Back in 2021 Reuters reported that a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) had sold through Heritage Auctions for $471,000. This exemplar of the title that was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone here in the U.S. featured a gorgeous illustrated cover, a "variant" binding, "magical" contents, and appeared "incredibly bright and so very near pristine."
But $471,000? Sheesh. This copy was the most expensive Harry Potter book ever sold and the most expensive work of fiction published in the 20th century. One can go on-line right now, however, and find First Editions and "First Editions" of the same title for twelve bucks; a signed copy of the First U.S. Edition for about $18.00; another for $2,500; a specially designed clamshell case for about $250 (sans book); and a full set, fully signed, for a cool $50,000.
So, W.T.S.W.? What's This Sucker Worth? That's the second most frequently asked question in the used and rare book community of booksellers, right after "I'm looking for a book I had in high-school; it was green and about this big. Do you have it?" So, W.T.S.W.?
As a potential book-buyer, you want to pay as little as possible, but as a potential book-seller, say, at a garage sale or on eBay, you wanna score. The intersection of these two opposing forces is what the I.R.S. dubs, "fair market value," "the price that [a book] would sell for on "the open market" in condition of full knowledge and consent. But what's "fair," how "open" is the market, how does one assess "value," and how many different kinds of First Edition are there?
Was the $471,000 copy of Harry Potter sold fraudulently? How does one tell a First Printing of, say, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, signed by him, from a cheap Grosset & Dunlap reprint featuring an autopenned facsimile signature? And who's this Samuel Clemens dude? Given 12 minutes and a Wi-Fi signal, it's easy to determine the current "market value" of just about any book beyond a signed Magna Carta or the rarest book of all-an unsigned Lawrence Block.
The fact of thousands of on-line selling booksellers and the ease of using mega-search engines ought to simplify things quite a bit. Well, sort of. "Book-jackers" and "mega-listers" now clog the airwaves. Fake and redundant listings are common. P.O.D. (Print on Demand) has its niche. Fraud is rife. Signatures are forged. Dishonest book dealers cut corners. AI is everywhere. None of this is good.
In upcoming installments, I answer questions you may have and encourage you to ask a few more. Wanna know how to identify editions and points of issue? Write to me. Have "a buncha ole books" to sell? Write to me. Have an unsigned Lawrence Block? Had a green book in high-school about this big but lost it? Write to me. Reach me at: [email protected] or http://www.svafinebooks.com.
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