Grex Auction1 Conference

Item 25: Terry Pratchett's Nome Trilogy

Entered by janc on Sun May 12 16:58:06 1996:

I am offering Terry Pratchett's complete "Nome Trilogy" comprising

        Truckers
        Diggers
        Wings

Terry Pratchett is the author of the Discworld books, and is probably the
funniest man writing science fiction today.  The Nome Trilogy has, for some
reason, never been sold in the United States.  They tell the story of a race
of tiny little gnomes who live under the floorboards of a department store.
When the department store is scheduled for demolition, they are driven to
discover the "Outside" and hijack a truck to move to a new location.  These
were written in 1989 and 1990.  It's been a while since I read them, but I'd
put them pretty much around average quality for Terry Pratchett (in other
words, pretty damn funny).

The books are standard sized paperbacks (Corgi editions) in pristine condition
with matching cover art.  Good looking books.  The first book is about 200
pages, the next two about 175 each.  I bought them in New Zealand.

Since I'm not wildly eager to get rid of these, I'm going to set a minimum
bid for the set of $20.  People not in the Ann Arbor area should pay $2 beyond
their bid to cover postage.
52 responses total.

#1 of 52 by janc on Sun May 12 17:13:59 1996:

In the beginning...

  I.  There was the Site.

  II.  And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) Moved upon the face of the Site, and Saw
  that it had Potential.

  III.  For it was In the High Street.

  IV.  Yea, it was also Handy for Buses.

  V.  And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) said, Let there be a Store, And Let it be
  a Store such as the World has not Seen hitherto;

  VI.  Let the length of it be from Palmer Street even onto the Fish Market,
  and the Width of It, from the High Street right back to Disraeli Road;

  VII.  Let it be High even Unto Five Storeys plus Basement, And bright with
  Lifts; let there be the Eternal Fires of the Boiler-Room in the sub-basement
  and, above all other floors, let there be Customer Accounts to Order All
  Things;

  VIII.  For this must be what all shall Know of Arnold Bros (est. 1905): All
  Things Under One Root.  And it shall be called: the Store of Arnold Bros
  (est. 1905).

  IX.  And Thus it Was.

  X.  And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) divided the Store into Departments, of
  Ironmongery, Corsetry, Modes and others After their Kind, and Created
  Humans to fill them with All Things saying, Yea, All Things Are Here.
  And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) said, Let there be Lorries, and Let their
  Colours be Red and Gold, and Let them Go Forth so that All May Know
  Arnold Bros (est. 1905), By Appointment, delivers All Things;

  XI.  Let there be Santa's Grottoes and Winter Sales and Summer Bargains
  and Back to School Week and All Commodities in their Season;

  XII.  And inot the Store came the Nomes, that it would be their Place, for
  Ever and Ever.

                        From The Book of Nome, Basements v.I-XII


#2 of 52 by popcorn on Sun May 12 22:00:02 1996:

I'll bid $20.


#3 of 52 by eeyore on Mon May 13 02:19:54 1996:

i'll go for $23.  :)


#4 of 52 by blh on Wed May 15 13:37:06 1996:

I'll go for $25.


#5 of 52 by freida on Wed May 15 18:08:55 1996:

$26.


#6 of 52 by eeyore on Wed May 15 20:44:19 1996:

$28!


#7 of 52 by robh on Wed May 15 23:35:23 1996:

Is that twenty-eight dollars, or twenty-eight (factorial) dollars?
>8)


#8 of 52 by eeyore on Thu May 16 06:26:48 1996:

take your pick!  :)


#9 of 52 by popcorn on Thu May 16 06:27:53 1996:

Goodness, I don't think you mean that!  :)


#10 of 52 by tsty on Thu May 16 09:40:33 1996:

ummmmmm, popcorn does ahve a significant point there ..... been to
the math item lately?


#11 of 52 by robh on Thu May 16 10:44:49 1996:

Darn it, and here I thought eeyore was going to pay us
$304,888,344,611,713,860,501,504,000,000 for it.  Do you
have any idea how much bandwidth we could get for that?  >8)

(That's 304 octillion dollars or so.)


#12 of 52 by janc on Thu May 16 14:04:59 1996:

Cool.  Grex could buy every person, corporation and nation on the planet and
have money left over for munchies.


#13 of 52 by brighn on Thu May 16 15:56:26 1996:

Everybody, that is, except Meg, who apparently has that much money
already.  Meg would be Queen, Grex would be King, and the universe
would be ours!!  =}  *bwahahahahahaha*
Um, back to topic, what was the last bid?


#14 of 52 by ajax on Thu May 16 18:49:09 1996:

I'll bid $4! + $6.  (Or for those not into factorial bids, $30).


#15 of 52 by brighn on Thu May 16 21:28:51 1996:

(aw rob, you could've been even more mathematical with that:
   E(i=3,4)i!    
*giggle*


#16 of 52 by tsty on Fri May 17 13:21:18 1996:

eeyore?


#17 of 52 by eeyore on Mon May 20 14:22:39 1996:

but of course i'm gonna bid....i NEED those books!  :)
how about 35


#18 of 52 by robh on Mon May 20 16:33:45 1996:

Current bid is $35 from eeyore, made today.


#19 of 52 by ajax on Tue May 21 00:57:12 1996:

$37.  Meg, we could save one of us some money by settling this
outside the bidding arena.  What do you say to an arm-wrestling
match?  :-)


#20 of 52 by scott on Tue May 21 01:35:38 1996:

(Scott bets $2 on Meg ;) )


#21 of 52 by ajax on Tue May 21 07:42:48 1996:

  Hey, I probably do a thousand mouse clicks a day.  Arm wrestling
is just like clicking an obstinate, elongated, fleshy mouse!  :)


#22 of 52 by eeyore on Wed May 22 12:20:13 1996:

$40
gimmee a break rob...and i HAVE beaten guys at arm wrestling before...:)
(meg starts working out....:)


#23 of 52 by janc on Wed May 22 15:36:39 1996:

(janc hopes these don't suddenly get released in US editions)


#24 of 52 by eeyore on Wed May 22 16:28:16 1996:

(meg hopes so too....:)
btw, hardback or softback?


#25 of 52 by robh on Wed May 22 17:05:03 1996:

According to #0, they are paperbacks.


#26 of 52 by ajax on Wed May 22 17:47:30 1996:

$42.51
Well, I definitely won't suggest a boxing match, as I've seen the
force with which Meg can thwack people.  Typing contest??  :-)


#27 of 52 by eeyore on Thu May 23 02:05:31 1996:

sorry, not that silly.....can't type that godd.  :)
fine be that way.
$50


#28 of 52 by ajax on Thu May 23 05:29:55 1996:

Wowza, I was expecting you to go to $45, at which point *I* was going to
spring the $50 psychological barrier.  We may get to 28 factorial dollars
yet!  This calls for a retaliatory psychological assault:  $60.


#29 of 52 by robh on Fri May 24 13:37:54 1996:

The current bid is an astonishing $60 made by ajax yesterday.

(And rememeber, 60 is evenly divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10,
12, 15, 20, and 30.)


#30 of 52 by ajax on Fri May 24 17:30:33 1996:

Ooh, good point...the power of such a number clearly can't be beaten!  :-)


#31 of 52 by tsty on Fri May 24 18:18:28 1996:

<maybe that's why teh babalonians use it for a 'base' number, power>


#32 of 52 by eeyore on Fri May 24 22:17:28 1996:

will $75 make you stop bidding?
(ad yes, that IS an official bid! :)


#33 of 52 by ajax on Fri May 24 22:44:44 1996:

I think so.  In fact, I think $60.01 might've done it.  ;-)


#34 of 52 by eeyore on Sat May 25 00:10:21 1996:

does this mean that you aren't betting any more?!?!?!?!  :)


#35 of 52 by janc on Sat May 25 04:27:43 1996:

Actually, that's not so bad a deal.  After all, cover price on these is marked
as $9.95 ... oops ... those are New Zealand dollars.  But hey, plane fair to
go to New Zealand and bring these books back cost me over $1000 (US) so you
really are getting a huge bargain.


#36 of 52 by brighn on Sat May 25 07:25:13 1996:

Maybe I should bid $1000?
*joke reference to another item, not a serious bid*


#37 of 52 by arthurp on Sat May 25 23:54:04 1996:

They sound like a wonderful and fascinating series, but...Maybe we can donate
additional money to grex in the future for spots on a sharing list...


#38 of 52 by freida on Sun May 26 04:49:51 1996:

I'll bid $5. for a spot on the sharing list.


#39 of 52 by robh on Sun May 26 09:34:59 1996:

Now now folks, if you're serious about a sharing list,
let me know and I'll start another item for it.  We have
enough multiple-bidding items as is...


#40 of 52 by freida on Mon May 27 03:00:35 1996:

I am definitely serious, but maybe someone should check to see if the winner
would be willing to share?


#41 of 52 by robh on Mon May 27 10:16:23 1996:

Good point.


#42 of 52 by robh on Tue May 28 02:16:26 1996:

Current bid is $75 from eeyore, made 5-24.


#43 of 52 by arthurp on Tue May 28 03:14:37 1996:

Yes, the list would have to start bidding after this item is sold, if the
winner was willing.  I had in mind a loan program...


#44 of 52 by ajax on Tue May 28 07:31:20 1996:

  My own feeling is that I'd be very reluctant to loan out a trilogy
for which I paid $70, unless I knew the person's reading habits...some
people you can't tell that they read a paperback, while others break
a book's spine!  (I hate that! :-)...I fall in between the two.)


#45 of 52 by janc on Tue May 28 15:37:33 1996:

(I used to read books so you couldn't tell they'd been read.  Luckily I read
 the Pratchett books before I developed the habit of falling asleep while
 reading in the bathtub.)


#46 of 52 by adbarr on Tue May 28 23:13:14 1996:

Kinky. You did not have water in there, did you? I have heard of this
in high-crime areas -- bullets and all, you know.


#47 of 52 by arthurp on Wed May 29 00:21:49 1996:

I have read some of my favorite paperbacks 4 or 5 times with hardly a sign,
but others differ.  If the highest bidder is not willing to loan out the
books (quite understnadable) then everyone else will have to make other
arrangements.  Oh, well.


#48 of 52 by robh on Thu May 30 19:06:36 1996:

Can it be?  Can the end be in sight?  The current bid of
$75 from eeyore will become final tomorrow.

<robh holds his breath in anticipation, then realizes
he can't hold his breath for a whole day>


#49 of 52 by eeyore on Thu May 30 21:39:58 1996:

(meg squeaks when she realizes JUST how much she's spending...oh well, it's
all for a good cause....terry prachett!  :)


#50 of 52 by robh on Sat Jun 1 01:13:42 1996:

That's it!  It's over!  It's finished!  The bidding is closed,
the item is SOLD to eeyore for $75.  Many congratulations!

eeyore, make your check payable to Cyberspace Communications and
send it to:

        Cyberspace Communications, Inc.            ****************
        P.O. Box 4432                              * NEW ADDRESS! *
        Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432                   ****************

(And remember that janc asked for $2 extra for postage.)


#51 of 52 by popcorn on Sat Jun 1 04:15:31 1996:

(Although they're both local, so maybe they'll just transfer the books during
a Saturday walk or other meeting-around-town.)


#52 of 52 by robh on Sun Jun 2 19:30:12 1996:

(Shhh, I'm trying to squeeze two more bucks out of her...  >8)


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