1st edition books value

For the most part, the first edition of a book is more meaningful to the world of book collectors than it was to the publisher who printed it. That first printing is just an installment on what they hope to be a long term investment in that book.

The first printing of a book might contain a few thousand copies. As those copies are shipped out to bookstores and sold, publishers will start a second printing to meet consumer demand.

Professional booksellers and dedicated collectors spend time collecting knowledge and resources on what a particular publisher might use to identify the first printing of a book. That page is usually on the verso of the title page. Publishers will often use one of a few methods for showing where that copy falls in the printing history of that book.

A number line might show the printing and sometimes the year of publication. The idea here is an elimination game. In most cases, the first number on that number line indicates what printing that copy was a part of. With each printing, the publisher removes a number from the line of numbers. A variation on that theme is the letter row.

A is the first printing, B is the second Harper and Brothers, one of the many incarnations of the modern day HarperCollins publishing house, used a unique two letter code between that indicated the month and year of publication.

The first letter, A-M indicated the month, January-December. The second letter, M-W, indicated the year, In some cases, a number is moved from the left side of the line to the end of the right side as that printing is exhausted. Another variation is printing number and year of publication.

One side of the number line is the the printing number, the other side is the year of that printing. Numbers and years are removed as the book continues through its course of sales. If you're unable to find a comparable copy on Biblio , try using BookGilt which searches for antiquarian and rare books across the entire internet. If you do decide to sell your copy , it may be months, or even years before the right collector comes along.

You might decide to offer your copy to a reputable local bookseller instead of selling it on your own. Their offer will figure in their costs and the time that they expect to have it in their stock before a buyer comes along. Book value: How much is your book worth? The Children's Picturebook Price Guide includes first edition identification points for twenty-nine of the books in the list.

Click on the book's title to see first edition identification points for a particular book. The link is to the blog post on Collecting Children's Books , where we are posting first edition points for key children's books at the rate of 2 or 3 per week. In most cases, we are posting photographs of the book's first edition identification points. To see an indexed list of all the first edition identification points from the Blog, go to First Edition Identification Points.

The table right lists the number of books in the price guide from each decade, and the average estimated market price for first edition books. The anomoly in the s is due to the influence of the Dr. Seuss books on the sample set. From the Children's Picturebook Price Guide , lists of the twenty most valuable books published in each decade:.

For some selected completed eBay auctions for children's picturebooks, covering the period from to , then go to:. In layman's terms, that means you may excerpt, share, and use this material as long as you credit Stan as the author and provide a link back to the specific content page. And do not sell it or use it for commercial purposes. The information offered on 1stedition.