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Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders - Warren Buffett & Max Olson


John Hjorth

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To my surprise, I found out within the last week or so, that we do not have a separate topic for this book in the CoBF books forum, so I thought I would just start one here.

 

The book is a compilation of the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters written over the years by Mr. Buffett, including some nice stuff in the form of a foreword by Mr. Buffet, and the letters processed by Max Olson [fellow board member Maxprogram], including some nice overviews in the beginning of the book, a Topics Index, a Company Index, and a Person Index.

 

As far as I know, the book by now exists in three versions:

 

Shareholder Letters 1965 - 2012 [first edition, paperback blue cover] version, released in 2013 [i don't recall the exact time when I bought it, most likely just after Max posted about it here on CoBF].

Shareholder Letters 1965 - 2014 [second edition, hardcover version, black cover with golden print], 50 years anniversary edition, dated March 3, 2005 by Max]. This an updated version that also contains a Berkshire Corporate Genealogy written by Mr. Buffet].

Shareholder Letters 1965 - 2014 [second edition, hard cover version [yellow cover with black print].

 

[Personally, I own these three versions.]

 

As far as I know version 1 and 2 are now sold out, but version 3 is still available, and will most likely be available, untill Max - perhaps - releases a new edition, because he had found a very smart solution for publishing, based on print on demand, at lulu.com.

 

The third version can be ordered at lulu.com here.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

I remember back in time when I ordered the yellow hardcover version the first time, I was quite sceptical about the quality of the hardcover book, because of the real low price for such a brick of about 800 pages [price of USD 40 ex p&p]. I was so surprised and impressed with the quality, when I unwrapped it.

 

Since then, I have always had a couple of extra copies in stock here, that I use as personal gifts - sometimes. [i'm quite picky with that, I must say. I have to have some kind of conviction that the gift might be relevant in some aspects based on a personal judgement of the receiver, - otherwise it would be like throwing pearls for pigs.]

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

I just thought I would post this here because of new board members interested in Berkshire, who have joined CoBF after Max's work was discussed here on CoBF in the General Discussion Forum. I think it must have been about 2½ years ago it was discussed.

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  • 1 month later...

I just saw today, that Max has made a 2016 Kindle Edition available on Amazon. Max, I'm in need of this as hardcover from Lulu! - Please! [ : - ) ]

 

I've had the Kindle version for about 2 years, & so far it updates each year with the latest for FREE!

 

The Kindle "Letter's to Shareholders" & the early partnership letters are must reads IMO.

 

(Partnership letter pdf courtesy of CSInvesting.org)

complete_buffett_partnership_letters-1957-70_in-sections.pdf

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I just saw today, that Max has made a 2016 Kindle Edition available on Amazon. Max, I'm in need of this as hardcover from Lulu! - Please! [ : - ) ]

 

I've had the Kindle version for about 2 years, & so far it updates each year with the latest for FREE!

 

The Kindle "Letter's to Shareholders" & the early partnership letters are must reads IMO.

 

(Partnership letter pdf courtesy of CSInvesting.org)

 

I was not aware of the free updates as that does not happen for me with my kindle. But when I went to my digital content on AMZN, there was an "update available" button next to several of my books. Clicking that got me the newest version of the BRK Letters to Shareholders. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

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This discussion to me actually proves how valueable this Books Forum here on CoBF actually is.

 

The last time Max's work was discussed here on CoBF, he mentioned that he was working on a compilation of the Buffett Partnership Letters, too, at that time. What here is important to take into consideration, is that Max actually has access to Mr. Buffett.

 

In short, we need to keep him going. [ ; - ) ] Personally, I have today found his twitter accounts [they are in his member profile & signature [boardmember maxprogram]] and have given his book releases a spin by retweeting them.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 5 weeks later...

The Investor,

 

[Me whispering here]: If this does not satisfy your hunger, please look up Austin Value Capital on Twitter. I guarantee, that you'll leave the buffet with a full stomach! [ ; - D ]

 

Hi John, I've only just spotted your recommendation, but thanks a lot!

That looks great.

 

 

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The Investor,

 

[Me whispering here]: If this does not satisfy your hunger, please look up Austin Value Capital on Twitter. I guarantee, that you'll leave the buffet with a full stomach! [ ; - D ]

 

Hi John, I've only just spotted your recommendation, but thanks a lot!

That looks great.

 

Thank you, The Investor,

 

But the credit for what's being shared on that particular Twitter account actually has to go to Joel, our fellow CoBF member racemize. So, H/T to Joel!

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My Kindle version of this book has updated to include the latest letter at least a couple of times too...good value, just saying. 

 

If you want the partnership letters with some good analysis, you could get that Jeremy Miller book, Warren Buffett's Ground Rules (I discussed it in the last "media curation post" on my site).

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  • 5 years later...

Posted by @Xerxes,

 

In the above mentioned topic :

 

 

15 hours ago, Xerxes said:

I suppose I can buy the book with the yellow cover that goes to 2014 and print the ones from 2015-2024 and staple it myself to the book 🙂

 

while I prefer to reply in this topic :

 

Yeah, naturally.

 

That said, I have to say one particular thing : I had low expectations ordering my first personal copy. It turned out that I ended up very  surprised about the quality of the book [here, the book, based on the craft you can assess and make judgements about involved in producing it - here, not the contents as such], and surprised in a very positive way! - to me, it's really good quality! ,- despite a price that appears to me personally to be modest.

 

So I ordered a few more copies, that I have used as gifts to family members.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just ordered the yellow cover page book. $100 CAD 

 

Hopefully the formatting is done right.
 

As the content is really available for free and owned by BRK. So we are really buying for proper formatting and neatness. 

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@Xerxes,

 

I hope you like it and that you are satisfied with the quality, when it arrives, for your personal skeptical inspection and scrutiny.🧐

 

I think I was if I remember correctly for both my orders charged USD 30 per copy plus freight back then some years ago [2016 or 2017?].

 

I was initially personally highly skeptical towards this 'print on demand' concept used at lulu.com, ['never tried it before' + 'old conservative bugger'] but ended up very surprised - in a positive way! - at delivery of the first one copy-order.

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