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Haynes Manuals


Des

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While The Works continues to sell selected discounted examples from the range of aircraft subjects does anyone know if Haynes have given up on adding new aviation subjects to the range?

 

E.E. Lightning and D.H. Sea Vixen have both been showing on Amazon for well over a year first as 2019 releases but now as currently unavailable and I wondered if anyone knew what was happening with the series.

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I do hope they release the Lightning and Sea Vixen books. Even though we already have a lot of reference material for both types it's always handy to have more. 

I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Wessex book when it was on sale. There were some lovely close up detail views and rare images of the green painted HAS3 in Northern Ireland.

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They went hammer and tongs publishing new ones at a very rapid rate but have slowed of late, probably understandably because they've covered most of the "popular" subjects. Generally they're worthwhile for the money, although obviously some are better than others. Just personal opinion but I think the SE5 and the F-86 ones are exceptionally good.

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  • 8 months later...
On 8/30/2020 at 12:37 PM, Bozothenutter said:

Just got emailed by Amazon that the Lightning manual has been cancelled?

Had a little chat with the guy that's doing the Lightning manual its defo NOT cancelled but he did say that Haynes are going through some sort of restructuring and he also said he might "go it alone"  on the manual.

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32 minutes ago, tweeky said:

Had a little chat with the guy that's doing the Lightning manual its defo NOT cancelled but he did say that Haynes are going through some sort of restructuring and he also said he might "go it alone"  on the manual.

Good news, please keep us informed if you can!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As I understand it, the Works Haynes Manuals are specially-printed for the shop to sell and this explains why they are so much cheaper than "list price". I've often wondered if anyone has bought any of their books at full price and thereafter noticed that The Works are flogging them for a lot less....

 

Chris. 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, spruecutter96 said:

I've often wondered if anyone has bought any of their books at full price and thereafter noticed that The Works are flogging them for a lot less....

yes. I have. The Lancaster manual. I paid about £18.99 for it from Amazon, Amazon themselves not one of their 'partner' sellers. As soon as I got it, after about 2 weeks wait, I found it at The Works for £6. I was able to return the Amazon bought one for a refund

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Works having a sale  seen the BBMF Ops Manual, Wessex,Avro Lancaster, Spirit of St Louis, D-Day,Great War Tank ,German 88mm Flak Gun Haynes Manuals  for £4 each.  I ordered online the Haynes Manuals Wellington,B-29 and SE.5A  for £7 each only £2.99 pp  arrived two days later.

Edited by T-21
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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

I wonder if Haynes do themselves harm by allowing so many of these manuals to be discounted so much. I'm currently hanging on waiting to see if their new B-36 volume ends up in The Works.

I think that, if producing these books in bulk for The Works was not still making them money, their accountants and shareholder would have had a quiet word in the management's ear by now.  Perhaps, viewing it differently, the increased profit they make on the full-priced copies is just the icing on the cake.

Edited by Seahawk
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Also worth checking out The Tank Museum online shop. They have a load of Haynes manuals at £8.99, and some cheaper than that. Just picked up the Panhard armoured car manual for £4.99.

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9 hours ago, Seahawk said:

I think that, if producing these books in bulk for The Works was not still making them money, their accountants and shareholder would have had a quiet word in the management's ear by now.  Perhaps, viewing it differently, the increased profit they make on the full-priced copies is just the icing on the cake.

Wot 'ee said....

 

Chris. 

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7 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

We don't know if there is any profit there at all for Haynes - that's the question I was raising.

Well, logically, there must be some profit in this deal for both Haynes Books and The Works. The only businesses I've ever heard of selling items for under their wholesale value is big supermarkets. They rationalize this practice by enticing you into their stores with the very cheap offers, in the hope that you will almost certainly buy other normally-priced items as well -  the profit on those unintended items balances out the loss on the very cheap stuff. 

 

I'm guessing that Haynes has all its books printed by the 50 thousands or so. The more you print, the cheaper the cost per unit. Having said that, to get a brand new Haynes manual for 3 quid seems like the bargain of the year to me. 

 

Both companies will have "run the numbers" on the Haynes manuals. It's interesting to see that the in-store prices and the on-line ones are often different (the really cheap books don't seem to crop up on-line at all). I remember buying the Haynes "JU-87 Stuka" on the website a few years ago for 3 quid a go. If you bought several, you got free postage as well. Those were the good ole days!

 

Chris. 

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We just don't know what the logic is. That's my point.

 

Many retailers have "loss leaders". They are prepared to sell stuff at a loss for all sorts of reasons. It could be to generate cashflow or it could be to clear stuff that isn't selling well and taking up warehouse space - which is a cost in itself.

 

Do you remember the massive discounts Modelzone used to give on selected kits? Well, they aren't around any more - so I wonder what their logic was.

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Haynes Commissioning Editor Jonathan Falconer posted in 2018 on FB about these 'special' Haynes print-runs produced exclusively for 'The Works'. Falconer himself however was apparently not a 'fan', saying that he believed they undermined future book production and reduced the 'rewards' available to authors. His friend Lee Howard, who compiled Haynes' Lynx and Wessex manuals which were also available cheaply in 'The Works'  agreed with him.

...Presumably though Falconer still gets his salary/contract payment whomever the Haynes Manuals are printed for and at whatever price point they are sold at.  Haynes make/made decent profits (£3 million in 2017 on revenues of £30 million).  The 'danger' is these 'Works' discounts do probably pose a threat to the independent book retailers, who, even as a collective, do not have the buying power to order the numbers and thereby get the discount that 'The Works' gets.    (Picked up 'Spitfire Restoration' and 'B-29 Superfort' in my local 'Works' today!)

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