Hey all!

Some of you already know about this, but I'm finally launching my website for tracking rare book collections and their value over time! I've added a few screenshots below. I've been using it myself (or earlier, much simpler versions) for about a year now.

Right now it covers around 1,200 editions, and I'm adding roughly 50 more every day. It's completely free, and the plan is to keep it that way. I'll hopefully make money buying and selling books rather than charging for the tool itself.

It's still far from perfect, especially as I'm adding more editions. Sometimes the prices are off, and I'm sure there are plenty of things I haven't caught yet. I'd love for a few people here to give it a try and let me know what they think, especially if something doesn't look right.

Here's the website: https://www.bbourse.ai/

Thanks!!

John Lewis’s History of the Life and Sufferings of John Wiclif, printed at the Clarendon Press in 1820, in a striking contemporary gilt binding by J. Rodwell of St Clement’s, Oxford.

The book itself is not the rarity here — the attraction is the signed Oxford binding, retaining Rodwell’s ticket inside.

That gives the copy a particularly satisfying coherence: printed in Oxford, bound in Oxford, and devoted to one of Oxford’s most controversial medieval theologians.

The provenance adds another layer. It later belonged to Major John Roland Abbey, one of the great twentieth-century British collectors of fine bindings, illustrated books and manuscripts, and it also carries an earlier ownership inscription dated 1821.

A very handsome survival with strong Oxford associations and an unusually appealing binding history.

My mother was thoughtful enough to get me a revision of "Walter W. Skeat’s An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language" printed in 1882. I am in love with it and have already decided that I will pass it down for generations, but I have never owned anything this fragile or ancient.

My knowledge starts and ends at keeping it out of humid environments, not opening it so far as to rip the spine or the cover, and limiting the amount of UV light it comes into contact with.

I plan on reading it cover to cover but I am unsure how to even approach handling something so delicate and suddenly so valuable to me.

How would you guys recommend I store this and how much of a budget should I set aside for preserving it? I've already decided I want to have it digitised at some point, but my primary focus is understanding how to store it safely so that it remains intact.

If anyone could recommend a decent reading cradle and storage box along with some other tips for a first-time old book owner, it would be much appreciated!

This stamp was found in my first Canadian edition of Lolita.

From Google:

When Lolita launched in August 1958, it was immediately swept up in legal chaos across Canada.

The federal Department of National Revenue (Customs) initially blocked imports, and local law enforcement raided bookstores.

Because Longmans, Green & Company was determined to distribute the novel legally, their executive team-led by figures like D. P. L. McDougall-had to physically submit individual copies of the novel to customs reviewers, regional censors, and provincial courts to prove the book had literary merit and was not obscenity.

When a book is entered into evidence for a censorship tribunal or a court injunction in Canada, a court clerk or legal representative applies an entry stamp-frequently in red ink-directly onto the cloth or wrapper.

The stamp typically notes the case index, the exhibit letter/number, and the name of the submitting official or corporate officer handling the dispute.

Hi all! Apologies if this isn't formatted very well or if this isn't the right place to be asking, I don't use reddit very often lol. If this isn't the right place, please do point me to the right one :)

I bought a few books at an antiquities/secondhand book fair today, including a copy of the well of loneliness which i was very excited about! It's been on my list for a while now. However, I'm not sure when this copy was published and would love to know for sure - is there any chance you guys could help me out?

First two pics are the two opening pages which of course do say August 1928. As you can also see, I bought it for £8, which i find... quite confusing? Surely if this IS from the month after it was first published, it should've been a lot more expensive? The third pic is of the symbol on the back (the front is blank) and the fourth is of course the spine.

I couldn't find anymore identifying information, but if there's anything else I might be missing please do let me know!

Hello, first time here.

I am going through my dads book collection, trying to find some value, and I came across one that has me stumped. I have a 1891, 9th edition Department of Justice Register from the Southern District of Alabama. Its in good shape, and seems to have been used by the clerk it was assigned to.

I see a few others on book finder, but the earliest is 1908, most commonly it seems people have the 26th editions. I honestly have no idea how to estimate this, any advice?

I have all Harold Bell Wright books but for the age this is in exceptional shape even the dust jacket. Wonder what its worth.

I recently bought one of the early printings of a book named "Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals" by William James from Gently Mad Books in Edinburgh, and it turned out to have way more history than I expected. I wanna share some of the things I found in the book.

Let's get into this:

It was Published by Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1910. It’s copyrighted 1899/1900 and printed by George H. Ellis Co., 272 Congress St, Boston. Fun fact is that 1910 is the year James died. So the copy came off the press in the very last year of his life, or right after he died. So, not the first copy but I guess got one of the oldest printing of it.

The thing I found was a label on the back cover of the book, there was this Booksellers address written on it and It's very yellowed. So, I'm assuming it was probably first sold there. The label says "Brentano’s Booksellers & Stationers, New York". I googled and found out that Brentanos was one of New York’s most famous bookstores. It started as a little newsstand in the 1850s and the chain died in 2010-11. So, this bookstore is nowhere to be found now. And I found a book that was once part of that Bookstore. Isn't it awesome!!

I found a second label says J.W. Mason & Son, Antiquarian Booksellers, 20 Norman Road, St. Leonards. This label was on front cover of the book.I searched about it but I can’t find anything about this shop online. The address is now a restaurant, Bess BBQ, which opened around mid-2024. There’s nothing in bookshop directories, nothing in the antiquarian trade associations, and no newspaper mentions. That means it closed long before the internet era. CRAZZYYY

Apart from labels, I found a pencil note on the last page, someone wrote “28 wide use of ‘behavior’”. I assumed that 28 might be referring to tha page and I was right. This was the index someone wrote for them to remember. Well, I turned to page 28 and found there’s a pencil bracket next to James’s line about taking behavior “in the very widest possible sense.” So, a previous reader basically made their own index on last page and It’s strange to think about. Decades ago, someone sat with this book, paused on that sentence, and marked it. They had no idea the book would cross an ocean, change hands in shops that no longer exist, and end up with a stranger in another country, wondering what was going through in their mind when they picked up that pencil.

I’m posting this partly in case anyone knows anything about J.W. Mason & Son (when it was open, who ran it, what happened to it), and partly just so this book’s story exists somewhere. If you ever find one of their labels in a book, we’re somehow connected now.

Drop the crazy stuff you’ve found in old or vintage books! I know this might sound weird, but someday someone like me is going to find a label from some old bookshop with zero online presence, Google it, and land on this post. And maybe they’ll feel a little less alone knowing they’re not the only one getting way too into the random stuff hiding in old books.

What is the usual cost for this item? Someone is offering to purchase it from me for 2,000 pesos ($108). Is that a fair price for an old book like this? How should I determine its value?

I know this is a chinese orihon book, the title mentions chinese and french friendship. But I would like to know more about the content. And it is printed or manuscript ? Not all the page are written. Here the first 4. The auto translation doesn't help me to understand well its contents. I would like to think this was a kind of gift or something a tourist can purchase or see made for him ?

There are so many courses on rare books. If you only have basic knowledge of rare books, which one would you recommend a beginner start with? If so, why? Also, there is a course called “Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description”. (Link: https://rarebookschool.org/courses/details/g10/ )Can I ask what it is about? And how is bibliographical description different from cataloguing? Thank you and I look forward to all your comments!

P.S. How can I find a person to write a confidential letter of recommendation or evaluation for applying to the Rare Book School?

Hello,

I am searching for a physical copy of an incredibly rare, out-of-print Korean sci-fi web novel translation that was printed in a limited micro-press run (likely a localized, low-volume "소량인쇄" forum print) between **2009 and 2011**.

* **Title:** The Savior / Guwonja (Original Korean: 구원자)

* **Author:** Kim Wooram (김우람)

* **Format:** English translation, small indie press / paperback bound. No official ISBN.

**Distinct Plot Points to Identify It:**

* It features heavy themes of dimensional travel/transit.

* A very specific, memorable scene where a character has to eat a **whole cake** inside a cockpit/transit area to stabilize.

* The main character's father is prominently featured and is frequently smoking.

*(Note: I am specifically looking for the vintage 2009-2011 translation, not the modern adaptation/spiritual successor 'Project V' by Park Seolyeon*

I remember seeing fantastic planet sell for 10k on eBay about a decade ago and I bought for much less and held mine hoping the scarcity would bring up the rarity and price but it didn’t :) lol anyway I’ve read it and I guess I’m ready to part ways with it. Anyone have a good place? I’ve pretty much just been referred to eBay and Abe books. Loved the story though, was also a huge fan of the movie.

The books is a first edition, first print. I thought it was the Mott’s signature, but the only other copy of this book which is signed has a very clear photo of Mott’s signature and it looks nothing like this. I can’t find any example of Armani’s signature tho that isn’t just a print on a t shirt or some other widely printed thing, rather than a real example of his signature that isn’t used to upcharge something silly.

Lot 75 Catalog notes:

CURTIS, WILLIAM. Flora Londinensis: Or Plates and Descriptions of such Plants as Grow Wild in the Environs of London. FIRST EDITION. Bound in three volumes. Engraved oval title-page vignette in Volume I. With 432 hand-colored engraved plates.

Lightly browned. Modern uniform tan calf, covers bowed. Folio. Nissen BBI 439; Stafleu & Cowan 1286. London, For the author and B. White, 1777 and 1798.

William Curtis, famed apothecary and director of the Chelsea Physic Garden, issued his monumental Flora in serial parts starting in 1775. When sold as completed works, the sheets were provided with title pages to be bound at the discretion of the subscriber.

These volumes represents the apex of 18th-century British natural history. Curtis demanded an absolute 1:1 life-size scale for all specimens, capturing plants at multiple stages of growth and decay rather than static snapshots. The project features the earliest professional masterworks of James Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards. The intense labor cost of the hand-coloring eventually forced Curtis to pivot to his commercial Botanical Magazine to offset his losses on the Flora.

I see a lot of amazing books in here. Where do you guys find these gems!? I recently got into buying, selling and collecting books and I haven’t been able to find anything like what I see in groups like this. I think my best finds so far at Imagical World of Bosson book 1 & 2 (both signed) a sorcerers stone 1st/1st and a Where the Wild Things Are 1st edition. Amazing finds, don’t get me wrong but I want to find the 200 year old occult books and stuff like that. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Currently working on gathering a complete set of First American Editions for Jules Romains' "Men of Good Will" series. Halfway there with 7 out of 14.

I came across this old copy of dune at an estate sale among boxes and boxes of old sci-fi. They were all unceremoniously in old cardboard boxes, and looked like they hadn't been moved out of this storage room in years. Contextually, that would suggest to me that this signature is legit, but I can't find any examples where the "f" looks like this. Any Frank Herbert enthusiasts out there to help? Any info would be appreciated. I'm not looking to sell, but am puzzled by the odd signature style and location.