Hello.

I was not aware that those two books were also produced in a spiral bound edition:
Williamson\'s Wonders
Top Secret Stuff
Are there other cases like that? I believe the "5 Points in Magic" and "Pure Effect" were also initially spiral bound productions.

Denis

Thanks--sent the seller an e-mail asking that the auction be withdrawn.

Seller just called me, apologized, and ended the auction. Thanks!

I've had some dealings with this fellow on eBay. He seems to be on the level. If he makes a mistake in a listing, he will correct it.

I am sure that if he has a copy of something like that, and he learns that it is bogus, he will withdraw it, just as he did with these.

I wasn't aware that it was a bogus copy. I first suspected it but the cover seemed legitimate at first sight.
I guess that sometimes when you buy a collection you cannot be sure in some cases whether it is an original copy or not.

Withdrawing is good, but will he destroy the item or find a different channel to sell it?

I know the seller. I do not think he will sell the item through any channel. He is a stand up guy - he is a performer and business man, not a collector. He bought a large collection of books from a reputable magic dealer. This was part of that collection.

I have never had an eBay seller call me before and apologize and withdraw items.

That's a new experience for me and signals, to me, that the seller is a stand-up guy.

This happens all the time when you buy a library--it sometimes turns out that it contains lots of photocopies. What's really bad is that the person who is selling the library has made an illegal photocopy (or had it given to them) and then profits on it when selling his collection.

The guy buying the collection, unless he's very well educated about magic book publishing over the past century, often gets the short end of the stick and that's what happened, I suspect, in this case.

I don't know for certain but I'm fairly confidant that the Mike Powers book was only issued in hard cover as well.

I emailed Mike and told him of the auction, he confirmed that his book was only ever issued in hardcover.
It is a bootleg.