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I have hit the point where I have enough old books with dust jackets in poor condition that 'just be careful with them' isn't working for me any more. I've never wrapped a dust cover before, is there a product/method you might recommend? I talked with someone at Commonwealth Books in Boston earlier this year and they use brodart covers, but looking at their website Brodart sells a ton of options and I'm not sure what direction to go in. I've got at least 50 books where the dust jackets are really falling apart, and probably 200-300 books that could benefit even though the jacket is still in pretty good condition. All different sizes as a lot of them are architectural monographs, so I think a roll of something that I cut to size? Which means I really don't want to buy the wrong roll and have a ton of the 'wrong' material! Perhaps you don't ever wrap dust jackets, but I figured I would at least ask. I also have a few old hardcover books that have loose pages, I've held off getting them repaired because I don't know what to ask for. I'd like the books to stay as original as possible, I just don't want the pages to fall out - is that a reasonable ask? I'd probably be bringing them to Grimm Bindery in Madison, WI since they are close by, but maybe you have a recommendation. https://www.grimmbindery.com/ Do you focus on literature because that is where the money is (compared with non-fiction), or is it just a personal interest?
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Aug 5, 2024 18:21
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Tezer posted:I have hit the point where I have enough old books with dust jackets in poor condition that 'just be careful with them' isn't working for me any more. I've never wrapped a dust cover before, is there a product/method you might recommend? I talked with someone at Commonwealth Books in Boston earlier this year and they use brodart covers, but looking at their website Brodart sells a ton of options and I'm not sure what direction to go in. I've got at least 50 books where the dust jackets are really falling apart, and probably 200-300 books that could benefit even though the jacket is still in pretty good condition. All different sizes as a lot of them are architectural monographs, so I think a roll of something that I cut to size? Which means I really don't want to buy the wrong roll and have a ton of the 'wrong' material! Perhaps you don't ever wrap dust jackets, but I figured I would at least ask. Ahoy hoy, I wrap dust jackets all the time, so good question. You should buy some sheets of mylar. I buy mine pre-cut to size for “octavo” books, which is the most common size. They come in packs of at least 50 for pretty cheap. You can cut it to size as well. The kind you want will be meant for dust jackets and will have archival paper on one side of the mylar, the side that will fold to face the jacket. There is some skill involved and practice makes perfect, but I’m happy to hop on a Zoom with you or something and give you a tutorial. There are probably tutorials on YT (hopefully some are good). It’s not hard once you get the hang of it. You will need a bone folder as well to create a sharp folding edge for the mylar. For gluing pages, that’s also something you can easily do yourself. You will need to buy some archival glue. It is pretty forgiving and you can practice that as well! So, you need some sheets or mylar, a bottle of archival glue, and a bone folder. Most art supply stores online will have all of those things, so shop around for the best deal! Luckily, I have a personal interest in literature AND that’s where the money is! Some non-fiction of course can be valuable, usually books that are older. Hope that helps, lemme know if any Qs! e: if it’s more than a few pages that are falling out then you’ll probably want to get it rebound. It depends really on the condition. If you want to keep it as original as possible then glue is the way to go. jimmychoo fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Aug 6, 2024 |
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Aug 6, 2024 13:42
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This stuff has been fascinating, thanks for the thread. How many times have you boned the Devil after assembling 9 key pages from woodcuts contained in extremely rare books for which a cult murders a bunch of rare book collectors/sellers? (You mentioned the lack of integrity on the part of some sellers and Depp's Ninth Gate portrayal came immediately to mind) Joking aside, I read a really fascinating book about the history of books bound in human skin. My tangential question for you is whether a books provenance or material is ever as important or more important than the content of book in terms of setting its rarity/value. I guess now that I think about it, that's basically what a first edition is, but curious whether some random authors book is a hot collectors item because of how it was bound or inked. Further, are there books (outside particularly racist or other hate-derived content) that you refuse to deal with?
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Aug 14, 2024 16:12
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'...and here is my shelf of Paris green books.'
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Aug 14, 2024 20:34
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op i have some old genre fiction that’s piled up over the years and i’m not sure how i should order it on my shelves. also do you have an abe shop?
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Aug 14, 2024 22:00
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sephiRoth IRA posted:This stuff has been fascinating, thanks for the thread. association copies are volumes that have some provenance that is close to the author/publisher/etc and those often will include ephemera (letters, envelopes, etc) laid in to prove the connection. some people also collect bookplates or bindings rather than specific books. pretty much anything book related has some niche of mentally ill collectors that specialize in it specifically personally i generally exclude signed copies from my collection unless they are inscribed as well. they’re too hard to authenticate and i don’t actually care about a signature. edit: i happen to have an english 1st of “the club dumas”. love that book. jarofpiss fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Aug 14, 2024 |
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Aug 14, 2024 22:08
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Tezer posted:I have hit the point where I have enough old books with dust jackets in poor condition that 'just be careful with them' isn't working for me any more. I've never wrapped a dust cover before, is there a product/method you might recommend? I talked with someone at Commonwealth Books in Boston earlier this year and they use brodart covers, but looking at their website Brodart sells a ton of options and I'm not sure what direction to go in. I've got at least 50 books where the dust jackets are really falling apart, and probably 200-300 books that could benefit even though the jacket is still in pretty good condition. All different sizes as a lot of them are architectural monographs, so I think a roll of something that I cut to size? Which means I really don't want to buy the wrong roll and have a ton of the 'wrong' material! Perhaps you don't ever wrap dust jackets, but I figured I would at least ask. it’s easy, and if you haven’t ever folded with a bone folder you’re missing out on the most satisfying creasing experience you’ll ever have
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Aug 14, 2024 22:15
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sephiRoth IRA posted:This stuff has been fascinating, thanks for the thread.  Unfortunately I can't say I've come across any books bound in human skin, though often you come across books printed using vellum which is pretty disgusting imo. It's stretched animal skin and feels horrible. But yes, often a book is valuable because it's neat in some way, either because of an inscription or some other weird reason. My favorite example lately is that someone has listed an un-clipped first edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle himself wasn't even given a version that wasn't price-clipped (the snipping of the price from the dust jacket is extremely common and done for a million diff reasons), and as far as I know only that one exists. Weird stuff like that is part of the fun of bookselling! Not quite the same as being bound in human skin though. Re: books I won't touch...I had to think about it a bit, but besides authors I really dislike or the particularly racist/hateful content you mentioned, not really. It's hard to specialize in one aspect of bookselling as it is, so I think it's more there's plenty of books I won't even "bother" with because they're so outside my wheelhouse. What were you thinking of? Should I watch The Ninth Gate? jimmychoo fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Aug 16, 2024 |
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Aug 16, 2024 00:34
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jarofpiss posted:op i have some old genre fiction that’s piled up over the years and i’m not sure how i should order it on my shelves. also do you have an abe shop? Very nice collection! Nothing too exciting about how I group I'm afraid, just alphabetically by author. Are you a fan of genre? The most sci-fi I ever really deal with is Dune. I had an Abe account for many years but I broke up with them during the pandemic I think? I can't remember, I'm sure I'll be back someday.
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Aug 16, 2024 00:37
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jimmychoo posted:
The book is better (club dumas, mentioned by jarofpiss) but the movie is super trashy and entertaining, so if anything a trip report for this thread would be amusing
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Aug 16, 2024 01:53
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jimmychoo posted:Very nice collection! Nothing too exciting about how I group I'm afraid, just alphabetically by author. Are you a fan of genre? The most sci-fi I ever really deal with is Dune. I had an Abe account for many years but I broke up with them during the pandemic I think? I can't remember, I'm sure I'll be back someday. i generally focus on sword & sorcery and then the early/mid 20th century weird fiction in the adjacent orbit. my collection basically started with robert e howard and then worked outward from there, mostly focused on the weird tales crew (in the subsequent arkham house collections since i don't collect magazines or comics). i have all the REH arkham titles, as well as the gnome press series. i don't do much sci-fi, but a lot of the weird fiction authors in the late 19th/early 20th century crossed genres because they weren't as defined as they are nowadays. i'm still missing a few key arkham house titles, but more are coming into the market as the old collectors are dying off so i'm holding out on most of the $1k+ titles i have remaining. if i see a hornbook in desirable condition show up at or below $1k then i'll start buying again.
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Aug 16, 2024 04:35
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Will the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript ever be resolved? Any guesses?
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Sep 19, 2024 06:03
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Shooting Blanks posted:Will the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript ever be resolved? Any guesses? I have no professional context for something that old unfortunately, where's the goon who knows about medieval stuff? They'd have a better answer than me. I do know about it anecdotally and it feels like we should've deciphered it by now if it were possible
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Sep 20, 2024 00:30
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Shooting Blanks posted:Will the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript ever be resolved? Any guesses? Right now we don't have any of the comparative information necessary for deciphering unknown language / unknown script, so unless new information gets introduced, whether externally or internally, no.
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Sep 20, 2024 04:38
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I have information that will lead to the arrest of Wilfrid Voynich.
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Sep 20, 2024 06:42
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I have a first edition of Dune with the dust cover in good shape. Once i found a first edition of Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women for like a quarter. My dad Had a first edition of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and would read me Legend of Sleepy Halloween every halloween before bed, mom sold it for a quarter at a moving out yard sale unknowing to my dad. He read to me his childhood paperback of Poe after that. He is passed, but i still have it.
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Sep 21, 2024 20:59
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Applesnots posted:I have a first edition of Dune with the dust cover in good shape. Once i found a first edition of Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women for like a quarter. My dad Had a first edition of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and would read me Legend of Sleepy Halloween every halloween before bed, mom sold it for a quarter at a moving out yard sale unknowing to my dad. He read to me his childhood paperback of Poe after that. He is passed, but i still have it. That's cool. (I guess you already knew that, but: that's still cool!) E:jesus I'm bad at reading holy poo what the heck. Well we can only hope the person who bought it enjoyed it. Jesus gently caress there should be a "stop Jerry from posting" lock. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Sep 22, 2024 |
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Sep 22, 2024 00:10
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Applesnots posted:I have a first edition of Dune with the dust cover in good shape. Once i found a first edition of Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women for like a quarter. My dad Had a first edition of Washington Irving's The Sketch Book and would read me Legend of Sleepy Halloween every halloween before bed, mom sold it for a quarter at a moving out yard sale unknowing to my dad. He read to me his childhood paperback of Poe after that. He is passed, but i still have it. Hmu if you ever want to sell that Dune, it’s worth a decent chunk these days. I had an ex who gave away all my books once, including some really sentimental stuff so I feel your pain
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Sep 22, 2024 02:48
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jimmychoo posted:Hmu if you ever want to sell that Dune, it’s worth a decent chunk these days. I had an ex who gave away all my books once, including some really sentimental stuff so I feel your pain Went and checked, the dune, it is just book club edition first printing. Hardcover. Not worth nearly as much.
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Sep 23, 2024 01:19
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Applesnots posted:Went and checked, the dune, it is just book club edition first printing. Hardcover. Not worth nearly as much. It’s usually one of those 
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Sep 23, 2024 02:43
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If you still exist I have a heap of rare books in front of me and I could use a tip. My friend who owns a bookshop is getting me to do a quick catalogue of some stuff they bought in bulk because they specialize in general fiction and nobody there can read German/French/Italian/Latin or read fraktur or early modern handwriting or decipher greek and cyrillic - at least not well enough to do this with any kind of time efficiency. I've taken a cursory look but haven't sat down yet properly. Some of the stuff is super idiosyncratic, verging into being of actual bibliographical academic interest, and I'm not sure where to go for even beginning to suggest pricing: like, where do you start on selling/pricing e.g. (I might be mixing up info between 2 or 3 books from memory, fyi.) a 12mo ~1540 Latin Jesuitical theological treatise with a misprinted frontispiece and TOC that was scribally-completed by an early hand (possibly the printer's) with ms annotations by multiple readers, with the original bookseller's paper binding visible underneath a deteriorating leather binding? Or a ~1705 8mo print collection of possibly prurient (I haven't read them closely, but they're getting cranky with each other) correspondence between French ladies of quality? The latter might appear on something like Abe (the early Kant editions that are in the box seem to, but again I haven't done a very close look yet), but the former ... yeesh that's basically one-of-a-kind.
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Dec 18, 2024 16:27
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CommonShore posted:If you still exist I have a heap of rare books in front of me and I could use a tip. My friend who owns a bookshop is getting me to do a quick catalogue of some stuff they bought in bulk because they specialize in general fiction and nobody there can read German/French/Italian/Latin or read fraktur or early modern handwriting or decipher greek and cyrillic - at least not well enough to do this with any kind of time efficiency. Ah, hello! Yes, I remember you mentioning this a while ago. I feel your pain, and I’ll be upfront—my expertise definitely lies in modern literature, not in anything like what you’re dealing with. That said, when I was in college, I worked for probably the most preeminent truly "antiquarian" bookseller in the U.S., so I might be able to offer some insight. From working with him, I know it’s not worth his or his colleagues’ time to even touch anything worth less than $100k. That cohort mostly sells to wealthy individuals and institutions interested in the truly rare (not like us contemporaneous fools who throw the term around loosely), e.g., early Copernicus, Shakespeare, Newton, Marlowe, etc. I'm positive a lot of the stuff that falls outside of that group that you might see listed have been listed for years at this point. The good news, I suppose, is that you can set whatever price you want if there’s nothing comparable. It sounds like listing them as sets might improve your chances of offloading them. Beyond the big names, though, it’s probably only specialists in a particular topic or author who’d be interested. But hey, it’s a place to start. One consideration if you sell age-appropriate books: there’s a chance forgers might buy them for the paper and boards. If integrity or morality in that sense matters to you—though obviously, you’d be a drop in the ocean—it’s something to think about. If you come across a set that’s truly worthless, it might save you and your friend time and space (and spare the books from misuse) to just burn them. Anyway, I hope that was at least mildly helpful! Happy to help however I can.
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Dec 19, 2024 01:04
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It is and I'll pass it along! Thanks!
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Dec 19, 2024 02:17
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CommonShore posted:It is and I'll pass it along! Thanks! Also there's some auctions happening right now with a lot of 15 - 19th century stuff. I get so many emails every day for tons of auctions so this is just one I noticed: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/355324_antique-books-of-15th-19th-century/ You could follow that auction and similar to see what the lots actually end up going for that are comparable to some of your things. You prob have to make an account for that but it's easy. I was thinking too that I don't want to downplay what I said about forgers, I chatted with a more knowledgeable friend about it and he said it probably happens way more than we think, lol.
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Dec 21, 2024 15:26
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Neat thread! Curious - do you have anything to do with or brush up against the knowledge preservation aspect of old and rare books? I know Google was trying to digitise everything ever printed for a while, but I think it got shut down because they didn't want to keep defending copyright lawsuits from people/publishers. I ask because one of my jobs way back in university in the 00s was working on a grant-funded project which basically took old, out of copyright works and digitised the art for free so students and teachers could use them. Our books were mainly sourced from the guy who ran the office, I think he collected old books, so would buy them on eBay, give them to us, then we'd return them to his collection once we'd harvested all the useable content. It was an interested window into the past, although there was definitely some messed up stuff by today's standards. Probably the craziest thing I found in one was an encyclopedia matter-of-factly stating that Indigenous Australians were closer to orangutans than Europeans 
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Dec 23, 2024 19:42
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Neat thread! I do! I know the basics about book repair/archival preservation just because I have to repair superficial issues with books sometimes, e.g., ripped dust jackets, old stickers, broken spines, etc. That's interesting, I wouldn't have thought a university wouldn't have just held onto the books. What happened to the guy, I wonder? Did he get paid? Some stuff definitely is not worth preserving
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Dec 28, 2024 02:16
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I have a copy of this: https://emuseum.as.miami.edu/objects/6842/sonetos-a-buenos-aires-de-jorge-luis-borges https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/7203214 Unbound folio format, four numbered lithographs (series of 200 though the worldcat listing says 210). I would really appreciate it if you could help me get a sense of value and put this more into perspective. 
lsculpt23 fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Jan 13, 2025 |
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Jan 13, 2025 21:53
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lsculpt23 posted:I have a copy of this: Hmm, give me a little bit to look into this. I've been sick the past few weeks so slowly coming back into the world. How'd you come by it? How many pages is it?
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Jan 14, 2025 19:36
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No problem! I've also been sick the past two weeks. It is a total of twelve pages (not counting each side) and counting blank pages. I received it as a gift.
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Jan 14, 2025 21:28
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lsculpt23 posted:No problem! I've also been sick the past two weeks. It is a total of twelve pages (not counting each side) and counting blank pages. I received it as a gift. Late but my instinct here is this is not “valuable” in any real sense though it does maybe seem uncommon — I’m not a Spanish speaker so it’s tough for me to say, everything I can find is in Spanish. You might enlist some help there. Sorry I can’t be more helpful
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Feb 2, 2025 16:16
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You know those stamps you see advertised on social media that are like “From the Library of Thirteen Orphans”? Do those hurt the value of a book and if so to what degree?
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Feb 18, 2025 19:39
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Thirteen Orphans posted:You know those stamps you see advertised on social media that are like “From the Library of Thirteen Orphans”? Do those hurt the value of a book and if so to what degree? Bookplates and embossed stamps are fine as long as they don't really destroy any part of the book. Definitely embossing is better than bookplates because those use glue. Even better if you stamp it in the back -- unless you are famous, then that will drive up the value of the book significantly.
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Feb 19, 2025 16:37
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I already know this but I'm putting this out there in case anyone ever sells one of therse... https://x.com/RareBooksOfBod/status/1190246608195276805
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Feb 28, 2025 00:23
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Karl Hungus posted:I already know this but I'm putting this out there in case anyone ever sells one of therse... Not loading for me, what was it?
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Apr 4, 2025 04:31
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Karl Hungus posted:I already know this but I'm putting this out there in case anyone ever sells one of therse... There is a very rare edition of Firestarter by Stephen King bound in asbestos that was put out I think in the early 80s. It's worth north of $30k now and is considered the holy grail of Stephen King collecting.
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Apr 4, 2025 14:56
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btw you familiar with https://www.vangsgaards.dk ? i subscribe to their newsletter, not because i can justify buying any of it, but because i like to be "goddamn thats a nice edition" of whatever most recent catalog: https://vangsgaards.dk.linux16.scannetserver.dk/Kataloger/Netkatalog309Nyerhvervelser.pdf (wow what a url, but ill vouch for it) also they have dutch auctions in a separate location (ie price dropping gradually from 100 to 10 dkk over ~5 weeks to clear out storage, then starting over from 100, etc). selection is very random and obvs not ~valuable~, but i usually catch some good art books and stuff when im there. for the patient, its a good way to stock up without spending too much. like, if you see a book and think "well im not gonna pay 50 dkk for that", thats fine. maybe if you remember it when you come back in a week and if its still there, you can buy it for 20 dkk, and if someone else bought it well they paid more than you wanted to anyway lol Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Apr 11, 2025 |
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Apr 11, 2025 17:46
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Carthag Tuek posted:btw you familiar with https://www.vangsgaards.dk ? I wish I hosed with Europe at all re: books but I really don't unless it's absolutely necessary. Sometimes it does happen though. For some reason a few years ago a random man in Russia had a book I really wanted so that was interesting to figure out. I spend a lot of time and effort dealing with sellers and buyers in the UK which is always hard enough. It's always nice to look at catalogs, thanks for sharing. Another way to get things cheap is to watch them on Ebay all the time if you have the patience for that (sounds like you do!)
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Apr 14, 2025 23:49
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jimmychoo posted:I wish I hosed with Europe at all re: books but I really don't unless it's absolutely necessary. Sometimes it does happen though. For some reason a few years ago a random man in Russia had a book I really wanted so that was interesting to figure out. I spend a lot of time and effort dealing with sellers and buyers in the UK which is always hard enough. yeah i used to buy a lot of used paperbacks from the uk, but brexit made that a pain in the rear end lol theres also antikvariat.net which is run by a bunch of Scandinavian used booksellers. bought some stuff from Sweden there, very nice but i dont think they have a newsletter. you can set up watch lists tho 
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Apr 16, 2025 14:38
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Shooting Blanks posted:Not loading for me, what was it? https://x.com/i/status/1190246608195276805
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Apr 21, 2025 22:38
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The only "rare book" I ever bought was a couple weeks ago, when I picked up a copy of John Tynes' Sosostris at Half Price Books. They only printed 175 copies and it's never been digitized, making it a semi-legendary "lost" third entry in the Tynes' King in Yellow chapbook series. It's notorious among fans of the indie RPG Delta Green because it's the basis for a bunch of events in the Countdown and Impossible Landscapes books. I paid 150 dollars for it, the most I've ever paid for a book but probably chump change in the world of rare books. I have no idea if that was a fair price, my experience is that Half Price Books prices things equal to or slightly less than market value to encourage impulse purchases. But I couldn't find a record of anyone ever selling a copy on the open market. I don't plan on reselling it, I only bought it to upload scans so people could read the entire trilogy. But I'm curious: How do you set a price for something that's rare, potentially has a small but dedicated fanbase, but has no market information about its true value? Assume you can't hold an auction and have to put it on a store shelf. mellonbread fucked around with this message at 18:19 on May 23, 2025 |
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May 23, 2025 03:28
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