The "Oxford Book of Sea Songs" was long out of print and had become a hard-to-find item when the original editor, Roy Palmer, managed to get it re-edited (with additional material) and re-issued as "Boxing the Compass" (David Herron Publishing, 2001). As in the case of the Bronson re-prints, it takes an enthusiastic individual and a co-operative publisher to recognize the potential and to carry a project through. I have a letter from David Eckersley (publisher of "Boxing the Compass"), which came with Ron Baxter's presentation copy, now under my guardianship, where David looks forward to many years of sales for the new edition. His and Roy Palmer's confidence in the material are bourne out by the results - the book is still available from Waterstones and Blackwell's (and the Chantey Cabin) ten years on.

I can see more difficulty for classic collections like Bronson, Child, Greig/Duncan and the various Sharp works because much of the market for reference works like these would normally be taken up by libraries. In these days of cutbacks, institutions are less likely to refresh editions they already possess, leaving the uptake to private individuals. (Not so many people, not so deep pockets).

There's an interesting list (slightly out-of-date now) on David Eckersley's Chapbook Page at the South Riding Folk Network site:-

http://www.folk-network.com/newsletter/features/daveherrons.html

If you have the Sharp volumes of the original post on your eBay Watch List, clicking on the "View Similar Items" line in the "More Actions" drop-down menu will produce a fascinating list.

Joe, another way of making material available (at a price) is on-demand publishing. I recently bought a copy of Sam Henry's "Songs of the People" (University of Georgia Press, ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3625-1,ISBN-10: 0-8203-3625-4) collection for not much more than the remaindered price I paid for my original copy - as far as I can tell, apart from updated info and review comments on the back cover,they look exactly the same:-

http://www.amazon.com/Sam-Henrys-Songs-People-Henry/dp/0820336254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302446296&sr=8-1

Ross