I first read Harlan Ellison’s Deathbird Stories in high school. Great book. I read it again (more than once) in paperback. In the 1980s The Easton Press published a fine volume of this book. Black leather cover, hubbed spine, 22kt. gold embossing and gilt edges… and signed by Ellison.
I wasn’t into collecting nice books at the time, so when I saw it I thought, “Hey, I’ll have to pick one of those up one of these days. But $45 is a bit much right now.”
Naturally they became unavailable. I thought about the book in the past year or so, and did a search. Booksellers seemed to want $100 for it. I tried a couple of auctions on eBay. For one, I reloaded the page and my computer locked up. I missed the end of the bidding. Another time I bid, but the other bids topped $115 so I let it go. Then there were a couple of times I forgot that I had bid on a book and found I’d missed out when I got an e-mail notification from eBay.
Finally I won an auction for $75. Woohoo! Johnny L.A. be happy reader! 
So what is it about nice editions? I paid $42 for an Easton Press edition of Voltaire’s Candide, and the text is just the same as in the $4.95 paperback I have. If I already have The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, did I really need to get the leather-and-gold hardbacks? There’s just something about a nice heavy book. There’s a tactile pleasure that comes with reading a book that has some craftsmanship, and it’s pleasant to smell the light fragrance of the dead animal skin. Are they over-priced? Sure. But they are nice to read.
Anyway, I finally have Deathbird Stories in an edition that will never become dog-eared and that looks good just sitting on a shelf. I can’t wait to finish it so I can start it again.