Any book collectors on the board? What are some rare books in your collections?

I've been collecting my whole life, but I've only made a couple of bigger purchases, nothing more than a few hundred.

These would be some of my prized books.

1st Edition Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco in Italian, #26,000 (Ordered from Italian bookseller)
Limited Edition of the Hermetic Writings of Paracelsus, Volumes I & II, with an introduction by A.E. Waite
1st U.K. Edition of the Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse with English Translation
The Game of Tarocco and its General and Specific Rules by Ben Giuocarlo in Italian from 1827 (extremely rare)
I also have an older leather set of the Divine Comedy and an early Edition of the Wizard of Oz.

I'm the guy that likes watching Rebecca's appraisals on Pawn Stars.

I've got a pretty good collection of old harness racing books. Some Wallace's Yearbooks from the 1890s. Several books about Goshen and the Red Mile. This is a very important book by John Hervey:



This inscription is in the book:

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I sold all my books. Then I asked for books for Christmas...but really meant Kindle. Now I have these damn books.

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@audioidkid

I have a First Modern Edition of "The Sun Also Rises" by Hemingway, written in 1926, this copy was published in 1930. Spine is in bad shape though.

Golf books mainly by Bernard Darwin.

In our guest bedroom we have the following books:

1st US Edition Count of Monte Cristo
1st Edition Following the Equator - Twain
1st Edition Boys of Summer Roger Kahn - signed
1st Edition Don’t Stop the Carnival Herman Wouk - signed
1st Edition Gideon’s Trumpet Anthony Lewis - signed

Among other signed books.

That's a nice list of first editions. I also have a signed Boys of Summer, not a first edition though.

I gave an ex-girlfriend a two voume set of Sandburg's Lincoln bio, signed by the man himself. That set me back a few bucks.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I had a decent large collection , mostly scifi and history. I had
1st ed Dragonlance(first 2 trilogy) signed
1st Shadon run antology 1st ed-signed
1st ed The robe

tons of other. At one point it got to a point where I had to get rid of them. I gave around 400 to the VA hospital in Maywood. They thought I was kidding till I showed up

I also collected comics.One point I had 4 StarWars#1 ,the entire run of Crisis on infinate Earths with all the tie ins, Camalot 3000(wit hthe special paper), Kingdom Come.
I sold my collection once in 1988 for $3000 then rebuilt, that one was destroyed in a flood where I was storing it. After that I never got back in.
Right now I collect other stuff, I got around $3-4000 worth if I sold it all

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I don't really collect I just buy books I want to read and keep them. I have some racing books that are pretty valuable. Usually they don't print enough copies so they go out of print pretty fast and then the price goes up. The most valuable books I have are Autocourse F1 yearbooks from the 70's and 80's that were signed by the drivers. I acquired them from a friend who acquired them from a journalist who covered F1 in the UK.

The nicest surprise I ever had buying a book was when I bought an Autocourse CART yearbook on ebay. It just said mint and showed a picture of the cover. I opened it up and he must have taken it to Long Beach and had everyone sign it. I suspect it was from Long Beach as Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, and Ritchie Ginther had all signed it and they live in California. It was signed by 4 World Champions (Andretti, Fittipaldi, Mansell, and Hill) and wasn't even mentioned in the description.

I have bought a few books from this store over the years. It's fun to browse some of the higher end things that they have for sale.

https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/

I really miss Bookman's Alley.

https://patch.com/illinois/evanston/boo ... r-33-years

When I bought a signed copy of Pershing's My Experiences in the World War Roger said to me, "I was wondering when someone was going to buy the General."

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Bookman's alley was awesome. I loved it from the moment I first set foot in it as a high school student and regularly visited the store until the day it closed. That store along with other Evanston book shops like Great Expectations and Book Nook Parnassus on Foster had a tremendous impact on me in my earlier years. Each store had its own unique identity, each was great in its own way, and each was an important source of community.

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i have a 1965 version of the lord of the rings. they are in decent shape. probably worth a few hundo.