Jane's Fighting Ships ... $915?!?

[Saffron]

Just on a whim, I checked the price of Jane's Fighting Ships 2008-2009 and almost fell out of my chair! Almost a thousand bucks ... for a book!

What's amazing is that my university library has all the Jane's books going all the way back to the 60's ... and they let people check them out! A book that expensive is almost always reference only. If I had known I was carrying around a thousand dollars worth of paper, I would've hired a bodyguard. The book even had that new smell ... mmmmmm ... I bet I was the first to check it out of the library.

I looked into Conway's books too and the one from 1949(?) to 1990-something was close to $200.

Too rich for my blood right now. I envy people who can afford the books for research, but I'll have to content myself with repeatedly checking them out of the library.

[JMS]

Just on a whim, I checked the price of Jane's Fighting Ships 2008-2009 and almost fell out of my chair! Almost a thousand bucks ... for a book!

What's amazing is that my university library has all the Jane's books going all the way back to the 60's ... and they let people check them out! A book that expensive is almost always reference only. If I had known I was carrying around a thousand dollars worth of paper, I would've hired a bodyguard. The book even had that new smell ... mmmmmm ... I bet I was the first to check it out of the library.

I looked into Conway's books too and the one from 1949(?) to 1990-something was close to $200.

Too rich for my blood right now. I envy people who can afford the books for research, but I'll have to content myself with repeatedly checking them out of the library.

Jane's went overboard with their prices some time ago and now I think they are catering for libraries and institutions only, and the odd rich man. Conway's 1947-1995 should be much cheaper, a quick check gets one result for 136.25 USD, and 2 more from 125 USD.

And you can order it in this grate site! go to the online store.

[john964]

Just on a whim, I checked the price of Jane's Fighting Ships 2008-2009 and almost fell out of my chair! Almost a thousand bucks ... for a book!

What's amazing is that my university library has all the Jane's books going all the way back to the 60's ... and they let people check them out! A book that expensive is almost always reference only. If I had known I was carrying around a thousand dollars worth of paper, I would've hired a bodyguard. The book even had that new smell ... mmmmmm ... I bet I was the first to check it out of the library.

I looked into Conway's books too and the one from 1949(?) to 1990-something was close to $200.

Too rich for my blood right now. I envy people who can afford the books for research, but I'll have to content myself with repeatedly checking them out of the library.Never be afraid to buy used I purchsed my Conways for a very good price roughly $200 for all 4.

[subdave]

The new books are very expensive, but Jane's information is pretty good and they do have to pay for all those analysts that gather and figure out the data.

I agree though that the price makes them pretty much for professional libraries only.

But, if you are really interested in getting some of the Jane's books, you can usually find the previous year's books at steep discounts (I've seen one year old books for a quarter price and older ones for even more). Sometimes these books are still in the original box, so you can get that new book smell.

I'm surprised the library where you are at lets people check out the books. I've only seen new editions in the reference section where you couldn't check them out.

The Conway's series of books are nice, especially for World War I and II. The Post-1945 book has lots of good information, but it doesn't have all the electronics information that you need for a lot of research.

Another alternative for modern ships is to look for the 'Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World' from the U.S. Naval Institute Press. They only publish it every couple of years (so it may be out of date in some cases) and it still costs around $250, but it is a good reference.

Dave



Just on a whim, I checked the price of Jane's Fighting Ships 2008-2009 and almost fell out of my chair! Almost a thousand bucks ... for a book!

What's amazing is that my university library has all the Jane's books going all the way back to the 60's ... and they let people check them out! A book that expensive is almost always reference only. If I had known I was carrying around a thousand dollars worth of paper, I would've hired a bodyguard. The book even had that new smell ... mmmmmm ... I bet I was the first to check it out of the library.

I looked into Conway's books too and the one from 1949(?) to 1990-something was close to $200.

Too rich for my blood right now. I envy people who can afford the books for research, but I'll have to content myself with repeatedly checking them out of the library.

[djcyclone]

I have WWI and WWII Janes's Combat ships. I only paid $20 at a book sale for each of them.

You wait long enough, and that price will go down.