How to Value Rare Books as a Young Bookseller, Part 1
Read.
Question.
Research.
Reread.
Practice.
Steps on this journey to becoming a bookseller. I think I can call myself bookseller even if I haven’t sold any for 8 years, and only just started the rare book journey with a singular listing - for the Kudeti book of Yoruba Cookery (2002) - on eBay. My current position - collecting Nigerian cookbooks and food books from 1900s to date. Because of how little focus there is on these books whether as part of bibliographies, and in general circulation, my focus of collecting is ALL I can find, not just first editions. However, because I understand that there’s value in first editions, and as this career choice requires training and capital, I’m not opposed to keeping my eyes out for valuable firsts.
And so, my questions to myself, and hopefully to a mentor soon are - how do I go about effectively pricing the books right? My early thoughts centre around some sort of calculator where you input a variety of things including details of
the state of the book
considerations of the book as part of a numbered print run
anything else
My initial thoughts were, and they still linger, I need to build a system/ calculator that allows me do this.
Back in June, I had the chance to attend the Midwest Antiquarian Booksellers Association’s fair in Chicago, the one weekend I visited for the James Beard Awards where my debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria won the Emerging Voice in Books award.
I bought a couple of books at the fair recommended by a bookseller, books I think will be instrumental in helping me on my bookseller’s journey.
More about them?
A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions 7th revised edition compiled by Bill McBride
A useful step-by-step handbook to help you identify first editions. I enjoyed reading a 2012 blogpost by Bill Butts on Fine Books Magazine about this book “…is certain to be the smallest reference book on your reference shelf and probably the one you'll use the most. Any reference work that helps make better collectors gets a big thumbs up in my book!”
I am excited about going through the paces as I develop competence and confidence in the process.
Modern Book Collecting by Robert A. Wilson
I was quite excited about this book because its focus is on beginners - “A guide for the beginner who is buying first editions for the first time.” Not only was I thrilled to have such a book in hand, but also to learn about the author’s interests in bibliography as well as other aspects of books warmed my heart, as someone who is enamored with all the different faces and facets of the industry of books. Again, I will use this book as a handbook, a working one as I learn.
My goals are to be able to put what I’ve learned form reading the books through the paces - see what I’ve observed, test them, and put them into practice step by step. I hope that using both books in tandem will allow me deepen my understanding, but also allow me do a comparative review. We’ll see.
Overall, I love how my knowledge of books and the work in books is expanding. In future, I see myself exploring conservation and preservation of books from cleaning to binding, and restoration. To this end, I was thrilled to see there’s an association by way of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.
