In December 2006, Kim wrote:

Today's oddity from Ebay: A 1929 book signed by Krafft on a Buy it Now at $99.95. That one I will watch

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1929-German-Astro ... dZViewItem

Kim

Kim was referring to a copy of the 1929 edition of 'Vortr?ge Uber Astrologie', Dr. Korsch's annually published transcript of the presentations at the astrological conferences he administered in Germany. One of the presentations in this case was given by Karl-Ernst Krafft, who also signed this particular copy when presenting it as a gift to a mobile library (apparently). Clearly the mobile library did not hold onto it forever, and it would be easy to presume that its activities ceased abruptly during the second world war.

21 months after Kim spotted the fixed price listing, the seller apparently became bored and offered it at auction instead, with a starting price of $9.99. The final price was $30 (and I must plead guilty to being the purchaser). $30 is just over half the price of each of the other annual German astrological conference reports published by Dr. Korsch currently to be found for sale on the fixed-price used bookselling networks. None of those others is signed by Krafft, but the contents could still be very interesting!

Meanwhile, here are a few blunt statistics of relevance to my most recent acquisitions, testifying to the infrequency of listing for sale of certain sought-after astrological books in recent years.

1) Alfred Pearce's 'Text-Book of Astrology' Volume Two (1889), published by Cousins and Co.. Last offered for sale on ebay around February or March 2006. 30 months later, a copy turned up on Abebooks, offered by a seller in Glasgow for ?50 sterling. That was a long wait, but worth it, and if it had been priced at ?150 it would have sold just as quickly. Incidentally, I note at first glance that in addition to containing a book on horary astrology absent from the 1911 one-volume 2nd edition and all subsequent reprints (which have all taken the 1911 edition as their source), it also has a much longer book on astro-meteorology than the 2nd edition did, about twice as long as measured by pages. I am surprised in this light that when the National Astrological Library chose to reprint Pearce's work in the early 1950s, and subsequently the AFA in both 1970 and 2006, they chose the condensed 1911 2nd edition as their source. The true scale of Pearce's main work has been covered up for the best part of a century.

2) E.S. Drower's 'Book of the Zodiac' (Royal Asiatic Society, 1949). Last copy sold around May 2006 as part of a major auction house auction of several titles by Drower plus a 'tube of scrolls relating to the Mandaeans', all in a single lot, for a grand total of ?720 sterling inclusive of buyer's premium. Previous copy to that sold on ebay around March 2006 by Three Dog Books for about $300, in very good condition. No copies listed anywhere in over two years since until a week or two ago, at which point one in 'very good minus' condition listed for ?100 sterling in the UK. Reportedly the minus is because of a stain from a former paint splash on one of the boards, but the binding is sound and internally the book is unblemished. Presuming that ordinarily copies of this book only come on the market once every 30 months or so, overall this was a fair deal at the price, though no bargain.

3) Carmody's 'Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation' - the original academic softcover edition. Last copy I spotted was priced at $133 in only good condition and sold almost immediately after listing, around January or February 2005, on Abebooks. 42 months later (yes, three and a half years), another copy showed up on Abebooks, in very good condition and priced at only $75. Good value considering its scarcity, though print-on-demand reprints from UMI are readily available for a fractionally lower cost.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the pricing of rare books on astrology is a matter for guesswork in the hands of most bookdealers as they have very little idea just how scarce or rare different titles are on the market. Thus, some are absurdly overpriced and almost indefinitely unsaleable, while just a few are underpriced. The knowledge of which comes from experience. There are a few dealers who specialise in this material (together with many other specialities, of course) and know what they are doing more or less, most of the time, but they are few and far between.

Philip