The scarce, rare, valuable and disgustingly expensive book thread

I have never set out to collect specifically rare books. I have, however, acquired a few unusual copies by accident or luck. I have no idea whether they are particularly rare at all.

These include several Terry Pratchett hardback first editions from some of the earlier (though not earliest) discworld books from Soul Music through to Hogfather. I also have one curiosity that is a William Horwood book "Duncton Found" in hardback that has the space for an ISBN on its dust jacket, but no ISBN there and "CN 2682" printed across instead. One final possible rarity is a specfial edition hardback of Lord of the Rings with fancy gold edged paper and full colour plates in it. I bought it at a jumble sale, and inside it it has stamped "This book has been damaged in transit and is therefore being sold at a reduced price". However the only damage to it is that damn stamp inside the cover!

Other than that I have thousands of books from the 1930s through to the present day. I have no idea which, if any of them are rare. Safe to say that as a frugal person I didn't pay an awful lot for any of them, and certainly not more than their RRP when new.
 
Jennifer Kirk said:
. I also have one curiosity that is a William Horwood book "Duncton Found" in hardback that has the space for an ISBN on its dust jacket, but no ISBN there and "CN 2682" printed across instead. One final possible rarity is a specfial edition hardback of Lord of the Rings with fancy gold edged paper and full colour plates in it. I bought it at a jumble sale, and inside it it has stamped "This book has been damaged in transit and is therefore being sold at a reduced price". However the only damage to it is that damn stamp inside the cover!

Other than that I have thousands of books from the 1930s through to the present day. I have no idea which, if any of them are rare. Safe to say that as a frugal person I didn't pay an awful lot for any of them, and certainly not more than their RRP when new.
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A book that has a CN number is a book club edition, usually BCA
 
I tried my hand at the rare book search for about 10 years, from '85 to '95.

Picked up a copy of the Scream Press edition of "Skeleton Crew" by King, in the mid '80's for $85 and sold it a few years back for $400. Wanted more for it, but it was the best offer I could get. One of only 1000 copies.

Had quite a few Arkham house editions from the '40's through the '70's. Tried to collect everything I could from them that I could find, as Lovecraft and company were favorites of mine. These included lots of anthologies by August Derleth which were particular favorites of mine.

Won't get into comic books or graphic novels which dated back to the '40's here, but I'd like to mention the signed first edition of "The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller. And the complete collections of "Justice League of America" "Green Lantern" and "The Flash" that this packrat had in his collection, at one time.

:)

Joe
 
I have a hard cover copy of the first American printing of Watership Down - with the dust jacket. Also have almost a full set of Marguerite Henry's children books about horses, Black Gold, Brighty of Grand Canyon etc. But some of those have library marks. They are all mine for sentimental value... (=
 
I've a copy of The Quiet Earth, got it for £80 from eBay instead of £160...whether that counts as a bargain or not.
 
I bought a signed 1st ed of LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA for £25 online, recieved book, added to tbr pile and went back online sometime later to find exact same book from same supplier now on sale for £125, after that I was scared to read it and still haven't, also bought a copy of the follow RED SEA's which was later worth £50, but can't find either on web anymore so unsure if price has risen or dropped.
 
The phenomena of buying books only started like 7 months ago for me. Since then, I've been on the lookout for a first printing of Robert Jordan's Eye of the World. Only recently did I discover the scifi/fantasy section at a used book store I sometimes frequent, and after 4 seperate visits within the last few weeks, I finally snagged myself a first printing for $8. I don't usually pay that much for a used book, but, oh well. The book itself is near mint, but the DJ is probably no better than very good. I suppose that's easy enough to replace.
 
Moggle said:
The phenomena of buying books only started like 7 months ago for me. Since then, I've been on the lookout for a first printing of Robert Jordan's Eye of the World. Only recently did I discover the scifi/fantasy section at a used book store I sometimes frequent, and after 4 seperate visits within the last few weeks, I finally snagged myself a first printing for $8. I don't usually pay that much for a used book, but, oh well. The book itself is near mint, but the DJ is probably no better than very good. I suppose that's easy enough to replace.
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Moggle, if you in fact scored a 1st edition/printing of Eye of the World for a mere $8, you did not pay much at all, and I suspect that that the store owner or his/her staff had no idea what they had! If it is in any kind of decent condition, it is worth over $1,000.00, as there were only 1500 ever printed, and there have been multiple printings of this volume in the 21 years since EotW was released. Best find I have ever heard of. Congratulations!

I have one myself ($25 it cost me, and well worth it), and I have the rest of the series in 1st printing, except The Great Hunt. If you come across TGH in HC 1st printing for $8, pick it up for me, and I'll double your money. ;)Heck, I'll triple it!;);):D
 
You really need to be careful and know what you are buying to avoid disappointment. A modern First Edition can have many Impressions - generally only the First Impression of a First Edition will be worth anything or even worth collecting. There's usually a print run line on the publishing history page:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

That's a 1st Impression.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

That's a 2nd Impression.

And so on.

There were so many people being confused by this process at the height of the Harry Potter mania that publishers took to simply stating 'First Edition' on the publishing history page.
 
Aye, Blacknorth states it well. Always check the number line on the publication page. If you do not have the countdown to 1, it ain't a first impression (also called a 1st printing).

In older books, there is no number line. Instead, you will see "1st edition, 3rd impression". A paperback copy of The Hobbit I have from the early 60's has all of the editions listed (1st and 2nd) and the impressions also. I think it is a 2nd Edition, 11th impression or something like that.
 
I have a first edition, first printing of The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, which I got for free. I think it is valued between $50 and $150, but I am not sure.
 
Clansman said:
One must be careful collecting old books. From the early 1800's until about 1960 (I forget the exact cut-off), most publishers used paper that had not had its acid removed. As a result, those books are decaying at an incredible rate, and the libararies of the 19th and 20th centuries are in worse shape than the libraries of the 17th and 18th centuries.

If you spend a big chunk of cash for an old first edition, be prepared to spend an even bigger chunk to have it de-acidified, which is an incredibly expensive process. I think even the first editions of Tolkien's books that Pyan and I dream of fall into this category, unless Unwin and Allen were spending more money on paper than their competitors.
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I am a cataloging technician at a university library, and have worked on books from the mid 1500s to the present. Yes! It is amazing how something from the 1750s could be so much more sturdy than books published in the 1960s. Some of the worst are books published in certain European countries immediately after WWII. They cut a lot of corners, so the paper was very cheap and acidic.
 
Clansman said:
Moggle, if you in fact scored a 1st edition/printing of Eye of the World for a mere $8, you did not pay much at all, and I suspect that that the store owner or his/her staff had no idea what they had! If it is in any kind of decent condition, it is worth over $1,000.00, as there were only 1500 ever printed, and there have been multiple printings of this volume in the 21 years since EotW was released. Best find I have ever heard of. Congratulations!

I have one myself ($25 it cost me, and well worth it), and I have the rest of the series in 1st printing, except The Great Hunt. If you come across TGH in HC 1st printing for $8, pick it up for me, and I'll double your money. ;)Heck, I'll triple it!;);):D
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Yup, it's definately a first printing; I stared at the numberline long enough while I was in the store. I once saw a fifth printing in another store going for $16, but this was before I had even read the books. Not sure what anyone would pay for that particular printing though. Prices for alot of books seem so arbitrary.
 
I found a first edition, first printing of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien yesterday for $3! It is in almost perfect shape, with the fold out map on the inside back cover and everything. It appears to be worth $250-$350, based on condition. It is quite beautiful. I also got a first edition (the "Book Club Edition" ... identical with the first American edition) of Unfinished Tales as well, which is not worth quite as much ($50-$80) but is a prettier looking book, in my opinion. I also got it for $3. I was at a used bookstore that didn't seem to look to closely at donations, there were a lot of cool finds, but these two were definitely the best.
 
K, don't get too excited about The Silmarillion. That book had almost the biggest first printing of any book in history. I too have a beautiful copy, map and all, but try to sell it, and you lucky to get $100.00. Yours was certainly an excellent find, though. $3.00 is a steal.
 
Clansman said:
K, don't get too excited about The Silmarillion. That book had almost the biggest first printing of any book in history. I too have a beautiful copy, map and all, but try to sell it, and you lucky to get $100.00. Yours was certainly an excellent find, though. $3.00 is a steal.
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Yes, I did see quite a few when I did some looking around online. I definitely plan on keeping it anyways though, Tolkien is one of my favorites and I am just pleased to have such a pretty copy. Curious: was it such a large printing because Tolkien had died not too long before? He must have still be quite popular.
 
It was a huge printing because of the success of LOTR. The Silmarillion was released in 1977, and there wasn't a whole lot done on the epic fantasy front since LOTR was released in the mid-fifties. LOTR was massively popular in the 1960s, and there was nothing around that really matched it. That, and Tolkien's death in 1973 lead Unwin and Allen to really make some big dough, and printing a bajillion copies, took advantage of the poor readers, who eagerly bought that massive first impression of The Silmarillion. I don't think they did a second impression of that original edition.
 
I saw a mint condition first printing of the Silmarillion on ebay sell for over $4.
 
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