First Edition of the Fountainhead

[Spirit429]

Inviting offers for this First Edition.

Contact me at spirit429@aim.com for photos.

Victoria

Thanks for the critique. Can I post jpegs here?

[Backlighting]

Inviting offers for this First Edition.

(Start at 5k)

Inviting offers for this First Edition.

(Start at 5k)

How about posting some .jpegs of what you're looking to sell?

C'mon, you can't expect someone to spend 5K for a sight unseen item.

I was born at night...but not last night.

-J

[Brant Gaede]

Inviting offers for this First Edition.

(Start at 5k)

How about posting some .jpegs of what you're looking to sell?

C'mon, you can't expect someone to spend 5K for a sight unseen item.

I was born at night...but not last night.

-J

That's a common description for Atlas Shrugged on eBay.

Over-priced too. Also common.

Some idiot dealer thinks some contractural document Rand once signed but did not write is worth $20,000 or more. Another idiot thinks her snipped signature ("cut") is worth its own small fortune. It once was worth more than its now next to nothing--it was razored out of its original context.

On eBay always go to what was sold--not the completed listings--to get a better notion of true market values.

--Brant

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I presume this is a first edition of The Fountainhead since that is the tag.

But as far as information in the post goes, this is one of the worst written offers I have ever seen.

If you are going to offer a first edition for sale, for a large sum at that, it would be helpful to say what it is a first edition of. And it would be helpful to include contact information.

Also, do I, the site owner, know who the above poster is? No. The information in the user profile says "Victoria Parisi" and her single post on OL so far is the start of this thread.

This is a classic copywriting fail. Granted, interested people might guess it's The Fountainhead and look at the user profile for an email, but busy readers don't have much time to play three guesses, not even affluent ones. (And, no, the ad does not inspire intrigue--you need talent and technique to create that in the reader's mind, not a half-assed post-modern textual manipulation.)

For someone who spends $5k on a hobby, an ad like the one above doesn't inspire much trust.

I thought of some quips, but I will restrict myself to a story that marketer, Gary Halbert, once told.

He started by saying (I'm going from memory, so it might be slightly different), "I have fucked up just about everything there is to fuck up in marketing." Then he told the story.

He was working on a new approach to selling a weight-loss program. In his copy, he stomped all over the insecurity muscles in the brains of fat people and lathered them up for his cure so they wanted it real bad. Eat donuts and lose weight kind of thing. Then he took out a two-page spread in a Sunday newspaper (the most expensive). This was in Chicago if I remember correctly. He paid a fortune for it.

The only thing he forgot was contact information. Nobody knew how to get in touch with him.

(He also invested heavily in another double-page spread on the same weight-loss program. His copy focused on telling jokes about fat people. That didn't sell anything, either, but that's another story. )

I hope it works out for the Spirit429 poster, whoever he or she is, better than it did for Gary Halbert that time...

Michael

[9thdoctor]

Here's something more interesting:

Imagine that. A signed first edition We the Living used as a coaster.

[Spirit429]

Please see Victoria Parisi on Facebook for photos of The Fountainhead

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Let me help this poster since there are several accounts with the name, Victoria Parisi, on Facebook.

Here's the Facebook account link: Victoria Parisi

Facebook post link with photo: 1st Edition of The Fountainhead

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

I don't think first edition and first printing are one and the same in this case.

I do believe it should say "First Edition" and if you want to sell it put up a photo of that.

Consider an eBay listing.

I am price dubious, especially without an author's inscription. Check out eBay listings $1000 and up under "The Fountainhead" and "Fountainhead" or just "Ayn Rand" three different ways": current, completed and sold.

Look at the video 9th Doctor put up. Most of that 20-30,000 range was for "We the Living." All three were signed "Ayn" to her relative and had serious provenance. Even so, those prices were generous. I think Rand prices peaked several years ago. Now eBay is flooded with Rand items. Ten years ago there might have been three pages of Rand eBay listings. Go count 'em now.

--Brant