2 comments about The Other Matchbox Toys: 1947-2004, Identification & Value.

1. I have many Matchbox reference books. This is the one I would use least of all because it is incomplete, poorly set out, poorly referenced, and overall gives the appearance of something which has been tossed together because it was MB material surplus to Vol 1. In other words, a total waste of buyer's money. So be cautioned people - don't go there.



2. this book was in great shape and just what he said it was.

3 comments about Jack Tar: A Sailor's Life : 1750-1910 (Marine Art & Antiques).

1. Welles Henderson started his maritime history collecting as a schoolboy when he invested 50 cents in the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. His first piece was a small anchor, his reward for his contribution to the preservation of this revolutionary war masterpiece. After many years of collecting memorabilia of the sailor's life he started the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, now the Independence Seaport Museum. His intense interest in the shipboard life of Jack Tar comes out in the many illustrations, most in color, many drawn or painted by sailors. Most of these illustrations are of items that he has collected in his world travels. For those interested in the romantic adventures or the dull drudgery of shipboard life in the 19th century this book will be a welcome voyage.



2. There has never been a book quite like JACK TAR and it couldn't be more welcome. It's a real treasure chest of a book -- sumptuous to look at, a delight to read, and sound in scholarship. It's also a book to enjoy again and again. The authors and designer deserve highest praise.



3. This book gives an extremely interesting account of the lives of sailors of both the United States and Britain in the age of sailing and steam-powered ships. Through artifacts gathered by nautical antiques collector (and founder of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia) J. Welles Henderson, we discover what valued most to these men (and a few women) and get a taste of how they passsed their time. An extremely impressive array of images shows their handicrafts (scrimshaw, macramé, etc.), as well as pointing out the dangers and drudgery inherent in the sailors' lives. Topics cover everything from discipline at sea and sailor's misbehavior on shore to acts of piracy and available medical care. Both naval and merchant service experiences are explored. I only wish such a comprehensive volume had been available when I did the research for my novel A Star to Sail By, which features a sailor of the clipper ship era. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love of sea lore and a nostalgia for the age of the great sailing ships.

1 comments about Collector's Guide to World War 2 German Medals.

1. This book is a concise, standard reference work for Third Reich medal and badge collectors. Sadly, this field is a veritable minefield for collectors with fakes/copies/reproductions now possibly outnumbering original items.With reproduction techniques daily becoming more sophisticated (as prices soar), it is vital to use this work as a basic identification guide, but not as an absolute final authority of an items' originality. Especially useful is the organizational listing of badges and medals by types (e.g. Luftwaffe badges, Army badges, campaign medals, gallantry medals etc.) with a list of known manufacturers' contract LDO numbers, along with estimated numbers of badges/medals awarded. Information provided is limited by space and this can be frustrating as many awards (the Iron Cross for example) easily provide enough variation to require a complete book. The photos are crisp, but frustratingly small. The author is especially fond of the Eagle Order (once awarded to Lindburgh) and this section of the book is the most complete and well done. A number of very rare items are included (e.g. The Dunkirk Shield) but the overall effectiveness of the work is marred by the inclusion of several unawarded badges (the Army Balloon Observers' badge, the Luftwaffe Sea assault badge, the Balkan Shield) and outright fakes (e.g. the Lorient shield, type 1). While the author does often point out that these questionable medals/badges are rare and sometimes suspect, the collecting community would have been better served by a more complete treatment of these items. Several novice collectors I have met have sadly spent large sums of money on copies made in the 1960s, stating that they felt sure they were a rare and valuable find because they saw them in this book. Sadly, the authenticity of even a number of the items on the actual cover of the book has been questioned by medal historians. Overall this is a book worth having, but not a definitive work on the subject.

4 comments about Hometown Potluck Favorites (Better Homes & Gardens).

1. For simple, easy to make, YUMMY TO EAT, recipes, this cookbook is a keeper. Nice color pictures of each recipe - even ingredients for doubling some recipes.



2. I accidently knocked over a drink onto my daughter's cookbook, and didn't realize it until it had totally soaked and ruined it. I couldn't find another one anywhere except on Amazon.com. I was so glad I could replace the cookbook for her. It is a wonderful cookbook and would recommend it and Amazon.com to anyone.



3. I have to say, I have a fetish for cookbooks! This, however, does not mean I cook alot!! But this cookbook is set up so perfect! I love the photos of EVERY recipe. The ingredient list is easy to skim over and clear to the point directions. And the recipes are great! I made 3 of them over the Thanksgiving holiday/hunting season and all were a hit! I am trying two more over the Christmas holiday. I love that they have the amounts for large or small groups. I checked this book out of our local school library and am now going to buy it. Recipes you can use over and over! I am also making 3 of the recipes for my son's class dinner at school this week!!



4. This book is great--there are pictures for every recipe, and amounts for making the recipe just for your family, or for a large gathering (ie. for 4 or 8). It's spiral bound inside the hardcover, which is nice. And the recipes are very do-able and sound really good (I just got it and haven't had a chance to make them all yet). My mom wants a copy too.

No comments about The Carriage Collection.

1 comments about Traditional Japanese Furniture.

1. This book is a wonderful exaple of Japan's funiture and art. It shows the many aspects of this oritental country's splendid decorum.

5 comments about Huxfords Old Book Value Guide (Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, 13th ed).

1. This guide is for the in-between books. It is for books that are not so old that they would be very hard to find. It contains 25,000 listings of old books with current values. It also lists a directory of over 200 dealers and collectors who are willing to buy the types of old books listed in the guide.
   
   Here are a few examples:
   
   John F Kennedy, Profiles In Courage, 1956 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Woody Guthrie, Bound For Glory, 1943 1st ed. G/dj $65.00



2. When I purchased Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, I imagined that the books that were covered might be older than those written by Len Deighton and Marian Zimmer Bradley. There's lots of stuff from 1970 on, but coverage of genuinely old books is very sparse. The title of this guide is extremely misleading, but if late 20th Century books are your area of interest, you might find this useful. I didn't.



3. This book does list values of 25,000 books as it claims, but it is incomplete in some very frustrating ways that have to do with how it was put together. The authors apparently contacted a number of book dealers and collected their 'inventories' into a database. These were then consolidated into the listing(s) of this book.

   But what that means is that you find an extremely unsystematic selection of titles. You may find a $500 title that someone has been trying to sell for years right above a run-of-the-mill used-bookstore title selling for $15. You could find an author's second book listed, but not the first or third. As a lookup/reference tool is is hardly useful.

   I once thought this book would be a nice supplement to the other collecting books that focus on more high-end titles... something to take along to yard sales and the like to see if the $0.25 book was 'worth' $50 or $0.50. Well, even with 25,000 titles you can imagine that many more books are not listed here. Far too often I would not find a listing but COULD NOT KNOW if the book was valuable or not... its non-existence in this book just means one of the selected sellers did not have it in stock. I also kept finding entries in the $25/$30 range - right at the point where it might be a collectable underlisted by that one store or just their overpriced junk. With only a single such listing to consider, I just couldn't know.

   The overlarge physical size of the book also seemed unwieldy to me. Combined with the sense of slap-together technique and a look at the number of other "Huxfords" listings, I frankly feel that it is just an attempt to grab a piece of the growing 'collectibles' market.




4. I am sure this book is excellent for antiquarian/rare book lovers, but I like popular authors with books 20-30 years old too, and those seem to be lacking in this guide a bit. Unless you are a professional book dealer, you will not fetch these prices on the internet, it is flooded with booksellers and the worth of a fine book seems to be waning. But all-in-all it is a good guide to go by when looking up older hardbacks.



5. If you know your books fairly well to begin with, then this book will be at times, helpful. If you are looking for a way to bone up on collectibles, you may just be discouraged. A lot of very noteworthy books are left out, which leaves the reader to wonder if a little favoritism may be going on with the Author. Overall, I still had to rate a solid 4 for good effort in organizing a generally helpful refference guide to the new and seasoned book hound. For the money, it's a go.

4 comments about Christmas Jewelry, Second Edition.

1. If you are going garage sale shopping, this book will fit in your tote and provide immediate information. Ms. Morrison does a good job of organizing alphabetically by designer, and she takes the time to warn about copies, particularly the Weiss tree pins. She also has a theme section with pointsettia pins, candles, reindeer, etc. I really like the cover where she lays a selection of her pins on a piece of Christmas fabric. I do find the print of the captions very small, even wearing my glasses, no doubt an accommodation for the size of the book. I also sometimes have trouble deciding which pin among three or four she is describing. Each is noted in the text with a letter of the alphabet, but there's no letter on the picture. I would also recommend that in her next edition, her husband not photograph any pins on dark paper backgrounds. In several instances, a dark burgundy or sapphire paper makes it impossible to see the details of the pin.



2. Mary Morrison has put together a wonderful array of some of the best costume Christmas jewelry out there! A good range of the inexpensive and available to the rare and most desirable pieces with reasonable prices that reflect the market of the time the book was published. If you only get one book on this collecting area, this is the one to get



3. I love this book! I am a beginning collector and this book has inspired me. The research is thorough, and it is great to finally know the story behind the pins I already have.



4. Christmas Jewelry by Mary Morrison is the very best book currently available concentrating on costume Christmas jewelry. The photography is excellent, allowing you to clearly see the details in each pin. Mary's descriptions with each photo are informative and interesting. It's size is very convenient for carrying to shops and shows. It is extremely easy to use. The variety of pins shown is staggering; as a Christmas tree pin collector with over 100 pins, my only disappointment with this book is that it is not a catalog where I can place orders!

5 comments about Bowies, Big Knives, And The Best Of Battle Blades.

1. A classic by a master blade smith and acknowledged king of Bowie knife makers. For anyone interested in the Bowie and large fighting knives in general, it is a valuable read.



2. It is an interesting book. Bagwell's repeated condemnation of knives less than 9 inches long wears pretty thin though. And on this point he doesn't know what he's talking about - there are situations (fighting a large animal,eg,) where a blade longer than 7 inches will rapidly become a liability.
   
   Also his pronouncements on the absence of effective short blade fighting tradition in Japan is just wrong.
   
   And would anyone really choose that U-shaped Chilean military knife over a Kbar in combat???



3. Bill Bagwell was the author of the `Battle Blades" column in `Soldier of Fortune' magazine from 1983 to 1987. During that time he wrote many articles about a wide variety of knife related topics. In his book "Bowies, Big Knives and The Best of Battle Blades" Mr. Bagwell reprints many of these articles.
   
   Mr. Bagwell begins his book with a closer look at the Bowie knife, which he advocates as the deadliest knife on earth. He advocates carrying a knife of at least 9.25 inches, and in Bowies, Big Knives and The Best of Battle Blades he explains how to effectively carry a large knife in modern society without drawing unwanted attention. (I can personally attest to the effectiveness of Mr. Bagwell's instructions on the use and carry of the Bowie knife, as I have done so for years using the method he suggests.)
   
   Because much of the book is reprints of `Battle Blades' articles we also are treated to Mr. Bagwell's opinion on a number of other knives, such as the K-Bar, saw-toothed blades, daggers, the Kukri, the Japanese tanto knife, throwing stars (shuriken), and the AK bayonet. Mr. Bagwell's opinions on these knives can be controversial, but his opinions are well reasoned in each case ~ whether one agrees with him or not.
   
   While "Bowies, Big Knives and The Best of Battle Blades" gives much insight into the idea and concept of knife fighting, it isn't a manual intended to teach knife fighting techniques. For that Mr. Bagwell recommends the training material produced by James Keating at Comtech, here in Washington State (again a recommendation I can personally attest to having much merit).
   
   If there is any criticism about "Bowies, Big Knives and The Best of Battle Blades" it's that because many of the book's chapters are reprints of the `Battle Blade' articles they are limited in length imposed by a magazine (Soldier of Fortune). Still this is only a very a minor criticism, as the quality of the book as a whole is excellent.
   
   For anyone interested in carrying large knives (especially Bowie knives), "Bowies, Big Knives and The Best of Battle Blades" is worth adding to your personal library.



4. The author dwells too much on knife fighting rather than the knives. I found the book to be a disappointment.



5. The other positive reviews pretty well sum up my thoughts on this text. A must for people who carry a knife with the idea that they may have to use it someday to save their skin. I also recommend Cold Steel by Steyers and Everybody's Knife Bible by Paul. Put together, you will not need any other texts on blade usage.

1 comments about Fantastic Filling Stations (Enthusiast Color Series).

1. Although this coffee table book has photos, it is the short stories about the abandoned gas stations that make the book worthwhile.