What makes a book rare?
A. It depends. Sometime it is the age of the book. Sometimes it is how scarce it is, its method of production, historical significance, or the celebrity of its previous owner. You can also learn more about rare books through a pamphlet put out by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association, called Your Old Books. First editions are not always rare, and rare books are not always first editions.
Millions of books have been produced over the past five hundred years, and only a small number of these would be considered “rare” by specialists. Scarcity does not necessarily mean rarity. In theory, a book is considered rare only when the demand for it is greater than the supply. Factors other than age or scarcity can make a book rare: a physical characteristic such as an important binding, an autograph or an inscription, or illustrations that are the work of a fine artist. Collectible or rare books might include significant editions and early printings of major writers, early reports of travel and discoveries, or early examples of printing in a country or a state. Our Rare Books and Manuscripts, for instance, collects books written by or about Joseph Priestley, books illustrated by Edward Gorey, Italian books printed before 1600, and books printed in Pennsylvania before 1840. The books in the Rare Books and Manuscripts are not all old or of great monetary value. In fact, age usually
There are many reasons why a book may come to reside in the Rare Books Collection. Some of our books are very old or fragile and require the extra protection of a closed-stack, non-circulating collection. Others are truly rare, in the sense of being scarce and possibly irreplaceable should they be lost or damaged. Still others are very valuable, perhaps because they are first editions, are inscribed by their authors, or have some other unique characteristic. All of these types of materials need the protection and security provided in the Rare Books Collection. But there are some books in our collection, especially in our 20th century author collections, that are not rare or particularly valuable as individual volumes. These books are in the Rare Books Collection because they are part of a special collection. A special collection is a collection of great depth in a narrowly focussed subject area. Examples of special collections within our Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection would be t
A1: Since the invention of the printing press in 1436, countless books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers and broadsides have been published. However, only a small number of these are considered “rare.” In simple terms, a book achieves rare status when demand is greater than supply. This means rarity is subjective and there is no special formula — besides market demand — to determine a book’s importance.You’ll find a staggering amount of valuable and highly collectible books on AbeBooks.com. Our prices range from $1 to $10 million.
The books in our Rare Book Room are not necessarily old or expensive, but they are all, to one degree or another, considered rare. Taken literally, the term rare is misleading. To be considered rare a book must be more than just scarce; it must be scarce relative to the demand for it. Often, beginning collectors assume that because a book is very old it must be worth a great deal of money. But there are many, many books printed in the 1700s that have no real value; they are scarce, but not rare in the book collector’s sense of the word. Though just what does make a book desirable to collectors is much more difficult to answer, there are some common variables that often factor into the equation.
