ok i think i might have found something---willie mosconi book

Travis3c

Travis3c

AV Pool Nut
Silver Member
I go to goodwill sometimes to look for books and other antiques and ran across a 1965 sixth printing of Willie Mosconi's Winning Pocket Billiards in mint condition. I paid $1.00 for the book.

here is a pic
gumby54.jpg


is this book worth anything, i started reading it today and has some pretty good pics of willie and good diagrams.

I will add this one to my collection.


this is a online picture of the book, not of the actual book
 
book

its a great book. whether or not its a valuable one i think not. its not hard to come by but for $1 thats a steal. i have two of those,a different one he did, also small, and i have small book by willie hoppe on pool, not billiards. none are valuable as books but as instructional they are priceless. especially for straight pool players. both those guys are old school; mosconi 14.1, and hoppe three cushion. each holding the highest runs in their game. however i think there is a recent billiard player who has recorded a run of 30 versus hoppe's run of 26 in tournament play. gerald
 
gmillioni said:
its a great book. whether or not its a valuable one i think not. its not hard to come by but for $1 thats a steal. i have two of those,a different one he did, also small, and i have small book by willie hoppe on pool, not billiards. none are valuable as books but as instructional they are priceless. especially for straight pool players. both those guys are old school; mosconi 14.1, and hoppe three cushion. each holding the highest runs in their game. however i think there is a recent billiard player who has recorded a run of 30 versus hoppe's run of 26 in tournament play. gerald
Click to expand...

Hoppe's run of 26 (or I've heard 25) is an insane run for an unheated table.
 
gmillioni said:
... both those guys are old school; mosconi 14.1, and hoppe three cushion. each holding the highest runs in their game. however i think there is a recent billiard player who has recorded a run of 30 versus hoppe's run of 26 in tournament play. gerald
Click to expand...
Hoppe had a run of 25 in 3-cushion but it was in an exhibition, not in a tournament. More recently, both Komori and Raymond Ceulemans have run 28 in league matches in the Dutch League. Dick Jaspers ran 34 without a miss, but it was in the current 15-point set format and across 3 sets in one match.

As for the original question, in very good condition, the Mosconi book might be worth $5. Now, if it was signed....
 
Bob Jewett said:
Hoppe had a run of 25 in 3-cushion but it was in an exhibition, not in a tournament. More recently, both Komori and Raymond Ceulemans have run 28 in league matches in the Dutch League. Dick Jaspers ran 34 without a miss, but it was in the current 15-point set format and across 3 sets in one match.

As for the original question, in very good condition, the Mosconi book might be worth $5. Now, if it was signed....
Click to expand...

Bob:
Apparently, you ran out of bytes and didn't finish the sentence. Mine is signed. While I don't think it's of great dollar value, I AM curious. What say ye?

Roger
 
Bob Jewett said:
Hoppe had a run of 25 in 3-cushion but it was in an exhibition, not in a tournament. More recently, both Komori and Raymond Ceulemans have run 28 in league matches in the Dutch League. Dick Jaspers ran 34 without a miss, but it was in the current 15-point set format and across 3 sets in one match.

As for the original question, in very good condition, the Mosconi book might be worth $5. Now, if it was signed....
Click to expand...


I have that book and he signed it. :)

I bought it in '74, so it's surely a different print than the '65. I'd have to check. I'm guessing it might fetch... $40 lol.

KK9 <-- has something to fall back on in event social security collapses
 
RogerO said:
Bob:
Apparently, you ran out of bytes and didn't finish the sentence. Mine is signed. While I don't think it's of great dollar value, I AM curious. What say ye?

Roger
Click to expand...
The signed ones are about $40 as someone mentioned. A lot depends on the condition. I have two signed copies of Mosconi's first book (PB, red cover, about 1959) but one was signed by Jimmy Caras. They are in OK condition.

The real rare one would be the hardback version of his first book (1948) signed and in good condition, which might go for more than $100.
 
Thats a nice little book, even nicer being signed. Its the first book I ever bought years ago.
 
Bob Jewett said:
The signed ones are about $40 as someone mentioned. A lot depends on the condition. I have two signed copies of Mosconi's first book (PB, red cover, about 1959) but one was signed by Jimmy Caras. They are in OK condition.

The real rare one would be the hardback version of his first book (1948) signed and in good condition, which might go for more than $100.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob.
 
As Bob mentioned, condition is everything when you're talking about any kind of paper product. Even if the item is very old condition is paramount.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Hoppe had a run of 25 in 3-cushion but it was in an exhibition, not in a tournament. ...
Click to expand...
Victor Maduro just sent me the following clipping from January, 1918:

Hoppe Runs 25 Points in Three-Cushion Game at San Francisco

Playing in an exhibition game with Charles C. Peterson of St. Louis, Champion Willie Hoppe made a run of 25 points, the best ever recorded. They were playing a 25-point game at Chick Wright's room. Hoppe had made 11 points and on his next run went out with a run of 14. The spectators asked him to continue and he made 11 more points before missing. Although this cannot go as a record, it is a phenomenal performance. The best previous mark in a practice game was 19 by Augie Kieckhefer, of Chicago.

​
 
I heard there is SOME bad info in there too but unfortunately I dont remember which part it was. Maybe someone will pipe up.
 
Travis3c said:
I go to goodwill sometimes to look for books and other antiques and ran across a 1965 sixth printing of Willie Mosconi's Winning Pocket Billiards in mint condition. I paid $1.00 for the book.

here is a pic
gumby54.jpg


is this book worth anything, i started reading it today and has some pretty good pics of willie and good diagrams.

I will add this one to my collection.


this is a online picture of the book, not of the actual book
Click to expand...

I have the book seems to have better photos than the red book. Overall I think the Mosconi books were very good.

Things I don't like is it didn't do a complete job of describing the grip or length of cue. It was years before I learned that Mosconi was only about 5' 7" tall.

Other than that I think its simplicity was its genius and hard to top even today.
 
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