Expert: Andrew - 3/31/2011

Question
andrew, please don't worry if this question isn't up your alley because just anothers thoughts will help me. my question is, does it make a book more valuable if its a 1st printing or 1st edition, reason being i bought some used books at the library and out of 10, 6 were 1st ed/or 1st printing. i wondered why they wouldn't charge more. when i went online some people had hugh prices on them. did i just get lucky? if you were to buy a book would that be a deciding factor? love to know your thoughts on the matter.  thanks a bunch.

Answer
Hello Sandy,

Depending on the book, it may raise the price. I would think factors such as when the book was printed, how many first editions were printed and other similar things. With the book you have bought, my first thought would be that it might not be worth much, but if the prices are high online, then it may have some value. I would investigate it a bit more (I'll give you a link to someone who can help you price it at the bottom of the answer). For me, the edition of the book could be a deciding factor. If it is a book I like then I would choose it over alternative covers, but that's me. For collectors though, it would almost certainly be.

Sorry if the answer isn't very good. I'm not really and expert in this subject :)
Andrew

(http://www.allexperts.com/el/Book-Collecting/)