Inscribed Longshot Pomes.... any idea of value? (1 Viewer)

My dad, who passed away last year, was a founder of 7 Poets Press. While going through his things I found a copy of Longshot Pomes with a lengthy inscription from CB. The booklet itself is in good condition but there's a few stains. Any idea what something like this would be worth to a collector? I'm lost. Thanks for any help!
 
A copy of that book sold at auction in July for $3,500, so it's valuable. The inscription may add some value to that, but it would help if we could see it (and a picture or two that show the condition issues).
 
Thanks, I'm working on getting some pictures up! There's a big stain on the front cover and it looks like coffee stains on the first few pages, otherwise no stains or marks worth noting.

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That's an important piece; shame about the stains. First of all, using the $3,500 sale price from the most recent auction as a benchmark (that book was signed but not inscribed and the prices on abebooks are not great indicators of market, in my opinion). Actually, the total price paid with the buyers premium was $4,200, so we could haggle about which value to use. Normally, inscriptions hurt value a bit, but in this case, it is an association copy. It's interesting that Buk inscribed this to your Father in 1975 when the book came out in 1962. The inscription helps value, but would likely help more if it had been done at the time of publication. But, it is what it is.

I don't think that the inscription helps as much as the stains hurt, however. Let's say that being inscribed to the publisher brings the $3,500 figure to ~$4,000 but the stains cut the value about in half. That assumes that the remainder of the book is in generally the same condition as the copy that sold for $3,500, which is difficult to determine from the pictures (the previously sold copy was billed as near fine and your copy appears to be generally very good but with stains and a bump to the lower left corner). So, somewhere in the $2,000 to perhaps $2,500 range to a collector, perhaps $1,500 to a bookseller. I'm just thinking off the top of my head here; I'm sure others will be happy to set me straight if I'm off base.

And for the record, although this is one important piece I'd love to buy, I'm not in the market to pay this kind of coin for anything except a major car repair or mortgage payment, so I'm being objective. I think.
 
I agree that the stains are a negative, and a 1962 inscription would have been a lot better. But it's still a valuable book.

You would think that a more affordable copy with a few condition issues would be an easy sell, because it opens it up to a market that maybe couldn't afford a pristine copy, but that doesn't seem to be the case. As far as I've seen, anyway. Even with condition issues it's going to be out of reach to a lot of people, but the people who can drop a couple grand are going to be looking for better condition...it's kind of a catch 22 for anything in this price range.

I like it, stains and all, but I'm not a typical collector.
 
No doubt an inscription from '62 would be a major plus, but shit it's Carl Larsen' s copy and for me
that makes it a major piece. Given the provenance/ inscription, I don't think the stains detract from
the price as much as PS does.
Thanks for following through with pics, and for posting it here to begin with. It made my day, really.
 
I was only trying to get the ball rolling on a discussion of numbers because there's a great deal of subjectivity given all the variables here and different people's thoughts on inscriptions, stains, etc. I agree that it's a major piece, but I also agree with mjp's comment about someone willing to pay $2K+ would likely be willing and able to pay more for a cleaner copy. I know I picked up copies of Poems and Drawings and Cold Dogs in the Courtyard with some pen marks on the cover for just about half what they would normally cost, so that was the basis for my estimate. Then again, those weren't inscribed to the publisher!

So it really comes down to the inscription and the Carl Larsen provenance. I guess, skiroomalum, based on what we have so far, a reasonable number at this point is perhaps in the $2,000-$3,500 range? I realize we can't really pinpoint a number, but maybe we can get Ms. Larsen an idea that's not unrealistic but also not undercutting the value.
 
That book in that condition I think is worth a minimum of $1500 without the inscription/association. The signature alone kicks it up $300.
The inscription another $400. That it's to Carl Larsen inscribed in his personal copy (assuming this was his only one) boosts it an additional $300.
So yeah, $2500 or so give or take is a real world value. An inscription from 1962, in a fine copy would double the above.
If I had the dough, I wouldn't hesitate to drop $2500 on this, but I wouldn't pay more.
 
OK, so my original estimate of $2,000-$2,500 was on the mark - for you and me. That we got similar numbers using reverse thought processes speaks to something (perhaps that we're both idiots; I reserve the right to invoke that possibility :rolleyes:). Ms. Larsen, that book is truly a landmark document in Bukowski's vastly productive career. It's great that your Father was able to produce it and I offer condolences on his passing. You may not get what we've estimated, but you should (an opinion based on the legacy). Hopefully you get more. Or maybe, just hang onto it for a while and reflect on just what it is you have there. An early chapbook from one of the greatest poets who ever lived published by your Father with a message from Buk to him. Coffee stains be damned, that's an important piece of literary history.

As a final thought, since the inscription is from 1975, does it make any sense that this was one of Buk's copies and, for some reason, he sent it to Larsen well after publication? Perhaps Larsen had no copies left and had sent Buk a few as author copies in '62 and later asked for one as a keepsake? The inscription suggests that Buk had looked at it after some period of time. Of course, this opens up the Pandora's Box issue of "Are those Buk's Coffee Stains?" Oy, I don't want to do that. But...
 
The great news is that the pictures are here and as long as this website stays up, it will be part of the official record. Make no mistake, this is THE place for all info about Bukowski; good bad or otherwise. Lots of info has been found by the scholars here that had not been uncovered by the dozen or so bibliographers of Buk. The important thing, it seems, is to make sure that your Father has his rightful place in the Buk/small press canon.

You could sell the book to a university, although someone recently told me that they don't care about signed books. Not sure if that is true. Have you considered selling his archives? Did he keep them? I can tell you that you could have letters or unpublished poetry that would be very important to have a record of before it goes into private hands.... This is the way that Bukowski's editor at Ecco has found lots of unknown poems, by spending time going thru archives at universities. It also secures your Dad's place in the world of the Small Press.
 
Well, a few years ago Larsen told me had donated his correspondence -incluiding Bukowski's-- to some library. I emailed that library a couple of times and I was told there was no Bukowski correspondence there. Oh well...
 
Did you know my dad? I've only just started going through his papers but have already come across notebooks of correspondence, he made carbons of most everything. Please let me know if there was anything specific you were looking for, I'd be happy to help.

Thank you so much to everyone for helping me get an idea of the possible financial value of this book! I really appreciate it. I'm still not sure what to do with it. I'm still going through my dad's things and if I come across anything having to do with CB or that that looks interesting, I'll be sure and post about it on this site. I'm just sorry I didn't know about this site earlier, as I'm sure my dad really would've enjoyed posting here! :)
 

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