OT: Looking for Lyra’s Press Stardust

As the title implies, I’ve been looking for the numbered (black leather bound edition) of Stardust from Lyra’s books for quite some time. Unfortunately I’ve been having difficulties with finding a copy. I got into the fine press scene not too long after it sold out and was heartbroken that I’d missed my chance to buy it. It’s honestly a dream book of mine, I love the design so much. So I thought I’d ask around the forum and try and see if there’s anyone who is looking to sell as copy, or knows someone who is. :)

How are you having difficulty? I quickly found one on Ebay.

>1 ZestyDragon: First and Fine has a copy - about $5000 USD. I believe they have a reseller agreement with Lyra’s, so it’s about the only way to also lock in a Coraline at this point.

>1 ZestyDragon: Like >2 Undergroundman: said, there's one on ebay....for 6 grand. Or a lesser state for $500. But, if you meant you're having trouble finding one at a price you can afford, yeah, I can see that.

>4 Glacierman:
Yeah I guess I should have worded my post better, I saw the one on eBay, but 5000 dollars is way out of what I can afford right now. I was hoping to maybe come across one for under 1000, but I’m not sure how realistic that is lol.

>5 ZestyDragon: The going rate for these is about $3,500 - that’s the price to expect for new listings, and even just $3,000 would be a deal:

https://www.collectiblebookvault.com/lyra/stardust-leather

>3 NathanOv: Can you clarify what this means?

To the OP, I’d just move on and look forward to their next book, or another one. At only 100 copies, and how well its value is known in the collector community, I’d say there is no chance of ever finding one for less than $1,000.

>7 What_What: What's bizarre about this whole thing is that he thought he was going to find an 80% off the secondary market deal here amongst hardcore book collectors.

>7 What_What: Lyra’s press books don’t carry any rights with resale, so you can’t get rights to the number Coraline by buying a Stardust leather copy, however I believe you’d get right of first-refusal on it from First And Fine since as a reseller they do get every book.

I may have misunderstood what I was told when I enquired, though.

>8 Undergroundman: Don’t know till you ask I guess.

>9 NathanOv: Ah okay. I’m sure he’d be happy to sell all the sequels at $5k each.

>10 What_What: I would really hope that's not the case - in my experience, most small press resellers get a discount and then list at publisher price at least initially.

Also, I doubt Coraline will be as sought after as Stardust, my understanding is there will also be more copies available.

>1 ZestyDragon: I know you said this is a dream book of yours, and maybe the full leather binding is part of what you like, but you might nonetheless want to look at the standard edition, bound in blue or mustard cloth with marbled paper over the boards.

On the secondary market, the standard edition goes for around $500 USD pretty consistently in both of the binding colors, and personally I prefer the standard edition over the leather edition. The marbled paper (handmade by Freya Scott) used on the standard edition is absolutely gorgeous, and both feature high quality paper and letterpress printing. There is a slight paper difference between the standard and leather, but to be honest the difference is not that much. The standard is printed on 120gsm Munken paper while the leather is printed on 148gsm Mohawk Superfine paper. I consider myself something of a paper snob, and this is not a big upgrade difference in terms of materials, for paper at least. So in the end I think it would come down to whether the leather binding is worth paying 7-10 times as much, compared to the standard edition. (I suppose the increased exclusivity, only 100 copies, of the leather edition might also be of independent value.)

So the standard edition may be an attractive option, especially if $3500 USD and waiting for a copy to come to market at that price (which may be years, or never) is too high an ask.

>11 NathanOv: There is no way that guy is going to be selling Coraline at list price.

>12 abysswalker: The OP could also consider rebinding the Standard. Should end up a lot cheaper than the Leather.

>13 What_What: I mean, that’s the convention for book stores but I also don’t know how long he held on to Stardust or what he had it initially listed for.

Either way, Coralline’s not going to be $5k even from them.

A book collector I know very well, just offered to sell me his Lyra's Stardust -- apparently, he has a standard and leather LE for sale. I told him "thank you" but it's beyond my current affordability - well, the leather LE certainly is. However, I know how difficult and rare this edition is, so I thought I'd let people here know in case they were interested.

Disclaimer: I don't know how much he is asking, I don't know if he is interested in trades, etc. I do know he is 100% honest and trustworthy and I'm just trying to help fellow collector's out. Good luck to everyone looking!