Men in Style

[Anthony Jordan]

For sale, a spare (ex-library) copy of Woody Hochswender's 1993 "Men in Style" - a compilation of men's fashion illustrations from Esquire and Apparel Arts magazines of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Listed for sale on Amazon at £40 plus carriage, accessible via the following link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...455147-0371911

Anthony.

 

[gdl203]

What is the difference between your copy and the one sold new for £14.94 on the same website?

 

[Anthony Jordan]

Originally Posted by gdl203

What is the difference between your copy and the one sold new for £14.94 on the same website?

None - it is the same book. As the book is out of print it counts as a hard-to-find title. Amazon do not have it in stock but will undertake to search for it for you for a set period of time. In the event that they find it they will charge you the list price of £12.95 plus a search fee of £1.99. This price (£12.95) will probably reflect the selling price of the book when published and does not necessarily reflect the current market value of the book as out of print - it may be below or above. In the event that Amazon can't source the book, of course, your order expires. Without knowing about things such as print runs, etc., it is difficult to speculate what the chances are of Amazon being able to find a copy but my only experience - gained at one remove - is that they have not been able to fulfil such orders, although I suspect it would be a good bargain if they could.

Alongside the Amazon price there is the price which secondhand booksellers estimate the book to be worth and list it at; this seems to range anywhere from about £50-100. Whether this is a true market value is again difficult to gauge because I have not been monitoring the market in order to see whether the book sells at this price level but it (together, of course, with what I paid myself!) is what I have taken as a marker against which to price my own copy. I hope that all this is helpful?

Anthony.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by Anthony Jordan

None - it is the same book. As the book is out of print it counts as a hard-to-find title. Amazon do not have it in stock but will undertake to search for it for you for a set period of time. In the event that they find it they will charge you the list price of £12.95 plus a search fee of £1.99. This price (£12.95) will probably reflect the selling price of the book when published and does not necessarily reflect the current market value of the book as out of print - it may be below or above. In the event that Amazon can't source the book, of course, your order expires. Without knowing about things such as print runs, etc., it is difficult to speculate what the chances are of Amazon being able to find a copy but my only experience - gained at one remove - is that they have not been able to fulfil such orders, although I suspect it would be a good bargain if they could.

Alongside the Amazon price there is the price which secondhand booksellers estimate the book to be worth and list it at; this seems to range anywhere from about £50-100. Whether this is a true market value is again difficult to gauge because I have not been monitoring the market in order to see whether the book sells at this price level but it (together, of course, with what I paid myself!) is what I have taken as a marker against which to price my own copy. I hope that all this is helpful?

Anthony.

Very helpful - thanks for the explanation

 

[j]

Looks to be a good deal, there is one on Ebay for $132.50.

Maybe we should chip in a fund and have someone scan the whole thing in and post it.

 

[Anthony Jordan]

Originally Posted by j

Looks to be a good deal, there is one on Ebay for $132.50.

Maybe we should chip in a fund and have someone scan the whole thing in and post it.

Not that I would want to dissuade you, but might there be copyright issues around that? If not, and someone would be prepared to deal with me directly, rather than via Amazon, I would - in consideration of the saving in fees - be happy to knock a further £5 off.

Anthony.

 

[j]

Originally Posted by Anthony Jordan

Not that I would want to dissuade you, but might there be copyright issues around that? If not, and someone would be prepared to deal with me directly, rather than via Amazon, I would - in consideration of the saving in fees - be happy to knock a further £5 off.

Anthony.
I'm not sure. Considering that the book is out of print, and consists mostly of reprints of illustrations that are also out of print, I figured it would be pretty safe by now. I'm not a lawyer though, so maybe one would like to check into this for us.

 

[chorse123]

Looks like a fantastic book.

 

[Fabro]

It is a good deal. Abebooks.com lists only 4 copies ranging from between US $125 to $208. I'd pick this one up if I had spare cash.

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by j

I'm not a lawyer though, so maybe one would like to check into this for us.
I'd like to point out for all who are interested, j, that you did spend last night in a Holiday Inn Express!

(or so I'm told.)

 

[Steve B.]

I'd like to point out for all who are interested, j, that you did spend last night in a Holiday Inn Express!

By whom and with whom?

 

[dah328]

Originally Posted by j

I'm not sure. Considering that the book is out of print, and consists mostly of reprints of illustrations that are also out of print, I figured it would be pretty safe by now. I'm not a lawyer though, so maybe one would like to check into this for us.
I don't think the in print/out of print status has any bearing on the legality of scanning and posting those pictures. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure we'd be safe from sysdoc's team of international lawyers. Perhaps if it were posted semi-privately, there would be fewer issues. If there's a way to do it, I'd contribute to the book fund.

dan

 

[DocHolliday]

The book is not old enough for the copyright to have expired.

 

[gefinzi]

It is a great little book but it is definitely little. It contains a small minority of fashion illustrations from the early (and good) years of Esquire. What we really need is someone to publish a book with all of the fashion illustrations from Esquire in the 1930s.

 

[trogdor]

Originally Posted by gefinzi

It is a great little book but it is definitely little. It contains a small minority of fashion illustrations from the early (and good) years of Esquire. What we really need is someone to publish a book with all of the fashion illustrations from Esquire in the 1930s.


The University of Toronto library has back issues of Esquire bound and shelved amongst the academic journals. I don't know how far back they go, but there are a LOT and they're very close to my study carrel.

I'll check them out, and if possible I'd be willing to scan a few, or take some hi-res snapshots. You can PM me if there's anything specific you'd like me to look for.