Old Books; Old is often not enough

Rare Book Hub is a paid self-appraisal service. Nevertheless, we frequently receive requests for free “advice” about what an owner should do with their old books. Over the years, from their random questions, I’ve noticed that most of the books mentioned are not found in our Transaction history.

Recently, I was reading a February 28^th, 1870 issue of Harper’s Bazar [that’s their spelling] and ran across an advertisement offering new books and wondered how they have done since then. For goodness sake, it’s been 153 years. As RBH is providing 13 million auction results I assumed we must have most of them.

Yes and no!

Our database covers books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera that have made it into the auction rooms. I chose 17 of them right off the Harper & Brothers February 26, 1870 advertisement. They were all from their presses between 1868 to 1870 of which eight found their way into our Transactions+. The other 9 have never made it into the rooms we have covered.

We long have understood that auction houses have been fussy, but these results suggest that the preponderance of those books never achieved visability. They never had their moment in the sun.

While the auctions have said no thank you over the past 150 years, there are other options for selling and I visited Abebooks to see if these same titles and editions are available now.

Some are but the prices are decidedly low by auction standards. Rock bottom auction realizations start at $100 and what I found online are mostly offered for two digits while there is no saying how long those books have been waiting for new homes.

This analysis is leaving me a bit less optimistic about what I’ll say when folks ask for advice. Most old books are simply old and the market is not impressed.

Here are titles that I ran on Transactions+ and Abe. I used the titles and the date range 1868-1870.

1. Sketches of Creation

2. Under Foot. A Novel

3. The Andes and the Amazon

4. Hirell. A Novel

5. Tennyson’s Complete Poems

6. Adventures of Caleb Williams

7. Plautus’s Plays

8. Medora Leigh

9. Miss Mitford’s Life and Letters

10. Only Herself. A Novel

11. Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812