Books for sale!!

[Donnie]

Ok folks...thought I would post up here first so you are aware of what I am doing. Starting tomorrow, probably by early afternoon, you may begin seeing me selling handicapping books for sale on Ebay. I have almost 150 books on handicapping, and numerous systems. I have decided to liquidate my ENTIRE collection. Why, you ask? Because I trully do not use them anymore!

First to go out tomorrow will be Bill Olmsted's Complete Handicapper. 513 pages jammed pack with lots of great info!! Great for both beginners and experienced players!
Also, all 4 Beyer's books are going out as one package.

Over the course of the next month or so, every couple days, I will be adding new content for sale. If you are interested, go out to Ebay and in the Search box type in Handicapping. Most of the auctions will be for 5-6 days.

Am I giving up the horses? Nope. HTR is it for me. I have decided I don't need anything else! Feel free to email me if you have any questions on any thing you find out there. Nearly every book is in BRAND NEW condition....no highlighting. No underlining. Nearly all are original owners. There will be some FANTASTIC bargains and some VERY hard to find books! I have even been kicking around the idea of adding all the HTR newsletters from way back when....the ones that were mailed and are not on the website currently. Maybe I'll label that batch as the "Lost Newsletters"!!:D

Anyway...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

BOL all!

[Victor]

To my friend Donnie:

Do you have a copy of "Pace Makes the Race" by MP et al?

I would advise you NEVER to sell any book you own but you didn't ask me about that.

[Donnie]

I will play devil's advocate here Vic....why should I never sell any book I own?

And, yes, I do currently own Pace Makes the Race.

[Victor]

Because books are in a way a sacred container of the intellect of the Author, and presumably WAY more valuable than what you paid or what you could get. I've sold many books in the past, only to find out years later or sooner, that I made a mistake.

[Donnie]

...guess I never thought of them as "sacred containers".....

But doesn't one need to judge the intellect of the individual writing the book and the knowledge imparted thru that book? Then a logical decision can be made about the actual value of that book? I look at my bookcase and I think about how long I have been with HTR... many of the books I have read once...for me to take the time to re-read a book, there has to be some real value in that book...or at least valuable to me. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I have read more than once. Not that they don't hold value for others, but for me the value has been absorbed and it is time for them to move on to help someone else. My first forray into Ebay selling is now online.... venture out and type "handicapping" into the search box. Those are my two "babies" at the end of the list.

Oh BTW....about 10 years ago when I moved from Omaha back to DSM, I gave away about 6 years of old DRF's all neatly boxed up and all my American Turf monthly mags (about 5 years worth) and all my Racing Action papers (about 4 years worth). And yes, I do regret giving them away...but only because had I saved them I probably coulda got a mint for them out on Ebay today!! But I am not doing this for the money.... I am doing this because it is time to "move on". I am computer based (HTR) and intend to stay that way. Don't get me wrong...I hope I make a ton of money.....but if not, that's ok! I'll still be helping someone else. I guess I can look at it as I handing down the knowledge that was once given to me (err, more so that I bought!).:D

[Victor]

Those are great reasons you listed Donnie, but I stand on what I said, don't sell ideas you own (via the books) for money. Don't sell them-- either because you may at some future point wish to revisit them, or because main point you OWN these ideas. You want to help people? I realize you are very generous to other people, but keep your books. Help other people in other ways you may come up with. Selling book X in order to "help" other people is not the best idea you ever had.

Helping people is good but selling them your books is a questionable way to do that.

[tommyc]

Call me.....

tommyc

[njcurveball]

I was curious and did a search on Ebay.

0 items found for sacred containers

I guess Donnie hasn't put up the sacred containers yet. :p

I look at Victor's role on this BBS like I use to look at Howard Cossell on MNF. I tune in just to see what he will say next.

The value you get from a book is reading it. Once you have done that, it is like a candy wrapper. If you can eat the candy and sell the wrapper, that is the best of both worlds.

I have seen some prices crazy enough on Ebay to make me suspect the seller had a friend try to run up the bid, only to wind up winning.

Some books actually bring higher prices than what you paid for them.

Getting paid to eat candy by selling the wrappers.

SWEET!

[Donnie]

Jim-
I have a friend in NE who has sold a lot of his old stuff ....some of it fetched some pretty amazing prices. One set of 3 Sartin video tapes brought home $610. He told me he paid $75 for them in '97. He felt bad because he felt the two guys who got into the bidding war for them ran it much higher than what he felt they were worth. But that was his perceived value compared to their perceived value. I told him to take the extra money he felt they overpaid and surprise his wife with something she always wanted. Or go buy a kid or two in the neighborhood a new bike.

I have no doubt there are people out there who have friends run the prices up....but most of the stuff I have bid for was within reason of a person who puts value into something they want. Not artificially inflated auctions. There is one guy out there who I suspect has an outlet for all the stuff he buys. He snipes (puts his bid in at the last second) and I believe he uses a computer program to outbid the highest bidder automatically. My buddy from NE says this guy always pays promptly by PayPal.

Your analogy put a smile on my face! I grew up the son of a candyman. My father was a candy wholesaler in our hometown. He sold candy to all the little stores and taverns. We grew up with a double garage behind our house filled with every kind of candy bar you could imagine. Now that was SWEET!!! And we could eat the candy and never worry about selling the wrappers....there was always more candy in the garage!

[AlanLN]

Donnie,
I am sure there is more "sniping" going on than you can imagine. I have a couple of friends who use a sniping service to put in that last second highest bid. It is really a neat service. You just specify your max bid and forget about it. And the service fee is very small.

Shoot, I may have to dig out my old handicapping books and try my hand at Ebay. I'm sure my collection isn't as extensive as yours, but I was buying most every book that came out from the late 1980's to 2002 or so.

[delayjf]

Donnie,

Being a pack rat I can understand to a degree what Victor is saying. I always revisit old books to see if there is something I can use. But, that's just me. For example, re-reading some stuff about trip handicapping I've noticed that Donnie's avatar has not changed leads for several months:D

Donnie, just curious, were you a regular at Ak-Sar-Ben. I loved that track. I had a bunch of old Ak racing forms that I threw away that I now regret, call me sentimental.

[MikeDee]

You guys have nay links to sniping services?

[Donnie]

Jeff-
No, although AKS was one of my favorite tracks, I never had the opportunity to become a regular....spent some vacation time over there, and actually lived in Council Bluffs for a year, but by then the track was closed and gone. Very sad. It was a beautiful facility.

Concerning the avatar: we'll switch leads once we enter the "stretch"....I think we have a ways to go yet!!

Mike-
I don't have any sniping programs, but I will ask around work. I know a guy who relishes in collecting those types of programs. He can find a hack for just about anything and everything.

[Mark]

Avatars not changing leads, you guys made my morning after a little too much fun last night.

$$$ and reasonable fun to all this weekend.

[Rick]

MikeDee,

There are web based snipe services and there are programs you can run from your computer.

YOu could probably do a google search for "ebay snipe" and get a long list.

[Ritz]

You guys have nay links to sniping services?
By far the best - set the final for 10 seconds or less as there are a number of people that snipe
http://www.auctionsniper.com/

[dehere]

MikeDee - I use Hammersnipe. There is a pay service but the free one is fine and it puts in the bid with about ten seconds left. Its free up to about three or four bids a month.

[MikeDee]

thanks guys. I haven't bid on anything in a while but trying to time your bid for the final secoonds is a real pain in the A__

[Victor]

Bottom line is this, you can sell any book you personally wrote with no objections from me.

If not, then I have to assume you learned something or thought you might (when you bought it). I'm not a pack rat per se, but I regret selling many books I've owned. What the heck (:)) is $10 worth today?

Just for once (or twice) I feel very confident about my opinion. Don't sell ideas for less than you paid especially if they're worth more, which is quite likely.

[Donnie]

Got a very rare book out on ebay right now.....if you are interested, follow the link....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Horse-Race-Handicapping-Principals-of-Combination_W0QQitemZ250023249082QQihZ015QQcategor yZ31668QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[km]

I checked your previous transactions on ebay Donnie, doing really well with your sales!

Did you put up the cream of the crop first or just in any order for sale?

Do the out of print obscure titles sell at the high prices - or do the popular ones by Beyer and Quinn fetch the best money? It seems like almost all handicapping books are out of print fairly quickly though because they have such a limited sales run.

Maybe you don't have an answer for this: which handicapping book from let's say 1970 forward, would fetch the highest price at auction? I'm sure there are rare titles from Pittsburg Phil printed 100 years ago that have great historical value, but was curious about the handicapping book that would get the highest price in the last 30 years or so? Would anything sell for more than $100?

About 7years ago i did the same thing you are doing now, except at a garage sale. Some guy gave me 100 bucks for about a dozen of my books - took them all. So I guess there is a market for it if the books are no longer available from Amazon or GBC.

[Donnie]

Ken-
I would think that that book I have out there right now may be one of the "single book" highest fetchers. If you search Amazon, there is only 1 used copy of that book available and the going price is $179!!! I have a Pittsburgh Phil book as well as Sam "the Genius" Lewis. They are all going out on the auction block eventually. I don't want to saturate the market. I probably have close to 200 books, then some assorted videos and tape sets...like Quinn and Mitchell and Pizzola. I also have a handful of systems I bought over the years and some regional books that are not mainstream.

I am debating grouping all the Mitchell books together and the Quirin books together, etc....but I didn't get a big response on the 4 Beyers books I sold as a unit. So I am still up in the air about that. I am considering selling all 3 of the Scott books as one unit....all in excellent shape! I have a copy of the Pizzola bootcamp tapes and workbook as well as a copy of Handicapping Magic that I will probably sell as one unit. I am planning on throwing in for free a bootleg copy of the Handicapping Magic software that was thrown in with a bunch of other software that came as one unit in an auction I won a while back. (you know something Ken? Yours is the only software that has not come to me as a rip-off or bootleg in any of the auctions I have won!!) That whole set sells for $4-500 out on Pizzola's site. I have some very vintage books that are really unbelievable. Probably only a collector will buy some of the stuff. But that's ok. Robert Dowst is a hard one to find and I have a book of his that will be auctioned.

No...this not the cream of the crop, but I wouldn't consider any of the 4 items out there as slack right now. The Mathematics of Horseracing is hard to find. I won't be surprised if that gets up to $40 before it is over. Nearly all of my books are in brand new shape... you would swear they have never been opened. No highlighting or underlining in any of them. Defintely primo condition...and if a book is not, that will be stated in the auction. Wonder what I am going to do with all the extra space I am creating on my bookshelf?

When something really unique hits the block I'll post here. Don't know if anyone here is a collector or not...but some things may be worth a look!

[km]

Good stuff Donnie.

Looks like you might end up with a positive ROBI (return on book investment) :)

[km]

Donnie, what happened with your sale of "Common Sense Betting" by Dick Mitchell?

[Mall]

I'm pretty sure the hands down answer to your question Ken is what I consider the best handicapping book nobody ever mentions, namely "Efficiency of Racetrack Betting Markets", a 1994 Academic Press compilation of peer reviewed scientific papers edited by Lo, Hausch, & Ziemba. It is currently offered---used, not including shipping---for $2100 on the Amazon & BestBookBuys sites, & contains, among many other things, a rare look into the approach & thinking of Bill Benter, of HK Betting Syndicate fame & fortune. Unfortunately for me, I did not learn of or read the book until I had already moved to Lexington, which is when I also found out that Benter is from & owns a business in my old hometown of Pgh. I'm pretty sure he wasn't a regular at Magna's OTB in Moon Twp, but can't help but think that I would have figured out some way to meet him for a drink or dinner, & get answers to at least of a few of my questions about his contribution, which bears the title: "Computer Based Horse Race Handicapping and Wagering Systems: A Report."

[Donnie]

That's a good question Ken.

I sent the book out and it was in great shape. The buyer said the dust cover had a huge crease in it. I asked for photos and he sent them. The book did not look like that when I sent it. His pic shows a huge dimple on the back cover. Almost like a piercing. I cannot imagine what happened to that book....?? I read that book once, it went on my book shelf and from the book shelf into the shipping box. I bought it new and he confirmed that the sales ticket was still inside the book. Many of my books I have read once and immediately shelved. We got into a pissing match (which, as you know, is TOTALLY out of character for me; I think I lost my cool when he called me a scammer! LOL! I was within inches of stepping back and re-analyzing my life!) but we came to an amicable conclusion. The negative feedback towards each other is going to be retracted. I was warned by a friend that there are a lot of people on Ebay trying to scam you, and at first I thought that was the case here. I don't think so anymore. Guy's name is thecalmb4thestorm and he seems to be an upfront guy. Don't you hate it when 2 "like" personalities clash?? LOL Anyway it's all water under the bridge now.

The sale continues!! Get 'em while they're hot!!

[km]

Mel and Donnie, thanks for the interesting info! The demand and prices are really surprising in the secondary handicapping market. From about 1975 - 1995 it was a lot easier for a dedicated handicapper, speed figure player, to make money at the track and those books really had value. Maybe the books bring back those memories and that somehow the reader might be able to recapture the "golden age" of the game.

My son and I tried Ebay for awhile. We bid on old hot wheels and he learned a lot from all the transactions -- until some guy sent us a broken one. A $28 toy truck turned us all into pit bulls. Finally resolved, but we have stopped now and are wiser for it. Ebay is a nice place to visit, but i wouldn't want to live there.