Cost of used Reloading Manuals

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VoodooMountain

VoodooMountain

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What is going on with this sudden increase in cost of these manuals?

I have seen the Hornady 10th and other manuals that are 5-10 (ish) years old that are priced at $200, $300, and even ,$400.

New manuals are $50
Used manuals are more expensive :confused:

Even the 'complete loading manuals' that are caliber specific are now $20+
 
Hum no idea but the new Hornady is 36 and 50th lyman is 30 at midway. The little caliber books are 7 to 10.

Wonder why old are so high. Ebay has Hornady 10th for 30 or so buy you are right most used old manuals are expensive.
 
VoodooMountain said:
What is going on with this sudden increase in cost of these manuals?

I have seen the Hornady 10th and other manuals that are 5-10 (ish) years old that are priced at $200, $300, and even ,$400.

New manuals are $50
Used manuals are more expensive :confused:

Even the 'complete loading manuals' that are caliber specific are now $20+
Click to expand...
Where did you see those prices?
 
Do a Google search for "old reloading manuals pdf" and you will hit several other forums with nice collections of old and not too old reloading manuals that are free and in PDF format. I was looking for data for reloading 455 Webley and found a bunch of manuals online in my search.
 
I collect old books. Mostly mysteries and classic works but really everything is of interest to me in some way. For example, not related to guns, I have old first-issue editions of some O'Reilly books - Oracle programming, Bash Shell scripting, Small Talk programming, Ruby on Rails, Linux Unleashed, you name it... stuff nobody uses anymore but it's interesting to some of us old coots who have to clean up old code or try to re-invent the wheel every once in a while. Original prints of older books now out of print - especially first editions or editions that have interesting flaws - have always demanded something of a premium but only when they become topical again. I guess reloading is topical again?

I have an original 1954 Ideal manual. I still use it, too. Makes sense to me some folks want those older manuals but, the prices aren't reflective of "value" to someone who doesn't value them. IOW: if you only want the latest data, these books have no real value. Maybe that's why prices are going up on eBay and Amazon? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
mcb said:
http://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Manuals/Reloading/Reloading Manuals/Lyman Reloading Handbook - 48th Edition - 2002 - ocr.pdf

A PDF copy of the Lyman 48th if that is of any help.
Click to expand...
Already got it. ;) The 44th, too. 2004 Alliant, Western 70th, lots of older manuals have good data no longer published because things become obsolete or fall out of common use.
https://www.cornellpubs.com/Catalog/manual_catalog.pdf
If anybody is interested in reprints of old manuals and catalogs, Cornell Publications...
 
Yeah ebay has some crazy ads but the prices you quote are not and will not sell. Kinda like asking 10 cents a primer. If you get it bonus but most likely not.
 
Basically what happens is, massive book resellers use automated posting software to try to flog their wares on Amazon or eBay. No human has time to research thousands of books and figure out a fair/realistic price, so the bot just cribs someone else’s research by running with their price, with, say, a 5% upcharge. Then you get two bots to get into a bidding war and suddenly you have a book listed for $1347.21 or some other crazy high and oddly specific price. And when there are a dozen listed for 200-800, other sellers are loath to list theirs for the realistic price of $10. The affordable ones sell fast and then there are no comps for new listings except the ridiculous ones. Makes it darn hard to actually figure out what that book should go for.
 
VoodooMountain said:
What is going on with this sudden increase in cost of these manuals?
Click to expand...

Same thing that’s going on with everything else gun related. Guess I could throw in wood related, steel related, fuel related, just thing of something that’s gone down in prices in the last year and scratch that off the list....
 
jmorris said:
Same thing that’s going on with everything else gun related. Guess I could throw in wood related, steel related, fuel related, just thing of something that’s gone down in prices in the last year and scratch that off the list....
Click to expand...

What surprises me is by how much these people are asking for these manuals. Not a 30% bump, or double, but $200-$400.

Crazy times
 
I've purchased old manuals at a abebooks and thriftbooks when found used.
My Lyman cast manual came with note pages stuffed in with favorite loads from the previous owner.

Good stuff and very fair pricing.

I check the used book sites occasionally and simply search reload
 
Are you looking for a particular reloading manual, or just a used one you can pick up at a reduced price? Some of the older ones are collected and come at a steeper cost than you would expect.
 
MWC1974 said:
Are you looking for a particular reloading manual, or just a used one you can pick up at a reduced price? Some of the older ones are collected and come at a steeper cost than you would expect.
Click to expand...

I usually pick up a couple of manuals every 2 years or so. I used to be able to find the previous generation of manual for a few bucks.

Now, manuals (like hornady 10 or 11 or Barnes ) are often listing for $100, $200, $300, or more

These books are only 5-10 years old
 
Good grief - I use online manuals to keep current recipes. I have a few old manuals somewhere just taking up space. The only paper one I use any more is my Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. The rest is already online, like the Western Powder handbook.
Maybe I should dig and see what I have in my suddenly valuable treasure trove...
 
I don't generally shoot jacketed bullets, and don't keep up with new manuals much. But I have a few that I wouldn't want any way but real paper.

Lyman 46,47,49th and cast bullet handbook 4th. Shotshell handbook 5th. Black powder handbook. rcbs cast bullet manual. Not to mention speer 6, 8, 10 and Hornady 2 I'd like to have others and will when the deal on such arises.

I have read though the cast bullet handbooks 1,2,3 and the Lyman 49. Next I think will be a Lyman 50th.
 
Pre-Internet, I sometimes searched out older manuals to get starting load data for calibers no longer supported. Ran into this issue recently with some calibers like the .22 JET. But just too easy to subscribe to one of the online all inclusive loading sites and get the data off the internet.

Bob
 
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