Order of the Golden Sprout The New Robert Rankin Fan Club

The post above mine that was deleted... My spammer senses were tingling - I put on my admin trousers, and then remembered that I'm only an omnipotent Super Geek when I'm at work.
 
So I posted in an airstrike instead

OK, being a total newbie to the world of Robert Rankin I figured this would be the best place to get some useful information of the useful variety. If you've read my introduction post, and you probably haven't, I stumbled across Robert's books by sheer chance, whilst my other half was browsing the second hand books stall of our local flea market (which doesn't just sell local fleas, you can get some quite exotic ones too). I bought three and, having almost finished reading them I decided to go back yesterday and get some more. I bought another five dog-eared paperbacks. The guy has three hardbacks on his shelves and I was wondering how to tell whether or not they're first editions. They're not in great condition, it has to be said, but if they're first editions they're probably worth having.
 
The three titles in question are:
The Garden Of Unearthly Delights
The Fandom Of The Operator
Knees Up Mother Earth
If some kind soul could let me know how to identify first editions of these fine works, I'll go back next weekend and check them out. He's selling them for the South African equivalent (I live in Johannesburg, you see) of mere pennies. One of them was priced at R48 (about 4 or 5 English quid pounds, new money), which is less than I paid for some of the dog-eared paperbacks.
Any useful information of the useful variety would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Ebay tends to have a lot of Roberts firts editions for sale, usually in pretty good condition too. Prices tend to start at about £10.
 
Another one to check out is Abebooks. Abebooks.co.uk
Its a network of book dealers in the UK who list their stock online, so is also a good place to look for first and rare editions. It also gives you a good guideline for prices.
 
The one thing to remember though is that these prices are UK ones. Something that is common here may well be pretty rare in South Africa. So try to find some local dealers and do a little research.
 

Ebay tends to have a lot of Roberts firts editions for sale, usually in pretty good condition too. Prices tend to start at about £10.
 
Another one to check out is Abebooks. Abebooks.co.uk
Its a network of book dealers in the UK who list their stock online, so is also a good place to look for first and rare editions. It also gives you a good guideline for prices.
 
The one thing to remember though is that these prices are UK ones. Something that is common here may well be pretty rare in South Africa. So try to find some local dealers and do a little research.
 

Sorry forgot to add.... Identifying a first edition....
 
In a nutshell you need to check the copyright page. It should just say the publication date and copyright date (which will match) IE "First published in Great Britian 1994" and "Copyright Robert Rankin 1994". There should be no mention of "Second Impression" etc.
 
Also some publishers use a line of numbers to identify a first from second editions. In some cases its simply the numbers 1 to 10 in numeric order. In  other publishers the numbers get jumbled up into a seemingly random order. The second edition or impression will have the number 10 missing, though some publishers may remove the number 1. The main thing to check is that all the numbers are present.
 
That is it in a nutshell. After that you are look for book condition. I would look up a dealers website for more info on that. It does get very complex. Even I as a collector find it trickey to judge a books condition.
 
All the best. Hope that helps.

Thanks, RD, that helps. I'm not a collector as such, I only read my first Robert Rankin novel less than two weeks ago. However, it would be nice to have a couple of special ones in there. Second hand bookshops are few and far between in this country and I'm not sure if there are a whole lot of collectors either, so my plan is to buy every Rankin novel this guy has in stock as and when finances permit. Problem is, I find them so hard to put down that I read the buggers too quickly, probably a sign that I have too much time on my hands! And as I said, for some strange reason the hardbacks seem to be priced lower than the paperbacks, so maybe the stall holder doesn't have any idea of the value of some of his books.
 
Anyway, I shall let you know the outcome of next Saturday's trip to the flea market and whether or not I'm the proud owner of any first editions.
 
Thanks again.
 
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Good luck. I hope you get something good out of the trip.
 
Do try ebay as well. Many sellers will ship internationally. It may be costly but its worth it.

Also some publishers also use the numbers 0-9
Check out this link it's a UK book company that gives free postage to anywhere in the World they state.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
 
The Book Depository. Free delivery worldwide on all our books.

Having books delivered by post here in South Africa is generally not a good option because the South African Post Office are a bunch of thieving bar stewards. Virtually any package coming in from abroad will be opened and if the contents are worth nicking, thus will they become nicked. And if they're not worth nicking, thus will they become thrown in the bin. We ordered some books from Amazon four weeks ago and because we thought they were being couriered we gave them our physical address rather than our P.O. Box address and so far no sign of the books. Why? Because they sent them by post, not courier. I can tell you now, we are never going to see those books. Sad but true.
 
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