Values of secondhand Go books

[maproomad]

I have a number of secondhand Go books to sell, and I'm surprised by the prices I see on the web. For instance, some Yutopian books:

A Journey in Search of the Origins of Go
Shirakawa Masayoshi
$75

Nie Weiping on Go
$93

The Thirty-six Stratagems Applied to Go
Ma Xiaochun
$79

Do these prices have anything to do with reality? If they do, I'll sell the books on Ebay. But I suspect that in reality, what people will pay won't even cover shipping costs (I'm in the UK).

[Uberdude]

Nick, if you are coming to the British Open this weekend bring the 36 Strategems and I'll buy it for something more sensible and no postage.

[gowan]

We've all seen ridiculously high asking price for out-of-print books. Some people have a copy and post a high price hoping on the off chance that some desperate collector will spring for it. I would not be surprised to see slightly higher prices for (good) out-of-print go books. It seems that an already small market for printed books has shrunken further and very few English new go books on paper are being published, a casualty of the internet.

[Pio2001]

Some people have a copy and post a high price hoping on the off chance that some desperate collector will spring for it.

It is also possible that the prices are made by bots, based on info returned by tracking cookies.

[tchan001]

Certain English language go books have indeed have had a history of being sold at high prices, but with some of these being re-released in book or digital form, the premium for many such books has disappeared.

For example, All About Life and Death Vol 1 & Vol 2 has since become in print again although not printed as well as the original editions.

An example of a book which has not been re-released and is still in high demand at high cost would be Beyond Forcing Moves.

Basically the value of a second hand go book depends on the demand for the book and the rarity of the book.

The most expensive second hand go book for sale which I am aware of is the 1620 edition Xuanxuan Qíjīng 玄玄棋經 a.k.a. Gengen Gokyo 玄玄碁経 available at Akasiya Shoten in Tokyo for the price of JPY500000