Collected Books: The Guide to Values

by Allen Ahearn, Patricia Ahearn

A comprehensive handbook to more than twenty thousand titles in various categories--literature, poetry, Americana, mysteries, science fiction, children's books, photography, and travel--lists the market value of each volume, from $200 for Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain to $750,000 for the original London 1865 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

832 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 1991

Reviews

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great guide to the value of old books. Concentrating on the $500 plus category there are still gaps but none the less a great asset to have in your library.

Goes into identifying Book of The Month Club issues and Book Club Editions as well as what is a true First Edition and how does that impact the value of a book.

A lot of work has gone into this bok and it is a great read, and a great resource

[Christoph Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another on of those books you don't read cover to cover. Alos, kinda obsolete with the internet and all, but I wanted to have a copy to display on my shelves.

[Jim Deak · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this was a needed, almost necessary, update to the now-dated third edition, the quality of the book dropped dramatically since the third edition. They went from a major publisher to publishing the book on their own and the lack of professional proofreading is evident.

Just on the first three pages of the alphabetized listings, there are entries out of alphabetical order (one has a double entry with different prices on each entry) and this is just from a casual look:

ABBOT, Anthony (p. 57) and ABBOTT, Anthony (p. 58) both are listed as pseudonyms of Charles Fulton Oursler for the same book, About the Murder of Geraldine Foster. The bibliographic descriptions and prices are different.

ABERCROMBIE, Capt. W. R. --the "Cooper River Exploring Expedition" (p.58) should be the "Copper River Exploring Expedition."

ACTON, Eliza --is out of alphabetical order and is followed by ACORN, Milton (p. 59).

I also noted that Curwood's The Great Lakes is missing and it's worth more than any of the Curwood books listed.

Anyway, this was just from a cursory look. I assume there are many more errors. That said, the guide is still indispensable and the commentary at the beginning about the state of the market is spot on.

If you have a book that might be in here, I'd look it up in both the third and fourth editions, just to make sure you don't base a decision on a typo. Also, any book in here is probably worth researching more than just with this guide. This is a starting point, not the destination.

Still, if I could only take two books with me into an appraisal, this would still be one of them. There really is no equivalent guide.

[brian tanabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable guide for collectors.

[Dusty Mcgrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

great information with an amazing amount of detail.