Gordon and all:
The Prince books, all 10 or 11 of them covering the different railroads of the south that he documented are fantastic resources, even today, the SR included.
Maybe forgotten is that in the early 2000's, four of his titles were reprinted, Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, NC&St. L, and the L&N. The quality of the reprinted photos I am told made Prince livid and he forbid any others from being done, and yes, the reprinted photos were poor, but I also suspect that the available originals weren't that good either. At the time, the NC&St. L was THE most expensive one and by far, and seldom seen, maybe even less often actual sales taking place. It was a $350-$400 item.
Post reprinted, they all have settled down to around the $40-$60 plus or minus a little area. The other RR's still retain serious interest for the researcher, those of the N&W, RF&P, A&WP, New Georgia, Southern, and the original Norfolk Southern being the most elusive of the bunch. The N&W and RF&P seem to still garner somewhere in the $75-$100 region regularly, maybe a little more, the NS bringing $150 or so if and when you can find them. The Southern one seems to bring $50 plus or minus a little here and there and is among if not THE most popular of the bunch.
Without getting into copyright issues, should one wish to reprint the SR one, that is the marketplace you'll be competing into. I don't know how many original copies Prince made in his various printings of each of the above RR's but for the more popular titles I think it was plenty for the times. Today, my belief is there are sufficient quantity out there for current demand, my opinion, so into the hornet's nest, does one make the commitment of how many thousands of dollars up front money to sell ??????????????? how many of the reprint?
When the 4 reprinted titles were done nearly 20 years ago, as I recall, they were available at the time for $40 each.
What's the risk/reward ratio for a new reprint albeit one that wasn't done back then, and is there enough pent-up demand for another one? My opinion is probably not as the current supply out there fits most needs for the moment. How long that may continue is anyone's best guess, but my opinion is, likely not worth the investment at this time.
My 2 cents worth.
Bob Cohen
