I have been a member since July 2006, and I have two books on my wish list that I am STILL in the exact same position for, more than an year later.  They are The Five of Cups by Caitlin R. Kiernan and Beaudry's Ghost by Carolan Ivey.  Has anyone read these books, or come across them in your discussions?  Our library doesn't have them, and they are for sale on Amazon.com for over $40 used.  I hate to pay that kind of money for one book that may be the greatest book ever or may be the worst....

I checked on half.com by e-bay and they are $33.60 and $49.97  used.

Wow--I haven't heard of either of them.  Might be worth checking ebay(you can do a favorites search), abebooks.com, and alibris.com, just in case.  Good luck.

Are there reviews on Amazon or any of the other on-line book sellers?   If not, then I would Google them to see what you can find out.

I've found that books don't necessarily have to be really great to be pricey  in the secondhand resale markets,  they just have to be out of print and at least somewhat in demand.

I had BEAUDRY'S GHOST on my wish list forever also  and gave up on it and took it off a while back and put it on my reminder list. I have no idea why it should cost so much used but I won't pay the prices asked for it. 

I can't help you about Beaudry's Ghost.  To tell the truth, I've never heard of these books or their authors before, but I was curious on reading this thread, so I looked around.  I see that The Five of Cups is the first novel written by Kiernan, who is apparently pretty successful in her field.  It wasn't published until 2003, so presumably her fans were eager to read her first, as-yet unpublished work.  It was published by Subterranean Press - they're a small publisher who generally publishes limited editions.

Here's their page about the book:  http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=kiernan5&Category_Code=OP&Product_Count=90

hough Kiernan has been privately offered as much as $500 for manuscript copies of the novel and major publishers continue to express interest in the work, she has refused to allow its release until now. The Five of Cups will be published solely as a limited edition, the author providing an extensive introduction relating to the genesis, history, and her present feelings about the book. The Five of Cups allows us a rare glimpse into the mind of one of dark fantasy's most important and celebrated voices at a formative stage in her career. The Subterranean Press edition will be the only edition published and will include the following:

The original introduction, written by Poppy Z. Brite in 1996. A lengthy new introduction by the author. A 1999 essay on The Five of Cups written by Kiernan for her newsletter, Salmagundi. Facsimiles of original notes, outlines, correspondence, rejection slips, photos, and fragments from Kiernan's files and notebooks.

Limited: 1000 signed hardcover copies, bound in full cloth: $40 Lettered: 52 signed copies, housed in a handcrafted traycase, with additional material not in the limited: $200

So that's why the cost is so high - Subterannean only did two print runs, totaling 1.052 books, and doesn't plan to reissue it.  Rarity, then, has presumably driven price.

Oh, I lied.  I did find out about Ivey - Beaudry's Ghost was published by LTDBooks, which is now closed for business.  According to Ivey's website (http://www.carolanivey.com/), the book will be republished on January 4, 2008 by uh, SamhainPublishing.com.  And there'll be two sequels.

You can check fetchbook.info and they will list all the places where these books are currently being sold, including UK websites. I use it all the time.

Using addall.com, the cheapest prices I was able to find are $32.00 and $49.97, respectively (plus shipping).

Here's the link to Five of Cups prices.

Here's the link to Beaudry's Ghost prices.

Good luck!

Try using bookfinder.com

This site will search the books available online and give you the prices it is available at from the lowest to the highest. A pretty invaluable resource when you are trying to find a hard-to-find book with your budget in mind! Good luck!

You mentioned checking the library--have you tried interlibrary loan?  I've found some pretty rare things that way.  WorldCat lists 72 libraries for The Five of Cups and 3 for Beaudry's Ghost.  With only 3, you might not be able to get a copy of Beaudry's Ghost, but The Five of Cups shouldn't be a problem. 

If you are able to snag a copy relatively cheap, you should. They will more than likely only increase in value as the years go by and copies disappear.