Where do you get your rare and limited editions?

Submitted by HunterRoze t3_yy8tm1 in books

Authors whose work I really enjoy, of their work I like the best I like getting limited and or rare or unique editions. I am sure people know of Folio Society - just ordered some works from them.

But I would like to know what other up scale publishers people are aware of? For example, I collect books printed from Arkham House, or I would get books from Subterranean Press but both of these are gone.

Does anyone know of other interesting publishers like Folio Society?

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My_Poor_Nerves t1_iwsya17 wrote

Just to clarify - are you looking for new unique editions, or older, and therefore used, unique editions?

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tylerthez t1_iwsyaw4 wrote

Just posted this in r/HorrorLit the other day. Check out:

Easton Press

Beehive Books

MidWorld Press

LOVE The Folio Society…I’m hoping to unwrap Blood Meridian and Turn of the Screw this year…

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nocountry4oldgeisha t1_iwt0czr wrote

I've bought a few signed/historic books as gifts for friends who really loved a particular author or poet. I've used both Abe and Biblio here in the US, which act as e-platforms for niche sellers/collectors. Third Mind in Ann Arbor, MI, and Alan Wofsy in San Francisco I really loved because they had original broadsides of obscure beat poets.

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i-should-be-reading t1_iwt1w39 wrote

If I'm looking for a specific title or edition of a title I use ABE, Biblio, and maybe eBay. If I'm just looking for stuff to fill out my collection (an ever present need) I have the most luck with used bookstores.

Whenever we are going to travel (even just a couple hour trip) I open Google maps select my rout and then zoom in on population areas along the way and search "used bookstore." I almost always have several to pick from.

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plastic_apollo t1_iwtosl2 wrote

You mentioned Folio; I’m a big fan. I really do find that the quality is worth the price, and they’re meant to be heirloom books, so I pick up 2-3 a year that are extra special to me in some way (mostly children’s works; those Folio books are so alluring with their illustrations, I want my kid’s grubby hands all over them, reeling her in with the delight of reading…). Other presses with editions you might enjoy are Juniper and Eaton.

But some more tips: there are Instagram accounts you can follow for truly rare or limited editions. Very few Folios are “rare” - they’re just expensive, and that makes them cost prohibitive. @The.vintage.library is great for inspiration; she often focuses on specific volumes or collections. If you’ve got deep pockets, @sotherans_piccadilly is “one of the world’s oldest antiquarian bookshops,” and they’ll post some truly RARE works from time to time.

Lastly: eBay, of course. Although not valuable, there are quite a few paperbacks we have from the 60s and 70s, during the golden age of cover illustration. We’re pretty particular about the editions of books we want, and every so often, we get lucky on there.

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[deleted] t1_iwtpc6b wrote

Folio Society is one but I find their price/quality ratio is dropping fast. Much of their older editions are cloth and buckram bound while their current work is mostly paper bound. The page paper quality itself also seems to be going down while the prices are rocketing up.

There's a lot of affordable pre 00's Folio Society to be found in an excellent state on the second hand market.

For the classics, Franklin Library has lovely leather bound (whole or quarterbound) books. The publisher is long since defunct but the books can be found affordably on the second hand market. Often completely unread as people used to just collect them.

If you're looking for cheap but decent looking hardcovers. Canterbury classics and Penguin both have a line of cloth bound classics that are still a cut above the average paper hardcover.

Suntup does beautiful editions at significant prices. They often have very limited runs though. People tend to sign up for waiting lists and books can sell out the moment they're made available.

Chiltern is another noted publisher of beautiful classics.

At the end of the day, this is a sliding scale. Limited editions is easy. Lots of publishers publish books in small runs. But fine editions...

For some it just means a nice hardcover that is stitched instead of glued. There's a lot of publishers these days that do cloth or (faux) leather bound and stitched books at very modest prices like Penguin, Gollancz, Barnes & Noble, and so on.

Then there's publishers that don't just pay attention to a nice cover but also put a great emphasis on page quality, fonts, sometimes even illustrations like Folio Society or Suntup. But even here, attention to detail is important. The books that Folio Society has printed in Europe are usually much more highly regarded than their China made books for instance.

There's even a few publishers like Arion press that don't print their books with modern print methods but still cast their own lead lettertype to run the pages on a printing press.

And the wealthiest collectors not uncommonly have books handmade at a cost of thousands of dollars per book. There are some very talented bookbinders around that'll do the job for a few hundred bucks a book but the mystery factor is always where they secure their pages and at what quality.

My collection is a mix of Franlin Library for the leatherbound and older cloth bound Folio Society with some Penguin classics mixed in.

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megsie_here t1_iwu4umj wrote

Definitely keep an eye out for secondhand Folio editions, I have many that I’ve picked up for the price of a new paperback and look unread

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The__Imp t1_iwzj1hs wrote

Sometimes direct.

Are you part of the Facebook groups? For Folio there is Fans of the Folio Society as well as two buy/sell/trade groups (one “fair trade”).

There’s also a signed limited awesome group for misc editions and a fine press group that specializes in smaller publishers that are out of my price range. I can’t afford the amaranthine and Lyra and even curious king (maybe base level for king). Nice to see though.

I check eBay once in a while. Rarely buy cause I frankly am unwilling to pay a premium most eBay sellers demand.

You can strike gold on Amazon marketplace on occasion if you check regularly. I got folio LOTR (the green one) for $45, 1984 (sealed) for $15 and the newer Hemingway 5 book set in the red slipcase for $25.

I have also bought maybe half a dozen books from Amazon listed as folio that I took a gamble on and turned out to not be. Amazon is thankfully easy with returns. “No, I did not pay $35 for the softcover penguin copy of Amerika by Kafka.” And I get my refund.

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