The most complete car encyclopedia
- Thread starter vasilescui79
- 132 comments
- 7,511 views
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Without pictures it would not have been so interesting.
I thought about few other poll options, but it was too late...
Thanks and i assure you it will never fade...
That was under consideration. It seemed very convenient from many point of views, especially updates. The only drawback was the delivery cost.
For sending a book, with international expedited shipping, from my Postal Office it costs me 30 USD/package.
For the Volume series, i offer Free Shipping almost anywhere in the world.
It would not have been convenient both for me or customer to have a monthly magazine, with 10-15 USD price and 30 USD shipping cost.
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- 3,323
- GTP_Mark
- Mark T33
I think you need to get this in the hands of a well known magazine publisher. They would have worldwide distribution links and you would avoid the high postage costs because it would be printed in the country being sold.
You would also have distribution amongst hundreds/thousands of retailers worldwide. Of course the publisher is going to want their cut, however, if you're selling thousands of copies over x years it would soon add up very quickly and leave you with a nice balance. The publisher would also take the information you have and make it look really good and give you a great space saving layout (not that your layout isn't good, it's just you would have a team of pros to take of that for you).
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
I'm not going to give you any names, but already tried that and i was not at all satisfied.
Although they offer some initial amount of money and a fee from sale there are a lot of problems.
In general their comments were like this:
- this is too big and unnecessary
- why all the photos and all the brands, resume to the important ones, nobody will now brands are missing
- why not a single front photo for a model
- can you exclude the Chinese brands? who's intrested in them
- why race cars and coachbuilt
- try to resume it to a single volume, 500 pages (why a single volume, with scarce info and not all brands, this have been done before)
- why photos for each model, only for important ones are necessary
- and so on
Not to mention other problems like contract issues that my are not trust worthy.
I also started talking with small or self publishers and i have my conclusions:
- a big company is interested only in financial gain, so they have their own idea of destroying the "Encyclopedia" , because they treat it like a money maker, not like a car enthusiast. I have made it using a lot of self imposed rules, as the things in car history are more complicated that they seem at the first look.
-Most important of all, none of them agreed to one of my terms: "If the book is not published in a specific time, they loose the copyright contract". I wanted this because i want the car encyclopedia to be published, not blocked forever in a computer somewhere.
- from my point of view, i know there is a bigger money potential with them, at the first look, but i'm not so thirsty in money and IF all the issues mentioned before are gone, because of the huge team they got, with big wages they have to sell 1.000 times more copies, to give me good money.
My conclusion i, that buying the car encyclopedia depends on how much people are passionate or not by car history.
Some people spend the same amount of money on buying a PS4 with games and accessories, some on holidays, some on tuning their cars, some on fancy furniture, some on fancy clothes, so it depends on priories.
I could make an effort and print the whole series of volumes a lot quicker but they will be released at a rate of a volume each two months, so it will not be a buyer effort. If a car enthusiast saves just above 30 USD a month, the effort will be a lot easier.
Although they offer some initial amount of money and a fee from sale there are a lot of problems.
In general their comments were like this:
- this is too big and unnecessary
- why all the photos and all the brands, resume to the important ones, nobody will now brands are missing
- why not a single front photo for a model
- can you exclude the Chinese brands? who's intrested in them
- why race cars and coachbuilt
- try to resume it to a single volume, 500 pages (why a single volume, with scarce info and not all brands, this have been done before)
- why photos for each model, only for important ones are necessary
- and so on
Not to mention other problems like contract issues that my are not trust worthy.
I also started talking with small or self publishers and i have my conclusions:
- a big company is interested only in financial gain, so they have their own idea of destroying the "Encyclopedia" , because they treat it like a money maker, not like a car enthusiast. I have made it using a lot of self imposed rules, as the things in car history are more complicated that they seem at the first look.
-Most important of all, none of them agreed to one of my terms: "If the book is not published in a specific time, they loose the copyright contract". I wanted this because i want the car encyclopedia to be published, not blocked forever in a computer somewhere.
- from my point of view, i know there is a bigger money potential with them, at the first look, but i'm not so thirsty in money and IF all the issues mentioned before are gone, because of the huge team they got, with big wages they have to sell 1.000 times more copies, to give me good money.
My conclusion i, that buying the car encyclopedia depends on how much people are passionate or not by car history.
Some people spend the same amount of money on buying a PS4 with games and accessories, some on holidays, some on tuning their cars, some on fancy furniture, some on fancy clothes, so it depends on priories.
I could make an effort and print the whole series of volumes a lot quicker but they will be released at a rate of a volume each two months, so it will not be a buyer effort. If a car enthusiast saves just above 30 USD a month, the effort will be a lot easier.
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It seems like I've read varying information on prices. At first it seemed like the initial run would be $100-120, with a 25% Collector's discount. Now it seems like it would only be $37.50 with the discount every other month or so? I could stomach that. But as I said earlier, as and enthusiast and perfectionist I can't justify spending around $100 for something that will be out of date in a few months, or updated in a different format. A-Z and then 2015+ isn't sexy on my shelf.
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
It seems that you misunderstood.
The price is 100-120 USD and there is a 25%discount for collectors.
100 USD with 25% discount is 75 USD. Since a new volume is released each every two months, there is a buyer cost of 37.5 USD/month. So there is no price modification and no vary information.
It's just a calculation for monthly cost of a collector.
Your words "will be out of date in a few months" are very funny, as a history book it's obvious that gets outdated.
To me it seems that some people did not understood the size of this project. There are more than 10.000 car brands and 50.000 car models. I do not now how many people heard or believed there were more than 1.000 of them. If you do the math correctly, for releasing all the 70 (estimated) volumes, with a new one each two months, the last volume will be released in 2025
A new updated version or the book with updates will probably be released at the same rate so it will never be a complete new edition until 2035 . All the new volumes need to receive the new models so all the pages layout needs to be done again, most probably. So there will probably be a new updated volume each decade (every ten years).
And there are a lot of things that can happened until then. We are talking here only about my intention.
So we are not talking about 2015. This work has never been done before, there is not another book or book series in the world to present at least 10% of this work and is not 100% sure that this will be reprinted, updated or anything, at least i know i want to do this, but only time will tell.
Again, i have to repeat that most of the people, do not realize the size of this and maybe the importance of it. My point is that this never gets done to the end, important pages of car history will be lost in time and after 30 or 50 years, they can't be recovered, even if we try...
So in my conclusion, getting outdated or the release of a new series with updates or a book with updates is the last thing a buyer has to worry about. The only factor is that he thinks the investment is justified by his passion for cars and their history.
After all the discussions i have also a conclusion.
Someone that buys it worrying it gets outdated, is someone that buys the collection just to show off with it in it's library. A true car enthusiast buys it for all the new information he can get out of it and for the curiosity to know about all the cars ever made in the world.
For a book collector, i can only imagine it's future value after years if this sells only in limited numbers ...
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
So i will do a recapitulation to be clear, because not everyone has patience to read all the post thoroughly (This happens sometimes to me also.) And also do the math for you with number of volumes and release rate.
Price per volume: 100-120 USD, including free shipping (with 25% collector's discount, which reduces the price to 75-90 USD)
Release rate: one new volume each two months (with 25% discount and release rate, results in a monthly cost for collector of 37.5 USD)
First volume release: late August 2013
Last volume release: August 2025
Complete release of the updated series (which, for now it's only probable): 2035-2037
I will be around 55 years old by then...
I hope now everything is clear. For me it was clear from the beginning, but seems some people misunderstood and did not do the correct calculations. Or maybe i'm subjective and did not express myself correctly...
I have said from the very beginning, the release rate is a new volume each two months and the series is estimated to 70 volumes, but some people did not do the math and jumped to quick conclusions.
70 volumes x 2 months/volume = 140 months / 12 months a year = 11.66 years
I can not even imagine how you could come up with 2014 or 2015 =))
PS:
Do not believe that i am upset. The thicker or colored writings were used o9nly to underline some things clear, one for all. How can you be upset when you find out some important things where people might jump into quick conclusions, things that seems must be specified on the online store front page.
Price per volume: 100-120 USD, including free shipping (with 25% collector's discount, which reduces the price to 75-90 USD)
Release rate: one new volume each two months (with 25% discount and release rate, results in a monthly cost for collector of 37.5 USD)
First volume release: late August 2013
Last volume release: August 2025
Complete release of the updated series (which, for now it's only probable): 2035-2037
I will be around 55 years old by then...
I hope now everything is clear. For me it was clear from the beginning, but seems some people misunderstood and did not do the correct calculations. Or maybe i'm subjective and did not express myself correctly...
I have said from the very beginning, the release rate is a new volume each two months and the series is estimated to 70 volumes, but some people did not do the math and jumped to quick conclusions.
70 volumes x 2 months/volume = 140 months / 12 months a year = 11.66 years
I can not even imagine how you could come up with 2014 or 2015 =))
PS:
Do not believe that i am upset. The thicker or colored writings were used o9nly to underline some things clear, one for all. How can you be upset when you find out some important things where people might jump into quick conclusions, things that seems must be specified on the online store front page.
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Some more pages preview:
PS:
I tried to do a closer estimation. There will probably be around 50 volumes. I can not have a precise one. I am not sure how the information will fit on paper.... So i have only an estimation.
PS:
I tried to do a closer estimation. There will probably be around 50 volumes. I can not have a precise one. I am not sure how the information will fit on paper.... So i have only an estimation.
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
All the technical stages have been completed, except some little work on the website, which will also have the online store.
The other factor that holds me right now, is reaching the budget goal, which is only partially complete. To achieve the budget goal, 2.000 Euro are still missing. I'm looking to print 500 copies so i can have the targeted cost/book.
I will have that money, but not very fast, possibly in two or three months.
So, to rush things i will try my luck here:
I'm offering 5 lifetime subscriptions to "The most complete car encyclopedia for only 400 Euro.
To see there is no SCAM or joke, i have added the complete preview of the first volume to my personal facebook page.
- Some pages are missing because of some upload error.
- The picture with front and rear cover is on third position.
- Each picture covers two pages.
You can see it here:
https://www.facebook.com/vasilescu.petruionut/media_set?set=a.483375128424277.1073741830.100002553839072&type=3
This first volume will be available and sent to the subscribers within one week from reaching the goal, which is the time i receive the books from the printing company since i will sent the order.
All the other volumes will be also sent to subscribers as soon as they are received from the printing company.
All volumes will be sent for free, with no other extra charge and with free worldwide expedited shipping included.
The other factor that holds me right now, is reaching the budget goal, which is only partially complete. To achieve the budget goal, 2.000 Euro are still missing. I'm looking to print 500 copies so i can have the targeted cost/book.
I will have that money, but not very fast, possibly in two or three months.
So, to rush things i will try my luck here:
I'm offering 5 lifetime subscriptions to "The most complete car encyclopedia for only 400 Euro.
To see there is no SCAM or joke, i have added the complete preview of the first volume to my personal facebook page.
- Some pages are missing because of some upload error.
- The picture with front and rear cover is on third position.
- Each picture covers two pages.
You can see it here:
https://www.facebook.com/vasilescu.petruionut/media_set?set=a.483375128424277.1073741830.100002553839072&type=3
This first volume will be available and sent to the subscribers within one week from reaching the goal, which is the time i receive the books from the printing company since i will sent the order.
All the other volumes will be also sent to subscribers as soon as they are received from the printing company.
All volumes will be sent for free, with no other extra charge and with free worldwide expedited shipping included.
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
One subscription given on Romanian forum, 4 more left, to reach printing budget.
- 2,166
- Indiana
- JGancherJr & Stupid-Fast_Jay
- King0fKongs
Unfortunately I do not have 400 Euro's to spend at once on these books 
.. But I do want to say after reviewing your link, this looks absolutely amazing! I cannot wait until they are available for individual purchase 👍 . Keep up the great work, and I really hope this series of books make it in the market!
PS: Am I correct in assuming that these will be available to purchase in hardback internationally and that Alpina will just be under the BMW category?
PPS: Just seen my Acura Legend (not mine personally but same year and color) in the book!!! Got a little more excited!
.. But I do want to say after reviewing your link, this looks absolutely amazing! I cannot wait until they are available for individual purchase 👍 . Keep up the great work, and I really hope this series of books make it in the market!PS: Am I correct in assuming that these will be available to purchase in hardback internationally and that Alpina will just be under the BMW category?
PPS: Just seen my Acura Legend (not mine personally but same year and color) in the book!!! Got a little more excited!
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- 15,460
- Orange County, NY
- GTP_GT916
- Nii916
Agreed.Unfortunately I do not have 400 Euro's to spend at once on these books
Cano
Premium
- 20,758
- Cephiro
Holy hell this is titanic. I work in the car-publishing industry doing freelance work for a couple car magazines over here in Mexico, so I know how hard it can be to complie a detailed list like this, but you have taken it to a level I have never seen before. Amazing.
And from what I've read (yeah I read the entire thread) you have considered most ins and outs of this. I just have to say my hat is off to you, and wish you the best of luck with this life dream 👍
And from what I've read (yeah I read the entire thread) you have considered most ins and outs of this. I just have to say my hat is off to you, and wish you the best of luck with this life dream 👍
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Thank you guys for the appreciation.
Yes. it will be available as a hardback, internationally from my website, with worldwide free expedited shipping.
The only factor keeping me right now is budget, but i'm working hardly to achieve the budget goal. When it will be achieved (it can happened even tomorrow), the book will be sent for printing immediately.
When the selling process is started and the cash flow working, i will give the material for the second volume to the guy that lays the information on page, for the ready to print material so the second volume will be available soon. This second one will be much larger, with almost double number of brands, including Audi, Aston Martin, Austin or AMC.
PS:
The Alpina is not included in this Encyclopedia but is in a future series dedicated to tuned cars, which is in working progress.
There are two rules that i'm not sure were specified before, but they are written in the book introduction.
1. The car replicas are included only if they are built under different brand and model name from the previous model. (not related to Alpina question but similar)
2. Companies and their models that built cars based on series production ones are included only if the exterior design is changed in a way that the car can be recognized as a different model.
I'll give you an example here:
Callaway C12 is included (has a totally different design), but not the C15, which has the same design of the 'vette.
However, the conversions from tuners that offer different body types than standard ones (like convertibles for coupes, station wagon for sedans) are included in the coachbuilt models of the initial brand.
I'll keep you posted, the book may be sent for print this week, if i'm lucky.
In two weeks after selling process starts you will alse see a banner on this website.
Yes. it will be available as a hardback, internationally from my website, with worldwide free expedited shipping.
The only factor keeping me right now is budget, but i'm working hardly to achieve the budget goal. When it will be achieved (it can happened even tomorrow), the book will be sent for printing immediately.
When the selling process is started and the cash flow working, i will give the material for the second volume to the guy that lays the information on page, for the ready to print material so the second volume will be available soon. This second one will be much larger, with almost double number of brands, including Audi, Aston Martin, Austin or AMC.
PS:
The Alpina is not included in this Encyclopedia but is in a future series dedicated to tuned cars, which is in working progress.
There are two rules that i'm not sure were specified before, but they are written in the book introduction.
1. The car replicas are included only if they are built under different brand and model name from the previous model. (not related to Alpina question but similar)
2. Companies and their models that built cars based on series production ones are included only if the exterior design is changed in a way that the car can be recognized as a different model.
I'll give you an example here:
Callaway C12 is included (has a totally different design), but not the C15, which has the same design of the 'vette.
However, the conversions from tuners that offer different body types than standard ones (like convertibles for coupes, station wagon for sedans) are included in the coachbuilt models of the initial brand.
I'll keep you posted, the book may be sent for print this week, if i'm lucky.
In two weeks after selling process starts you will alse see a banner on this website.
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Thank you Cano.
I can tell you this. For me it was simple. This is my kind of having fun, so instead of using the time in life for other things i did this. And it was a lot of time.
You can talk to your editors. I'm open, but not decided to sell the rights for the translation in different languages, other than English.
- 430
- QLD,Brisbane
I absolutely love cars..I would love to buy those when they are released!
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
I absolutely love cars..I would love to buy those when they are released!
Nice to hear that.
Good news. I have just sent the book to be printed.
I will be back with photos of it, sometime this week, when i will receive them (2-3 days)
The book will be available to purchase from my website with PayPal and free worldwide expedited shipping.
As the website is still under construction and it will still be, until the end of this month, the book can be bought with Western Union or MoneyGram until then.
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Finally !
I have just received the books from the printing company.
Since the website is still under construction, i will receive orders on my e-mail address: allcarbrands@yahoo.com
Payment will be made by Western Union or MoneyGram.
The book will be delivered with free worldwide expedited shipping.
Shipping time may vary from one country to another.
Here are some photos of it (sorry for the photo quality, I'm not good at this, i do not know how to avoid the glow from the book, good light for picture, etc):
I have just received the books from the printing company.
Since the website is still under construction, i will receive orders on my e-mail address: allcarbrands@yahoo.com
Payment will be made by Western Union or MoneyGram.
The book will be delivered with free worldwide expedited shipping.
Shipping time may vary from one country to another.
Here are some photos of it (sorry for the photo quality, I'm not good at this, i do not know how to avoid the glow from the book, good light for picture, etc):
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
More pics.
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
- 501
- United Kingdom
- YouButNotYou
Well done, like other people have said, you have considered every different aspect of promoting a business aswell as distributing and writing the book. I may buy it in the future although I am not entirely sure but by the looks of it, you have a few customers already. I hope this works out for you and I am sure that it will, and yet again well done. 👍
👍
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Well done, like other people have said, you have considered every different aspect of promoting a business aswell as distributing and writing the book. I may buy it in the future although I am not entirely sure but by the looks of it, you have a few customers already. I hope this works out for you and I am sure that it will, and yet again well done.
Thanks for the good thoughts.
Yes there are few customers already. Actually the first one was amazing. When the guy from the delivery company saw me unwrapping the first package, "he was hit by lightning " so he was the first one...
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Made few more pics today.
It looks like this project have a future, so you have my promise, all the volumes will be published.
It looks like this project have a future, so you have my promise, all the volumes will be published.
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
Error. Sorry.
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- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
The online store will be ready soon, probably by the end of the week...
- 161
- Valcea
- vasilescui79
News :
1.
Regarding the fact that there are many buyers who cannot afford the hardcover full color series, i have made a decision and there will also be available a lower priced edition, paperback and black&white interior. This will cost around 35 to 40 USD/volume, including FREE shipping (shipping cost is half of the price, to be precise)
2
There is also a modification in the strategy of the hardcover full color series.
Considering these facts:
-a low priced version
-my intention to keep the 120 USD price, steady for all the volumes
-shipping cost /volume, which adds to each volume
-intention to lower the number of volumes
I have decided to drop the 25% collector discount, but keeping the cost of the whole series, in the same value with the discount. To do this, each volume (except the first, which has been printed) will have a minimum of 400 pages.
The book delivery service from my first office, is placed in the 1 to 2 kg category. The first 314 pages volume has 1,264 kg so a 4-500 pages book will have the same shipping cost as the first volume, but the number of volumes is dropping by 25 to 30%, making the book series even more affordable than with the 300 pages and 25% discount.
I'm sorry, i was not able to anticipate this solution from the beginning as i had no idea what the book weight will precisely be.
PS: The ones who already bought the first volume, will keep the 25% Discount, even if the minimum number of pages per volumes has been raised. i think this is correct to do, as they bought the book, knowing there is a 25% discount.
I'll be back in around two days, when the website is finished, with photos and exact price of the low-priced version of the book.
P PS: I have felt like a "killer", destroying people's dreams, who do not afford the color series and just imagined how thy felt, so that's why i decided to have two version of the books with two price ranges.
1.
Regarding the fact that there are many buyers who cannot afford the hardcover full color series, i have made a decision and there will also be available a lower priced edition, paperback and black&white interior. This will cost around 35 to 40 USD/volume, including FREE shipping (shipping cost is half of the price, to be precise)
2
There is also a modification in the strategy of the hardcover full color series.
Considering these facts:
-a low priced version
-my intention to keep the 120 USD price, steady for all the volumes
-shipping cost /volume, which adds to each volume
-intention to lower the number of volumes
I have decided to drop the 25% collector discount, but keeping the cost of the whole series, in the same value with the discount. To do this, each volume (except the first, which has been printed) will have a minimum of 400 pages.
The book delivery service from my first office, is placed in the 1 to 2 kg category. The first 314 pages volume has 1,264 kg so a 4-500 pages book will have the same shipping cost as the first volume, but the number of volumes is dropping by 25 to 30%, making the book series even more affordable than with the 300 pages and 25% discount.
I'm sorry, i was not able to anticipate this solution from the beginning as i had no idea what the book weight will precisely be.
PS: The ones who already bought the first volume, will keep the 25% Discount, even if the minimum number of pages per volumes has been raised. i think this is correct to do, as they bought the book, knowing there is a 25% discount.
I'll be back in around two days, when the website is finished, with photos and exact price of the low-priced version of the book.
P PS: I have felt like a "killer", destroying people's dreams, who do not afford the color series and just imagined how thy felt, so that's why i decided to have two version of the books with two price ranges.
- 7,369
- Houston, TX
- ryandude2448
All I can say is wow. The books look very well-made and thought out. I would absolutely love to buy this(and continue to do so until I have the last volume) but... i'm an 18 year old with no income
This might just be the single greatest book set of all time if it really includes 10,000 car brands... that's just insane. I had no idea there was even close to that number. Even if there is a couple missing cars from a couple manufactures , who cares? There's 30,000-40,000 other cars you've probably never heard of!
Just to clarify, as of right now...
Each volume will cost $120, including shipping
There will be an estimated 60 volumes?
How thick will a 400-page hardcover be? Looking at the pictures, it looks to be around 1.5 inches maybe?
Regardless of the above, there is no way I will ever forget about this project. I know for a fact later on in life I'll pick up a couple volumes, but the time isn't right now. I sincerely hope you can get a profit from this because you deserve it.
edit- when you get the website up, do you mind messaging me the link? I will only check this thread periodically but would really love to see the website as soon as it's put up.
This might just be the single greatest book set of all time if it really includes 10,000 car brands... that's just insane. I had no idea there was even close to that number. Even if there is a couple missing cars from a couple manufactures , who cares? There's 30,000-40,000 other cars you've probably never heard of!
Just to clarify, as of right now...
Each volume will cost $120, including shipping
There will be an estimated 60 volumes?
How thick will a 400-page hardcover be? Looking at the pictures, it looks to be around 1.5 inches maybe?
Regardless of the above, there is no way I will ever forget about this project. I know for a fact later on in life I'll pick up a couple volumes, but the time isn't right now. I sincerely hope you can get a profit from this because you deserve it.
edit- when you get the website up, do you mind messaging me the link? I will only check this thread periodically but would really love to see the website as soon as it's put up.
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