An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
2021 will go down, among other things, as the year with a lot of people having a lot more money than they know what to do with. Aggressively escalating rare book prices set the tone for future market conditions: scarcity wrapped in higher prices. Is $471,000 too much to pay for a J. K. Rowling, […]
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Last quarter’s coverage of the big rare book auctions, focused almost entirely on the new price record set by a first edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, which has become the most expensive printed scientific book ever sold at auction after a winning bid of $3.7m (£3m), nearly two and a half times […]
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Past Technology: Lights and Mirrors The students at the University of Virginia Rare Book School, receive, as part of a course in Advanced Descriptive Bibliography, a demonstration of the 450 pound Hinman Collator. The purpose of the machine, which was developed during the 1940s by Charlton Hinman, was to help detect typographical variations in the […]
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Rare Books Digest occasionally hosts opinions and views of international book trade professionals such as this week’s contributor, technology engineer, book collector, and book dealer – Jim Sekkes (www.linkedin.com/in/sekkes/). Since the invention of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century, an estimated 130 million books have been written and published. It took […]
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During the second quarter of 2012, the Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM), recorded a continuing climb for the most popular categories of Arts/Photography/Architecture and Modern Firsts. The authors scale recorded a superior performance for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Victor Hugo. The general level for rare book pricing ticked higher in an upward trend […]
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The first quarter of 2012 marks the return of the best performer of the Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM) category breakdown –Arts/Photography/Architecture, to pre 4th quarter 2011 levels. Our top performer showed a slight decline in price appreciation during the end of last year and had a mediocre 2011 performance overall, which was very uncharacteristic. […]
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One year ago we launched a very ambitious project that involved a very special team of database engineers and bibliophiles. We called the project Rare Book Sale Monitor. Today we are proud to report that the success of the RBSM has exceeded our initial expectations thanks to your overwhelming interest and support. Not a single […]
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As the year of the Kindle and the Nook came to a close, one trend proved to be here for the long haul: “digitalization is increasing prices of rare and fine physical books.” In fact, 2011 proved to be a great year for rare book sellers as collectors bid prices higher and there is every […]
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The 3rd Quarter of 2011 contained no major surprises to any of our tracking monitor – RBSM, sales trends previously established. The book category of Art/Photography/Architecture is still leading the way in the rare book category breakdown. The higher sale price comeback for this category started at the beginning of this year and has been […]
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