By a chance email from a fellow CCCS member offering to sell a spare ARC (where previously I had none) I now find myself coveting any addition to that particular part of my collection that didn't previosly exist.

So I got to wondering - when does one consciously start to expand ones collection. Is it after a particular avenue of type is complete or exhausted (as far as one can go). Or is it the thrill of the chase. How does YOUR garden (collection) grow?

Gary

Putting an Cussler ARC collection together can give you a real adrelanin rush when you unearth a rare edition. Finding that rare edition at a bargain price just adds to the feeling.

Have fun collecting ARC's, podge, and if you want approxiamate values for each edition, give us a yell.

Cheers ... Tony

When I strated out I just wanted all of the books so I could read them, then I wanted all of them in Hardback then UK Hardbacks. I really get excited when I see any of his books for sale and for awhile I was buying all of them because of the different covers and so on and so forth. Tony K gave me some really good advice about how to collect and thanks to that and some of our awesome forum people I have really cool editions of Night Probe, which is my favorite book.

Thanks to the generosity of certain forum members (ahem, Julie, Kelly), I now have at least one copy of each Dirk Pitt book, both Sea Hunters, and the CC Code. Now, I'm really only looking for an occasional hardcover to fill out the collection, and the rare Dirk Pitt Revealed would make a nice addition (although if I get on the ball and finish registering for PayPal I can probably pick one up on eBay). I don't have the resources (read: $) to get fancy and find ARCs, first editions, or different covers, and am content with just owning at least one copy of each book. Good luck with your collection, and if you ever have any questions about collecting then there are some really good collectors on this forum who can answer them for you.

I started out just enjoying the thrilling adventures of our hero Dirk Pitt. Then when my grandson came along I thought what better gift to give him than my love for books. So I have over the past few months been able to get all of my first edition books (hardcover as well as paperbacks) autographed by Dr. C. In addition, I have been able to get my foreign editions and my ARC autographed as well. I have now started looking for out of the way stuff like Dr. C's article in the Ladies Home Journal about the Bermuda Triangle, an excerpt from Shock Wave in Boys Life and condensed version in Readers Digest. The pride of my collection is my autographed copy first edition of The Meditterean Caper and someday I WILL find a first edition Dodd Meade of Iceberg. So I am looking forward to Dr. C's first kids book and I hope that will put Sean (my Grandson) on the thrilling trail of Dirk and Al and all of the other unforgetable characters created by Dr. C.

I started collecting books just because of my love of reading. When I found Clive Cussler I started collecting his books for the charters in the books and then because he turned into my favorite author. Now I collect any book with his name on it or in it. I will continue to do this till the end of my life. I hope at that time to leave them to a Cussler fan. My kids aren't into his books so let's hope someone on the forum will get these books as I would want someone who cares about them to have them. w:

@#!%&*%$# EBAY is how my collection grows, and my credit card balance for that matter. Seriously though, used book stores are great for finding Cussler stuff.

Welcome to the forum!
w:

:lol: You know Liz, I couldn't have said it better myself!!!! :lol:

My personal library of over a thousand books started when I discovered a passion for reading regular books (not just comic books) back in 1974. And have been reading ever since. My first book was about a teenager building a dragster and racing it. Then in 1982 I discovered Dr. C. In the past decade or more I have narrowed down the topics I read to history, historical fiction, fiction that has a mixture of history, romance, adventure, politics. Also books on Politics, Biographies, Technology, Corporate Histories, Media, Marine History, Space Exploration, Geography, Essays.

Wow, 1000 books Tony! I'd love to see pics of your personal library. th:

Patty, you're younger than my mom, please don't talk about the end of things. You'll be with us long after the robots take over the world... b:

Yes, oswalder, I'm not that old but, we will all come to end. When it's my time I hope the Forum is still around so my books will go to some one who will treasure them the way I do. I'm not looking for the end in the immeadite future. :lol:

I have recently been putting together a Cussler collection. My goal is to have every Cussler book in hardback, 1st edition, and signed. So far, I have:

1) Cyclops HB, 1st, not signed
2) Sahara, HB 1st, signed
3) Black Wind, HB 1st, not signed
4) Trojan Odyssey, HB 1st, not signed
5) Treasure, HB 1st, not signed
6) Deep Six, HB 1st, signed

I also have a few paperbacks signed th:

My collection grows! p:

I just won a HB, 1st Ed, copy of Dragon, and a HB, 1st edition copy of Valhalla Rising on EBAY last night.

Soon, I'll have them all!! :lol:

Nice collection. Most of my books are first edition h.b. I have some of the eariler books in paperback because I couldn't afford the H. B. at the time. The Kids are are gone now so money isn't so tight. Only Black Wind is a signed edition. It's the only singed one I have. Some day I'll find others. w:

:lol: Oswalder I have 8 bookshelves in the bedroom full of books. 5 bookshelves in the living room that have books along with some other things like DVD's, video tapes, CD's, etc.. :lol: And we live in an apartment!! Go figure. :lol: det:

Either you have a really big apartment, Tony, or there isn't much room to move around. :lol: I pretty much only have two bookshelves full here, but if you count all the books I had to get for college then I have a lot more. They're at home in boxes in the basement though. p:

Better check those books in the basement!!! Oswalder, they may have mildew. I lost a few books that way when I moved out from my mother and stored a few in my grandma's basement. yike:

Thanks for the tip, Tony. I'm home this weekend so I'll be able to check on them. th:

Yeah!!!! Since it was my birthday I was able to add some to my collection! Here goes....

Night Probe Large Print HB
Med Caper Large Print HB
Black Wind Large Print HB
2 Vixen 03 1st edition HB
PV-1st edition paperback signed
Magic Mirror-soon to be signed by Sean Ellis
VRising-Large SB UK edition
and Inca Gold BCE thanks to Rob and Lisa!!! :)

We'll never catch you Julie. I'm still waiting for My Magic Mirror to come in at the bookstore. :( I can't wait to read it. I could have walked to their supply center and picked ot up by now. :lol:

Today at the work i had spare time so i was thinking how i should collect books. At the moment my plan is to obtain every translated book and every book that are published. That goal isn't that far. After i have reached that, next thing to do is get every book in both version, paperbacks as well as hardbacks. Most of my Finnish books are hardbacks, so i will try to get them in paperback version and vice versa. The same applies to English books. After that maybe i start collecting different covers. Does that sound viable thing to do? Every advice is welcome.

One step at a time is a good way to go. Finish one section then start on the next, unless you see something to good to pass up from another section. :lol:

Right now my collection is growing in two ways:
1) I find new books at Borders on sale for $3.99 or
2) AWESOME people like Julie and Kelly send me books because they are AWESOME. Thanks!

My collecting process isn't going as well as I hoped. E-bay is not working for me because sellers from the U.K. are charging A LOT of money for shipping and handeling...maybe not so much but I have to double everything. <_<
There is some hope for me though. My mom and sister are traveling to Belguim in a month and they promised me they would pick up every Clive Cussler book they saw. I really don't know much about Belguim CC edition's or what they look like...but we will see. :)

Does anyone know anything about Clive Cussler books from that country???

DearHeart......... dont forget about this site

http://www.abebooks.com/

great site to look for that ever elusive book.

Thanks. w:

Just picked up a brand new Med Caper pb with the blue cover and yellow plane flying over a ship and a PB Iceburg with the whit cover and blue Iceburg on it. Also got a new Dirk Pitt Revealed. The orhter one is getting a little worn.
I also got a book called A History of Pirates, by Nigel Cawthorne. and a bokk called Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific coast., by Robert C. Belyk

The Pirate book is a first Edition. :lol:

I was going to mention that one as well. Also, I'd point out http://www.alibris.com/ and www.half.com. E-bay is also good if you deal with decent sellers. I stay away from VJ's these days because I don't entirely trust them anymore.

I've gotten some great stuff from all of them lately. I finally have first editions and hardcovers of all the CC books except Dirk Pitt Revealed. Got a nice set of Cahill's as well. Probably about 12 signed Cusslers in all. Also have gotten signed copies by a few other favorite authors, Ambrose, Ludlum, Cornwell and some lesser known authors. Collecting books is a fun but expensive and time consuming hobby. Good Luck! :)

I can't believe you don't like VJ's. I find them so easy to deal with and everything I have bought from them has been perfect. I look to them first. w:

I've never had a problem with VJ's either,they used to be a little pricy but I've found they've come down in price over the last year or so.That's where I get all my signed copies from ;)

th: glad you agree Rob. To me they are the best.

VJ's is a bit overpriced IMO but that really wouldn't be my main complaint because books are one thing that I don't really nitpick prices on. Their customer service is just plain awful, or at least it has been to me. They have a nice penchant for using 'stock' images on E-Bay that are somewhat misleading.

I bought a signed Deep Six from them for what I thought was a great price, just turned out it was a childrens paperback edition but neither was noted in the description and they had the US hardcover scan for the item. They offered to take it back after a few eMails but for the price I didn't really make much of a fuss and I dealt with it to save myself a hassle. I just used it as a gift.

Concurrently, I had won a signed TO from them as well. I paid both in one transaction but never received the TO. This I did make numerous complaints about but it took them about a week to answer each of my eMails. I even offered to send them my credit card statement which noted the pay-pal activity. Their response was 'You must be wrong, we don't take credit cards.' They entirely missed the point so I had to spell it out for them why I would send a CC statement. Still no dice. Paid for it but never got my book. By the time I realized I was pushing a rock up a hill it was after 60 days so I couldn't file through eBay for a refund. Basically I got screwed out of my money. It was that incident that soured me on VJ's.

I'll grant that whenever I had ordered a book direct from their site nothing went wrong at all. In the past I had bought numerous books through them without incident. Thus, I was kind of shocked they kept stonewalling me over a $50 eBay order when I had spent hundreds of dollars in the past on their products. I guess they're better off eBay but after that I just didn't want to deal with them anymore when there are numerous other places to get the same stuff.

Personal opinion because of the eBay incident but I figured I'd share. Wasn't trying to turn anyone away, just offering my thoughts. Like I said, they were always fine when I dealt directly with them but their eBay practices leave a little to be desired.

I can understand why you wouldn't want to deal with them Jamie, Sorry you had such a rough time.

Like the others my experiences with VJ have always been positive that is when I'm able to afford to purchase books from them, not a regular occurance I'm afraid. However at some point last year I did make a purchase - through ebay and it turned out that ebay had somehow managed to overcharge me on the shipping although I wasn't aware of it until I received an email from paypal saying VJ had given me a part refund in which they explained the reason for the refund, I was pretty shocked at their honesty as I wouldn't have ever known.

Sorry you had such a hard time with them Jamie. I've only delt with them on ebayand everything was as promised or shown. I don't blame you if you don't deal with them again. I only problem I have with them is delivery is a little slow. :lol: w:

Maybe I shouldn't wait so long to add to this, I'll keep with the Large Prints I've added:

Pacific Vortex Spiral cover- Thank you Brad!!!
Dragon
Inca Gold
Shock Wave
Atlantis Found
Fire Ice
White Death
Lost City
Dark Watch
The Sea Hunters

Nice Julie!!!! Half the editions. :lol:

Ok now I can do the Book Club Editions I've added:

UK RTT-mispelled name
Deep Six
Cyclops
Treasure
Sahara
Golden Buddha
White Death
Sea Hunters
Sea Hunters 2
Shock Wave

Thanks to Kelly I got UK Lost City and Black Wind BCE's in the mail yesterday and Dave has a few books for me also :)

Oh they arrived, goody :)

Thanks to Kelly I received my first Readers Digest condensed books with Cussler in them and I gleened several new Cusslers in Northern Ireland, even scored a Hardback Scared Stone. th:

Kelly if you keep giving us all books, you'll never move out of your moms house! yike:

Could you leave some for us dear :lol: