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April 2013
Posts: 101
Location: NW Indiana | I just ordered and received a copy of The History of the Ovation Guitar by Walter Carter. Before I go on, let me say that I LOVE Ovation Guitars. Well, first of all, I paid about $65 for a used paperback copy. The price I paid was acceptable to me since the same book/condition was advertised at every site on the internet for virtually the same price, or higher. So I bought it with my eyes open....but emblazoned on the back of the book was the original retail price of $22.95. Considering that most of the information that is in the book is now on the internet, I just thought I would scream "caveat emptor" to anyone considering a purchase. PS, my copy is now for sale...$300 plus shipping.  |
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August 2002
Posts: 591
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA | $300 US , or CDN?
Mike S. |
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April 2013
Posts: 101
Location: NW Indiana | Hi Michael, only kidding. It's a good book, but not worth more than the original $22.95. |
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August 2011
Posts: 887
Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | But all those facts notwithstanding I will give you $25.95 for the aforementioned publication. This represents a profit of $3.00 by my latest calculations. Let me know. Don't wait too long cause I am holding my breath! |
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April 2013
Posts: 101
Location: NW Indiana | Hi Nerdydave, such a small profit after an economic disaster, is like offering the widow $12 for her husband's suit while he is still in the coffin. lol. Actually, I am still reading it (and enjoying it). Not sure what I will do in a day or two.....maybe list it on ebay, maybe donate it to the local library, but probably it will be the center of attention on my coffee table and the source of jokes directed at me. If I decide that my financial faux paus is only worth $3, I promise you are at the top of my list. |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | I bought a Hard Cover version of The Book in 2012 for about $48...
I read it... Then sold it to an OFC'r for $55 (to cover shipping).
(it had the dust jacket and everything)
That ain't gonna happen again.
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April 2013
Posts: 101
Location: NW Indiana | Hi OMA, I have been reading your posts for about a year now, and value and respect your comments. Looks like that holds true on this subject as well. Best wishes.
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Posts: 73
Location: out there | they are out of print. you wont find one for 22 anywhere |
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July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Hey Rick, it looks like you actually got a bargain. Amazon lists the used paperbacks for no less than $100. I understand that the book is out of print and there is a finite number of them available and that number MIGHT be decreasing over time (damaged/destroyed copies), so sell me on THAT but don't put a price sticker over the original price sticker to try and fool someone. When I sold off my comic books that had 12 cent prices listed on them I certainly didn't cover THAT up with anything, since that would have actually decreased their value.
If there's a demand AND that demand may get even higher with USA Ovation now being history, why doesn't some publisher who has the rights (or one that could get them) just do another printing. If people are paying $65 - $100 or more for paperback, I'm betting a paperback price of $30 would sell quite well and the hard covers could fetch around $65.
That's a rather odd situation where a publication that is not a periodical (daily, weekly, monthly, comics, graphic novels, etc.), is in high enough demand that people are willing to pay over four times the original retail price, yet no one is printing more?!?! I wonder if there's some issue that couldn't be resolved with the author, original publisher, or something.
DANG... .I'd love to get a copy, but I'd most definitely prefer the hard cover version and those are probably non-existent to totally bonkers, bat-crap, crazily over priced (yes, Rick... much, much, MUCH more crazily over-priced then what you got - HECK, where'd you get yours, cause sounds like you got the best deal around.
I've never over paid for anything in my life, because what you pay for something is what you believe it's worth to you or you wouldn't spend the money to acquire that "thing." A good example would be this book, because if you were to ask "the man on the street" if he'd pay twice the original retail price for this book, then unless they just happened up on "the man on the street who just happens to be a huge Ovation Guitars Fan," then that would be weird.
But seriously... this book is much more valuable to most all of us on this forum than it would be to people who are NOT "OFC." And even amongst us O Fans I'm sure there are some who would be stubborn in their response, "Shoot, I ain't paying no dang $100 for some stupid paper back book that originally sold for $22. Of course it's probably that person who actually DID but more than one copy at $100 each.
I might just have to come visit one of y'all who has the book, so I can at least spend the night and read your copy. My guess is that since this is from Hal Leonard Publishing, that it didn't make it into many of the public libraries, though... I'm going to check mine and I'll get back to ya.
But what do I know? Not my password to OFC evidently. I had an internal 1TB HD just blow out on my main PC, which was more inconvenience than it was panic or screaming. I've got 7 TB of external storage AND a Blu-ray burner that lets my burn 25 GB of data on a disk (or 50 GB if it's dual layer, but they're WAY to expensive). No, what I really lost most was all my favorites that I'd been saving over the last couple of years (forgot to back them up) and some passwords that were saved in my PC (usually I email usernames and passwords to myself and then folder them for reference).
Damn PC was a DELL and only 2 months past the factory warranty. It's not so much the cost of a new hard drive as it is all the time and effort it takes to load Win7 on a new hard driver, then get all those little applications and big applications re-installed, get all the necessary updates, get my anti-virus back on, wallpaper, icons, just all those little things. PAIN IN THE...
But I doth digress and doth ramble on just a bit... doth much. But what do I know, I'm just a....
SillyLittleBoy |
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April 2013
Posts: 101
Location: NW Indiana | Hi SLB, I got my copy from www.barnesandnoble.com (the book actually came from one of their used book connections). I just checked their website, and after hitting the search button my request disappeared, twice. Not available any more, so I guess I Was lucky. I also just checked Amazon and Ebay out of curiosity....$100 and $113 on Amazon, and $199 New on Ebay. Ridiculous. Like you said, this book is only sought after by us OFC'ers, and its really just an emotional thing, like remembering an old girlfriend (or guitar) since most of the info is on the web for free. Best wishes. |
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Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | After all this I am considering upping my offer to $27.95! |
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December 2003
Posts: 1889
Location: Central Massachusetts | And to think I gave my copy away... So much for the kids college fund! |
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December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | In the back of my mind is a fear that the Boxed Set will end up being hoarded and not kept in motion.
If you love something set it free... then track it down and stalk it like prey... Bwah-ha-ha-ha... |
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December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | And there is a sub-set of these books that were part of the original Ovation Owners Online club that were signed by Bill Kaman and later several other copies that were signed at assorted events both hard copy and paperback.
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November 2009
Posts: 152
Location: Corpus Christi, TX | I asked my wife who works for Barnes and Noble to see if she could round me up one of the books, preferably a hardback. She found and ordered me a new old stock paperback edition. And she only paid $200. God bless her but I could have used that money towards another Ovation guitar. I better use price parameters next time I ask her for something or better yet just tell her what kind of guitar I want and let her do her thing. |
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March 2005
Posts: 2791
Location: Atlanta, GA. | I passed my paperback copy on to an OFC'er at the 1st Atlanta gathering he hosted at his home.
No idea where it is now. I'm sure it's in good hands. |
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October 2012
Posts: 1034
Location: Yokohama, Japan | Just a little less than two months ago, I found one of these paperbacks in a used bookstore for 3,000JPY (about 30 bucks), and I've been thoroughly enjoying it. I posted on the OFC when I found it here...
http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=40278&...
I didn't realize how valuable these were. I'm going to have to find some kind of protective cover for this thing! |
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The History of the Ovation Guitar book.....
