Henry Altemus Company

 

Altemus Book Prices

 

Altemus Book Prices or A Fool and His (Her) Money

It is hard to know what a book is worth. A seller says the book for sale is the only one like it on the internet and therefore it should bring a premium price. Another seller says that it is listed elsewhere on the internet for $200 and thus a price of $100 is a steal.

The average buyer can have trouble sorting out the wheat from the chaff. What is the reality? What really is rare? And of course, when is a rare book a valuable book? My daughter's scribbled in and autographed calculus book is the only one like it in the universe, but it has a value approaching zero.

I am not the final word on the value of Altemus books but I certainly have more of them than anyone else and I keep track of their pricing more than most. What I hope to do in this section is to review certain series/books and discuss their scarcity and value. Examples from real sales and real ads will be given as examples.

The prices are determined by a number of parameters. Collectors of certain authors can be trying to complete collections and may be willing to pay a premium. Some Kipling , Poe and Lewis Carroll as well as other authored books can fit this description. The same may be true with some artists. Altemus books include the work of Dore, Wain, Mucha, Beardsley and John R. Neill to name a few.

Certain titles or characters are sometimes in demand. Peter Rabbit, Little Black Sambo and Robinson Crusoe books are some of the possibilities. The first American pirated edition The Tale of Peter Rabbit is always an important book.

Juvenile Series book collectors are frequently trying to finish out a series of book with jackets. These books therefore will occasionally be sold at high prices. This is especially true with some of the Stratemeyer Series books and the Conquest of the U.S. Series.

What is most annoying to me personally is to find an advertisement incorrectly describing an Altemus book as something it is not and then to have a novice collector spend way more than the book is worth. Perhaps I can save a few well intentioned collectors a few dollars.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Recent Entries:
Date Series Num Series Name
23 Nov 2008 180 Vademecum Series
27 Sep 2008 202 Young People's Library - Vic, The Autobiography of a Fox-Terrier
20 Sep 2008 202 Young People's Library - Grimm's Fairy Tales
03 Sep 2008 47 Beauxarts Series

 

 

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Last Revision November 23, 2008