Book Collecting: How to Get Started in the World’s Greatest Hobby
A brief beginner’s guide
Not long ago, my son-in-law informed me that Pokémon cards have become the hottest collectible on the market, with rare early editions selling for astronomical amounts. Unlike him, I have been alive long enough to have seen countless “collectibles” come and go, from the baseball card hysteria of the mid-1990s to the Beanie Baby craze shortly after. Anything can become collectible for a while, but few of these things stand the test of time.
There is one area of collecting, however, that has lasted for over 500 years, surpassed in longevity and devotion only by collecting art. That time-tested hobby is book collecting. And while starting out collecting in many fields requires a huge initial investment, collecting books is something everyone can do. For those starting out, I offer a quick guide.
One of the most important things to know when collecting books is that “old” and “rare” are not the same thing. Many people assume that the age of a book is what determines both its scarcity and its value, but this is seldom the case. Antiques dealers are especially fond of putting ridiculously high prices on books based solely on their age, but most antiques dealers are not book experts.
