Why are DAW books collected?  Is it because they are numbered so we (in general) feel an obligation to complete the sequence?  I know DAW was one of the first sf publishers but I have books older than some of the DAW books from ballantine with authors just as well known that are apparently uninteresting to the collecting or reading public.  I was looking on amazon at prices for these books.  My book from ballantine was selling for a dollar and my DAW books are selling for 7-20 dollars.  As far as historical value they all seem equal to me.  In some cases the historical value seems more for the non daw books.

For example I have a ballentine paperback by Lester Del Rey called Robots and Changelings published in 1957 -- the cheapest available is selling for 1.00
It's short stories.
That's a book I wouldn't part with.  It really defines the 1950's sci-fi.  Are the stories good? -well from a historical viewpoint absolutely otherwise they are ok.

A daw short story paperback published in 1970 The Book of Gordon Dickson is selling for 10.00 -the only copy
it's ok not his best but some of the stories are good.

BUT a book numbered 15 which I would think there would be less copies of is selling for less at 7.50 and it is an interesting book -not great the author is lloyd biggle jr who is reasonably well known.

So please enlighten me!   Is it sort of a genre collection thing -like collecting old cookbooks?  Does it get expensive?  Is it possible to complete the series?

and what happens to me if I throw away a DAW book because it's well beyond it's last read?  Does it depend on what sort of aliens are in the book?

As I see it, DAW came onto the scene rather late, in 1972, compared to Ace, Dell, Ballantine and a few others...but Donald Wollheim was purely a science fiction/fantasy editor and I think he had a good handle on who the best writers were.  I decided to collect the entire series of DAW releases for two reasons:

1) It's a fun challenge to keep me occupied.

2) For the most part, these are some good books (for a hardcore SF/F reader like me) and I want to read them all.

I will say this, though...of close to 600 books that I have, the most I have paid for any is $5 for some of John Norman' Gor books.  A few of the harder to find titles I probably would pay more for if it came to it.  I really have no idea why some books are harder to find than others.  Every single book by John Norman is wish listed...as far as I can tell, he's not unique or especially talented, but his books are in great demand.  DAW #1 is Spell of the Witch World by Andre Norton.  Norton remains a relatively popular author, but this book is easy to find.  There are several copies in the system here, and I got a first edition in great shape as part of a 3/1 deal.  I would guess that more than half of the copies in my DAW collection are first editions, though I did not make any effort to seek them out.     

I fully intend to complete this series, but since so many of the books are easy to find, I am doing it at a very low key level. 

ok I can see why you personally do it.  Some of the titles and authors are pretty good but I guess my question is why is it such a widespread thing?  why not a fringe group collecting ace doubles or something?  (besides the fact that a lot of them are um not so good)  Is it because you can actually get every single book published and they are all sci-fi so it really is a complete set?  -unlike other collections say of authors where it would be difficult to get the complete set because  of the different publishers and renames and republishing and all the anthologies?   I really am curious and a little dense.  And now I'm curious about what books you need to finish the set?  I'm cleaning out my shelves -looks like most of the older sci-fi are unpostable though.  Any others here on PBS that collect DAW too? 

I think the distinctive yellow spines are a factor too.  Even when my DAW paperbacks were new, I would sometimes pull them down off the shelf and put them in order just to look at them together.  They seem designed to be collectable.  Now, I'm not a serious collector of them, but I do have a list...

However, Tor Doubles, I am a collector of those, and am missing only four.

-Tom Hl.

That was my initial thought - maybe they were numbered to create a collectable series  sort of like Nancy Drew only not.  Of course now I have to ask -why collect tor doubles and not ace doubles but I'm thinking someone out here probably does collect them.    I generally like to keep most of my sci-fi collection but I am cleaning out my home shelves so if anyone orders off my shelf they can have an unpostable listed below.  I'll have more but it's slow going because I have to read or at least skim the darn books to make sure I don't want to read them again.  PM me if you order and want one of these.  

UNPOSTABLES:

The book of gordon Dickson daw #55 1973 looks like 9th printing

asimov Nine Tomorrows

carol dennis Dragon's Pawn

dickson is almost postable -I've gotten books in worse shape asimov is only held together by a rubberband -the other three have pages starting to come off of the spine nothing is totally separated yet.  The distinctive yellow spine on the biggle book looks more pink to me so I should add sun damage to them all...but none of them look a day over 40!

unpostables disappearing...

I was not aware many people collected DAW books.  I thought I was rather odd, considering most of them are so easy to find.  I, of course, am not limiting myself to the yellow-spine DAW's.  They switched over in 1984...I have first editions of #577 and #585, and the switch was somewhere in between.  March '09 brings them to #1,466, and they are still going strong. 

For the record, I also collect Laser books.  They are harder to find since it was a one-shot deal - one edition of each.  I haven't even been able to find a complete list of titles.  I think there were only fifty put out, in 1975 and 1976.

You are a part of a fairly large (maybe underground) community -at least I have heard of a lot of people collecting DAW.  The first person I met collecting DAW was back in the early 80's  probably 84 if that's when the yellow spine switch occured.   This whole questioning collectibles thing started as a result of an unpostable book i received a few weeks ago.  I marked it RWAP and the person sent back that it was an out of print highly collectible sci-fi book and basically I should be honored to receive it.  I thought  well -that might be the case but since none of the pages were anywhere near being attached to the cover and they were in little clumps of 1-10 pages that didn't make it any better for me.  Besides most old sci-fi are out of print... I didn't know if I wanted to keep it after I read it.  I didn't want to close it with a rubberband every night so I wouldn't lose pages if the fan was on. Turns out that particular book has many copies on amazon for $ 0.02 -so that's not that collectible but it got me interested in seeing what books are considered collectible and what are not.  Especially paperback sci-fi.  I think I mainly collect authors -except anthologies-  I really like old anthologies but I don't know if that's really collecting or not...  I suspect there are many that are collected for the cover art.   Really I just collect books I guess.

What are laser books?  What authors?  That sounds like an interesting but probably bit more expensive collection.


 

why collect tor doubles and not ace doubles?

Well, actually I have both.  But my Tor Doubles are more nearly complete.  Because the series was mostly re-prints of a award-winning novellas, the quality of writing is a lot higher than the typical Ace Double. 

I also look for the Star Trek Deep Space Nine series, and the Nebula Awards series, and the first hundred DAWs.

I buy these at used bookstores, not from collectors - because I have them for reading, not investing.

-Tom Hl.

What are laser books?  What authors?  That sounds like an interesting but probably bit more expensive collection.

Roger Elwood is listed as the editor of this series, and that Harlequin Enterprises is the parent publisher.  The front has a note saying there will be three books released a month, and there is a list of the first 12 in the series (the later books don't continue the list, so I don't know what all the titles are).  The authors in the first 12 are (with a few repeats): Raymond F. Jones, Stephen Goldin, Arthur Tofte, Gordon Eklund, K.W. Jeter, Juanita Coulson, R. Coulson/G. DeWeese and Aaron Wolfe (pseudonym of Dean Koontz...this is one of his first books and very rare).

I have a couple of the books from the series on my WL, but I haven't been actively going after this series.

I don't collect DAW books but I LOVE to read them.

Matt............ I bought a few more that I will read then list. And I think you should stop collecting and send them to me to read !!!!

Give up my DAW's?  Never!!! Are you looking for anything special, Sherry?  I only saw one DAW book on your WL, and I don't have it either...

I just get a kick from watching Matt's numbers change almost every time I log on :-)

well i didn't know some people were collecting DAW's   i can look at my shelf as i have several hundred not listed and i know i have several DAW's  if needed i can post and they can be enjoyed. most are in good shape. I used to have cover scans of them somewhere  ......  i've slept since then so i will have to look .   ( Tom i think we looked for the ones you were wanting and i didn't have many doubles )

George

Ha!  Seventeen more on the way, Karen!

So, I just ordered a bundle of 100 poly-bags for the first time.  I have had a few instances lately where I bought an old paperback at the used bookstore for 50 cents or a dollar or something, and found out later the low price on Amazon was $10 or $25.   Almost makes me afraid to read them.  Don't worry though, I still remember what the purpose of a book actually is.  ;)

-Tom Hl.

Now that I think of it, these might make good liners for when I mail a traded or loaned book.

I read and post books, Daw books included. My favorite Daw books are the ones edited by Denise Little. I want to read all of them.

well i didn't realize that some of the older books would be desired. I didn't list them on my shelf  but will have to rethink listing them. one of the problems i noted is that some when listed ( most of these older books) don't list a cover photo. is there a way to insert a photo of the book cover if one doesn't show ?  

I don't collect books ( except those waiting to be read then they get released) but i have several first printings and several that are signed and one that is a limited # signed ( book one of three or four that the series was never completed because the rights were sold) i guess i could list those on my profile instead of posting them.

George

oh definitely post those older books if they are in PBS postable condition.  I know I'm always scanning for older books of authors I enjoy.  I imagine others do the same.   It's impossible to find them at the library and chancy at  used book stores.  I just ordered a few clifford simak books from the 70's-80's and an old thieves world book too.  So someone may want your older versions to read or for collecting or both. 

There is a way to insert cover art but I don't know how to do that -some knowledgeable person on the forum can probably tell you how.  I've seen a link on the home page that is called Upload Book Covers but I've never used it.

ann

ok i will work on posting them  but i first have to look over the  PBS postable conditions here .....  at least 1/2 are if i had to decide on condition would say MINT  and look to have come out of someones collection. I've only found one that i would question the condition and that is because when i was looking up a book # ( ISBN) and pub date  the first page of the book was page 1 and the bookcover was loose from the spine. 

here are a few examples  and i didn't check all of them but most look to be first printing. i only noticed one or two on the wish list . but i haven't found a way to find the poster of wish to see if this is exactly the book they would like. 

More Than Superhuman by A. E. Van Vogt 

The Weapon Makers by A. E. Van Vogt 

The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt 

Empire of The Atom by A.E. Van Vogt 

Quest For The future  by A.E. Van Vogt

Slan by A.E. Van Vogt 

Black Legion of Callisto by Lin Carter

Sky Pirates of Callisto  by Lin Carter

Down at the bottom of every page is a link to upload cover art.  I remember vaguely that you need to copy the ISBN number.  But the link does talk you through the process, and well enough that I (digital camera idiot) could load images.

And I personally agree that just because a book is rare does not make it postable.  Such books should be part of deals offered.  Use those books as teasers to get folks to look at your bookshelf.

And my Suzette Haden Elgin DAW (#10) is on my keeper shelf.

I've found that my books move faster if they have cover art and a description. I search the web for the cover image, save to my desktop, and then click "Upload book Cover" (the link is on the bottom of every PBS page) and follow the instructions.

A *lot* of older books don't have descriptions ... click "Edit book data" and you can add all sorts of stuff. I usually copy the back cover description and submit. Then they have to approve it ... On the same page, I've added that a book is also SF, and not just Literary. More people see it that way.

It was time-consuming at first, but a lot of my older stock has been traded now.

Off to read Niven and Pournelle's Escape from Hell - someone sent me a brand-new hardback! I'm jazzed!

Oh.  That sounds much easier than me taking photos and cropping them.