Run on A is for Ox?

A whole bunch of copies of "A is for Ox" have sold on ebay over the past few days. Does anyone know why the sudden popularity?

In January there was also a large run on Akenfield as well.

How interesting. Yes, I see 23 copies of A is for Ox sold in the last 3 days. And before that, only 8 copies since the beginning of December.

Looking at the feedback for the copies of Akenfield that sold in January, it seems like these items were bought from different eBay accounts. I could only speculate on why this happened, but it doesn't look like one person buying up all the copies (unless they went to the effort of using multiple mature eBay accounts to do so). Perhaps there's some book club that reads Folio editions together (although 23 would also be quite a large book club)?

I got a copy a month or so ago and the contents of the book were upside down against the cover - the seller failed to mention this but it was too cheap to bother. Not sure if and how this is related to this, maybe just coincidence.

Ronald Blythe, the author of Akenfield, died on January 14th, and the flurry of obituaries and other public references to his work will I expect have sent quite a number of people looking for copies of his best known book, just as the death of a musician almost always generates a spike in album sales. A is for Ox presents more of a mystery.

>4 terebinth: Thank you. That explains half the mystery.

Has Lyn Davies also shuffled off this mortal coil?

8 more copies sold today.

Wow - I might have to put my copy up for sale!

Maybe a professor somewhere has the Folio edition specifically on the syllabus?

Well, every single copy of this book on ebay has sold or has bids on it, including one for an incredible $120 USD!

There is still one copy left on ABE for $104 USD if one last person wants to overpay as well.

I still don't know why this craze happened. Is there a treasure map hidden in an unknown copy? A TikTok challenge going around where you have to fit the whole book and slipcase in your mouth?

If anyone who bought a copy can shed some light on this, that would be great.

I guess I'll have to open the copy I bought a few years ago and finally read it!

This is just silly. So, I just put my copy up on Ebay, for $70 US. I'm confident I'll be able to buy it back for $15-20 in a few months time.

>10 coynedj: A sound plan.

I’m actually in the process of making a series of limited “A is For Ox” NFTs! Early retirement, here I come…

Wish I didn't take my copy, which cost me a total of 10€ a couple of years ago, out of the shrink-wrap. It would fetch a huuuge amount of money now :D

I think I have the answer regarding A is for Ox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqqFqoLnnk

This YouTuber is new to me, but the video (which I haven't yet watched) about the origins of the alphabet was posted on February 11th, references A is for Ox in a link, and has had three quarters of a million views in a fortnight. The book seems to have been a Folio exclusive - if I'm wrong please correct me, but I'm not seeing any other editions on the market - so if even one in a thousand of those viewing the video went in search of the book all available copies will have been mopped up very quickly.

>13 terebinth:
Well sleuthed!

>13 terebinth:

Nice one, Paul :)

Indeed, tremendous work! In case it's of interest, it appears another edition of the book does exist, it was first published by Ottakars in 2004 (ISBN 9781845671365) but that version is probably harder work to get hold of than the FS version is currently, even at these prices.

>13 terebinth: "The book seems to have been a Folio exclusive."

I believe it was given to Folio subscribers for free.

>13 terebinth: A darned influencer at work! Thanks!

I actually ended up watching the YouTube video, it was very interesting!

>19 Hamwick:

Agreed, and though I don't "subscribe" to YouTube channels, I'm motivated to look into a few more RobWords videos. Effectively a TEDTalk mini lecture.

>11 PartTimeBookAddict: And, it's sold. I got $55 for it - maybe I could have held out for more, but I figured that would be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Well done! Strike while the iron is hot.

Now if only this youtuber will hold up a copy of Josephine Tey's "The Franchise Affair."

Funny, this was one of the first FS books I bought back when I started collecting them. I was motivated by an interest in linguistics and the history of language. Nice to see it catch on, for whatever reason.

The influencer needs to hawk Year Round Things To Do and then I could retire after selling my multiple copies.

>24 podaniel:

Yes, please!

>17 Lukas1990: Your belief is correct: A is for Ox was one of the free books offered with the 2007 collection.

See this post: https://www.librarything.com/topic/887#9980

The book is not a Folio original, being first published by Ottakar's plc in 2004 (colophon). It was published in 2006, but was not the Presentation Volume for that year, that being Wonders of the World. And while it was included in renewal offers for 2007, it was otherwise available in the normal way.

The presentation volumes were given free for buying four books in any one publishing year. Books such as A is for Ox were an additional incentive for ordering the four books before a certain date.