A book about canyoneering, but one which comes at a price......

[maarten.1975]

Uhmmm, I was searching canyoneering books on amazon, found some nice books, however, what about this book in the picture below? If I would buy this book, it for sure would be a used one





As well the link, I checked and double-checked, but it seems for real. is there anybody who can explain this to me?
http://www.amazon.com/Canyoneering-R...9376533&sr=1-3

[ratagonia]

The book WAS out of print. There are sellers on ebay that set ridiculously high prices for some titles, and hope some fool buys one. In some senses, Amazon Marketplace works the same way, especially if there is no official seller of the book (ie, if it is out of print).

Tom

[Brian in SLC]

Pretty common to see out of print stuff get priced that way. Can't imagine someone would pay that much, though.

Some books when they go out of print become sought after collectables. When they're re-printed, that price can drop.

But, this book? Probably has a small amount of collector value in the super tight niche of American canyoneering guidebooks. Wouldn't justify the price as it comes up for sale, used, all the time.

Yeah, mine's signed by the author...ha ha.

[Iceaxe]

Arch Bagger - A Scrambler’s Guide to Arches National Park by Gery Roach is commanding $200 for a signed copy.

http://climb.mountains.com/Book_Land_files/Arch_Bagger.shtml

Only 300 copies were ever printed and this book set off a bit of a firestorm with the NPS and arch bagging.

I traded a Climb-Utah membership for my copy, which the guy had bought off a clearance table for $1.75.

Hard to believe for what is basically a self-published book printed on a Xerox machine.

[Brian in SLC]

Well, I don't know if Arch Bagger is "commanding" that price, but, Gerry is!

His Transcendental Summits can be had much cheaper...ha ha...

Yeah, I highly covet finding a copy of Arch Bagger. Not enough that I'd buy it from Gerry though. May have to see about a photocopy for historical purposes...(!).

Gerry did sign my Seven Summits book... Have an old poster of him climbing on Mount Blackburn in Alaska...I should see about gettin' that signed I suppose.

Notable as the first person to climb the top ten tallest peaks in North America, no easy feat. Met him and his crew on St. Elias (they summitted the Harvard Route, we were denied on the SW Face). Also has the distinction, I seem to recall, of the person taking the longest to climb the seven summits (given he climbed Denali way back when).

Probably more notable as the second person to do the Seven Summits (tallest on each continent) if you count Kosciuszko as one of the seven. He was the 18th if you count Carstensz. First to do all 8? And, biggest date range from start to finish, a whoppin' 30 year climbing odyssey?

Arch Bagger? Peak bagger!

[Scott P]

Pretty common to see out of print stuff get priced that way.

Kelsey's Canyonlands book is going for $248 used.

http://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Explori...+national+park

Some other rediculously priced ones I've seen lately:

http://www.amazon.com/Trekking-Climb...g+western+alps

This one is just a thin paper book:

http://www.amazon.com/Colorados-Elkh...head+mountains

I found it elsewhere for $3.

[Scott P]

PS, usually the Great Old Broads auction has some of Steve Allen's books for sale. It's next month.

There's a good chance they will have the book you were looking at.

[Felicia]

I have several Kelsey books. I pulled them out tonight. Some of the pictures are priceless! I would not sell my books.

[Iceaxe]

The only Steve Allen book I own is the San Rafael book in the first post.

I think I have just about all of Kelsey's books. Some of which I own 3 or 4 different editions.

[maarten.1975]

Thanks for the info. So basically it is very simple, but I really think they would have sold that last version they have, if it was normally priced. Mad world we live in....

[Nordschleife]

Maarten, since you're also from the netherlands, whats your experience with european canyons. And do you know of english beta of eurocanyons most seem to be in french

[Byron]

I think I have just about all of Kelsey's books. Some of which I own 3 or 4 different editions.

Me too...he also gave me several out of print books as a gift for doing slots with him years ago. Black Rock, Ibex Country, even a copy of his World's Mountains. Funny to think these things may be worth a lot of cash...I'm sure he'd be REAL HAPPY to hear that!

[maarten.1975]

Maarten, since you're also from the netherlands, whats your experience with european canyons. And do you know of english beta of eurocanyons most seem to be in french

Hi again, well, to be honest I have no experience with European canyons. I 'discovered' canyoneering while hiking in Utah and not being able to continue on certain points... Because I love the desert as much as I love canyons, I

[Nordschleife]

Already bought the same book as you, also http://www.swisscanyon.ch/book/book.html looks promising.
But nothing of the quality like climb-utah.

I'm from Hellevoetsluis near Rotterdam, came in touch with the canyons pretty much the same way as you did and i'm planning on taking a canyoningcourse in spain next year.