I don't think I've spent more than a tenner on a book, ever. I have so many books piling up that I'm never in a hurry to buy a new book as soon as it comes out. I can afford to wait and get it when the price drops or, more likely, until I've forgotten I even wanted it and then stumble across it in a charity shop.
I got the first run Stanley Kubrick ArchivesNachricht für Netscape 4 User for £62 which was a stunning bargain as it was less than half price RRP, completely out of stock out of stock everywhere and was consequently going for silly money and I mean silly money. Luckily Amazon Canada had their last 3 stock they were getting rid of and I managed to bag one.
I ordered one, and then somehow (unwittingly) cancelled the email address I gave them so they couldn't email me the invoice (as they didn't charge until it was shipping time), therefore no invoice from them = no payment from me = no book for me.
However, I thought it had been a while, so contacted them, and they'd still got my copy (along with a few others) saved until I got in touch
So it arrived last week
Yes, it's a very thin, small hardback book, but it's my 'first' first edition...and it's still in it's shrinkwrap
I believe I paid £130 for my Oxford Latin Dictionary when I was at university, about 21 or 22 years ago. It's a super dictionary but a little unwieldy, and to be honest I didn't use it enough to justify the expense.
I don't think I have ever paid over ten pound for a book, but a friend collects early Sherlock Holmes and The Strand (The magazine that the Doyle stories first appeared in) and I have seen some of the prices he has paid, and it made me wince. They are beautiful though.
I paid around £35 for the Lord of the Rings Centenary edition ages ago when it first came out, the value of it seemed to rocket up to over £100 a couple of years ago, but a quick check before I posted this seems to indicate that it's now worth about £20