Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
One of my favorite types of collectibles is books. The only thing I don't like about old and rare books is the difficulty of maintaining them in Florida heat and humidity. Anyhow, books can be valuable in more ways than one.I once did an article for a treasure magazine on treasure books and book treasures. In that article I offered a free list of valuable modern collector books. (Books don't have to be very old to be valuable.) I had previously published a database of collector book values.
One day I went to the mail box and found about twenty letters asking for the free list of books. I knew the article must have been published. I didn't know that before I saw all the mail.
The next day even more envelopes showed up in my mail box. That went on for quite a while.
I included a coupon with the list of collectible books that I sent out and a good number of people usedto the coupon to buy a book that I published.
It was a lot of fun getting so much mail everyday in response to my offer.
I just found an article on the Sotheby's web site telling ten things that make books valuable. You might find it interesting and helpful if you have some books around the house.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/sotheby-s-at-large/2016/07/10-things-that-make-books-valuable.html
I once bought a book about making fly rods for one dollar a thrift store.. It was an early edition of
A Master's Guide to Building a Bamboo Fly Rod, by Hoagy Carmichael Jr. The book was signed, and I found a business card of the author inside the book. I sold the book with the card, if I remember correctly, for about $170.
I've found a lot of good books at thrift stores. You can usually buy them inexpensively. One that I got for one dollar is Monedas Espanolas Desde Juana y Carlos A Isabel II 1504 a 1868 by Calico, Calico ad Erigo. It is 544 pages and covers, as the title suggests, Spanish coins from 1504 to 1968. It is illustrated profusely and presents examples of most major varieties. That is the kind of thing that would be difficult to find at a reasonable price if you were looking for it.
I've found other good treasure books and resources in thrift stores.
If you buy any old books at a thrift store or anything, don't forget to check between the pages. You can find old letters, photos, post cards, autographs, business cards or even cash.
Someone once bought an old book from me, and I put a small amount of money in the book when I sent it to the buyer because he over paid. When I told him I put some change in the book, he said that will teach him to look in books before he sends them out. I guess he resold it and sent it off without ever looking in it.
Both nonfiction and fiction books can be surprisingly valuable.
Before places like eBay became so popular, it was easier to find books that you could sell for a profit. The internet changed the collectible book market. More common books that you could easily sell before for a few dollars became worthless while the price of the rarer books increased.
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The surf is going to remain small on the Treasure Coast this weekend, then increase next week, but only to three to five feet.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
