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Value of a complete set of Col Chinn books


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I have sold 3-4 sets of originals (4 volume set) over the last 10 years in the 5-600 range in various condition. For some reason guys seem to be willing to pay a little more for the reprints (5 volume set) from the asking prices I've seen? I've never bought a set of reprints, but they seem to outnumber originals by 2:1 as available for sale. I personally tend to put a higher value on vintage original items, but that doesn't seem to be the market trend in books or guns? Newer and shiny brings more $ HTH

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I have sold 3-4 sets of originals (4 volume set) over the last 10 years in the 5-600 range in various condition. For some reason guys seem to be willing to pay a little more for the reprints (5 volume set) from the asking prices I've seen? I've never bought a set of reprints, but they seem to outnumber originals by 2:1 as available for sale. I personally tend to put a higher value on vintage original items, but that doesn't seem to be the market trend in books or guns? Newer and shiny brings more $ HTH

I have an original set. Where were you selling yours? Ebay, Gunbroker??

Thanks

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johnsonlmg41,

 

The official 1987 reprints are generally in much better condition than the originals, and there is a 5th volume added to the set. They are numbered, and most are signed by Col. Chinn. They are very well bound...better than the originals. The original books were made with very heavy paper, and the binding was not as high quality, or has degraded over time. I have repaired many of them over the years, where the cotton fiber binding between the cover, and the first page has become frayed and causes the weight of the pages to make the pages sink, and continue to pull at the binding, with the pages dragging on the shelf. That is probably a reason why the reprints are preferred. That, and if you want to try to find a 5th volume to go along with your original 4 volumes, the 5th will be a different height, as the originals are about 3/4" shorter than the 1987 editions.

 

There is also another reprint, to which which I don't think you refer. They are much thinner books, and not very commonly encountered.

 

Brian,

 

That value of the books has remained about steady, or maybe declined just a bit over the past several years. Most 5 volume sets are sold for between $500 and $600.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

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  • 2 weeks later...

I sold one set at the creek within the last year, another on gunbroker if I recall, and I think the third was at the creek as well (long ago). I never tried ebay on these. I have slowly cherry picked a nice keeper set with all good bindings. One volume has the original memo to declassify in it. No real interest in vol 5 since it was not "original". Surely the new ones are better bound, but I wonder if the photos are degraded like weapon mounts for secondary armament? The reprint photos lost a lot in the process.

 

A set sold here a while back for quite a bit. Maybe that's a good route to go? When I got into this years back a couple of peers mentioned books I should not be without, and these were some of them.

HTH

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  • 1 month later...

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