It never fails to amaze me how collections are formed and for what reasons. I have been a collector all my life, even as a small child. My first collection was marbles and it started when my uncle returned from the war and brought back a small sack of them for me. Next in grade school there were coins, baseball cards and items that could be purchased with milk bottle caps that I picked up at school. Later, I went through the stamp collecting and other sports items. But how about others?
I just bought a life time collection of boys’ adventure books from a friend of mine at church. He had set out to complete several series of books, including ones that were approved by the Boy Scouts. His collection contains over 130 books and I even received the papers where he kept lists of the ones he had acquired. I asked him about the collection and he told me he tried to get each copy in mint or near mint condition. That seemed to be real important to him and in a way I could see that it kept his childhood intact.
These books, in their time, were very inexpensive but today in mint condition they can bring as much as $125 or more. Books can be a great resource for you as a treasure hunter because you will often find multiple pieces being offered, reducing your average cost per book. Remember our rule. The more pieces we are buying, the cheaper the overall cost should be. The condition of books is most important when evaluating them. Damage to books is a death sentence.
I was just introduced to a new site called Not For Sale Now where you can show your items. People may make you offers, but you’re not committed to sell. If you go to www.notforsalenow.com, you may find that it could be helpful to you. My listing for a book called Tom Slade with the Flying Corps just went up today and if I get much attention on the listing I will let you know. Here is one that I have given you before, but when it comes to books, along with Amazon, there are no better resources. Abe Books should be on your list as a site to remember because there you will find almost every book written and the pricing will go according to condition. www.abebooks.com.
The collectors of series books will always want to complete the whole set and they will pay a premium for ones they don't have. Books don't take up much space and to ship them media mail is the cheapest type of shipping available.
To close this blog, I would like to share a gentleman's email with you. He gave me some very important information on books this weekend at the show. His email is thisoldbook@comcast.net. I think you will find him very interesting and full of great knowledge when it comes to books, plus he’s also is a great buyer.
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