Books about Collectibles from Amazon.com

If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller--known also for his excellent Sin City series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader and turning this laughable, innocuous children's cartoon character into a hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Miller's stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him, while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.Miller went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic--detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly it's a great story: Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has returned. Awesome. --Mark Thwaite.
Price: $7.87 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This is the State Series Quarters Collector Map by Whitman®. FEATURES: A beautiful, 4-color, oversized 3-fold folder with snap latch. Color-coded map of the United States will showcase one of each state quarter design. Each coin opening located on the map has the state's logo. Educational detail of each state including their statehood date, capital, state bird, flower, etc. Made in the USA! INCLUDES: (1) Folder SPECS: Folded Size: 12.5"" x 13.5"" Open Size: 37.5"" x 13.5"" kr11/6/06.
Price: $9.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Drawn from the popular weekly segment, Late Show Fun Facts is a collection of unusual, little-known--and sometimes even true--bits of trivia assembled by the Federal Bureau of Miscellaneous Information..
Price: $11.63 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Readers will delight in this retelling of the classic story of Neverland, pirates, and flying. Robert Sabuda's elegant text and paper engineering give new life to favorite charcters like Tinkerbell, Wendy, Michael, and John, and, of course, Peter Pan. Sabuda's beautiful pop-ups are further complemented by full color illustrations that pull readers even deeper into the magical world that is Neverland.

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Price: $17.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

THE OFFICIAL RED BOOK® A Guide Book of United States Coins enters its 62nd year with no sign of slowing down! Americans nationwide look to this one-volume library to tell them how rare their coins are and how much they re worth. Collectors rely on it for its full-color photographs and detailed technical data. The Red Book covers the history and values of colonial and early American coins, half cents through silver dollars and gold, commemoratives, Proof and Mint sets, errors, Civil War tokens, territorial gold, state quarters, Presidential dollars, and other U.S. coins, with practical essays on grading, investing, auctions, and more. Pricing for more than 6,000 individual coins More than 700 full color photographs Updated values, mintages, and auction records Expanded coverage of commemoratives, sets, and other coins New state quarters and Presidential dollars.
Price: $8.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized.

Now, in this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture.

In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe’s time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed “Kentucky” Rifle—a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master—a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle.

In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle’s development and our nation’s history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent gunpowder . . . how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy . . . and the ways in which bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests—frequently bizarre—were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars.

From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must read for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers—and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation’s history..
Price: $18.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This newest 29th edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values, with over one million books in circulation, once again sets the firearms industry standard for both modern and antique firearms information and up-to-date pricing. Now expanded to nearly 2,200 pages no other single firearms publication even comes close!.
Price: $26.06 [Notify me when price goes down.]

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.

In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux—one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?

It would take more than two decades for those questions to be answered and involve a gallery of intriguing players—among them Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women and staked his reputation on the record-setting sale; Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival, whose palate is covered by a hefty insurance policy; and Bill Koch, the extravagant Florida tycoon bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.

Pursuing the story from Monticello to London to Zurich to Munich and beyond, Benjamin Wallace also offers a mesmerizing history of wine, complete with vivid accounts of subterranean European laboratories where old vintages are dated and of Jefferson’s colorful, wine-soaked days in France, where he literally drank up the culture.

Suspenseful, witty, and thrillingly strange, The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. It is also the debut of an exceptionally powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction..
Price: $12.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Whitman Brand folder holds State Series Quarters 1999-2009 both Philadelphia and Denver Mints. 120 openings..
Price: $3.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

During his third year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter must confront the devious and dangerous wizard responsible for his parents' deaths..
Price: $8.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]