Reichsautobahn book on eBay

[agentsteel53]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Reichsautobahn-Construction-Photo-Book-German-Highway-Autobahn-Germany-Motorway-/370830345425?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56573604d1

expensive item, but maybe someone here is interested?

[J N Winkler]

I wouldn't spend $329 on this one--not when the various annual volumes of the Strassen des Adolf Hitlers series, which are similar in format and composition, can individually be purchased for less than one-tenth that sum.  A much better play, I think, would be to stop at an university library in Germany that has it, and take a camera copy.

For Tankstellen I think Paul Bonatz's book is much better.

[agentsteel53]

got it.  as I don't collect books, I have no idea what the true value is; I just thought people might be interested to know that it's out there.

[kphoger]

I wouldn't spend $329 on this one ... A much better play, I think, would be to stop at an university library in Germany that has it.

Wouldn't a round trip to said university library end up costing more than $329 anyway?

[J N Winkler]

I wouldn't spend $329 on this one ... A much better play, I think, would be to stop at an university library in Germany that has it.

Wouldn't a round trip to said university library end up costing more than $329 anyway?

If that were the sole reason for travelling to Germany from a location in the US, then yes.  But if one already has to go to Germany for other reasons, then it becomes a question of marginal cost, in which the largest component is value of time.  At a cost of say €20 for (budget) overnight accommodation, €6 for a day pass on public transportation, €5 each for meals, and €5/hour for value of one's own working time during the day, a person who spends say 1 1/2 days just taking camera copies of say 20 books has spent about €142, or just over €7 per book, which is not a bad deal for books which are very hard to find in the English-speaking world either because they have not been ordered, even by major libraries like the British Library, or because the press runs were so small that copies hardly ever hit the secondary book market (the HAFRABA newsletter is a classic example of this, as are key works like Kurt Kaftan's Der Kampf um die Autobahnen).

These considerations are why American university professors whose research depends heavily on primary sources in Europe usually arrange to spend summers there--even if they do not actually wind up in the same town as the sources they need, travel costs are typically much lower inside Europe than between the US and Europe.

[kphoger]

Granted, but I'd warrant that most of the roadgeeks on the forum who might be interested in buying a book on eBay are typically not the type who spend summers in Europe or do regular transatlantic travel.  There are a few to whom popping down to Germany at his next convenience might be an option but, for all the rest of us (no offense), I really don't think that would be the "much better play".

[J N Winkler]

Granted, but I'd warrant that most of the roadgeeks on the forum who might be interested in buying a book on eBay are typically not the type who spend summers in Europe or do regular transatlantic travel.  There are a few to whom popping down to Germany at his next convenience might be an option but, for all the rest of us (no offense), I really don't think that would be the "much better play".

I am not sure I understand your concern here.  Do you want this to be a binary choice between paying $329 for the book on eBay and paying $1000+ for an air ticket, lodging, meals, etc. for a trip to Germany solely to photograph it at an university library?  I think the proportion of the forum membership for which it would be reasonable to frame the alternatives in such terms is vanishingly small.

I have had some experience purchasing road-related books through eBay, ABEBooks, Alibris, Amazon Marketplace, etc.  I have found that it is quite tricky where rare materials are concerned, and allowances have to be made for sharp practices which are tantamount to fraud.*  These books appeal to a community of committed buyers which is, however, also quite small, which makes it difficult to tell the true worth (neat of any premiums generated by speculative pressure) through statistical means.

Most of the road-related books I have purchased that would be considered collectibles have cost less than $50.  These include quite a few state MUTCDs, past editions of the national MUTCD, various volumes of the old UK Traffic Manual, some specialist secondary-source works in multiple languages, several conference proceedings volumes, several textbooks, several reference books (of the type that would be purchased for university libraries, design offices, and possibly university bookstores for sale to students), a couple of key highway planning studies, etc.  In some cases (particularly the textbooks and design references), print runs were fairly large since the books were aimed at large communities of students and professional users, so copies reach the online market on a frequent basis--the AASHTO Green Book and its predecessors (Blue Book and Red Book) are classic examples of this.  In other cases the print runs were quite small and copies essentially reach the market only when libraries deaccession parts of their collections or design offices clean out their obsolete manuals (in some cases for the first time in decades).  This is basically how old editions of the UK Traffic Manual and old print copies of TSRGD hit the market.

Moving on to the specific book advertised, I intuit that it has value but nowhere close to $329.  It is a pamphlet with staple binding, which tends to argue against a large print run--my guess is that it was originally produced as a commemorative souvenir of some kind.  On the other hand, it was produced by a commercial publisher, which suggests that circulation was not restricted to official and semi-official circles, which tends to guarantee a very small print run (Die Strasse comes to mind as an example).  The art (photos of valley viaduct erection, service station at night, etc.) is unexceptional and is very similar to that found in the Strassen des Adolf Hitlers books, which are fairly easy to find.  I have not done any research through Bookfinder.com, eBay auction history, etc. to estimate how frequently this book hits the market, but in the absence of such research turning up convincing evidence of rarity, I see nothing that would justify paying more than say $50 for it, or no more than a nominal amount to obtain a working copy (good enough for reading and picture study) by taking a digital camera to a library.

I suspect the bidding history is a better explanation of the current price (with just under half of the auction left to run, assuming this is a standard one-week auction) than the intrinsic value.  So what I would rather do is mark down the title and keep a lookout for it the next time I go to Germany.  (I haven't been since 2010, and my visits previous to that were in 2000, 2004, and 2008, so it is not as if I am a frequent visitor.)



*  Examples of sharp practices:

Advertising a book under one title and sending a different volume in response to an order--a German seller on Amazon.de did this to me with Kaftan's Der Kampf um die Autobahnen.  Kaftan, whose background was in journalism and public relations, apparently wrote a romance novel of some kind in the late 1940's, and it was this (not the advertised Der Kampf) which I was sent.  I complained to Amazon.de (with the help of two friends who were native German speakers) and the seller was compelled to refund my money.  Much later I obtained a camera copy of Der Kampf at the VW-Haus at TU Berlin.

Advertising a publication under a title which more or less matches that of a related and much more expensive publication--Blackwell (Oxford) did this to me with TSRGD 2002.  A typical copy of TSRGD is expensive to buy new because the schedules (which have pattern-accurate drawings of the approximately 500 traffic signs which are currently prescribed in Great Britain) are printed in full color.  Unlike the case in the US where the MUTCD has been available online free of charge since 2000, online availability of TSRGD as enacted (through the UK statutory instrument database) did not occur until the late noughties.  I have lost touch with the current cost of TSRGD in print, but I can remember paying around £25 for a new copy of TSRGD 1994 over ten years ago.  So when Blackwell advertised something called "TSRGD" online for £10, I assumed this was a CD copy of the full TSRGD (for which £10 would have been a not unreasonable price), and placed an order, only to get a copy of the circular (a thinnish pamphlet) which is always published with a new edition of TSRGD, summarizes the changes that have been made with regard to the old edition, and can now be downloaded online free of charge.  (The circular has the key phrase "Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions" in its title, which makes it very easy to confuse with the actual TSRGD in online catalogue listings.)

[kphoger]

I am not sure I understand your concern here.  Do you want this to be a binary choice between paying $329 for the book on eBay and paying $1000+ for an air ticket, lodging, meals, etc. for a trip to Germany solely to photograph it at an university library?

My only concern was that, had I been the one posting about the book on eBay, I would have taken your reply to mean that it was dumb of me to think anyone would be interested in buying it, considering they'd be better off just travelling to Germany.  Perhaps it wasn't your intent to discredit agentsteel53's assumption that people might be interested, but I just wanted to defend his original post as worthwhile.

[J N Winkler]

My only concern was that, had I been the one posting about the book on eBay, I would have taken your reply to mean that it was dumb of me to think anyone would be interested in buying it, considering they'd be better off just travelling to Germany.  Perhaps it wasn't your intent to discredit agentsteel53's assumption that people might be interested, but I just wanted to defend his original post as worthwhile.

It wasn't my intention at all to ding Jake's post.  He was in fact quite circumspect about saying anything that could be construed as a recommendation to buy; my opinion as to value for money was offered in response to his observation that the item is expensive.  It is still useful in general to know that books such as this exist, since they can be camera-copied and used for research even if they are not actually purchased as collectibles.  And in this case the auction listing was well worth linking to since it has an unusually full sample of the merchandise.

Looking back on my initial reply, I can see how the tone comes across as dismissive.  None of this was aimed at Jake--rather, it was aimed at the seller:  $329 on an advertisement entirely in English for a book entirely in German made me suspicious.  The seller does have a 100% rating, and the location in Zürich may explain the use of English for the advertisement, but I still think it would be imprudent to spend more than three hundred dollars without a thorough, independent cross-check as to value.  (Personally, I would forgo the sale instead, since my interest is in the information the book contains rather than the book itself, so it is rational for me to wait until a different channel of availability opens up.)

[on_wisconsin]

Looks like others thought it was ripoff as well since it appears to still be on the auction block. (for $320+ as well)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370840224386