Clearly there are previous topics that have ventured into this territory, but since archinect is still not a trading venue for those of us with an architect paper fetish and ebay is, I'm curious to know who your favorite ebay sellers are. To start out, I'd nominate Tecton7777, who seems to always have good stuff, and Frederic Migayrou (yes, the curator from the Pompidou), who seems to frequently change his ebay I.D. - but he's on there! I bought an old copy of Oppositions a while back and it turned out he was the seller. So, who's got the good goods?
n_
Feb 11, 07 8:31 am
i just purchased one of the architecture now books for 7 bucks. brand new too i might add.
Medusa
Feb 11, 07 8:57 am
I got a first edition copy of S,M,L,XL on half.com for $6 shipped.
haruki
Mar 2, 16 6:31 pm
Has anyone seen this 13 vol. GA Global Architecture set in person?
I have some of the individual issues which are fantastic and which have me fantasizing about this massive set up on ebay and I'm wondering if it is worth the $850, or ideally $650 if it doesn't get any other bidders.......
JagodaPagoda
Mar 3, 16 2:41 pm
Looks like that is already getting other bids... I see there is another set of the same currently listed on eBay for $1200. And William Stout is offering that set for $7500! That seems kind of crazy but it is a great thing to have.
chigurh
Mar 3, 16 2:58 pm
Architecture books are a joke - super expensive, fleeting, fetishized to the max in academic settings. Worth a flip through a couple of times, never worth owning, rarely worth reading. I wish I could go back in time and save all of the money I wasted on books. Amazon used is the only way.
haruki
Mar 3, 16 7:10 pm
chigurh that might be the saddest and lamest post I've yet read on archinect and I've come across some lame ones. If there are architects who really think this way and not just internet trolls it is no wonder so much of contemporary architecture is so lame.
If you were dismissing the subject of my original question which was about the 13 volume GA Global Architecture sets up on ebay then you as a person are lame and I feel sorry for you. Yukio Futagawa who was the photographer and editor for the GA series was a true master of architectural photography and every issue of GA is, in not just my opinion, a masterpiece. Yukio Futagawa dedicated his life to his work and the love and care he put into it is impossible to miss if you actually care to look.
chigurh
Mar 3, 16 7:14 pm
Enjoy your thousand dollar magazine.
I would rather browse it at the library.
haruki
Mar 3, 16 9:59 pm
^ chigurh, your $1,000 spent on architecture books is only $1,000 if you are a cad monkey. If you run your own office or otherwise earn enough to file itemized taxes that $1,000 spent on architecture books is a tax write off. You have to spend it on something otherwise it just goes to the government.
Maestro
Mar 3, 16 10:06 pm
A colleague several years ago was closing his father's office after his death. He had collected over 3500 volumes, first editions, technical and all categories of design books. He kept about 50 of the most valuable and tried selling the rest. Schools did not want them, neither did libraries. At the end, he ended selling them by pound to Strand. Books are only as useful as they are relevant for use. I agree. Spending $1000 on a vanity set, even as a write off, no is no longer a prudent move.
chigurh
Mar 4, 16 11:29 am
That is the most idiotic logic I have ever heard. Tax write-off? Do you think you get full value back for every business expense you write off in your taxes? Then trying to undercut my credibility by assuming I am a CAD monkey? Go ahead an buy your bourgeois books. I think money is better spent elsewhere or saved, especially when you can see 99% of these books/images online or in your local library for free. Don't even get be started on your fanboy rant about Yukio Futagawa...
haruki
Mar 4, 16 1:02 pm
^chigurh Huh? In what world is it idiotic to need to have tax write offs? My CPA tells me what I need to spend and then I do what he says and spend it on things that I both enjoy and that make me a better architect.
Joe Soda
Mar 5, 16 2:19 pm
Nothing wrong with buying/owning a nice set of books full of 20th century architecture. That's why one works, to indulge the desire to own such a thing. Much better to have at home than in a public library, assuming they even have a set. Nothing wrong with owning books.
To Maestro: A professional library is not an investment vehicle. It is a tool. Your friend was very lucky to pull 50 good books out of it. The rest was outdated technical material, volumes of White Pine Monographs, probably lots and lots of stuff dealing with colonial American architecture, junk yearbooks from the AIA, common monographs on common architects, stuff once interesting and useful but now so common that no one will ever buy it, even as an artifact. Not too many signed Le Corbusier titles, or annotated FLW autobiographies, I'm sure--just a typical professional library.
Only a collection with carefully delected material in very good condition, the scarcer and closer to unique the better, can have any resale value.
Clearly there are previous topics that have ventured into this territory, but since archinect is still not a trading venue for those of us with an architect paper fetish and ebay is, I'm curious to know who your favorite ebay sellers are. To start out, I'd nominate Tecton7777, who seems to always have good stuff, and Frederic Migayrou (yes, the curator from the Pompidou), who seems to frequently change his ebay I.D. - but he's on there! I bought an old copy of Oppositions a while back and it turned out he was the seller. So, who's got the good goods?
i just purchased one of the architecture now books for 7 bucks. brand new too i might add.
I got a first edition copy of S,M,L,XL on half.com for $6 shipped.
Has anyone seen this 13 vol. GA Global Architecture set in person?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GA-Global-Architecture-13-Vol-Le-Corbusier-Wright-Neutra-Breuer-Aalto-Kahn-et-al-/291694659202?hash=item43ea5b4682:g:~8sAAOSwWTRW0Lr9
I have some of the individual issues which are fantastic and which have me fantasizing about this massive set up on ebay and I'm wondering if it is worth the $850, or ideally $650 if it doesn't get any other bidders.......
Looks like that is already getting other bids... I see there is another set of the same currently listed on eBay for $1200. And William Stout is offering that set for $7500! That seems kind of crazy but it is a great thing to have.
Architecture books are a joke - super expensive, fleeting, fetishized to the max in academic settings. Worth a flip through a couple of times, never worth owning, rarely worth reading. I wish I could go back in time and save all of the money I wasted on books. Amazon used is the only way.
chigurh that might be the saddest and lamest post I've yet read on archinect and I've come across some lame ones. If there are architects who really think this way and not just internet trolls it is no wonder so much of contemporary architecture is so lame.
If you were dismissing the subject of my original question which was about the 13 volume GA Global Architecture sets up on ebay then you as a person are lame and I feel sorry for you. Yukio Futagawa who was the photographer and editor for the GA series was a true master of architectural photography and every issue of GA is, in not just my opinion, a masterpiece. Yukio Futagawa dedicated his life to his work and the love and care he put into it is impossible to miss if you actually care to look.
Enjoy your thousand dollar magazine.
I would rather browse it at the library.
^ chigurh, your $1,000 spent on architecture books is only $1,000 if you are a cad monkey. If you run your own office or otherwise earn enough to file itemized taxes that $1,000 spent on architecture books is a tax write off. You have to spend it on something otherwise it just goes to the government.
A colleague several years ago was closing his father's office after his death. He had collected over 3500 volumes, first editions, technical and all categories of design books. He kept about 50 of the most valuable and tried selling the rest. Schools did not want them, neither did libraries. At the end, he ended selling them by pound to Strand. Books are only as useful as they are relevant for use. I agree. Spending $1000 on a vanity set, even as a write off, no is no longer a prudent move.
That is the most idiotic logic I have ever heard. Tax write-off? Do you think you get full value back for every business expense you write off in your taxes? Then trying to undercut my credibility by assuming I am a CAD monkey? Go ahead an buy your bourgeois books. I think money is better spent elsewhere or saved, especially when you can see 99% of these books/images online or in your local library for free. Don't even get be started on your fanboy rant about Yukio Futagawa...
^chigurh Huh? In what world is it idiotic to need to have tax write offs? My CPA tells me what I need to spend and then I do what he says and spend it on things that I both enjoy and that make me a better architect.
Nothing wrong with buying/owning a nice set of books full of 20th century architecture. That's why one works, to indulge the desire to own such a thing. Much better to have at home than in a public library, assuming they even have a set. Nothing wrong with owning books.
To Maestro: A professional library is not an investment vehicle. It is a tool. Your friend was very lucky to pull 50 good books out of it. The rest was outdated technical material, volumes of White Pine Monographs, probably lots and lots of stuff dealing with colonial American architecture, junk yearbooks from the AIA, common monographs on common architects, stuff once interesting and useful but now so common that no one will ever buy it, even as an artifact. Not too many signed Le Corbusier titles, or annotated FLW autobiographies, I'm sure--just a typical professional library.
Only a collection with carefully delected material in very good condition, the scarcer and closer to unique the better, can have any resale value.