I have been on the hunt for this book for a half a decade and my data base says I sold 14 of the 9.8's and flipped a dozen more, 27 copies in the past 5 years. A bunch of the sales in 2009 were mine as I had a catch of them in the dollar bins. I also had the than record of $390.00 in July.
Very few knew this book was collectable a 3-5 years ago. Than the big swoop came through and dealer inventories were stripped of copies by savvy collectors and clowns like myself as they were caught off guard and sold for a buck or two.
The cats out of the bag and the book has been on a majority of dealers radar for the past few years and copies have drifted to the convention walls.
Inventories have cleared and this book is no longer plentiful, I saw 4 copies at NY and bought only one, none were better than 8.5. There were a lot more copies available at Chicago.
Although with the $700+ sale hitting the Bay, the tree's will shake harder and more copies will come out of the woodwork.
Its going to be an interesting ride now through January, as a new price scale will be established.