Which FS books do you consider good value even after the price hikes?

I'm not very patiently waiting for Piranesi and was looking for something to consolidate the order with, given that I'll probably order expedited shipment to ROW. Some books I'd like have skyrocketed in price, or are launched at eye watering prices (I'm looking at you, Fire and Blood).

But then I found that, after reacquiring the rights for UK and ROW, the Foundation trilogy is still @ 160 pounds and each book is 75% bound in buckram, a premium binding that is very scarce in the society today. Other books are Rebecca and Lord of the Flies.

Any other book you consider good value even at current prices?

For me Dracula fits the bill (was $105CAD when i bought but at $100USD now is still a decent value). It’s well illustrated, coloured tops and a ribbon marker.

The Underground Railroad at 60 pounds for ROW is a standout for me. An important modern work (Pulitzer, National Book Award) in a lovely cloth binding and striking art. Watch the artist video on the Folio website listing for a moving insight into the process. One of my favourite Folio reads from the last few years and very reasonably priced.

>3 Folio_and_Fine: second this recommendation!

The Neil Gaimans, especially Anansi Boys and Neverwhere, Gormenghast Trilogy, The Neverending Story, a friend of mine was very taken with the Hilary Mantel novels.

>1 dyhtstriyk: Your question is a bit vague on "good value". With how much regular hardcovers have risen the FS "low end" (it still feels very expensive I know) actually follows the ~2x regular hardcover pricing that they used to have. This makes books like the McCarthy's good value in just being upgraded special editions with the usual trimmings (binding, paper, illustrations etc). Among that low end Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a standout with super thick paper, the Steadman illustrations, enhanced by some splashes of colour, frankly one of their best currently in print.
Following my multiplier mental math the new premium price point is 75-100GBP (row is always a bit more) where you should expect something better. The Call of Cthulhu book is a very nice edition in a bigger format. Dune is also very nice. They've added a price point above that at 120-140GBP (for single books) that are just not worth it imo (possible exception for The Divine Comedy which is unusually well illustrated and typeset).

The box sets need some similar math to make the pricing make sense (eg. divide price by books). The Foundation trilogy is at the low end of FS pricing per book. Book of the New Sun technically even lower since it's 4 books originally. I'd recommend both. Gormenghast is also reasonable split over 3 books and McKean put in a lot of work making it one of the best illustrated FS offerings right now (subject to you enjoying his style of course).
So, some of my personal standouts plus how I try to keep levelheaded about the rocketing pricing.

You definitely get more than you pay for with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Hobbit

>8 nau2002: "The Hobbit"

I've always considered Folio's Tolkien offerings sub-par, tbh, particularly in terms of binding design and quality. I really wish they had done an edition of LotR with Princess Margarethe's actual illustrations, rather than the EF re-drawings. Would have been a wonderful thing to have produced an LE for, as they are really lovely, and very different from the EF versions. Always feels like a missed opportunity, given the illustrations already exist.

Edit: To clarify - I was meaning LotR for the PM illustrations. The Hobbit, I'm not sure what could really be done with that other than a new binding. Maybe if they could get the rights to the Terashima illustrations, as they are awesome.

>9 stubedoo: Interesting... I'd always thought Folio kept those editions because they were drawn by...

A Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Dawn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth!

I didn't know they were redrawings. Either way, yes, Folio Tolkien is very very subpar versus trade editions.

>1 dyhtstriyk: If you're eyeing "Rebecca" there are 170 copies left. Last time it went OOP it shot up quite a bit on the secondary market.

>11 PartTimeBookAddict: Good to know. I have the previous edition (the one produced in line with Jamaica Inn & the rest) and it's buckram, but the new illustrations look better. I'll have to think about it.

>13 johnny1991: "I don't consider ANY new FS books to be a good price."

I somewhat agree, but at the current time, more recent standard edition titles (the last 5 years, say) are fairly resilient price-wise on the used market, so buying new isn't necessarily a huge mark up from used.

That said, most older Folio books are worth next to nothing, so I'd expect the more recent stuff to eventually follow that trend, except for particular titles that end up considered "collectable" by the market (due to fashions or whatever).

>14 stubedoo: yep. To take the edge off the disappointment of Piranesi being paperbound I'll bid on a mint copy of The Woman in White I saw on eBay.

>15 dyhtstriyk:

Yep, £15!

I do wonder if the new generation splurging money on some of these books realise they will be worth nothing (or close to) in a few years. I think the post-CoVID collecting phenomenon has insulated a lot of Folio's current target demographic from the normality of how 99.9% of books actually fare on the secondary market.

I too long for the olden days when one could buy a new FS book for half the price today and less. But I have to recognize some factors that push prices up. The first is inflation, of course - a $25 book in 1980, to pick a date and price out of the air, would equate to $90 in today's money (using the consumer price index for the USA for the calculation). Second is the production quality - the books of my own early FS membership are quite bland in comparison to today's volumes, though I admit that that can sometimes have a charm of its own. Third is the titles being published - 90% of the old books were out of copyright while 95% of the new ones are in copyright, as was quoted in another thread. Publishing rights for copyrighted materials cost money. And fourth, the FS was losing money back in the good old days. They had to step prices up in order to survive.

Having experienced the low prices of old, I do blanch at the prices of today. But I don't view them as extortionary.

>18 coynedj: "But I don't view them as extortionary."

I agree with this. Inflation is, unfortunately, a bitch. I think most of the prices that are genuinely "on the nose" tend to be the low-production-value LEs (with the odd exception). Most of the SEs seem to be on the upper-side of "OK-ish".

Honestly, primarily older FS productions such as the Folio Press Fine Editions that they published between 1987 and 1991 -- you can find more info on these in the wiki. Some of those are definitely "pricey" but well worth it.