A Kitchener Man's Bit: An Account of the Great War 1914-1918

[hooge1]

Hi All,

A Kitchener Man's Bit: An Account of the Great War 1914-1918 This sold for £50 last year via AbeBooks listed for £300 quid now! A good book but these prices are just crazy; time for a reprint me thinks.

Regards

Nick

[Chris_Baker]

That's barmy. I'll happily sell my copy for £295.

[Black Maria]

In the same league as the1965 paperback reprint of T.S Hope's "The winding road unfolds", a year or so ago there were two or three copies on ABE and they wanted

hundreds for them, I see there are half a dozen now and the lowest is twenty quid.

Supply and demand I suppose, I see that there are no other copies of Dennis's book on ABE, Amazon or E.Bay , but I doubt anyone will buy it at that price, even though

,as has been said, it's a very good memoir.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Perhaps they put the decimal point in the wrong place?

[hooge1]

Perhaps they put the decimal point in the wrong place?

Ha ha I wondered the same, but they were adamant they had sold several copies over the last couple of years for £300!

[hooge1]

So happy! A Kitchener Man's Bit: An Account of the Great War 1914-1918 bought for £30 from H40 books.This time the decimal point was in the right place.

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Glad you found a copy, Nick. You might be interested in the thread 21st Battalion KRRC: the Original Yeomen where we've often referred to this book. The possibility of a reprint or new edition is mentioned on the last page.

Liz

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Well done. I see the £300 copy hasn't sold yet. No surprise there then. Trouble is other potential sellers will see it and price theirs accordingly.

[hooge1]

Glad you found a copy, Nick. You might be interested in the thread 21st Battalion KRRC: the Original Yeomen where we've often referred to this book. The possibility of a reprint or new edition is mentioned on the last page.

Liz

Thanks for the link Liz its an interesting thread that I need to go right through. My connection to 21st Battalion KRRC: the Original Yeomen and Gerald V. Dennis the author of the book is through my late Uncle John (Jack) Broadley. Jack told me his Uncle had been killed on the first day of the Somme JW Broadley 18DLI I now posses his death penny. It was only recently when researching the Broadley family history that I found out that Jack also had a cousin killed in 1918. c/12722 Matthew Henry Broadley he joined at Helmsley the same day as c/12747 Gerald V. Dennis. I know Dennis was in C Company and no doubt Broadley was in the same company as he was from near Spennymoor in Durham. Broadley served for a bit as Edens batman and was killed whilst with the 16bn KRRC in 1918.

Well done. I see the £300 copy hasn't sold yet. No surprise there then. Trouble is other potential sellers will see it and price theirs accordingly.

Yea don't know what's happening with that one at the minute, it was at £300 then £240 now back to £300

In Remembrance 18/1293 John William Broadley KIA Serre 13th 1st July 1916

In Remembrance c/12722 Matthew Henry Broadley KIA Neuve Eglise 13th April 1918

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Hello Nick

If you search on 'Broadley' on that thread you will see several mentions of your relative Matthew Henry Broadley. Forum pal Hett65 contributed quite a bit on the Spennymoor men. Dennis mentions the Spennymoor lads in 'A Kitchener Man's Bit' but not Broadley, I think, though they were both 'originals' in C Company who survived till the battalion was disbanded.

If I'd known it was going to leap in value I might not have annotated my copy of 'AKMB' in pencil! I don't usually do this but the print is so tiny I need a few signposts.

Liz

[hooge1]

Thanks for that Liz.

[Black Maria]

I notice a copy is on e-bay at the moment at a starting price of £40, interestingly it is an edition printed by George Murdoch's ' Armchair Auctions ' , I knew he thought

highly of the book but hadn't realised he had reprinted some copies of it.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

And 3 other copies priced between £2-300. That's just crazy for a 20 year old book where almost every copy printed must still be in existence.

I see another copy on ABE has reached the dizzy heights of £565!!

[barkalotloudly]

the lure of the great war anniversary, and the desire for the easy buck, coupled with those who have no knowledge/genuine interest in the subject ....... might as well check the fuel level in a petrol tank with a match! .....as a matter of principle I will not buy individual photographs from what is obviously a broken up album

[Black Maria]

Just noticed that Helion are reprinting the book on 15th August, £16.95 ( pre-order £15.25 ) in paperback.

[Black Maria]

I also note that copies of the original are now selling for between £50 and £75 , I imagine that the prices will fall even faster after the middle of August.

[Moonraker]

We've discussed very high book prices asked by eBay vendors before, and one theory was that once a book was sold the seller maintained the listing at a high price to avoid re-listing fees should (s)he acquire a further copy. And there are vendors who hope that some unsuspecting mug reader will come along and pay a high price though there's a lower one elsewhere, or there may be someone desperate to acquire a copy who is willing to pay over the odds (as I do occasionally and wittingly with old postcards).

For well over a year now, one item on eBay has been overpriced by 400% and several others have been there for a month that are priced at ten times their value (and are very inaccurately described).

Moonraker.

[Black Maria]

I remember when copies of 'Pill boxes on the Western Front' were scarce and selling for over £100 , when the book was reprinted, copies of the original

suddenly became less scarce and now can be found for as little as £8. I think that copies of 'A Kitchener man's bit will soon follow suit.

[Black Maria]

The paperback reprint was published on November 15th , the original copies are now selling for between £9.99 and £35.