DOAKS CONFIDENTIAL GUIDE ON E BAY

[THuckaby2]

Huck - I'm with you on the Confidential Guide... never understood the fascination. I sold mine on Ebay three or four months ago.

Interesting.  I seriously did think I am alone on this.

OK, I do need the money.  I may go to ebay myself.

TH

[Rick Shefchik]

Now I'm torn. MY pristine copy of the Confidential Guide could fetch me $300 or more, but I like owning it, too -- yet it might be smarter to sell it now before Tom Doak reprints it.

On the other hand, it seems as though it would be smarter still to attempt to get a photo of Barney and Geoffrey Childs together, autographed by both eminences, and sell that for the $1,000-plus that it would surely fetch on this site.

[THuckaby2]

Rick:

We're on the same wavelength, brother.  See post #20 in this thread.

Perhaps I ought to aim higher in my price?

 

[RE Blanks]

How many versions of the book exist?

[jeffwarne]

Those of you who have sold(or are contemplating selling) your Confidential Guide on EBAY wouldn't be the same ones who post that Bandon is unaffordable,or lament the fact that owners don't charge below market green fees for "the good of the game"?
Note my tongue is inserted firmly in cheek.

[Pete Lavallee]

I own a lot of golf architecture books and this is by far my favorite. I could read it almost any day and often do; for a few minutes or a few hours. Definetly a valuable asset when planning a trip; real or imagined. I wouldn't part with mine for any price! As far as being outdated, how many courses rated 5 or higher have been built in the last 9 years?

[THuckaby2]

Those of you who have sold(or are contemplating selling) your Confidential Guide on EBAY wouldn't be the same ones who post that Bandon is unaffordable,or lament the fact that owners don't charge below market green fees for "the good of the game"?
Note my tongue is inserted firmly in cheek.

Not me, bruthah.  Oh, I do think it sucks that the price has gone up so much such that I am paying nearly twice as much for golf this year as I did in 2001, but hey, whatever the market will bear they are sure as hell allowed to charge.

REB - I think there are at least three versions.  But others more expert will hopefully chime in.

TH

[THuckaby2]

I own a lot of golf architecture books and this is by far my favorite. I could read almost any day and often do; for a few minutes or a few hours. Definetly a valuable asset when planning a trip; real or imagined. I wouldn't part with mine for any price!

I wouldn't use it to plan a trip except only in the very most general "what course is good that I may not know about" terms.  But even re that, a question posed here gets as good or better of a response.  But then again I really don't travel that much outside the US.  If I did, this book might have more value.  I can see its value to you, Pete.

I also read it once, got kind of a kick out of it, never picked it up again.

To each his own, most definitely.  Mine can certainly be had for a price.

One book I do continue to pick up and read and re-read is "Favourite Golf Holes" by Paul Daley.  For some reason the descriptions and pics in there never get old for me.

TH

[cary lichtenstein]

I'm going to copy mine and put it up for sale now. $1000 to the first sucker is my asking price.

Mine will be an autographed by yours truly, + comments I have scribbled in the margain. Any takers? I'll pay the Fed Ex.

[Doug Siebert]

Hmmm, I just searched Ebay out of curiousity and turned up no confidential guides for sale.  Did the auctions end already?

Aren't those Ebay prices to some extent a reflection of speculation?  I wonder how many of the buyers and sellers are even golfers, versus just book collectors who watch Ebay and have seen the price growth on it and buy and sell them as investments?  They probably also bid on obscure cookbooks, gardening books and a Chilton's manual that covers a '57 Chevy too.

I would be interested if someone had the defacto list of all versions.  I guess it doesn't really matter much to me which version mine is.  I know it isn't the "error" version since page 28 does describe GCGC.  I don't care how much that version gets bid up, I'd still prefer the upside airplane stamp.  I remember my grandmother letting me search through stuff in her attic looking for old stamps and coins when I collected those as a kid and dreaming I might find one of those or a 1913 Liberty nickel.  No such luck.

It still kills me to thinks that my dad had a big collection of comic books (and he swears he had the first Superman) and he tossed them all out when he got home from the army in the 50s because his mom didn't want them cluttering up the attic!

[Dan Herrmann]

Heck - Here's Herrmann's Guide:

Doak, Hanse, Flynn  - Good
Rees Jones - Bad
Stanley Thompson - Good
Crump - Good
Dye - Who cares - he couldn't care less about what we think, and for good reason
Fazio - See Kimberton

 

[Pete Stankevich]

Didn't Tom Doak mention in a thread last fall that the earlier versions of the book had High Pointe in "The Gourmet's Choice" and that in later versions, it was removed and had Stonewall instead?

[Mitch Hantman]

Is Tom Doak planning a reprint for sure?

[JDoyle]

I called the Beechtree pro shop a year ago and they shipped me a copy that day.  As I remember the total cost was around $80.  I would call around before forking over $500 clams on eBay.

[ed_getka]

Tom bought the rights back, so I would assume he would reprint it at some point. There are the original copies that were sent to friends, and these have the most unvarnished opinions. At some point, if I remember correctly, Tom had an edition printed up of 1000 copies (no pix), which is the copy I own. If I remember right, Tom told me he sold those to help make payroll for his employees. Hard to imagine there was a time when he had to struggle to pay his guys. Then the common copy was printed, and I think they did about 30,000 copies. Hopefully Tom will jump in and clarify this.

[Lou_Duran]

PeteL,

Given your preferences in literature, your affection for the CG is not surprising.  Of Doak's books, it is at the bottom of the list, no more than a 3 or 4.  Poorly researched with numerous strong opinions based on little experience.  "Anatomy" is a much superior contribution to gca.

[JakaB]

Didn't Tom Doak mention in a thread last fall that the earlier versions of the book had High Pointe in "The Gourmet's Choice" and that in later versions, it was removed and had Stonewall instead?

Pete,

High Pointe was indeed in the first version Doak sent to his friends for Christmas 1988.   So...I see the 4th hole is called Redan.....how does it play..

[George Pazin]

Some things are worth more than money. I've gotten more than $350 worth of satisfaction out of mine.

Same can't be said of some of the courses I've played....

[THuckaby2]

Some things are worth more than money. I've gotten more than $350 worth of satisfaction out of mine.

Of course.
So sell it now.  Are you gonna get $350 MORE satisfaction from it?
 

[George Pazin]

Yep.

[THuckaby2]

 
That's one hell of a lot of enjoyment.

Mine can still be had, and I'm in a generous mood - the price is down to $340.

Of course, I've never been one much for dated or antiquated books.  You can have my reprint copy of The Links by Robert Hunter for $200 as well.

I'll get a lot of enjoyment spending that $540 on golf... er, I mean my kids.

 

[Tom_Doak]

Am I planning a reprint "for sure"?  No, I haven't decided what to do with it yet.  A reprint would cost a bit of money, and I'm not sure there is a market for a couple thousand more copies, although there are apparently a few people who are willing to pay a premium for it.

[And just so the record is clear, I'd only want to reprint the 1996 edition, I'm not going to do an update -- I've always said my son gets that, as part of my estate.]

Alas, I don't have any copies of the 1996 book to sell for $300 each, but I DO have about 100 copies remaining of the 1994 limited edition in my basement, which my wife would love for me to sell.  They were sold for $100 each ten years ago, and they're still available for the same price today ... same reviews, just no pictures.  Who would ever have thought that would sound like a great deal someday?

Corrections for Ed:  there were only 12,000 copies of the Sleeping Bear Press version sold.  And I didn't buy the rights to the book back ... they were mine for the asking once the book was out of print for two years.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

So Tom,
How do I get one of those basement editions?
Surely I get first dibs as I started the thread!

[Bob_Huntley]

I have two copies of the 1996 edition, both in mint condition.

I thought I might sell one and went to Amazon and saw five books for sale betwen $299.00 and $600+.

I opted to sell mine for $450.00. Went through the hoops and at the end came to the part about their commision. Whoa, 15%.... Forget it... It's still in the library.

[Ken Fry]

Tom,

My bad on the "purchase" of the rights.  I misinterpreted the statement from your website.  I should have said "reacquired" as was stated...

Ken

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