Antique Way

Antique Books Dust Off a Literary Treasure

Perhaps your grandmother found a box of old books in her basement. Maybe you picked up some interesting titles at a garage sale. For one reason or another, droves of bibliophiles are tracking down the origins, values, and preservation techniques for rare and antique books.

Even more are looking to buy and sell these works. As a result, the major players of the antiquarian book industry are increasing their presence online. That's good news to consumers, who can make great use of the resources, both educational and economic, that they provide.

Your Old Books is another helpful site for beginners. Set up in question-answer format, it addresses issues ranging from "What makes a book rare?" to "How do I find a book seller or appraiser?" The site was originally produced in pamphlet format by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Antique books were defined as pre 1800 until some collectors began describing antique books as those over 100 years old. Now that the interest of many collectors has turned to modern first editions - which are not necessarily that old or rare - the definition of antique books has become "more blurred."

In the past, collecting of antique books has been a relatively small field, designed for the wealthy, with collectors of antique books often more financially capable than knowledgeable. The dealers often supplied the antique books to collectors, as well as collecting advice. Generally, it seemed cost was not an issue and the antique books were often given to institutions or were resold. Past collecting of antique books was more about prestige than about economics.

As collectors of antique books became more knowledgeable their interest in the details increased, causing an increase in prices. What many collectors had considered a hobby eventually developed into a viable intellectual search. Each year book prices began to rise, fueled by a rather controlled scarcity in which dealers would withhold copies of titles, thus creating a demand.

Your Old Books is another helpful site for beginners. Set up in question-answer format, it addresses issues ranging from "What makes a book rare?" to "How do I find a book seller or appraiser?" The site was originally produced in pamphlet format by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

If you're ready to make some purchases, the best place to go is Bookfinder.com. Bookfinder offers all of the major used book searches, including Bibliofind, the Advance Book Exchange, Alibris and Antiqbook, in one spot. It also contains a catalog of new books from Amazon.com.

Overall, the site represents more than 10,000 booksellers with more than 10,000,000 books in inventory. The search engine is easy to use and information is returned in an easy-to-read table format. The site even links to the glossary of the Advance Book Exchange, which can help with interpreting all of the literary jargon.

Selling books online is also a possibility. After the introduction of the Internet in the 1990's, a new horizon was available to collectors of antique books for displaying and selling their material. It is estimated that there are seventy-five times as many books for sale on the web, as there are owned by all the major dealers in the world.

The broad exposure of the Internet has allowed collectors not only the opportunity to easily access resources around the world, but to resell antiques attractive prices.If you're certain about the edition and condition of your book, you might place an ad on eBay, a popular online auction house. If you aren't sure about the value, try to locate a bookseller in your area who can help you assess it.

The store may even buy or help you sell the book. The Antiquarian Bookseller's Association of America lists more than 450 dealers around the country who follow the strict ABAA code of ethics. Listings are sorted by region. All provide the name, city and state and many also link to a Web page and e-mail address.

While the books may be rare, the information about antique books is abundant!