Seth Klarman Book That Sells for $2,500 Is Now $9.99 on Kindle

(Bloomberg) -- It’s a price that even the most scrupulous bargain hunters might jump at the chance to pay.

Seth Klarman’s “Margin of Safety,” the out-of-print book on value investing so coveted on Wall Street that used copies can sell for thousands of dollars, is now listed on Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle store for $9.99. After quietly appearing there on July 6, the book has shot to No. 16 on the list of Kindle best-sellers in the business and investing category.

Klarman, who first published the book in 1991, is the founder of Baupost Group LLC, a Boston-based hedge fund whose long-term track record is among the best in the industry. Hard copies, which have become collectors’ items in certain circles of the investment world, were recently advertised on Amazon for as much as $2,500. Photocopied versions have been known to circulate among analysts who are too poor -- or too tight-fisted -- to pay up for the real thing.

“I bought one immediately” after seeing it in the Kindle store, said Hao Hong, chief strategist at Bocom International Holdings Co. in Hong Kong. “It’s like a value investing bible.”

Of course, no one book holds the secret to investing, as Klarman warned his readers: “Value investing requires a great deal of hard work, unusually strict discipline, and a long-term investment horizon. Few are willing and able to devote sufficient time and effort to become value investors, and only a fraction of those have the proper mind-set to succeed.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Patterson in Hong Kong at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brian Bremner at bbremner@bloomberg.net, Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam

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