Topic: The most complete car encyclopedia book series, my lifetime project.

[all-car-brands.com]

PS:
I f anything goes as planned, the website will be ready Monday night, or the day after.

[Paul Jaray]

The more I read it, the more I like it.
You used the same guidelines I have in my project and if someone is going to do something like that, he'll see that is the best way possible for the reasons you wrote.

There is a crucial guideline I used in my work and I'd like to know how did you deal with that: I'm talking about sources.

I have 2 different, parallel projects:
1. an Access file where I have listed all the makers plus all the models and 2. a collection of folders with all the pictures, webpages, docs I find online.
The 1st is the official one, the one I compile using only (mostly) reliable sources: magazines, books, encyclopedias and similar.
The 2nd is the 'extension' of the 1st...a tool to keep it updated with the latest releases and to keep note of the obscure cars featured only online, for example, at Autopuzzles.
I use the material from the 2nd project also to buy books and look for sources: I bought a book about New Zealand racing cars because some of them were featured here on AP but in none of my books...now I can move them from my project #2 to my project #1.

Back to your book, now.

I saw all your 1st volume, page by page on your facebook page and for example, you listed there 5 selfbuilt russian cars, Aelita, Agidel, Alezonik, Almaz & Altaj.
None of them is in my 1st list because they are not featured in any book, etc.
All of them are in my 2nd work because they can be found in Arunas excellent website....but there are more of them in other sites too..and they are not in your book.
Obviously you can't have them all (I'm trying too but adding Arunas's 355 to the nearly 200 I found in other 2 sites I have the strong feeling I'm still far from that!) but how can you decide what's in and what's out?
You listed racing cars too and that's a landslide of makers: I started to buy books about the rarest ones but for each 1 I add in my list, there are 10 left in my database!
There are excellent websites about race cars, for example the well known one about the Formula 3 cars, but Adams, Aikens and Alfa-Dana are not in your book.

Of course I'm not asking you to reveal your sources but I'd like to know how you decide what's there and what is not.
I'm sure it will be written on your book, but according to what I saw of your 1st book my guess is that you used books but also websites.
I can't figure out how you decide what is reliable for your book (AllCarIndex, for example) and what it's not (or what you simply decided to ignore).

...and now you can see why I'm so interested in your work:
try to imagine how many makers I can move from my p.#2 to my beloved index #1 using your books as a reference!

[all-car-brands.com]

The more I read it, the more I like it.
You used the same guidelines I have in my project and if someone is going to do something like that, he'll see that is the best way possible for the reasons you wrote.

There is a crucial guideline I used in my work and I'd like to know how did you deal with that: I'm talking about sources.

I have 2 different, parallel projects:
1. an Access file where I have listed all the makers plus all the models and 2. a collection of folders with all the pictures, webpages, docs I find online.
The 1st is the official one, the one I compile using only (mostly) reliable sources: magazines, books, encyclopedias and similar.
The 2nd is the 'extension' of the 1st...a tool to keep it updated with the latest releases and to keep note of the obscure cars featured only online, for example, at Autopuzzles.
I use the material from the 2nd project also to buy books and look for sources: I bought a book about New Zealand racing cars because some of them were featured here on AP but in none of my books...now I can move them from my project #2 to my project #1.

Back to your book, now.

I saw all your 1st volume, page by page on your facebook page and for example, you listed there 5 selfbuilt russian cars, Aelita, Agidel, Alezonik, Almaz & Altaj.
None of them is in my 1st list because they are not featured in any book, etc.
All of them are in my 2nd work because they can be found in Arunas excellent website....but there are more of them in other sites too..and they are not in your book.
Obviously you can't have them all (I'm trying too but adding Arunas's 355 to the nearly 200 I found in other 2 sites I have the strong feeling I'm still far from that!) but how can you decide what's in and what's out?
You listed racing cars too and that's a landslide of makers: I started to buy books about the rarest ones but for each 1 I add in my list, there are 10 left in my database!
There are excellent websites about race cars, for example the well known one about the Formula 3 cars, but Adams, Aikens and Alfa-Dana are not in your book.

Of course I'm not asking you to reveal your sources but I'd like to know how you decide what's there and what is not.
I'm sure it will be written on your book, but according to what I saw of your 1st book my guess is that you used books but also websites.
I can't figure out how you decide what is reliable for your book (AllCarIndex, for example) and what it's not (or what you simply decided to ignore).

...and now you can see why I'm so interested in your work:
try to imagine how many makers I can move from my p.#2 to my beloved index #1 using your books as I reference!

I'm sorry i have to give shorter answers but i work on the website.
So:
Yes, that is the best way to do that.
About that cars, i have an official source. My father had subscriptions to different Russian magazines, as i live in the ex-comunist block. I had a lot of scans for that cars. One of the magazines was the Soviet Union (nice magazine by the way) and some others, including car magazines, which i specially requested my father to subscript to. This happened before 1989, when i was a little kid. There were also a lot of russian books.

Alfa-Dana and Adams are in the book. As i mentioned in an e-mail sent to you, because of the large number of photos, not all the pages loaded on that facebook gallery, as it gave me some error for some of them.
In the race car area, i can admit, that i may have skipped a few, but not many. It's almost impossible to be complete there.

For western people, was very hard to get informations like this, behind the Iron Curtain.

[all-car-brands.com]

PS:
I tried to avoid as much as possible to find information in other car encyclopedias or websites, since i have founded errors everywhere. I preferred to take it from scratch.
Doing this, there is the risk i skipped something, but there is no risk to have inside the book, incorrect information.

[Paul Jaray]

You are right, the Alfa Dana is there!
It's a relief to read that you have valid sources or at least you are not just picking from selected websites.
Once again with your replies you are proving the hard work behind it!

PS:
I tried to avoid as much as possible to find information in other car encyclopedias or websites, since i have founded errors everywhere. I preferred to take it from scratch.

Right, but how can you do that?
Sometimes old magazines are a good way, beside that if you do not have access to a huge library with ancient books, you can only rely on those!
For example I put all the Beaulieu in my index but I also try to get as much of the books that are reported there as source for that encyclopedia...

[all-car-brands.com]

You are right, the Alfa Dana is there!
It's a relief to read that you have valid sources or at least you are not just picking from selected websites.
Once again with your replies you are proving the hard work behind it!

Thanks.
You have no idea how words like yours sound, after all this time i have worked and many acquaintances that heard me talking about the project, looked to me with a weird face. 

However i have destroyed a lot of brochures and books, when i cut and filed what i was only interested in (used the xerox when the two sides were needed), especially until i got my hands on the first scanner, so i did not have to do that anymore. I still feel bad for destroying them, but i think they died for a good cause.
 

[all-car-brands.com]

You are right, the Alfa Dana is there!
It's a relief to read that you have valid sources or at least you are not just picking from selected websites.
Once again with your replies you are proving the hard work behind it!

PS:
I tried to avoid as much as possible to find information in other car encyclopedias or websites, since i have founded errors everywhere. I preferred to take it from scratch.

Right, but how can you do that?
Sometimes old magazines are a good way, beside that if you do not have access to a huge library with ancient books, you can only rely on those!
For example I put all the Beaulieu in my index but I also try to get as much of the books that are reported there as source for that encyclopedia...

I have spent a fortune for acquisition, that's for sure. The encyclopedia books, were used only to find what i have missed and only in the last years. Then from the missed ones, i have selected the information and started to find official or semi-official sources by myself. Mostly i took as a more trust worthy book, a very old one, instead of new ones.
You can trust more a book from 1930's for the cars of the 1930's than a car book from 2000.

For some of the old books, i have asked the owner that was selling it or had it, to buy a xerox copy, because they were expensive.

PS: Don't understand it wrong, not all the car brands and cars were found by myself, but most of them. The others were completed from other car encyclopedia only as possible ones, so i made a folder with their name and some guidelines and started searching for my own information.

E-bay and friends of mine, that flee Romania to work in USA and Western Europe, were very helpful.

[all-car-brands.com]

After all this being said, you probably see know, that more than 50% of my non-sleeping time and a lot of cash was dedicated to this and you can see why i am so determined to publish all the books and nothing, no matter how hard will stop me from doing that.

[all-car-brands.com]

I will describe you a day of my life, which repeats forever and i do not get bored.
I wake up early, get my kid ready for kindergarten, run back home, read the newsletter from car companies media sites, extract the new relevant things, than work, than i go to take him, stay 30 min in the park, get back home, play with him, eat, stay with him with my laptop near, while playing, he goes to sleep in afternoon, i work, then he wakes up, we play and stay near him with my laptop, go out and play, sometime with a book with me, than get back home, he plays on PS3 i work, then eat, then he watches cartoons before nighttime while i stay with my laptop near him, then after he sleeps i work until late at night.

This is the only way it can be done and i never get bored, i enjoy being near him and every bit of car info.
I also have to do work around the house, but that can be done easily if you are well organized.

[jotage21]

First of all, congratulations by your work!
Second, I´ll be one of the buyers of your collection!!
Third, I have a lot of pictures of Brazilian specialist cars, I´ll send you a PM with my blog address, feel free to use them as you wish in your book.

[all-car-brands.com]

First of all, congratulations by your work!
Second, I´ll be one of the buyers of your collection!!
Third, I have a lot of pictures of Brazilian specialist cars, I´ll send you a PM with my blog address, feel free to use them as you wish in your book.

Thank you for the first point.
For the second, i knew all this work will finally pay off.
Third, thank you for support. It's very good, especially when it's about rare pics and their copyright.

[Iluvatar]

 
Thanks for the reply!!
I hope your project will be succesfull!
... and if you have found mistery Alfa Romeo 1900, 2000 or 2600... let me know... http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=24686.0 

[all-car-brands.com]

Thanks for the reply!!
I hope your project will be succesfull!
... and if you have found mistery Alfa Romeo 1900, 2000 or 2600... let me know... http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=24686.0 

Nice project too, just looked into it.
I'll try and see if i can help you out when times allows me.

[Otto Puzzell]

This seems more like an extended Q&A with a bookseller.  Isn't a book review a paragraph or more that reviews and critiques a book created by somebody else?

[Paul Jaray]

It all started here:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=20859.msg290282#new

I suggested to use this space because it was a real book now and no more a project.
I thought it was an interesting subject for a discussion and I think the opportunity do that with the ideator\writer\publisher\dealer of it was more than interesting.

I do not have it and can't make a review of it.

It can be moved into a more appropriate section if this is not the one.

[kwgibbs]

would you ever consider doing a separate volume housing every possible car,like obscure,home-builts,in other words every car ever built,like a automobile registry?

[all-car-brands.com]

would you ever consider doing a separate volume housing every possible car,like obscure,home-builts,in other words every car ever built,like a automobile registry?

I'm not sure i completely understand your request:
You mean, a simple register, with all the car brands and all the cars, that will include all the names and building years ??

[kwgibbs]

Yes,similar to or maybe like,the automobile manufacturers worldwide registry by marian suman-hreblay.his registry claims to have 10,700 for the listing of cars,but I know there are many more ,because at least 650 cars are not listed there ,I bet if you did do one it would very complete or nearly so.

[all-car-brands.com]

Yes,similar to or maybe like,the automobile manufacturers worldwide registry by marian suman-hreblay.his registry claims to have 10,700 for the listing of cars,but I know there are many more ,because at least 650 cars are not listed there ,I bet if you did do one it would very complete or nearly so.

It';s a good idea.
This would help me also to have the exact number of ca brands and models in the database, but this needs some time. I must see if i have that time.
I will give you a precise answer later.

PS:
In a day or two i will be back with some updates, as the website will be finished.
It's possible, i will have some other good news....

[all-car-brands.com]

Here is the news i talked about:
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 volume, 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.

[all-car-brands.com]

I have got good news:

Any Autopuzzles member will receive a 10% discount when ordering here !!!

So the new prices are:
108 USD for the Hardcover, full color interior
36 USD for paperback, black&white interior

Both products are available with FREE worldwide expedited shipping.
Below are some photos of the paperback, black&white interior version of the book series.

PS: I'm loosing my patience with the website, but this does not depend on me 

[all-car-brands.com]

Website fully functional: http://all-car-brands.com/

Work on Volume II will begin on 1st October and will be available in December.
In October, 3 new books will be published from a new surprise series. 

In 2014 will be published 6 new volumes and big number of books from the new series.

Regarding the shipping times:
-between 1 and 2 weeks for European countries
-between 2 to 3 weeks for the rest of the world

[all-car-brands.com]

Update

Publishing plan for 2013: 
The most complete car encyclopedia - Volumes I and II
The most complete car encyclopedia - Tuner series - Volume I

Car brand dedicated encyclopedia:
Alfa-Romeo car encyclopedia
Abarth car encyclopedia
Acura car enyclopedia
Audi car encyclopedia
Aston-Martin car encyclopedia
Austin car encyclopedia
AMC car encyclopedia

PS: I'm looking for resellers.
The main advantage for a reseller is that the delivery time is much lower and the only condition is to sell them at the recommended price.
The resellers will be written on the resellers page, by country, with shipping times for their country, with a link to their online store, e-bay store or amazon store or other local sale websites.
E-mail me for further information. (allcarbrands@yahoo.com)
Of course, there is an important discount.

[Paul Jaray]

You are not only going to complete the most heavy and detailed encyclopedia of the history, but actually you are planning 2 versions of it PLUS some dozens more about singolar makers! 
And how many volumes (more or less) will it take the 'Tuner series'?
Is your day divided into 24 hours too? 
Keep this topic updated, please, I'd like to follow your work! 

[rosenbergm]

As many of you know I wanted to do this project but was unable to gather people to do it. Now we have a person doing what I dreamed about.

I have already bought the first volume. As a person wanting to do this project I carefully looked at the book and I must say that this encyclopedia once it's complete will be the ultimate reference on this subject that ever existed far surpassing the beaulieu encyclopedia. Granted many people would say that he is crazy for doing this encyclopedia that it will never be complete, maybe so but at least he is doing it and I give him all the credit in the world. The book itself I must say is the best book on subject that I have ever seen. Good solid pictures and structure it maybe expensive for the color version but the beaulieu encyclopedia was hundreds of dollars with less info on the subject. I would recommend this book 1000 percent.

I have been in contact with the author on a daily basis. I have been helping him with contributions on info that I have in my books and websites and no else's info that was sent to me. Two people who are crazy enough to do this project might get it to be the most comprehensive book on the subject. Also he is creating a tuner's encyclopedia as a supplement to the car encyclopedia. I have also been told that he is planning a coachbuilders encyclopedia which is another world in it's self. Also I have been helping him sell the book in the US. I have it on amazon for him because where he lives he can't open an amazon so I am helping him in that regard also in contributions comparing what I have with what he has to make sure we have as much as we can. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to PM me.