Is There Money to be Made in Rare Books? Reader's Digest Says "Yes"
- by Michael Stillman
A copy of the Gutenberg Bible (Library of Congress image).
For those who get their financial advice from Reader's Digest, you just got a "yes" on buying rare books, first editions in particular. Reader's Digest recently came out with a list of 8 Cheap Items to Buy Now That Will Be Worth a Fortune Later. On that list is "first edition books," with the explanation, "If you’re able to get your hands on a first edition of a new book that could potentially become very popular, you could make a lot of money off of it in the future." They cite as an example the one everyone cites these days, the Harry Potter series. Of course, if you bought one of the other hundreds of thousands of books published in the past two decades, you wouldn't have done so well.
The introductory paragraph then takes us to a more detailed list of "8 more rare books that are worth a fortune." There are actually 15 books on this list, which is why the publication is known as Reader's Digest, not Mathematician's Digest. There aren't too many other items on this list that living people could have purchased new. Older readers might have been able to pick up a James Bond when new, maybe even Salinger's classic. None of us were here to get a freshly printed Shakespeare First Folio, let alone a Gutenberg Bible.
Here is what is on their list, along with the estimated values. Their prices mostly seem on the high side, a seller's preferred price, rather than that of a buyer. One surmises they may have seen an auction price for a special copy, perhaps a signed one, or the highest priced listing on AbeBooks. However, even if some prices are exaggerated, they are right in saying, "If you have one of these rare books sitting on a shelf somewhere, get ready to cash in!" Check your shelves to see if you have a Gutenberg Bible lying around.
Shakespeare's First Folio. $5.2 million.
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway. $321,000.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. $55,000.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. $180,159.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. $130,000.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. $11.2 million.
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. $210,000.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. $194,000.
Tamerlane and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe. $662,500.
Ulysses by James Joyce. $355,000.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. $56,124.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. $40,000-$75,000.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. $2-$3 million.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. $137,500.
Gutenberg Bible. $5.39 million.
If there is one bargain in this lot, it is the last of these. $5.39 million was the price paid at Christie's in 1987 for the Esther Doheny copy of the Gutenberg Bible. That is the last one to be sold. It is worth a lot more today. In 2015, Sotheby's sold a section from the Gutenberg consisting of 8 leaves for $970,000. The Gutenberg Bible contains 643 leaves. Readers of Mathematician's Digest will be able to do the math on that one to estimate what a complete Gutenberg might be worth today.
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Fonsie Mealy’s Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale April 30th & May 1st
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1:The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
![Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/e08f39b2-647e-4890-9a6d-b744e07a6c91.jpg "<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1:</b> [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. <i>Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,</i>L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.")
