Any help with the price of a book?

DestructoDisk

I was looking through my landlords book collection, and I found a pretty old one. Written by Robert Freke Gould. Its called "A Concise History of Freemasonry". The original print was in 1904, but this is a 1924 reprint. I looked up some of his other bookes with similar titles from around the same time period, and they were going for $500. I could not seem to locate any books with this title, in that period.. All I could find was some new paperbacks which I think are in print right now. The thing that makes this book cool to me though is..when I opened it up, It has seals on it from a masionic lodge in new york.. Batavia Lodge, and also has a library card, and card sleeve.. and another seal stating the late return policy for masons "5 cents", and which masons may check the book out. Does anybody know the value of this, Or where I could get a price check online?

Bronty

not sure if this link will work but the 1924 seems to be available online for $40-$50



http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=gould&kn=1924&sts=t&tn=concise+history+of+freemasonry&x=0&y=0

DestructoDisk

Hmm.. wasnt as much as I was hoping, but still worth some cash. I think Ill just hold onto it for another ten years and see if it goes up.. or try to ebay it with a reserve price.

Bronty

Originally posted by: dragonlunch

Hmm.. wasnt as much as I was hoping, but still worth some cash. I think Ill just hold onto it for another ten years and see if it goes up.. or try to ebay it with a reserve price.

if it hasn't gone up in the last 84 years, what makes you think the next ten will do the trick?   Dump it.  Take the fifty bucks if you can get it and run.   Unless you actually want to keep the book to read.

Bronty

I should add. Since its a second edition its unlikely it will ever be worth anything anyways. A book collector will look at it the same way you might eye a repro. Not the genuine article.

arch_8ngel

In general only original or 1st printings are particularly valuable or collectible.



Unless you like it for sentimental reasons, that's not a bad price for a reprint of anything.

DestructoDisk

Well I figured since it was from a mason lodge, and not from a store, it might get a few extra bucks. I have started reading some of it, its pretty good. The price could surely go up in the next 10 years, if something related to the masons goes on again.. I bet when the davinci code came out i could have gotten at least 80$ for it.

And its not just a reprint, its updated with new stuff from the author.. its like a second edition or something. Also this book is availible on paperback, so in comparison to game collecting.. it would be like.. The first print would be Symphony of the night black box.. my copy would be symphony of the night greatest hits, and the paperback would be a PS3 download. Or nintendo terms.. I would have a 3 screw.

gavmasterflash

my friend once pulled a collection of Carl Sandberg books out of a storage auction. They were original print books, his biography of Abraham Lincoln. He got a few hundred dollars for the set. He was ready to burn them one night as we had a fire and I told me if he did that he would be an idiot, thus saving the books from the brink of destruction and making my friend some $$$, unfortunately, he never shared it with me.