Talking to an old guy at the thrift store changed how I pick books

I was at this Goodwill in Columbus last weekend digging through a box of old sci-fi paperbacks. This guy maybe 70 years old walks up and says "you know most of these aren't worth the paper they're printed on, right?" He pointed to a beat up copy of "The Left Hand of Darkness" from 1969 and said that one's actually got some value. I never really thought about why some books survive and others don't. He told me it's all about the first edition runs and how many copies got printed back then. Now I'm looking up publishers and dates before I buy anything. Anybody else run into a random stranger who changed how you collect?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_green5d ago

Ever check the copyright page for the number of printings listed? That old guy was right about first editions but he left out something important. Even a first edition with five or six printings in the same year isn't that rare. You want the ones that say "First Edition" with no other printings listed below it. I've got a copy of Dune that's a first edition but it's the fourth printing, worth maybe twenty bucks. The real money is in those single printing copies where they didn't expect the book to sell well and only ran a small batch.

anthonykim5d ago

Ngl that's a solid point Nancy, I learned that lesson the hard way when I bragged about my "first edition" Stephen King and found out it was the seventh printing. Honestly my copy's worth about as much as the coffee stain on the cover. Tbh I've got more rare books in my "oops I bought the wrong one" pile than most people have in their collections.