Very Old Books

Posted by Valerie on April 12, 2008

My four best tips for buying very old books.

First, books have value only when people know they exist and want to buy them. There is little or no market interest in at least 95% of very old books. Old doesn’t sell. Content and importance sell, regardless of age.

Second, avoid anything published by published by A. L. Burt, Hurst, M. A. Donohue, Altemus, Mershon, or Goldsmith. Also avoid Grosset & Dunlap except for the juvenile series books (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and so on).

Third, look for cloth or nice leather covers and white or light-colored paper. The better publishers produced most of the better books, and better publishers typically used better materials.

Fourth, classics became classics because they were printed from the very beginning in enormous quantities. Pirated editions and reprints are common.

A very, very old copy of Tom Sawyer or 20,000 Leagues under the Sea is unlikely to have significant value. (If it has brown, fragile pages and was published by Donohue, it’s probably best recycled.)

If you choose the most interesting, most attractive, best illustrated and bound books from what’s left you just might pick a winner!