Customer Reviews

Glass fishing floats of the world: The collector price guide & identification handbook

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Since there seems to be no description of this book on Amazon, I will provide one. It is a skimpy, self-published volume about one-quarter of an inch thick printed on good photocopier-quality paper and spiral bound. Each page is just a little larger than half a sheet of US letter-sized paper (6 inches wide by 9 inches high), and there are 64 pages.
This book is basically a price list based on the size, color, shape, and markings on glass fishing floats. The most useful thing about it is a system classifying floats by size and color, information that fits on the equivalent of one and a half photocopied pages. The rest of the book illustrates with simple drawings the markings appearing on glass floats of various countries and gives prices for various sizes and colors of float for each marking. There is a lot of wasted space.
A typical listing of a characteristic marking gives a rough drawing of the marking, its location on the float, and one or more prices for different sizes and/or colors of floats of that type. There is no explanation of the mark, such as what company produced the float, where the company is or was located, the time period during which the company produced floats, etc. There is no translation of Asian markings, most of which are either kanji (China and Japan) or katakana characters (Japan) and which have pronunciations and meaning. Even the listings are incomplete: the section on Asian Markings starts by stating, "The following selection of markings is but a small example of the many markings known to exist".
The back cover notes that the book is based on over 50 years' combined experience of the two authors in dealing with glass balls. It is thus perplexing that the book contains so little information. Everything you always wanted to know about glass fishing floats is NOT in this book; in fact, almost NOTHING you might want to know about glass floats is in this book. There is nothing at all of the history of glass floats or the technology used in making them. For any interesting information, the authors refer the reader to the small book Beachcombing for Glass Floats by Amos Wood, which unfortunately seems to be out of print but can be found on the Internet.
As a person newly interested in glass floats and hoping for some interesting information, I was sorely disappointed; furthermore, at the price of $22.95, I feel that I was taken advantage of: ripped off, defrauded (whatever term you want to apply to it; you get the meaning). In fairness, although the title Glass Fishing Floats of the World suggests a useful compendium of knowledge, the second part of the title, The Collector's Price Guide and Identification Handbook, states what the book covers. So, maybe I am to blame. However, for $22.95, one expects a lot more than is in this book, and this is what threw me off. I can't help but wonder whether the authors are simply bolstering their own ability to make money selling glass floats from their collections by presenting a list of prices that seem inflated to me based on a quick scan of floats for sale on the internet.
On a scale of 1 low to 10 high for useful information relative to cost, I'd rate this book less than 1, and I strongly recommend against buying it until used copies start to appear for a couple of bucks each.