Americans of a certain vintage may recall the book published to accompany the 1969 comedy "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies." The illustrations are by Ronald Searle, who also created the distinctive movie titles.
Now if you were a bookseller, how would you list such a book? Would you include an image with the delightfully frenetic book cover illustration? How would you price the volume? Librairie Les Autodidactes—I'd love to think this bookstore's name is a play on words, but I can't tell either way—caught my attention at the beginning of 2017 with their novel sales approach. No image was deemed necessary but the sales price did all the talking.
Still, that's not what I think happened. My suspicion is that the hundred-thousand dollar price tag served as a placeholder, keeping the public listing off limits while the bookseller did some basic research and then set an informed price. Of course, if someone had been foolish enough to spend all that money—no, that couldn't happen, could it? Not when there are so many reasonably-priced copies available:
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives
Ronald Searle
"Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"
Attempted Bloggery's Dirt Cheap Index
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| Ronald Searle
"Those Daring Young Men in Their
Jaunty Jalopies." (1969)
Bookseller Image, Free Shipping Books(Toledo, OH, U.S.A.) |
The original British title—of the film and the promotional book—was "Monte Carlo—or Bust!" Presumably American audiences were not going to be enticed into a theater by such an exotic European title. The American title (and British subtitle) makes it clear that this movie is related to "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (1965).
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Ronald Searle
"Monte Carlo—or Bust!: Those Daring Young Men
in Their Jaunty Jalopies." (1969)
Bookseller Image, lamdha books (Wentworth Falls, NSW, Australia) |
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| Ronald Searle
"Monte Carlo—or Bust!: Those Daring Young Men
in Their Jaunty Jalopies." (1969)AbeBooks Listing Retrieved January 9, 2017 |
The same AbeBooks listing today—shockingly, the book hasn't sold yet—still lacks a basic bookseller image, but the price has been adjusted downward to the merely extravagant $68.33. What happened in 2017? Was that $135,577.35 price tag an error? It's possible. Currency conversion invariably results in uneven sums, and an order-of-magnitude error in the original currency is certainly plausible. There's no underestimating the proclivity of people to avoid proofreading, even in France.
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| Ronald Searle
"Monte Carlo—or Bust!: Those Daring Young Men
in Their Jaunty Jalopies." (1969)AbeBooks Listing Retrieved May 30, 2018 |
Still, that's not what I think happened. My suspicion is that the hundred-thousand dollar price tag served as a placeholder, keeping the public listing off limits while the bookseller did some basic research and then set an informed price. Of course, if someone had been foolish enough to spend all that money—no, that couldn't happen, could it? Not when there are so many reasonably-priced copies available:
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| Ronald Searle
"Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies." (1969)
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved January 9, 2017 |
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| AbeBooks Item Description |
Note: Attempted Bloggery continues to seek out scans or photographs of published and unpublished original art by Ronald Searle. Anything priced over $100,000 automatically will be fast-tracked onto the blog.
For those Searle works under $100,000 in price, check out Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog curated by Matt Jones.
The rollicking titles to "Monte Carlo or Bust!: Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies" (1969) may be savored here.
For those Searle works under $100,000 in price, check out Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog curated by Matt Jones.
The rollicking titles to "Monte Carlo or Bust!: Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies" (1969) may be savored here.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives
Ronald Searle
"Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines"
Attempted Bloggery's Dirt Cheap Index
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