15 replies to this topic

[OmarB]

Hey guys. Just had to post sharing how excited I am. I've won an auction for Scorpious and it'll come in the mail in a few days. Thus far I have:

* 1981 - Licence Renewed (in hardcover with a broken spine in the middle of the book and paperback with the fron page torn half way down the middle)
* 1983 - Icebreaker
* 1984 - Role Of Honour
* 1987 - No Deals, Mr. Bond
* 1988 - Scorpius (soon to arrive in the mail!)
* 1989 - Win, Lose Or Die
* 1990 - Brokenclaw
* 1991 - The Man From Barbarossa

I'm on my way there! I'm both excited and a little angry. Excited because I'm obviously getting the book, angry because they are so hard to come by that I have to have to hunt them down, getting them out of sequence and most of them are pretty thrashed from previous owners. If/when I get them all I'll have to go thru and read them again in order.

See, there needs to be reprints of these things.

[Mister Asterix]

[mra]Congrats.

The later Gardners are much harder to find then the early ones. I

[OmarB]

I found my hardcover of Licence Renewed being sold on a cart on the street by a regular street vendor. Imagine my luck, the last thing you would expect to find in some random cart on your way to work.

[Qwerty]

See, there needs to be reprints of these things.

It would be nice.

Have fun hunting down the rest of them. Cold (pretty much any edition) seems to be the one that is often the most expensive and/or hardest to track down.

[stamper]

Hey Omar B, I have spare of tons of Gardner first issue HC, PM if you are interested, I'll make the missing one quite cheap.

[OmarB]

I'll be in touch!

[Professor Dent]

Congrats. Nothing like the hunt for a book or CD that you need to round out your collection & then actually finding it.

[Casino Royale 007]

I once paid 75 cents for a copy of Icebreaker -- Now THAT is a steal.

[Qwerty]

You can't sometimes get very lucky in used bookstores where the copies are 50 to 75 cents each.

[K1Bond007]

I'm on my way there! I'm both excited and a little angry. Excited because I'm obviously getting the book, angry because they are so hard to come by that I have to have to hunt them down, getting them out of sequence and most of them are pretty thrashed from previous owners.

They're pretty cheap on Amazon Marketplace and so long as you read the description and read up on the seller a little, you can get excellent copies. All my Gardner's are U.S. first edition hardbacks (save for the 2 novelizations that are paperback) in pristine condition and I think I maybe spent about 40-50 dollars for the whole lot.

[ACE]

Friends of mine run stalls at film and book fairs.

They have non-valuable reprint Gardner paperbacks going for a couple of quid. They can never sell them. Nobody buys them and they can't even give them away.

It's odd to read about the unavailability of Gardner here! I guess, through normal outlets, they are not easily gettable.

But try going to film and/or book fairs (if you have them). You'll pick up reading copies real easy and comparatively cheaply.

But, yes, I agree - there should be reprints.

[OmarB]

Friends of mine run stalls at film and book fairs.

They have non-valuable reprint Gardner paperbacks going for a couple of quid. They can never sell them. Nobody buys them and they can't even give them away.

But, yes, I agree - there should be reprints.

"Non-valuable reprints," are these brand new? Are they non-liceced reprints? I've seen books at some places in print from obviously diffferent or no publishing house, never thought of checking for the Gardners too.

[sharpshooter]

I managed to grab 4 Bond books while in Melbourne.

No Deals, Mr Bond
Licence Renewed
James Bond and Moonraker by Christopher Wood

Also picked up James Bond: The Man and his World. Excellent book, an asset to any collection.

[Qwerty]

Also picked up James Bond: The Man and his World. Excellent book, an asset to any collection.

Check out CBn's interview with the author if you haven't yet: http://commanderbond.net/article/2984

[The Richmond Spy]

Never read any Gardner before, but I managed to randomly find 4 (LR, FSS, IB, and DIF) at Half-Priced Books here in Lexington. I think they were just a little over $5 combined...still in good condition too!

[[dark]]

Yeah, I have a UK paperback copy of every Gardner book - and every Bond book period - except The Man From Barbarossa, which I've simply never been able to track down.

The passing of John Gardner is prompting me to work through the novels in order - most of which I've never read - so I'll hopefully come by that elusive book by the time I reach it in my collection.