David Doyle Books News #59

Over 50 New Titles!

Dear Friends,

Once again this week we've received a large number of new books - over fifty new titles!  Plus restocks - there is something new or different on virtually every page of DavidDoyleBooks.com

We have so much new publications we simply can't list them all in our newsletter.  Here are a few of the highlights though:

Military Jeeps
Airborne Tanks
Nose Art of the 5th Air Force
Kaman H-2 Seasprite
Inspired Enterprise: How NASA, the Smithsonian, and the Aerospace Community Helped Launch Star Trek
The US M14 Rifle

Unfortunately, a number of books were damaged in transit - we are offering those at a major savings here.

We have also significantly expanded our selection of hobby periodicals.  Because of this, we created a new page in our online store - the Hobby Newsstand.  When I was a young man living and working in Memphis, there were a couple really great local newsstands offering an array of publications from around the world - many of which I'd never seen or heard of before going in their door.  I found things I didn't even know I needed until I walked in the door!  We hope to re-create that diverse assortment on our hobby newsstand page.  Simply click the cover on the brand of publication that interests you and a new page will open showcasing not only the latest issue, but also the back issues that we have in stock.  In the past many of these have been interspersed in our other various departments.  They've all been collected here now, and over the next several days the older links will go away - so if you have any bookmarked, you should change your favorites.

Speaking of bringing publications in from around the globe - we are now taking reservations for several previously unannounced books.  Our reservation policy and links to the forthcoming titles are found here.  You may notice that a few of these have only estimated future prices, and that is worthy of some explanation.

The world economy and us (me and you, not U.S.)

Many of your favorite books and magazines are published overseas - especially England and Europe.

Today, the value of the US dollar compared to the British pound is near a record low - the dollar is worth today only about 2/3 of what it was 20 years ago. The same holds true for the dollar vs the Euro of a few years ago.

As a practical matter, this means if a book used to cost me $10, now it costs me $15.  It also means that the shipping that used to cost $1000 now costs $1500.
Now, added to this is tariffs.  This is a subject that has obviously been in the news a lot - usually referencing big corporations led by well-paid accountants and lawyers.  The hobby book and magazine market is not a part of that realm.  Even the biggest of these Schiffer Publishing is owned and led by Pete Schiffer, and was founded by his parents.  I have Pete's cell number in my phone (no, I won't give it to you) - I don't have the president of Apple's phone number.  My point is - in the global economy, we are a gnat - and thus not in the news.

A tariff is a tax - a tax that is paid by the importer - when Tankograd or Air Modeller or Wings and Wheels Publications, etc., arrives - Denise and I pay that tax (tariff), which raises our cost.  Even though we do enjoy our work - the function of DavidDoyleBooks.com is to put a roof over our heads, food on the table, etc., so as our costs rise for the publications, shipping, existing tariffs, plus a planned 30% August 1 tariff on imports from the European Union - it is inevitable that prices will go up. 

While I am all for increasing manufacturing in the US - as a practical matter, Jochen (Tankograd), David and Keith (Air Modeller), or Frantisek (Wings and Wheels) and almost everyone else that we work with (book and magazine publishers) are our age - they are looking to retire in a few years - not uproot their business and family to move to the US so that I don't have to pay a tariff!

As we have seen, some planned tariffs turn out to be threats - sometimes they are real.  Because of this roller coaster and volatility of the exchange rate, in some cases we've chosen to let stock run lower than usual - in hopes that when we do restock we'll be able to maintain our usual low prices.  Almost everything we sell is at a discount, and we offer FREE shipping (to domestic addresses) on orders of $15 or more - and we don't want to change either of those unless we are forced to.

In other big news, we provided some material to our friends at Tamiya, and they graciously sent us their brand new 1/35 scale M36 kit 35390.  Since neither Denise or I build, we are giving this away - so follow this link to enter.

Denise and I remain grateful for your support.

Sincerely,

David and Denise

https://daviddoylebooks.com