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red_blip posted:I saw one copy, mint (as was the one I found and passed up) for about $5,000 online. A very important distinction you need to make in this situation is whether you saw a copy being offered at this price or one that sold for that price. A person can ask whatever price they want for something, but it's largely meaningless until another person actually pays that price.
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Mar 14, 2014 01:00
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:50 |
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What's up, first-book-club-edition of Dune having buddy? Unfortunately, you paid essentially what the book is worth  .
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Sep 24, 2014 01:26
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Captain Mog posted:I remember I once purchased a hardcover copy of "The Great Gatsby" from a garage sale that was fairly old, but was dismayed to discover it wasn't worth anything. Usually books have to have something valuable about them other than simply "it's old" to be worth anything- ie a first-run print or special edition of a famous work. It also needs to be famous. You could have a fine copy of another book that came out in 1925 but unless it has some lasting appeal or historical significance, it won't be worth much of anything.
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Sep 29, 2014 03:30
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Slimchandi posted:I have a couple of first editions of Harry Potter - Philosophers Stone in paperback and Chamber of Secrets on hardback. I've checked online and they meet all the checklist requirements for bona fide first editions. It may be worthwhile to talk to some bookstores that specialize in rare stuff and see if they do consignments. Anything but setting up a deal yourself is going to eat how much you get (and that's assuming you place no value on your own time), so the trick is to strike a good balance. Edit: And since we're talking about it, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is an interesting situation from a collecting standpoint. It is universally accepted that books identified as ex libris (a former library book) have minimal value because of all the stamps and other crap libraries glue in to the things (obviously the situation is significantly different if the books is, say, Ex Libris Thomas Jefferson, because that's a book from Jefferson's personal library). However, the original print run of Philosopher's Stone was 500 hardcover copies, 300 of which went to libraries. The non-library copies are still worth quite a bit more, but the ex libris copies still retain a substantial amount of value due to the rarity of that edition. Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Feb 7, 2015 |
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Feb 7, 2015 16:22
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I don't have any old books that are worth much, but I have a lot of contemporary books that are worth a pretty penny. The most valuable is my Subterranean Press set of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books; there are ten of them (books 1-8, the short story collection, and the original printing of Backup) and I could probably get around $3000 for the whole thing if I was patient about selling them. I could add 33-50% by including my full run of signed trade hardcovers (both Dresden and Alera). Beyond that, I have some small-press horror books that have some value, though they'd most likely take a while to sell if I were so inclined. All that said, I don't collect books to make money, I collect them because I enjoy it. I go after signed books because I think it's neat that the author actually held my copy of the book, even if only for a couple of seconds. I go after limited editions because they are typically made of higher-quality materials and will last longer than mass-produced stuff. Two cool things I own:  This is Monstrocity by Jeffrey Thomas. I already owned a hardcover version of this book, but when I saw this copy pop up on eBay with that inscription, I had to have it.  The story here is that I bought a copy of Beneath the Surface on eBay for a fairly hefty amount (though well within the limits of what it was worth) like two days before a reprint was announced. Simon found out felt bad (though I repeatedly assured him it wasn't his fault and I wasn't even upset about it; I preordered a lettered copy of the reprint as soon as I could), so he sent me an inscribed TPB of the reprint, a signed chapbook, and the letter and insert seen in the picture. It was such an awesome gesture and the things he sent are among the crown jewels of my collection. Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Feb 8, 2015 |
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Feb 8, 2015 07:07
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:50 |
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You can see where the ink from the portrait has bled onto the title page; you really need to put some acid-free paper between them. Also, a bit of research indicates that this is not a first edition; this site indicates the books were originally published 1811 and 1818. edit: Wikipedia, at least, supports this.
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Mar 23, 2015 05:18
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