How much money is too much to spend on a single book? What is your cutoff when buying book...

I honestly don’t like spending more than $10 on a book, but I often gone over that.

No, cause most modern poetry is overpriced garbage. Also it's pointless to buy a book of poetry by one author instead of a collection of poems from a handful.

I have never bought a single book in my life.

Market forces are the ones who choose the price of modern poetry. If a poetry book don't sell much, them the seller will lower the price.

Collections don't have all the poems though

I go to a few bookstores that are beyond cheap, to the point I invited a skeptical friend and he went bananas buying shit since he found things for 1/4th the price he usually buys books at.

To highlight how cheap these places are, I will never pay more than $3 for a paperback (usually $4 is a hard limit if I really want the book), and never more than $15 for a good hardcover.

I buy the softcovers at one of the them and hardcovers at the other, since the latter one mostly has just hardcovers, has more selection, and for some reason has had a 40% off sale going for the past year or so (I think they have few customers in that branch of the chain. It's a very small regional chain used book store, and this is like one of their warehouses that doubles as a store)

to clarify, $15 for a hardcover at this place would net me a reallllly nice, very old, very good book. At this bookstore I bought a 1790s Gerusalem Liberatta hardcover (obviously hardcover) for $14. I bought all of Proust for $7 hardcover.

my cut off is it costing anything

I just bought a Brief History of Seven Killings for 250. First Ed. First Printing, signed by author. If dat HBO series takes off it will shoot up in value.

Considering buying a similar blood meridian, its like 3500

I've been considering buying Samuel Chamberlain's My Confession, shit's pricey but fuck I want it.

most contemporary poetry is published by small independent houses. they don't have the economies of scale to be charging mass-market paperback prices

Depends on the book. For just normal fiction I only ever download for free when looking for something specific or I go to used bookstores and buy a few books I find just wandering around, never spend more than $10 on those. For some Non fiction I'll spend big bucks, I recently bought a beautiful book on the history of Venice's architecture for $40 and it's definitely worth it for me, same with some graphic novels. If it's just words on a page I'll be a cheap bastard

Depends on the book

I spent AU$50 on a nice leather bound Bible, but AU$35 is usually my limit for a non-fiction book. Fiction tops is like AU$20.

Art books or other large-format visual volumes I've spent up to AU$80

I don't spend more than £20 on a book I intend to read for enjoyment, but academic textbooks I'm willing to go to £40 for. Anymore than that then I'll just download a PDF.

Damn, Seven Killings is going to be worth a comfy thousand, dude. HBO rarely fail.

Blood Meridian would be worth so much more if it's signed by Cormac McCarthy especially if a film adaptation ever happened and eventually and unfortunately when he dies ;_;

Something like this for me too. Having said that, it is possible to build a collection for not too expensive if you learn the ropes and keep your eyes open. There are a few resources online, starting with Bookfinder, then using the Alerts feature on Ebay, Abe or Amazon and being patient. In no particular order,
>Signed copies? check
>Limited editions? check
>Particular edition/collection? check
>Obscure out-of-print works? check
You get the picture.

and most of those are subsidised by arts councils, etc.

It isn't pointless if you really enjoy that one author or, you know, want to support an author by helping them get paid

something tells me you just don't like poetry that much

It totally depends on the book. For a widely available paperback I would be looking to spend £10 at the absolute maximum. But I'm willing to pay up to £50 if it's something uncommon or published in low volumes that I really want.

Some recent purchases of mine:

American Psycho for £2.50
Feyman's Lectures on Computation for £31

And yes the Feynman book was absolutely worth it

I bought five books the other day. Was about $127.

I only purchase new. I don't want someone's old split spine with second hand dick residue on the cover/pages. I also try to get exclusively hardcover but even on that trip I think only two were hardcover, ironically one being the bible.

Just checked my records, and the single most expensive book I bought was a rare volume on occultism from about 100 years ago. This was the first copy that had appeared for sale online in about 10 years; a Japanese collector had bought on previous to that from a post I saw on a collector's forum. It had been rebound and was in mint condition so although the price was high, I went for it. Typically I shop around and try to pick up bargains for these rarer/specialised works since online selling, esp. amateur means there are bound to be more copies online somewhere.
Getting cheaper or damaged books, especially if they are rare also involves factoring the cost of having them rebound, but then I am half-reader/half-collector and view these things also an investment on some level.