Rare Book Hub Announces the Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction in 2025
- by Michael Stillman
#330 Spicy Mystery Stories has seen a 62,400,000% increase in value since it was published in 1935.
Rare Book Hub has announced its annual list of the top 500 prices paid at auction for books and other paper collectibles in 2025. Prices at the top end backed off a bit in 2025, but not by much. The previous year's numbers had been record prices. The dollars of top collectors are still flowing freely as we enter a new year.
We measure the strength of high end prices by the price of lot #500. In other words, what is the minimum price at which at least 500 books and paper collectibles were sold at auction in 2025? The answer is $109,800. In 2024, that number was $119,700, almost $10,000 more, representing an 8.3% decline. But before you conclude the market was soft in 2025, in 2023, that number was only $81,250, so the two-year change was still an increase of 35%. Perhaps 2024 just got a little ahead of itself.
Similarly, 26 items sold for over $1 million in 2025. That was down from 29 in 2024. But, if you look back two years, we find that in 2023 only 12 items sold for over $1 million. The collectible book and paper market at auction remained quite strong in 2025 even if it did take a slight breather.
The main area we cover is the broad one of books, maps, manuscripts, posters, letters, documents and ephemera. Specific subsets include comic books and trading cards. We have not included paper currency in this list. We do include prints if they are of some historical or not strictly artistic purpose. Prints by great artists are not included, but by historic sources such as Currier and Ives are. Picasso and Warhol prints, which are quite numerous at higher prices, don't really fit in this type of 500 list. Illustrations are included only if used in books. Original artwork used for books is included. Artwork for comic book story lines is included, but not comic book cover art which gets a bit far afield of storytelling.
Now, here are the top 10 prices, and these items couldn't be much more different from each other. Following is the entire Top 500.
10. Songs of Experience by William Blake. One of four first issues known, with provenance from Blake patron Ozias Humphry all the way to Maurice Sendak. $1,865,000.
9. The Declaration of Independence. The Essex broadside, one of the very rare July 1776 printings. $2,400,000.
8. Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces by Utagawa Hiroshige. Complete set of 69 woodblock prints and a contents page. Edo period (19th century). $2,436,777.
7. The Declaration of Independence. Manuscript in the hand of Samuel Jones, who is credited with securing New York's passage of the U.S. Constitution. $2,470,000.
6. An Epic Based on the Shahnama including the Garshaspnama and Samnama. Likely 18th century illustrated Persian manuscript. $2,789,163.
4. Emancipation Proclamation. “Authorized edition,” signed by President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward. $4,442,000.
3. Superman #1. First Superman comic from 1939, rated 9.0. $9,120,000.
2. 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant. A very expensive basketball card. $12,932,000.
1. Manuscript copy of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery in the United States. Signed by President Lincoln, Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, 378 senators and 114 congressmen. It took the signatures of 494 government officials to beat out two basketball players for #1, but they did it! $13,697,500.
What have we learned? Comic books and sports cards are no longer for kids. Your parents have taken over. But, in the end, above Michael Jordan, Superman, and all the others, Abe Lincoln is still #1!
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Andrews (H.C.) Coloured Engravings of Heaths, 4 vol. in 2, first edition, [1710,--94]-1802-1809-[1830]. £10,000 - £15,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- Cramer (Pierre) and Caspar Stoll. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen…,, 5 vol., Amsterdam & Utrecht, 1779-91. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Voyages.- Darwin (Charles) and others. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, 3 vol. in 4, including Appendix to vol.2, first edition, 1839. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- de Graaf (Willem Diederik Vincent). [Inlandsche Kapellen in beeld], 170 fine original watercolours, [Enkhuizen], [1800-40]. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Dresser (Henry Eeles). A History of the Birds of Europe, 9 vol., including supplement, first edition, by the author, 1871-96. £6,000 - £8,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Zoology.- Felines.- Elliot (Daniel Giraud). A Monograph of the Felidæ or Family of the Cats, first edition, for the Subscribers, by the Author, [1878]-1883. £25,000 - £30,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Frisch (Johann Leonard). Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes, 2 vol., first edition, Berlin, Friedr. Wilhelm Birnsteil, [1736]-1763. £40,000 - £60,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Gould (John). The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., first edition, by the author, 1862-1873. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Pomology.- France.- Poiteau (A.) Pomologie Française. Recueil des Plus Beaux Fruits cultivés en France, 4 vol., Paris, 1846. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- [Robin (Jean)]. Histoire des Plantes, nouvellement trouvées en l'Isle Virgine…,, 1620; with Geoffrey Linocier L'Histoire des plantes, second edition, 1619-20. £3,000 - £4,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Japan.- Siebold (P.F. von). Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan, 7 parts in 6 vol., first edition, Leyden, [1832]-1852. £35,000 - £45,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Valentijn (Francois). Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën..., 5 vol. in 8, first edition, Dordrecht [&] Amsterdam, 1724-26. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Australia.- Redouté (P.J.).- Ventenat (Étienne Pierre). Jardin de la Malmaison, 2 vol.,, Paris, 1803-04[-05]. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Book of Hours.- Heures a lusaige de Romme, printed on vellum, with 14 full-page illuminated miniatures, Paris, N. Higman for J. de Brie, [c.1521]. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: France.- Book of Hours, perhaps Use of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, with thirteen miniatures surviving from an original cycle of at least twenty, [c. 1430]. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Milton (John). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books, first edition, Pforzheimer's sixth state, S. Simmons, 1669. £8,000-12,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Blake (William). Illustrations of the Book of Job, one of 215 first issue "Proof" copies, this one of 65 copies on "French" paper, Published by the Author, March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Christie (Agatha). The ABC Murders, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Halley (Edmund). Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 297, pp.1882-99, March 1705. £10,000-15,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen]. Opticae Thesaurus...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X..., first edition, Basel, August, 1572. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Kepler (Johannes). Dioptrice seu demonstratio eorum quae visui & visibilibus propter conspicilla non ita pridem inventa accidunt, first edition, Augsburg, David Frank, 1611. £12,000-18,000
Books & Autographs Wednesday 25 March
Koller, Mar. 25: KAFKA, FRANZ, SCHRIFTSTELLER. Eigenh. Brief mit Unterschrift. Prag, 20. Oktober [19]15. CHF 30,000-40,000.
Koller, Mar. 25: EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Zwei eigenhändige Briefe an Ernst Gabor Straus, unterschrieben "A.E" bzw. "A. Einstein". [Princeton], [19]45. und [1950]. CHF 30,000-40,000.
Koller, Mar. 25: HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS, MUTTER VON NAPOLEON III. Album aus ihrem Besitz mit 69 Aquarellen und Pinselzeichnungen in Sepia oder Grau… CHF 14,000-18,000.
Koller, Mar. 25: ZOOLOGIE - ORNITHOLOGIE - Seligmann, Johann Michael. Verzameling van uitlandsche en zeldzaame Vogelen. Teile 1-8 (von 9) in 2 Bänden. Mit 421 prächtig altkolorierten Kupfertafeln. CHF 14,000-20,000
Koller, Mar. 25: BOTANIK - Berlèse, Lorenzo und Johann Jakob Jung. Iconographie du genre camellia... 3 Bände. Mit 300 Farbstichtafeln "a la poupée.” Paris, [1839-]1841-1843. CHF 12,000-18,000.
