Wiped Out: How I Lost A Fortune In The Stock Market...

WIPED OUT: How I Lost A Fortune In The Stock Market While The Averages Were Making New Highs, By An Anonymous Investor. Simon & Schuster, N.Y. 1966.

Current Selling Prices
$80-$1100 /£40-£550

STOCK MARKET / ECONOMICS
The first truly anonymous book I have done--the author is unknown. Certainly not Warren Buffett. One of those 'don't do what I have done' books- the 'totally galvanizing' confession of an amateur investor who at first made money in the stock market and then tried to make more money faster.. .

A great ebay favourite where it has made a few notable prices and is featured at the excellent and exhaustive list a book that looks like nothing at the Ebay Forums. Possibly 'netblown' - you now see copies all over the web -one virtual antique shop has it at an unashamed $700. I suspect that after a few spectacular results at Ebay many people dug out copies and supply and demand took over and the wave broke. It is not entirely ruined yet and there is a growing number of collectors for stock market related books. A collection was recently offered for over a million dollars by Shapero in London and not all stock market books are about fortunes made--there was a spate of books about the crash of 1929 and Black Thursday - Tennyson's 'Maud' is said to be about the suicide of someone who lost all his money in the markets:

'Did he fling himself down? who knows? for a vast speculation had fail’d,
And ever he mutter’d and madden’d, and ever wann’d with despair,
And out he walk’d when the wind like a broken worlding wail’d,
And the flying gold of the ruin’d woodlands drove thro’ the air. ..'

Failure is always fascinating. I shall be dealing with the Failiure (sic) Press this week-an obscure journal to which Stephen Fry was wont to contribute in the late 1970s. 'Wiped Out' for some reason comes in various different coloured d/ws -- no precedence has been established...no one has yet bothered. This is usually done with dated presentations and I have never heard of a signed copy. Can an anonymous person sign a book?

VALUE? Copies seen as high as $1100 (for a proof copy, but a frankly demented and buffoon price). A fine copy can be had for around a $100, half that for one with shelf wear--this is not 'Wealth of Nations!' [ W/Q ** ]