First Editions

I began collecting old editions of children's books after coming across a series I had from my own childhood. They were hardbacks with and without dust jackets published in the late 1960's. They were some of the only books written in English I owned when I was living in Germany (snowed in a lot of the time). Checking on ebay I discovered that the earlier editions of these books attracted a fair bit of attention so I started to gradually pick up earlier editions. Venturing onto UK ebay I found a few first editions that were affordable but the books published prior to 1950 were beyond my price range. These books can fetch anything up to $1000 in mint condition. One in particular has a mistake in the illustration on the dust jacket which makes it more collectable than most. Last weekend I found one of these books on ebay - a 1st/1st - with dust jacket complete with mistake by the illustrator. I decided to place a maximum bid thinking that there was no way I had any chance but surprisingly no one was either watching that day or it is a dud. It should be in the post now so i will know in a few weeks what condition it is in. I know have over 40 books - some published in the late 1940s and early 1950's with four first editions. There are one two more I would like to collect before my set is complete.

My next challenge will be to work out how to store the old books appropriately.

Comments

[Pica]

Jenny, this sounds like fun.

I just ran across this link on Language Hat, I think you might be interested:

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/

Hope all's well. Crazy busy here.

[jenny]

Thanks Pica, I'll check this link out. It IS fun collecting old books especially when you by chance stumble across a first edition - I've wanted this one for ages but thought it was out of my league!