I collect antiquarian gunning books and crave the icon, in addition to the information. There are a number of "print on demand" publishers who are doing electronic reprints of just about everything they can lay their hands on, and they tend to charge in the range of $60 to $150. When I search a rare title on AddAll.com (which lists all the other dot-com listings), the proliferation of reprints and copy services is amazing. These "POD" people bid up the real thing and try to make it back retailing the reprints, which is great for availibility. One additional positive is that by possessing the reprint a certain number of purchasers are encouraged to chase down the real thing, thus making for an active collector market (while adding value to existing collector libraries).
I've played this game by reprinting Parker catalogs with my Old Reliable Publishing. But it's a hard way to make a buck. I'm thinking of making ORP a public utility.
I own Greener's 1884 2nd edition in pristine condition, and it is worthwhile to compare his many editions as to what was known at different points of time. By 1907, when his 9th edition came out, the time line for the gun's development was quite muddled; the 2nd edition is an eye opener. Being able to Google the 9th edition has to be hard on the eyes (or printer), especially when the several reprints are always available on eBay for cheap.
The Internet is a great research tool in certain circumstances, but slouching into my leather chair on a cold winter nite, wood burner blazing, and feeling the texture of the boards and pages as I read the one-, two-, or three-century-old words of an original rare old book rings my bell, just like shooting a shotgun of the late 19th or early 20th century. Another benefit of antiquarian gunning books is that no state and federal regulations encumber transactions, and shelved books are an unlikely target for thieves.
By the way, am I missing something: I don't see a spel chezk? EDM
