Official book collectors thread

Do you mean “Red in Japan” by Junichiro Hiramatsu, although I don’t think he ever owned a 250 GTO?
Why did customs confiscated a car book?
Nathan

 

I think it should be Yoshiho Matsuda, but I forget about whether the book was written by himself or somebody wrote a book with his Ferrari, because my friend never received his book

Because in China when you directly buy a foreign book, you need to pay some tax. I must say my friend is very unlucky, the book is in customs but he had been quarantined, so he cannot go to the customs in the given time.

 

You must mean Rosso Corsa, the book about the Matsuda collection.

 

If you want to learn more about Matsuda beyond "Rossa Corsa", then turn to "Ferrari Days in Japan 1984", which Matsuda published as he organised the first-ever Ferrari Days in Japan then. A while ago, I featured the book on my Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnJ4sCjIwwd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Several of the participating cars were his.

 

Anyone been up close and personal with the Ferrari 550 book by Girardo & Co yet ?

Any thoughts on the content, quality, value for money and if it's worth adding to a Ferrari library.

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My two days at Retromobile last week were hyper intense with countless meetings, chats but I had a chance to stop at the Girardo stand to briefly leaf through it. I liked it, a lot of work has gone into it, it is done in a somewhat different way but who says all car books have to adhere to the same format?

Ps: ignore the next month Octane page that is unrelated and I can't seem to delete it via my phone.

 

With everything taken into account worth buying Marc ?

 

I would say so but don't invoice me if you don't like it;-) A fair amount of the content seems to have been generated by and for engineers such as the whole car apart laid on the ground and photographed from above, I like that. As stated I did not have time for a lengthy review but there is the right expertise behind the book.

 

It’s probably the only look I’ll have of next month’s Octane as they still can’t find their asses with both hands and send me the magazines that I’ve paid for. The incompetence is truly astonishing and unacceptable. The editorial team should have a meeting with the operations side and demand they do their jobs. How many other subscribers are missing out but just aren’t vocal about it? Their advertisers should speak up too because they aren’t getting numbers of looks they’re paying for.

 

I just don't undesrtand the Girardo's 550 book price... Books are supposed to be written to share a knowledge not to become an investment asset...
As a journalist I would certainly need at some point need to take a look at it to retrieve informations for some article, but it's simply unaffordable.
I would really like to know how they justify such an high price... And assuming that most of the pictures are from their own image bank, I'm guessing they didn't cost them a penny...

 

I do not think that Girardo & Co. got their "image bank" for free.
Pretty sure you know what "image banks" cost in today's world.

Marcel Massini

 

When I produced my 550 book CARE racing had hundreds of images. As the Girardo book is a collaboration between CARE and Girardo then I guess that Girardo got most of theirs for free.
Nathan

 

To be clear, I don't blame some books for being expensive... But I think that beyond, say, €200, there has to be a very good reason to justify such a price. Because there are hundreds of excellent books, very well documented, with a huge amount of work done, incredible photos and excellent printing quality well below that price. And over €400, the quality (and quantity) has to be top notch.
For example, €370 for Doug Nye's GTO64 is a lot of money, but I think it's worth it. But I'm still pretty upset about the guys who had the idea to publish a book on the Bugatti EB110 for €800...

 

It’s a free world, but I get your point. Still, it’s hard to draw the line. I’ve seen the EB110 book and was not too impressed, at least not for the price. I’ve seen the 550 Prodrive book, and I liked it a lot, even at that price.
But honestly, things are getting out hand, not just with books.

 

What I feel is the temptation for some publishers to push the price as high as possible, not only to flatter some buyers looking for exclusive content to show off, but also because they know that there is a large audience of wealthy enthusiasts who would buy anything with the prancing horse badge on it no matter what the price. I'm sure you know what I mean... ;-)
To be honest, this is something I discovered when I started publishing our Ferrari magazine. We didn't expect this level of devotion from Ferrari fans. That so many people around the world would be interested in buying the magazine just to have it (and probably not to read it). OK, it's not that many people, but enough to sell out our unsold stock at a rate we never imagined. And I fear that some publishers may be tempted to exploit this fact.
I'm not saying here that's what the 550 book is all about, but a limited edition Ferrari book at this price is quite granted to be sold out... So that's rather an interesting business plan – Maybe that's why I'm also working on a book about some Ferraris But I promise it will be affordable!

 

Don’t forget the English edition, sil vous plait…….

 

I just received the book today and I like it. I think the photo quality is just fine. I only wish the results tables had included the car numbers, which would make referring to the race photos a bit easier. I'm also puzzled why in the results tables some of the Ferraris are listed in bold type while some are not. (Works cars vs privateers, perhaps?)

It would be nice to hope for a sequel, covering the years from 1966 through 1970 or so.

 

By sheer coincidence I came across this book about Matsuda:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/195585956979?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20221102143903%26meid%3D123d1b32d7924d978a39733c85035710%26pid%3D101278%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D195585956979%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DPersonalizedSellersV2WithCacheOptimization&_trksid=p2380057.c101278.m47528&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa24274c8-a7a5-11ed-b605-ceb33234b50f%7Cparentrq%3A30d55e401860ad33a78ea8f3ffff74cd%7Ciid%3A1

 

Actua

lly CARE Racing fif not have

Care Racing had limited and specific rights on some of the photographs in their archive. They do not, and did not, have 'rights-free' imagery, no matter what they believed. Girardo acquired Photo4's archive but the agency specialised in F1 and Touring cars and did not cover all of the endurance race series. So Girardo have had to purchase some of the imagery in the 550 book.

 

Nathan I've always felt your books have been great value for money.

The standard version of your 550 book being only UK 99 was I thought a relative bargain.

I have the blue leather edition with the additional 120 page chassis database and that was UK 299, even your red leather version limited to 50 copies is still cheaper then the Girardo book.

I know times have changed since your books have been published but surely there must be a bit of fat still on the bone with the Girardo book at their UK 560 asking price.

 

You're comparing apples and pears!

 

Same model subject, similar content, excellent authors, both well produced and presented.

I'd say more Granny Smith versus Golden Delicious.

 

Did anyone buy "Inside Valkyrie" by Waft for 950 euros? If you didn't, well, you now get a Best-of for less than a tenth of the price (90 euros):

https://waft.be/bookshop/books/a-wild-ride/

I would say, this new book is the better deal! But once again, collectors who opted for the exclusive, limited edition, which was introduced first without a word that a second standard edition would follow, have been cheated badly.

 

My goodness: I wanted to order the standard Valkyrie book, but Waft charges an incredible 85 (!!!) euros if you choose DHL shipment from Belgium to neighbouring Germany ... For a 90 euro book! Well, then, I would say, I can live without the Valkyrie book.

 

The most I have ever spend on a book on cars, was for Karl Ludwigs "Porsche: Excellence was expected". When I bought this book in the early 2000s, it was about $250 but compared to the wealth of information it contains, this is cheap.

It is the info in a book I am willing to pay for.