollar is unusually weak against the pound. Since it is missing 16 pages from the main body of text, I personally suspect it will go unsold, or at least not exceed the opening price by far. Complete copies of the same edition tend to retail for about $1000-$1500. The 1590 edition is enlarged from the 1579 one by an additional commentary by another writer, although the Manilius manuscript source text rendered in both 1579 and 1590 editions is considered inferior by scholars to that used in the shorter 1600 'second' Scaliger edition (which has a lot less commentary), if I recall correctly!

2) Another British seller is offering a set of the first five of Alan Leo's 'Astrology for All' volumes in 1912 editions, all in matching green bindings in exceptionally fine condition for the age. However, the opening price of 150GBP (about 290 US$) for the set far exceeds the combined individual cost of copies of similar vintage that can be bought through the used book networks, and it is only thanks to the condition being so good for the age that the set might just possibly sell at this price. (Other unsold listings of volumes of this vintage from the series, as found on Abebooks etc., are invariably in significantly damaged condition.) In all, I'd think there's at least a 50% chance that it will go unsold, in which case the dealer might reduce the opening price to something more attractive subsequently. A starting price of ?75 would probably ensure a sale. I've noticed that a number of regular booksellers occasionally list books on ebay but with opening bids equivalent to a fair retail price, which limits the appeal of their listings to those drawn to auctions by reason of hunting for significant savings on retail prices!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

3) There are only six hours left on this one at the time of writing, but it may be of some interest. It is a set of three Llewellyn George miniature astrology books in very rare cloth hardcover bindings. I have all three in the more common softcover bindings, curtailing my own interest in this auction although these are much nicer copies than mine! The bidding has already run to the seller's reserve of $69.99, but I suspect that the current high bidder at the time of writing may have bid only up to about $75, in which case there could be scope for someone to outbid at a later stage.

The books are 'The Astrologer's Searchlight', 'How Planets Affect You' and 'Powerful Planets'. Hardcover copies are so rare that individually they list for about $75-$100 each on the used book market, so this could be a fine opportunity for someone who doesn't already have the books in softcover editions!

Llewellyn George wrote these and several other shorter introductory and tangentially discursive astrology books which sold in much slimmer volumes than his better known 'A-Z Horoscope Delineator' (published in about three editions from 1910 to 1923) and more especially its expanded and famous successor from 1928 the 'A-Z Horoscope Maker and Delineator'.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

Anyhow, I must sign out and switch the computer off now!

Philip

A couple of results, and another few quick buying tips...

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The Llewellyn George lot referred to previously sold for $69.99.

More surprisingly, a copy of Franz Cumont's 'L'Egypte des Astrologues' far surpassed the prices of available unsold copies on the used bookdealer networks, selling for $150, about three times the price of the cheapest available copy from booksellers. This kind of situation only arises when at least two ebay bidders are ignorant of the bookseller prices and how to search for them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

A sure way to check for used prices is the following link:

http://used.addall.com

It can be useful to input author and title details as well as, in the keywords section, the date of the edition of interest. Alternatively, if wanting all editions to show up, and there are not many, in some cases it can be useful when a lot of modern Print-On-Demand copies crowd the results to refine the search subsequently by inputting 'Kessinger', 'Lightning' and, where the original editions were in hardcover binding, also 'softcover' and 'paperback', in the 'Exclude keywords' box!

There is also a rival used book search at

http://www.bookfinder.com

But in my experience it is inferior to the used.addall.com search in several respects:

1) Bookfinder is much, much slower and less convenient to use, being divided into a two-stage process, the first stage of which just brings up a list of matching title and author entries, most of which are slightly differently input variations on the same essential title, which then requires one to separately click all these variations and compare the results over several different windows...

2) used.addall.com has the further advantage of a very easily adaptable set of options at the outset - you can choose which bookdealer networks to include or exclude in the results, and what order the results should appear in (I recommend price from highest to lowest if trying to pick out the earliest available editions).

3) Bookfinder was recently purchased by one of the used bookdealer networks, Abebooks, and therefore ostensibly has a vested interest in promoting Abebooks results over those of other bookdealer networks, although its customers would probably desert in droves if it manifestly did so....

One final tip: good sense generally dictates that unless you urgently want a particular astrology book listed on ebay that is also available on the used bookdealer networks, there is no point in bidding more than 50-75% (depending on how eager you are and what you can afford!) of the price of available copies on the used networks, since otherwise you could very easily end up paying the full retail price for something that could just as easily have waited.... Ebay comes in useful when there is a book you want eventually to buy but the available copies on the used bookdealer networks are more expensive than you would ideally like to pay - then by carefully calculated bidding you stand a fair chance of purchasing copies for less at auction than you would otherwise be able to. Depending on how far below the going retail price you bid, your chances of coming out on top of bidding are adjusted accordingly. If you bid right up to just below the going retail price, the chance of winning the auction is almost 100%. If you bid to only 50% of the going retail price, depending on the popularity of the book the chance of winning may be as high as 80% or as low as 30%.

Philip

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Thanks for these links. Even though I can't afford anything it is still interesting to have a look. No doubt something will crop up that I won't be able to resist. And I do get $1000 a year from my university for such things. I wouldn't mind a Franz Cumont original. I have three of his reprints. I have just spent the last couple of hours trying to translate one of his fellow Belgians Auguste Bouch?-Leclercq. It amazes me that no one has translated any of his works into English. Translating French is made easier since I have been studying Latin but it is still heavy going. Fortunately, my sister in law is French so I'm piling up the questions for when I see her at Christmas. If there are any French speaking astrologers out there this would be a fantastic project. There was someone translating some of his work at some stage (Lester Ness, I believe) but he had been doing it for ten years last I heard. The one I am trying to work with Histoire de la Divination Dans L'Antiquite is four volumes. L?Astrologie grecque is thankfully only one volume. Apparently he was known for his hatred of astrologers but in one of his introductions he said that he only hated some of them. :) When he was writing (late 1800's) it was not a good idea for academics to be linked with such topics.

Philip, I hope your wife is feeling much better. I was in hospital with pneumonia at exactly this time last year so I know how it feels.