For sale: first editions of every Hugo- and Nebula-award winning novel, $116,530

A reader sends in news of what sounds like a hell of an offer:

The Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards are the traditional yardsticks for fantasy and science fiction writing. Since 1953 when the Hugos began, (the Nebulas started in 1965) there have been 82 titles awarded one or the other prize - and 19 titles with the distinctive honor of winning both.
The Fine Books Company in Rochester, Michigan, is offering first editions of all the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novels for a cool $116,530. From Asimov to Zelazny, every book which won either (or both) award is here. And that's not all.
The listing includes 126 books, and 95% of them are signed or inscribed, and in fine or better condition.
David Aronovitz, from The Fine Books Company, describes the collection as a unique gathering of books that has never been offered for sale anywhere before and in all likelihood will never be offered again.

Science Fiction and Fantasy First Editions

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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trr

Less than a grand each, on average.
I also would not spend $116k that way if I had it, but I found it interesting to go back and look at the list of all Hugo winners to see which I had read. I read a fair amount of SF as a teen, but not so much since then. I noticed that Slaughterhouse Five lost to a book I had heard of but hadn’t read. Funny too, to see L. Ron Hubbard on the list as a nominee, thankfully not as the winner.
Anonymous

RossinDetroit: Yes, they do. They are on Snell Rd, east of Rochester Rd and just before Heron.

But don’t bother. I am buying them with my tax refund (evil laugh). It’s either that or a new tractor.
Peter

Yeah, it is a cool thing if you have the money to burn. I’m on my own quest to buy and read every Hugo or Nebula award winning novel. Have all of the Hugos except the newest 1 or 2 (and one or 2 of the Retro-Hugos I think), and all but 7 or 8 of the Nebula winners. So I will not be buying this collection, because it would mean too much duplication in my collection.

Oh, and also the fact that I don’t have $116,530. I mean, I spend a lot of my budget on books, but that’s a little excessive even for me.
stevew

2nd #6′s Iain M. Banks nomination, I’ve 25 of Banks’ books and plan to re-read some for the 3rd time.

Wouldn’t spend the money on the collection of books even if I had it. Libraries and used paperbacks were a wonderful resource, I’ve read 50 of the Hugos and about 36 of the Nebulas and many of nominees of both awards throughout the years. The magic of Inter Library Loan is that you can get most any title delivered to your local library and the fee used to be 25 cents.
Cochituate

I count myself lucky just have most of the winners from ’53 until ’80 or so when I more or less left SF reading behind. I doubt very much if could come close to even a fraction of $116,530 (nice round number, that) for what I’ve got. Of course I can’t believe some of the crap that’s won over the years either…

Looking at the list, I’ve read two Nebula winners since 1980, one of those in the past 3 months. I’ve read 6 of the Hugo winners of the same era.
David Pescovitz

As someone who hasn’t read much science fiction, looking at this makes me want them all, even just reading copies!
Nesbitt

That PJF cover is just beautiful! Ah, those were the days…
Modusoperandi

That’s an awful lot of money for a bunch of used books.
Astin

How about a collection of all the titles in modern paperback? Unsigned, uninscribed, print run unimportant.

Then you can read them without feeling guilty, and they’d cost a fraction of the price.
shanealeslie

WANT!
demidan

Ohhhhhhh, I want!
ROSSINDETROIT

I’ll be damned. My wife works in Rochester (not a big place) and we never knew this existed. Gotta find out if they have a storefront…
agger

One hell of an offer, but if I had $116,530 to spend, I probably wouldn’t spend it on that.
MisterEd

I wonder which one’s worth the most? My guess would be “The Forever Machine”
Saskplanner

Holy Crow. That would almost be worth a second mortgage on the house.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me,
Gary61

OMG … I’d beg, borrow, or steal to be allowed to peruse those amazing words, in print, in my hands ….
teddanson

Wow, that’s quite a list. I’m also surprised Iain M. Banks has never won one of those awards.
technogeek

Probably a fair price, combining collector value and the fact that all the work of assembling the set has already been done.

Yeah, want.

Finishing the library comes first. The old/temporary shelves are in, most of the books are unpacked even though I’ve had to double up all the paperbacks to make room for them — which is why I made these shelves out of 1×12′s — but of course I’m still short on space, and will be until the full floor-to-10′-ceiling long-term shelf system is built and installed. Two walls will do as a start; the knee-wall is currently assigned to other kinds of storage but may be reassigned eventually, I can fit a few more shelves in around/over/under windows if necessary… and then I expand into the rest of the house, or enlarge the house, or both.

You don’t have enough books until they start paying for themselves as insulation.