Who's buying all the BOTs from Amazon.com?

I just scanned by the Amazon Book of Tiki page today, and to my pleasant surprise, the sales rank has hit an incredibly low number:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2,546

meaning high sales, which is great for my publisher, (and the spread of Tiki culture in general), or Amazon is cutting down it's program.

This usually only happens when the BOT is getting some media coverage (which I don't know of any at the moment) or some chain like Trader Vic's buys a bunch and does not go to the wholesale place for it.

Or is somebody buying stacks to sell at the Tiki Oasis, like carrying owls to Athens (or as the saying goes..?) ?

Just curious if anybody saw some press (or is building a house with it)...

By the way Patriot Book’s (subsidiary of Amazon) is charging for BOT, they apparently know this too.
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y3827191Y4027629/002-1010974-3330450
My soft copy is beaten up Sven. Do you have a hard copy I could buy from you (Not Patriot)?
(Yes,Unga has many false hopes)

$103.33. Looks like hardcover is heading into holy grail territory. Time to lock my copy under glass and hire more security! Hmmm...maybe some sharks with lasers attached to thier heads.

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2004-05-01 17:00 ]

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2004-05-01 17:11 ]

Unga, sorry man, but I have only two left, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!
As I once mentioned, my publisher failed to inform me that they were going to softcover with the third printing, I found out when I saw it in a store, so I had to scramble to get a few. Had I known, I would have ordered boxes and boxes of the hardcover to store for future emergencies.

Turbo, :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

On 2004-05-01 16:58, Turbogod wrote:
$103.33. Looks like hardcover is heading into holy grail territory.

Gotta love it... had mine since it came out... and now its signed by the man himself!

Gosh, I feel really bad about this, but we bought two hardcover copies when they were available. One graces our coffee table and the other we cut some of the pictures from to frame and hang in our home bar.
I'm so ashamed.

Check Amazon's used section, you will often find the hardcover version is available "new" old stock there for the $20 price. That's how I got my second one.

OK, I admit that I've got one in my shopping cart marked "save for later." I have to wait at least until the 15th of this month before I can actually purchase it. (And then, reading through here, y'all start mentioning all this other stuff I have to get. Damn you people! The Internet is a giant conspiracy to keep me broke, and you people are all a part of that evil junta.)

On 2004-05-02 13:41, crataegus wrote:
... Damn you people! The Internet is a giant conspiracy to keep me broke, and you people are all a part of that evil junta.)

Then you probably don't want to know about Gecko's print of the Wahine on Black Velvet. Only $60 for TCers! (See Collecting Tiki.)

You can't afford NOT to buy! :)

JTD

Swanky- Great idea! I may try that myself to insure that I have TWO hardcopies available.

Also, one time, several months ago I ran across a stack of the hard copies at a chain store called Half Price Books. They were like $20 then and my wife wouldnt let me buy one because (of course) "You already have one, why do you need to waste money on another...you'll never sell it...you never sell anything...you don't have room for it!"

So, I left empty handed. It's been a while ago, but if you get the opportunity, it'd be worth a try.

Good luck!

i bought my BOT a few years ago at a chain called "half priced books" (new & used). I think I payed $40 for it. But I admit, that was before I knew of this board.

I have a question. How many of you out there in Tiki Cenrtal Land got into tiki because of this Book of Tiki? (I didn't use "search" but has this been posted before?)

Ben,
That's something I talked to BigBro about when he was here last month. His book came out just after the Kahiki closing. That was just a few years ago. Now all this. BOT and the Internet really made all this happen. Imagine if BOT and Tiki Central had been together when the Kahiki closed. What a huge change that might have made!

Here's one one Ebay for $50
Not my auction BTW.

Look folks, right HERE you can buy the hardback version NEW for under $20. These are books that have been on the shelf and not sold.

On 2004-05-02 23:07, Swanky wrote:
Look folks, right HERE you can buy the hardback version NEW for under $20. These are books that have been on the shelf and not sold.

Hi Swanky,
I appreciate the link, but it says paperback.

Unga try this site they have some cool tiki stuff, and they say they have hardcover BOT.

http://www.tikitoys.com/cgi-bin/TKTstore.pl?user_action=category&category=Tiki

Amazon is not the only location where the mark up on the hardcover BOT.
I saw the same high pricing on Bookfinder.com. The high demand seems to the commend trend right now.

For anyone looking, the hardcovers have been hidden away in a "In Search of Tiki" option, which is found after the search pops up.

Hmmm. Does this beckon a new chapter to the ol' "Tiki going mainstream" thread?

[ Edited by: I dream of tiki on 2004-05-03 01:09 ]

I just got confirmation that the BOT is a hardcover copy. $30 good luck.

Found this hardcover copy at Powell's for $19.99! Get it while you can!

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-382286417x-6

Tikigreg that used copy is gone. Congratulations to whoever scored! Only paperback left.

Just out of interest, what were the printing runs for the hardback editions? Were they all printed up by Taschen in Europe and then shipped out around the world, or was there a simultaneous printing in the US?

Trader Woody

I thought that the one for $103.33 would sit there for a long time but I guess I was mistaken. It's been sold!

I actually bought mine about a year ago at the Pottery Barn...around $20

She's a keeper!

I used my TV movie production time here in Cologne for Tiki work and went to the TASCHEN haus on my day off, to work on the Tiki Icon (The pocket bible version of the Book of Tiki). It was a lot of fun to arrange the images and text anew. I will not be adding new images (they are not paying much), but blowing up a lot of the small ones to be rediscovered, and it'll be a nice inexpensive gift, or a travel companion for the Tiki needy who don't want to shlep the big brick of the BOT around (hmmm...maybe the Icons should be required reading material in motel room nightstands..!?)

Anyway, I hope to finish the layout work in July in time to have this "Tiki Reader's Digest" ready in the fall. AND Benedikt Taschen gave the green light to do a "Tiki Diary" ringbound date book for 2005. It'll have full page illustrations and little icons on the calendar pages.

I also got the numbers on BOTs printed and sold:
1st printing (Hardcover): 24.000
2nd printing (Hardcover): 5000
3rd printing (Flexicover) 13.500

Copies sold worldwide so far:
40.000

That's not bad, eh? The second printing is thus (to me) the rarest, because it's still hard cover, yet the main typos are fixed, like the Bladerunner quote ("revelled" and not "revealed") and the Stacey-Judd quote date (1939 not 1999) in the "Tikis" chapter.

Another way to tell what printing you have is going to page 34 and page 154, where in the 1st printing they forgot to take out the "Linie Rausschaben" (scratch out line) instruction over the illustrations. That was fixed in Printing 2 and 3. Yet even in the 3rd printing they still haven't fixed the 10 on the Tikis chapter title, it is chapter 11 !?
All in all, I believe I could not have found a better publisher than TASCHEN. http://www.taschen.com

well I know I'm Very pleased with my copy.Happy Happy.

I bought one but I doubt it caused a landslide effect.

:wink:

On 2004-05-02 20:49, RevBambooBen wrote:
I have a question. How many of you out there in Tiki Cenrtal Land got into tiki because of this Book of Tiki? (I didn't use "search" but has this been posted before?)

Hey Ben!
The Book of Tiki was a primary factor in the restoration of the CTR. When we saw the pages devoted to the Resort, we quickly changed our minds to restoration vs. elimination. In boutique hotels, personality can be everything and we realized there was no reason to re-invent the wheel, seeing that The BOT had laid the ground work for our marketing angle. The PS Modern Committee (the "folks" who introduced us to Sven, now use us as a shining example of what's right with education and restoration, and it has made us "popular" in the community. All because of Sven, who should be VERY PROUD OF THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT (rmember, we thought the ceramic lights and tiki "stuff" was a bunch of crap, initially).

Hey Ben, I bought the BOT as a reference for design. There was no other book out there like it. It brings a lot of design elements together. Second, it has educated me, which is what a book is supposed to do, I think. Of course, great book Sven, thank you.

I was a long time reader of Otto's Tiki News zine and that book was promised for years before it found a publisher. Even seeing a few teasers in the zine like the tikiccino or the Hef Witco Xeroxes never prepared you for the onslaught of the rich tiki history the BOT delivered. My favorites are the often absurd objects that you would never expect to see a tiki with like the tiki lipstick holders and hibachi. I think that’s why those tiki corn holders at Safeway now are such a big hit, who would have thought?

On 2004-05-01 15:48, bigbrotiki wrote:
I just scanned by the Amazon Book of Tiki page today, and to my pleasant surprise, the sales rank has hit an incredibly low number:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2,546

meaning high sales, which is great for my publisher, (and the spread of Tiki culture in general), or Amazon is cutting down it's program.

This usually only happens when the BOT is getting some media coverage (which I don't know of any at the moment) or some chain like Trader Vic's buys a bunch and does not go to the wholesale place for it.

Or is somebody buying stacks to sell at the Tiki Oasis, like carrying owls to Athens (or as the saying goes..?) ?

Just curious if anybody saw some press (or is building a house with it)...

I just bought a new copy (soft cover) because my dog ate my first edition copy. I'm rereading it again and catching things I missed before, or didn't realize the significance of when I was new to Tiki. I'm really enjoying it again, and looking forward to your new projects.

i just picked up a brand new, first edition BOT (hardback) that im willing to trade...

drop me an email. [email protected] ~ or a personal message.

elicia