To elaborate on the 8/9 comment, I did not pay anything close to list price for 2024-2025. Google "Jane's Fighting Ships". Check out the various online sources (eBay is one example). You will find recent editions of JFS for sale. Many will be priced out of reach. There are a few that are more reasonable. Check back periodically. Inventories change and you will start to understand what is a fair price for a particular edition. I regularly see sellers asking $500 for editions that can handily be bought for $100. Some of the high prices are from bookjackers. These are sellers that don't actually have the book, but purchase it elsewhere and drop ship it to the buyer after an order. Other sellers don't do their research and assume that all JFS are worth $500 (or whatever) despite there being a clear supply and demand difference between a 1970s edition and a 2020 (or 1920!). A recent edition is still going to be more expensive than most people can tolerate, but go back 10-15 years and there are affordable options.