Highest Appreciation?

[Marca]

Anybody have any idea which book from an sf author in modern times (say the last 40 years or so) has appreciated most in value? The reason I ask is that seeing an old fanzine ad for Dean Koontz's never-reprinted non-fiction paperback The Pig Society prompted me to do some digging on the current value. It originally sold at $2.95 in 1970 and is now valued at anything from $500-1000. That's some increase!

[Talisant]

Here's a bit on the history of Pig Society from an old Canadian fanzine that itself is going for mere $1500 (wtf?), anyway:

Energumen #8, Canada This rare fanzine includes the article, Dean"s Drive , by Dean Koontz. It is in this article that Dean discusses writing 30 books of erotic literature and he is gracious enough to provide some of the titles of these books. From Dean"s Drive in Energumen 8 : "Next I became involved in writing p*rn. Gerda and I collaborated--since my love has such a true sense of the obscene--to produce 30 p*rn titles ranging from such peaks of erudition as THIRTEEN AND READY and ORAL ORACLE to SWAPPER"S CONVENTION and LAY ME DOWN, BUT NOT TO DIE . (yes.) Six months of this provided us with an overwhelmingly healthy bank account. Each book required three days to write and brought an average of $650 reward. Since my own time was often only a day in the construction of each epic, I was provided with plenty of time to write sf that I wanted to write. But after 30 titles, we had neither the inclination or the stomach to continue, and we dropped out of the p*rn market. Aside from providing us the resource to pay off old debts and to buy a piece of land for, some day, the construction of a lodge, we got nothing form the ordeal. It gave us the opportunity to write the non-fiction PIG SOCIETY which fit in the p*rn publisher"s legit line, and we are proud of that book." Dean discusses other things including an editor losing the script for BEASTCHILD he had submitted, and prevented him selling the story to Venture and Lancer, until the editor found the manuscript lost in her office. Dean article explains what a young writer must do to earn a living even if it is to write things he doesn"t care about, such as erotic literature. Interesting article in this Hugo-winning fanzine. This fanzine is a must for the serious Koontz collector that has collected any of his rare erotic literature. With this fanzine and article, you have clear proof that Dean wrote erotic literature and 30 some different titles.

[Marca]

I dealt with the seller of that fanzine several years ago when purchasing a couple of Philip Jose Farmer books. That is some price for a fanzine, kind of dwarfs the value of Pig Society doesn't it...?

[Talisant]

Must've been the bulk blotter edition

[johneffay]

Anybody have any idea which book from an sf author in modern times (say the last 40 years or so) has appreciated most in value?

If you stretch the genre to include Fantasy, it has to be JK Rowling:

A copy of the rarest Rowling first edition - the hardback version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - has already been sold at Sotheby's for £10,575 (http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...36298,00.html)

I wonder if it will hold its value?