The most expensive book you ever almost bought

[Russell Nash]

What was the most expensive book you ever saw for sale?  I say for sale, because we've all seen priceless books in a museum.

I was in KaDeWe before Christmas and was hitting the book department to finish out my shopping list when I saw a stack of these.  The top copy was a sample, so I looked.  Essentially it's just pictures of Africa taken from the air.  The guy flys over, says "pretty", snaps a shot and moves on.  Nothing special except it measures (according to Amazon) 30.7 x 25.5 x 5 inches (76 x 63 x 12 cm) and weighs almost 50 pounds (22 kg).  The price was 1500€.  It's on Amazon in the states for $1,800.

This wasn't a coffee table book.  Put some legs on it and it is the coffee table. 

I had trouble believing that a current book could be that expensive.  It wasn't even very good.  What have you seen?

[Heradel]

This probably skirts the line, because it was only a relatively small run back in the 70's and is thus impossible to find. I did find a copy once for something around 500, and almost bought it — my english teacher at the time [senior year of High School] was offering an A for the year if we found him one.

[eytanz]

This probably skirts the line, because it was only a relatively small run back in the 70's and is thus impossible to find. I did find a copy once for something around 500, and almost bought it — my english teacher at the time [senior year of High School] was offering an A for the year if we found him one.

Wow, cool book. I never knew it existed. But the background story is also interesting - did you give the book to your teacher? Did he give you an A? Was an A in English worth $500?

[Alasdair5000]

The limited edition hardback edition of Kingdom Come.  I was going through a SERIOUS Alex Ross phase at the time and the thought of another twelve pages of his art work was almost, but not quite, enough to justify spending the fifty quid I had to get to the end of the month on it.

[Darwinist]

A $300 copy of In My Grandfather's House by Rein Poortvliet for my aunt.  She wanted this book for many years and an excellent copy it is very hard to find.  My two siblings and I were going to go in on it with my but my brother changed his mind at the last minute.  I found a cheaper copy a couple months ago so she got her book.   

[Tango Alpha Delta]

This is my most expensive bibliophiliac urge... and I could get it at Costco for $80!


Hard to top Russell's nominee... for the original price, I think I could get an actual African nation!

[Heradel]

Wow, cool book. I never knew it existed. But the background story is also interesting - did you give the book to your teacher? Did he give you an A? Was an A in English worth $500?

It's the most expensive book I ever almost bought (see thread title). I got a B+ in the class, so 3 points for 500 is a little uneconomical. I did tell him where it was though, not sure if he got it.

[stePH]

Wow, cool book. I never knew it existed. But the background story is also interesting - did you give the book to your teacher? Did he give you an A? Was an A in English worth $500?

It's the most expensive book I ever almost bought (see thread title). I got a B+ in the class, so 3 points for 500 is a little uneconomical. I did tell him where it was though, not sure if he got it.

Technically you met his terms.  You "found him one" even if you didn't buy it.