Can an Amiga book be so valuable ?

[sprocket]

Geeeeez folks,

I never thought so much would come of my little auction...

I initially had trouble posting my ad to the ebay forum because of my firewall settings.  If this resulted in multiple postings, I apologize.

For the record....

I am an individual amigan, not an Amiga retailer.
The auction page shows me in Baltimore.
The webworldinc page is ancient and they have not responded to queries for these in years.  You will not find this book in any retailer's stock.

The price that page lists is what the book originally retailed for in the U.S.  ...and yes, used copies routinely sell for more than this.

Ralph has been approached about doing a PDF version for inclusion in compilations and new Amiga software products but he is too busy to do a revision and he is on to other things.

...if you get the chance to look at one of these you will find it an IMMENSE source of technical information on compilers and coding specifically for the Amiga.

While there is now one bid for $80 and several "watchers" and the hit counter is now at 293 I expect this item to sell for quite a bit more than it's current price.

I put it up first in hopes it would attract attention to other Amiga hardware items I'll be listing in the next few days.

Thanks for your interest.

[sprocket]

...and by the way.  The user's group I was part of is one of the oldest in the U.S.

NCAUG

It is a shadow of its former self with a hand full of members coming to meetings.

Of these those that are hard core programmers have a copy of this book.  Those that aren't couldn't use it....it's just too technical.

[sprocket]

My buddy seems just a little defensive based on some of the heat in this thread.

As for me, I apologize for not noticing this thread first and posting the ad.

Fact was that I had posted the listing on ebay so recently it hadn't occurred to me that anyone would be discussing it here.

Frankly, I've found this quite amazing.

[sprocket]

Yes, there are pdf and text file versions of both the Guru book and all the RKRMs (also on the Dev CD) available on the net,but nothing beats a proper printed version to refer to.

I do not believe the Guru book has been included in any online or digital compilation.  I have the 1.2 and 2.1 dev CD.

The Guru book was self published by Ralph Babel in limited number.  It was not any sort of official Commodore release.

I had been in touch with Ralph a few times over the past couple years about the potential of converting this to PDF.

I think he was contacted by a noteable software developer who has included lots of nostalgic material on the CD of their product too.  His response has been that he just didn't have the time to do any sort of conversion or revision of the material.

The original version of the hard copy of this book is 736 pages long with several code snippets tables, etc.

Doing a proper conversion to a digital format would be a daunting task.  At this point Ralph still maintains full copyright on his work.

Finding a used printed version is the only option I'm aware of for having this information at this time that I'm aware of.

[sprocket]

The RKMs are essential, the developer's CDs are good choices because they have all that stuff.

Some good Amiga programming books are out there, some good C books.

If you aren't a Super geek programmer type the Guru book is probably a bit beyond you but because it is sooooo rare it might be worth picking up when you find one for sale to save for the day when you might be able to make sense of it.

Just trying to be clear on this thing....it's pretty deep stuff, compiler weirdness, optimizing things at a low level.
If you aren't pretty good at the basics first this isn't going to do much for you until you are.

[sprocket]

What I meant was that Ralphs Guru book is on the net in the form of a badly scanned and OCR'd conversion, done without his permission

Considering the length of the book, how dense this material is and the precision necessary for programming snippets I would think this sort of "documentation" would make the material pretty near impossible to get through.

After browsing for roughly 4 years looking for this book I hadn't found this and was glad to finally get hold of the real thing.  Only after I did could I find that it was a bit more than I needed for my occassional programming.  A real Guru deserves to own a copy.

(sniff) sadly admitting I am not in that catagory.

[sprocket]

For those interested...

Auction ends tomorrow
at 1:36 Pacific time.
2:36 Mountain time
3:36 Central time
4:36 Eastern time

I'll be adding a few hardware items to my listings today and tomorrow.

My ebay listings

thanks for your interest...

[sprocket]

Just for the record...

current price is $91 with 6 bids and an opening bid of $80 with just a little more than a full day to go and the counter has broken 600!

...not bad considering those who weren't sure an Amiga book could be worth much.

; )

...going, going??

Anyone, anyone???

[sprocket]

...more stuff going up!!!

hardware!!!

check for listings...
 
My listings are here!!!

Thanks for your interest.

[sprocket]

...nearing $140 with about 4 hours to go on the Guru book!

My ebay listings

Thanks for your interest...

[sprocket]

Price is at $182.50 with a about an hour and a half to go in the auction for the Guru book!!!

I guess the speculation that started this thread has been answered by the marketplace.

I'm glad to see there are still Amigans out there who are aware of products like these that, while released several years ago now, are still valid and useful resources.

Thanks to everyone for their interest in my auction(s) and please keep an eye on my "about me" page to see more hardware listings go up this week.

My listings can be found here.

[sprocket]

See? Amiga.org advertising works!

subtle hint acknowledged...

; )

At the risk of annoyance I'll mention the subsequent auctions I'm hoping to put up as I do.

When I've settled up and shipped to everyone I'll drop a bit in the bucket for ya.

...publicity is much appreciated!!!