Special Edition Books
In the heyday of British maritime might, a merchant ship bearing treasure was called an Argosy. So it’s only fitting that one of this city’s best-known stores for buying rare books took that name. Collectors have been coming here for nearly seven decades to search the stacks for antiquarian book treasures.
Argosy’s six floors are crammed floor-to-ceiling with books, maps and prints. Looking for a six-volume edition of the works of Voltaire? Argosy has it for $750. A leather-bound copy of Kipling’s Just So Stories can be yours for $500. A signed copy of Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge will set you back $300. There are sections devoted to gardening, art, history, Shakespeare. In one cabinet, a leather-bound copy of Pride and Prejudice shares space with The Mickey Mouse Annual.
And there’s great interest in both, says Argosy’s Judith Lowry. There’s so much variety in what people collect.
Obsessive bookworms aren’t the only people drawn to book collecting, she says. The hobby is growing. It used to be just for old men, who would sip sherry and talk books. Now more young people and women are collecting. The appeal is a connection to the past. There’s an almost existential feeling of closeness to the author.
A scientific type might crave Argosy’s rare first edition of a 1698 book by Christian Huygens, the mathematician credited with discovering Saturn’s rings. It’s available for $7,500. But don’t think you have to be Donald Trump to collect books.
You can put together a significant and interesting collection for small sums, says Tom Joyce, owner of Chicago’s Joyce and Company, who teaches classes on book collecting. He instructs his students in the three P’s of collecting, and the first is price.
If you want to collect Darwin, for example, you can find a first edition On the Origin of Species for about $25,000. That’s a hard thing to start with unless your stock portfolio is doing well. But there are wonderful Darwin late editions that you can find for a fraction of that price. Or you can buy books about Darwin at a reasonable amount. You can start a collection at whatever price range works for you.
Joyce’s second P is preference. When you start collecting, ask yourself, ‘What do I like?’ Why collect something somebody else likes? Make your book collection personal.
And the third P: possibility. Expect to limit yourself. Face the fact that the books you want may not be available. That’s a possibility, so you have to be reasonable when you start collecting. A first edition Shakespeare folio just doesn’t become available that often.
When talking rare books, it’s important not to confuse scarce with expensive. They’re not the same, says Ken Gloss of the Brattle Book Shop in Boston. Rare means hard to get, but that doesn’t mean it’s valuable. An elderly man came in looking for a book that he had enjoyed as a child. It was very rare and hard to find but not worth anything monetarily.
However, availability is one factor that can drive up the price. Supply and demand sets the price, says Gloss. Hemingway and Dickens are popular authors, but there’s a finite number of those books available.
Condition and edition also affect the price, says Joyce. Is there a dust jacket? Is it in good shape? That will make a difference.
And most collectors prefer first editions (books from the first printing). Collectors prefer first editions because the author was most involved with the book’s first appearance, says Joyce.
Take, for example, a first edition of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, he says. Salinger is a notoriously private man. The first edition dust jacket had his photo on it. He made them take it off later editions, so a first edition with dust jacket would be the most valuable.
Again, that doesn’t mean you have to mortgage your house for a first edition. Argosy has more than 6,000 first editions. Many of them are by 20th century authors and can be had for under $100. For example, a first edition of Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream goes for $50.
Stores specializing in rare and antiquarian books aren’t the only place to fill out your collection. Check out yard sales, flea markets, library sales, says Gloss. Once you develop an area of interest, you may find dealers who specialize in that field.
There are also several organizations such as Antiquarian Booksellers of America and magazines such as Biblio where collectors can home in on books in their field.
© 2010, Work At Home Covert Opps!. All rights reserved.
Shared Post
Unique visitors to post: 5
Related Posts - Ways Of Selling Your Book Inventory Offline The majority of your profits will come from selling on the Internet but there may be some times when you want to take advantage of...
- CERTAIN BOOKS It should be obvious that not all used books are valuable. If all used books were valuable there would be no need for this manual,...
- Yard/Garage Sales, Estate Sales And Sure, Even The Local Thrift Store! Yard/garage sales may be good places to purchase used books, but rarely can you find any in "fine" condition. Be choosy. I do not spend...
Related Websites - Collecting Rare Collectibles 101 There are all kinds of different collectibles out there, including rare collectibles and more common collectibles for example. If you are interested in collecting rare...
- Book Review: The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson is not your typical economic commentator. He’s not an economist, or journalist, or even a guy with an MBA. He’s a historian; a...
- Housing Update Interesting update on some markets from the Real Estate Journal. Utah homes worth their salt Utah apparently has missed the news about the end of...
Comments
Leave a Reply
