Official book collectors thread

To be fair, ‘Enzo Ferrari’, by Luca dal Monte, published in English by David Bull, is excellent.

 

True but that is because Luca del Monte speaks fluent English and translated it himself.

 

Noblesse oblige.

 

Thanks for the few book reviews.

To be honest I haven't opened Opus in years.

The weight of the bloody thing just makes it so hard to get out and enjoy.

They did an eBook version but as far as I know it's no longer available.

 

Please, please, the Opus is not to be read. It is there to show and impress visitors of your library, it's a conversation piece. Never make that mistake again!

 

Does that apply to Taschen too?

 

(un)popular opinion: Both Opus and Taschen are waste of paper/tree to produce. Oh, sorry, big and heavy waste of paper/tree.

Slighty OT but info needed: where can i put an advertise to sell a pristine copy of "Dino Compendium" ?

 

Classified--Individuals Only, Ferrari Parts and Collectibles. You need either a Silver or Rossa subscription to post ads.

 

Speaking of F40 books (and Cyrille... hello @scuderia328), the English version of Ferrari F40: Les dernieres emotions d'Enzo is supposed to be out this year, correlating with the car's 35th anniversary.

 

And speaking of Porter Press the sold out, not sold out, now sold under the Vintage Porter section, Ferrari 250 GTE book is now being sold on their website for 400 UK Pound.

Over 3 times the initial release price.... better than Bitcoin !!

 

Porter is not behaving professionally!

 

+1

 

They can charge whatever they please, but that doesn’t make it right.

 

Having a division of their own company selling "out of stock" books at a significant price premium that were never actually out of stock is a certainly a bad look.

Profiteering at it's best !!

 

Perhaps they thought nobody would notice.

 

Porter:
It is not just their "pricing".
It is also about their "quality control" or lack thereof.

Marcel Massini

 

I actually feel sorry for the author David Wheeler. A quality body of work that would have taken significant time and resources to have ready to publish. Porter Press failed on two fronts, either sold too cheaply initially, the market for an expensive bespoke car, owners would have paid more and book collectors recognising quality and uniqueness of title, same or printed larger volume for sale at lesser price either way David received less than he deserved.

 

I think that's probably a little unfair. It cannot be easy for a publisher to estimate in advance how many copies of a particular book they will sell at any given price. I read elsewhere, for example, that the planned second volume of Porter Press' biography of Stirling Moss is unlikely to appear because the first volume did not sell as well as expected.

 

Ridiculous, no doubt bought by Oligarchs and rappers for display on their yacht tables.

 

Especially as there was already a book on the subject on the market. Even if you think the Heuvink book is rubbish (which it isn't!) then as a publisher you know that it will likely take sales away from your publication. So guessing how many to print isn't easy. However, I agree that selling the 250 GTE book at £400 is just profiteering, and doesn't make Porter look very good.
Nathan

 

Yes, my Ferrari F40 book is being prepared in English. Thanks for supporting me...

While waiting for some photos of the personalities who collaborated in this book (French version) with Oscar Scaglietti (Foreword), Nicola Materazzi, Piero Ferrari (with my friend Lello Apicella of the restaurant Lo Smeraldo in Maranello), Dario Benuzzi, Pietro Camardella, Aldo Bravorone, Mario Vernacchia....
nearly forty testimonies from all over the world!

I made the emotions live as I could that arouses the F40.

Cheers,

Cyrille





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Well my 993 GT2 books arrived today after a patient 4 months wait, No 476.Wow I had a feeling they would be superb and they certainly live up to expectations.

Looks like the writers have left no stone unturned with the model,just excellent.Love the glossy photos ,never seen that in a book before.

speedreaders.info review can sum up both books much better than me if anyone's interested.

 

Quality and uniqueness are definitely NOT defined by cover price, imho. And absolutely should not!
There are LOTS of quality books - mainly non-Ferrari related to be honest - sold for a fraction of a price of other very talked (and often HYPED) publication that are WAY better.
Owners would have paid more? It's a full non-sense. Owner often commissions private books about their specific chassis, its history/pedegree and so on or some bespoke editions of the same "regular" book if available - and that's a business I can understand: any publisher have to take out a profit from their catalogue, not just the glory of a production.

In the specific case of Porter Press, their standard edition has for sure NOT top quality in production and sometimes not even in the threatened theme itself.
Their special/limited/bespoke/unique edition, unfortunately often offers the same quality of standard production, even if in a different cover/form/slipcase.
Porter Press is not Palawan. It's not an opinion. They just want to milk the cow, like many others.
We can just sayin that probably they underestimate the 250 GTE book interest and overestimate others. And for sure they think to be quite smart with "last calling" emails and advertise the "near sold out" or "just sold out" to rise the price at resell or of "special" edition.

In those strange and fantastic days we are all experiencing there is the belief "more you pay, more the quality". Sometimes is very true, sometimes (and it's like 70% of the time) is absolutely not true.

 

The Porter Press example with their 250 GTE book is like Ferrari selling their limited edition 458 Speciale Aperta (total produced 499) to clients and when they sold around 450 units told all dealers they were sold out, waited a few months and then told dealers that customers can now buy one of the few remaining cars through their "Classiche Vehicles Program" at over 3 times the price.

In most countries there are laws against that type of behaviour, as well as significant fines.

In regards to limited edition book numbers you win some and lose some as a publisher. I put it down to the perils of being in business.

Some books sell out in record time (I'm sure S. Kidston would in hindsight have loved to have produced other 300 more books at least) while others faced with boxes of unsold books cluttering up store rooms wished they'd produced less.

The skill is to get a sense of demand and supply... many times easier said than done.

 

It is like building high class cars: from the manufacturers / publishers viewpoint, production / print number should be one copy less than demand.