My recommendation is based upon the book's content, not collectability value. I have been painting for over thirty years and find the information, techniques and insites in this book very helpful for the figure painter. I often go back to my reference books to rekindle my interest in various techniques and I use Schmid's book when I want to return to oil techniques for figure work. Unfortunatly, most of the good texts on figure work in oil are out of print (like Schmid's). Based on the book's usefulness, I recommend it to any figure artist.