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Expensive Apple Design book?

cheekyspanky

cheekyspanky

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 21, 2004
633
1
South Bucks, UK
After borrowing the "Apple Design: The work of the Apple industrial design group" by Paul Kunkel, I thought about buying myself a copy, but looking on Amazon.co.uk there is one copy and they want £295 for it! I'm just wondering why this book is so expensive? Did they only make a few or something?
 
It's always been expensive, I think it's both a small publishing, and the high-quality aspect... I mean, i think it's meant to appeal more to designers and professionals than to the average consumer, but Apple obviously has a cult following.

I'd kill for a copy, but don't have the cash to be throwing around on expensive coffee table books right now ;)

paul
 
Well it is a nice book..but not quite worth £295, maybe £50 - £80 I'd say, hopefully an updated version is released with all the newer products in.

There's a copy in my local library, only been taken out once in the 7 or so years its been available..and that was by me!
 
Counterfit said:
My brother has a copy of this. www.redlightrunner.com (I don't know why they named it that... :confused: ) has them for $199.95 though, much cheaper than Amazon ;)
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i dont know why they named it that, but a long time ago a small punk band from the northwest named excuse 17 had a song called that...it was about literally running red lights for the thrill.
if that helps.
:)
 
It wasn't a limited run or anything, it's just that it's now out of print and since Apple launched the iMac, Apple have became the standard of innovative, industry leading product design also its brand has become more recognised outside of that of the computer and design worlds and this has affected it's price and thus desirability.

Surprsingly it wasn't that expensive when it was in print, only in the £30 price bracket if memory serves. I saw a copy in Zwemmers on Charring Cross road, not all that long ago. (year or so).

If you're lucky, you might track down a copy in a bookstore, especially outside of the capital, where demand would be lower.

I'd love for the book to be reprinted, but with the post '98 design work, that would be an amazing insight into Apples IPD output turn around since Jobs began working with Ive on the iMac etc.

If the library copy is in good nick, and it's only be taken out once in X years, then I'd try and buy it from them. ;)
 
cheekyspanky said:
Well it is a nice book..but not quite worth £295, maybe £50 - £80 I'd say, hopefully an updated version is released with all the newer products in.
Click to expand...

The book isn't so much a picture book of all the products made by Apple over the years, as a picture diary of all sorts of designs that never made it to production. Some of the models are just beautiful. It gives one insight as to how many designs were tossed around to end up with whatever actually made it to market.
 
It is really expensive because of all of the full page color pictures and because it is out of print. I got one a while back befor eit was out of print and it was expensive then, but people often sell them for $200 or more. I probably wouldnt buy one at those prices, but it is a very good book both for its picture content as well as the descriptions that accompany them. 295 pounds is far to much to pay for it. Red light runner has the best price on it that i have seen.
 
iGAV said:
If the library copy is in good nick, and it's only be taken out once in X years, then I'd try and buy it from them. ;)
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Or you could borrow it from the library and then "lose" it. Then just pay them the few pounds that they want for a lost book. It probably wouldnt be much. My sister used to do this with out of print books that she couldnt find elsewhere, and they were books that were seldom used by others so it didnt really matter very much.
 
Vector said:
Or you could borrow it from the library and then "lose" it. Then just pay them the few pounds that they want for a lost book. It probably wouldnt be much. My sister used to do this with out of print books that she couldnt find elsewhere, and they were books that were seldom used by others so it didnt really matter very much.
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except if the library replaces the book and has to spend 200 bucks on something that was stolen instead of on other thigns that other people would find useful.. Stealing from a library is pretty low, and they can't really afford to be replacing books, particularly expensive ones, stolen by people. If you need the book, just borrow it. If you want to buy it, go out and buy it.
 
Counterfit said:
My brother has a copy of this. www.redlightrunner.com (I don't know why they named it that... :confused: ) has them for $199.95 though, much cheaper than Amazon ;)
Click to expand...

that site has some seriously nice stuff! i would love one of those posters on my wall but at $300, i think not!
 
strider42 said:
except if the library replaces the book and has to spend 200 bucks on something that was stolen instead of on other thigns that other people would find useful.. Stealing from a library is pretty low, and they can't really afford to be replacing books, particularly expensive ones, stolen by people. If you need the book, just borrow it. If you want to buy it, go out and buy it.
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Most of the time a library will not replace an out of print book. They will normally charge you a fixed fee or the original price that they paid if they know it. I only mention it because it is a book that few people know about and that few people probably check out. If it is a book that is barely being used that would provide more use to you than to the library then i dont have a problem with it. The library will be getting paid for it. But then again i have compromised values.
 
russed said:
that site has some seriously nice stuff! i would love one of those posters on my wall but at $300, i think not!
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they are a total rip off. They wanted like 200 bucks for an apple poster I got for 10 from ebay.
 
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