Friday 4 January 2013

A Lucky Find

It's often a good idea to check some of the mainstream on-line book sellers every now and then, because one never knows what bargains one might find. Usually such book sellers are quite canny and have a jolly good idea of what books are going for, but sometimes....

And that's what I found last week, on Amazon of all places. One of my sisters had sent me an e-voucher for Xmas, and I eagerly went to Amazon to spend it. I did my routine searches for wargames books, and saw the usual sky-high prices for stuff that frankly amazed me.

Ancient & Medieval Wargaming for £114, anyone?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancient-Medieval-Wargaming-Neil-Thomas/dp/0750945729/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357304366&sr=1-4

I laughed and perused further, eventually finding some Charles Grant books, again at prices beyond the dreams of my e-voucher...

And then....

I spotted something. I had to check it several times, just to make sure. There was no picture, but the title was clear.

Ancient Battles For Wargamers. Charles Grant. £8.00

Now the book was described as a paperback, which seemed odd. I didn't know it existed as anything other than a hardback. I have only ever seen one copy "in the flesh" before, and that was owned by my friend John Preece of Darkest North Wales. I have been after it for many, many years, but whenever it had appeared on eBay, the price has always gone way too high for my blood and purse.

So I took a chance and bought it, along with an ex-library copy of Introduction to Wargames (Neil Thomas) for £3.00.

Yesterday they both arrived, and LO, it was the hardback version of the Grant book, in excellent condition aside from a torn dust-jacket. I am over the moon!




The pages look yellow in the shot, but that's just the rubbish room lighting.


1 comment:

CelticCurmudgeon said...

Dear Poacher,

while you are recuperating please take a bit of pleasure in how inspirational I have found your blog to be. First, you inspired me to track down and buy the same book by Terry Wise plus two small books, one also by Wise and another by Phil Barker. And second, you've inspired me to get back and start finishing my plastic EIR army which I picked up from Warlord Games over the past four months. I spend almost as much time using the Tenax to assemble them, as I do priming and painting them. What do you use to prime plastics. Thus far I've stuck with Vallejo Foundation White which does work.
Anyway, as said in a prior comment, hope you are feeling better.
Celtically yours,
CC a/k/a The Celtic Curmudgeon