Can you help me locate a copy of the Ragtime Treasures or Zez Confrey Piano Solos folios?

This has become a rather prevalant question since 2000. The answer is frustrating and complex, and perhaps dissapointing, but I can provide guidance just the same. And YES, I do have both of these books, Ragtime Treasures purchased during the 1970s and Confrey when it was first released.

Ragtime Treasures is a compilation of Joseph Lamb rags not published by John Stark. It was released in the mid 1960s by Belwin Mills music, and remained in print through at least the mid 1980s. Mills was one of many publishing concerns absorbed into Warner Brothers Music based in Florida, and this was one of many books which disappeared from the market either before or at the point of absorption. Repeated queries to Warner Brothers met with ambivalence, likely based on the admittedly limited marketability of the collection. However, in mid-2011 much of the Mills catalog was sold off by Warner, and obtained by the online music site FreehandMusic.com. The Lamb folio is back in circulation in electronic form, and two other previously unheard but rumored Lamb pieces (which I have reviewed) have been inscribed for sale as well.

Zez Confrey Piano Solos is a comprehensive collection of both previously published and hand transcribed works by the composer. It was edited by Ronny Schiff, and did very well when it was released and for at least a decade thereafter. The current owner is, go figure, Warner Brothers Music, which pulled it off the market shortly after 2000. The current plans for this book are not known to me at this time, other than its sad absence from shelves. It may yet live again, especially if it was part of the deal with FreehandMusic.com.

So what if you REALLY want one of these in its original form? You will have to work hard and pay hard also. I can recommend the following possibilities. The first obvious one should be eBay. You can set up a notify on eBay so that you are emailed the moment an item with key words, such as Ragtime Treasures, is posted. Prepare to bid high. I have had over 20 queries on this book in the year prior to posting this item. It has gone for as high as $172.50 on eBay, and I would bet on at least $100. The Confrey book is worth at least $50 and will also likely go much higher, although it is less rare. You can also regularly troll ABEBooks.com which has a decent network of booksellers who come across the items from time to time, and the bookseller networks at Amazon.Com zShops and Barnes and Noble Used and Out of Print Network. You may be the lucky one on the correct day. The last resort effort should be targeted at Warner Brothers Music in Florida, where the occasional well-written email or earnest phone call may reach the right person, and who knows from there?...