Drop me a line with your ideas as to what you feel every new book collector should know before they start compiling their own private library....
Some months back (29 April 2010, to be precise), Chris Lowenstein (Book Hunters Holiday) and I asked our respective readers what advice they would pass along to new book collectors.
At the time, Chris and I had intended to publish this advice as a print article. After careful consideration, though, we decided it would be better to publish such advice as a brief series of cross-linked blog posts. Accordingly, my two posts in this series (which feature advice from fellow book collectors) link to Chris's two posts (which feature questions that booksellers wished new book collectors would ask), and vice-versa. We hope thereby to cover both the buying and selling side of book collecting.
All advice appears without comment, in hopes that spirited commentary will ensue on both blogs.
Without further ado...
Vincent Benz: (1) As a beginning collector be specific in focus and collect what is important to you. (2) Collect only books in great condition unless you need a reading copy that can be had at a steal. (3) Become an academic on the topic you are collecting. The more you know, the less you will spend for more. (4) Read the books you collect.
Margaret Pratt: I think one of the most important things for a new book collector to do is to specialize in a particular topic or area with which they are already familiar. There are just too many books out there for a person to know which specific book to collect from a never-ending source of supply; whereas a specific genre can be far more easily researched.
Also to be considered is why one is collecting books; is it because one likes to read about a particular topic and will keep the book indefinitely in their own private library, or is it because one is intending to resell the books for a profit?
Madlyn Blom: What I wish I'd known? That a book's content doesn't determine or even impact its value. Wh[ether] a book is a good read or not isn't what determines the collector value - people who have books because they like the content are usually "savers", not collectors in the financial definition of collecting. I wish I'd known early on: Collecting/Saving/Hoarding are all very different states. Then the details will follow after this concept is learned.
Bill: Off the cuff I would say, as an analogy to the real estate truism about location, the 3 most important things are: “Condition, Condition, Condition.” But knowing when to violate this advice is also important, or you may miss your only chance at a truly rare item.
Next, you may be too modest to note that collectors can gain so much b[y] having a good relationship with dealers in their collecting area. My collection would be a shadow of itself, and my life would have been less rich, if I had not been privileged to know many great book dealers.
Finally, I would say to young collectors today, not every thing can be learned from the internet, as great as it is; you must invest in and learn from publications on your area of interest, including bibliographies, dealer catalogs, bookish memoirs, etc. You would not try to play golf without the proper tools, so it is with book collecting, you must properly equip yourself for “the best indoor sport,” as it has been called.
Maria Lin: Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. Particularly in things like yard sales and such, sometimes if you ask if there are any books you will be surprised at what turns up. The worst that will happen is that they will say no, so always ask. I also found that most of the time what I thought I would pay for books happened to be twice as much as what people were actually asking....
In the beginning, don't worry too much about setting up a 'theme' or a want list or anything else that will restrict your choice in what you'd like to collect. First just pick stuff up, and soon you will know where your fancy leads you by the sort of things that start populating your shelves. Then if you want you can start narrowing things down and maybe trimming your collection.
In the beginning I didn't know the first thing about how much a book should cost, what made it valuable, whether or not it was rare, and so on. As a result I bought a lot of books that were in poor condition just because they were old. Turns out there are a -lot- of old books, and that alone doesn't make them worth scooping up. I've since learned to be more picky, which has saved me a great deal of space and money.
Related to the above, the only way I've found you can really judge how much a book is worth to you is through constant study, not just on book collecting but in a broader sense. One of my favorite things about book collecting is that it isn't just a hobby of amassing stuff, but a hobby that reflects the collector's particular interests and education. The best way to become knowledgeable about books is to become knowledgeable about the topics found in those books. If you follow your interests, book related or not, you will find that you will naturally increase your knowledge of the books you want to collect, and you will be a head above the people whose main resource is Amazon sales data.
Remember: for questions that booksellers wish new book collectors would ask, click here.
Tomorrow, advice from David Klappholz, Yolana, Laura Knight and Jean Ottosen....
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