WORTHLESS Cooksey/Shugart Book
Barry
I just purchased my new copy of the "Complete Price Guide To Watches"
Vol 17, by Shugart and Gilbert. I find that a good percentage of the
photos are extremely dark and alot of those are almost black and
unuseable for identification purposes(or any other purpose, for that
matter).
I tried to return the book to the place of purchase--Barnes and
Noble--but they refused to refund my money. Seems their policy only
allows for a refund on concealed damage and not on poor quality.
Has anyone else found this to be the case with their copy of this book.
I am extremely disappointed. Please let me know whether this is an
isolated case or not. Thanks, Barry Gluck NAWCC 0136926
Information Systems
I'd agree that the book is mostly worthless, but for other reasons. The
prices seem to be nothing more than wild guesses in the pocket watch
catagory. For wristwatches, I have no idea what they could possibly be
basing their prices on, they seem high for common watches and way too low
for the rare gems. Also, it seems that most of the watches I'm interested
in pricing are never in the book. That could just be my tastes, though.
One thing I do love about the book, and the reason I bought it, is for the
reference material. It's got some great info on gear trains, jewel count,
escapement types, stampings, etc.
BTW, my copy seems to be very readable for the watches. If yours is
unreadable, B&N should take it back. You should be able to see each
picture pretty clearly.
--
- Steve (ste...@execpc.com)
Barry <bgl...@monmouth.com> wrote in article
<3322B7...@monmouth.com>...
Don Baker @ Finer Times
Barry,
The printing and binding of the book has gone downhill since Richard
Gilbert took Tom Engle's place as coauthor (I'm not suggesting that it
is Richard's fault, but the change in authors does coincide with a
change in printing format.
Most people are critical of the book's quality (it will fall apart on
you after a year's use....hmmm and they publish it ever year...I
wonder???) and the pictures are generally poor. The prices are
accurate about half the time, and way off the other half. And if you
take a close look, many of the prices do not change from year to year.
But is spite of all of this, everyone associated with the
hobby/business stands in line each February to buy the latest edition.
As someone else points out, it remains the best source of general
information for the neophyte collector.
Don
Barry <bgl...@monmouth.com> wrote:
>I just purchased my new copy of the "Complete Price Guide To Watches"
>Vol 17, by Shugart and Gilbert. I find that a good percentage of the
>photos are extremely dark and alot of those are almost black and
>unuseable for identification purposes(or any other purpose, for that
>matter).
>I tried to return the book to the place of purchase--Barnes and
>Noble--but they refused to refund my money. Seems their policy only
>allows for a refund on concealed damage and not on poor quality.
>Has anyone else found this to be the case with their copy of this book.
>I am extremely disappointed. Please let me know whether this is an
>isolated case or not. Thanks, Barry Gluck NAWCC 0136926
See "http://www.finertimes.com" for all your vintage
wrist watch needs.
Steve Haynes
In article <3322B7...@monmouth.com>, Barry <bgl...@monmouth.com>
writes
>I just purchased my new copy of the "Complete Price Guide To Watches"
>Vol 17, by Shugart and Gilbert. I find that a good percentage of the
>photos are extremely dark and alot of those are almost black and
>unuseable for identification purposes(or any other purpose, for that
>matter).
>
>I tried to return the book to the place of purchase--Barnes and
>Noble--but they refused to refund my money. Seems their policy only
>allows for a refund on concealed damage and not on poor quality.
>
>Has anyone else found this to be the case with their copy of this book.
>I am extremely disappointed. Please let me know whether this is an
>isolated case or not. Thanks, Barry Gluck NAWCC 0136926
>
Color would be nice, pictures rather than drawings would be nice -
a small percentage in my edition are artists impressions.
Otherwise OK.
---------------------------------------------------------
"The floggings will continue until morale improves."
---------------------------------------------------------
George Shepherd
Shugart and Gilbert have always used line drawings where they could not get
photographs. Some of the Photos are bad, but remember they don't own one of
every watch in the world and have to rely on drawings and photos furnished
by others. Compare your copy to others in the store and to the last several
years copies. If its still bad to you, show B & N the difference and get a
new copy. If they are all the same, just be thankful that somebody tries as
hard as they do to list all watches.
Barry <bgl...@monmouth.com> wrote in article
<3322B7...@monmouth.com>...