1st edition books for sale
Rare British books brings together a vast range of rare 1st edition books, signed books, antique books, comics and more and sorts them and presents them for sale to you right now online. All sorts of rare and collectable books are available for sale.
Checking if you own any 1st edition books
1st edition books are the original edition, the first pressing, first print run. The easiest way to check whether or not you have any genuine 1st edition books is to carefully check the credits inside the book to see if it refers to it being a later edition. Many classic and popular books are reprinted dozens of times but each time they are re-printed, the book will list all the previous print runs in the opening pages. If the book does not refer to any previous editions, then you may have some 1st edition books in your library.
What is so special about 1st edition books
Rare book collectors generally like to own the original print of their favorite books, the 1st edition books. They are normally printed in smaller runs, and they are the "authentic" real deal. All collectors, whether collecting books, vinyl records, stamps, tend to prize authenticity above every other attribute (obviously condition and provenance follow closely on from this) so even tatty 1st edition books will normally be of a lot more interest to a book collector than a pristine copy that was re-printed last week. One of the reasons why 1st edition books tend to be the hardest to find is because most people who buy stuff - any stuff, don't look after it. Books are discarded, mistreated, ripped, torn, burned, dumped just like other products. While that's heartbreaking for book collectors, it's just the way things go, and unless you are someone who buys up 1st edition books as they are released and stores them on the offchance that they might one day become valuable, (if so, you must have a lot of worthless junk on your bookshelves!) then it's a matter of either buying 1st edition books without expecting them to appreciate in value (i.e buying them because you love them) or it's a matter of good luck because you happened to buy a book that went on to become valuable later on. We'd all like a time machine to we could see which early works by authors who were struggling and unknown when they started out (which would have meant that their early 1st edition books sold poorly or were pulped because nobody wanted them) because then we could pop in any buy up lots of pristine mint copies and then put them up for sale years later when everyone has reaslised the genius they overlooked all those years before, but it's too late because those books have gone apart from a select few which are not being fought over by desperate book collectors who insist on owning 1st edition books.
The rare Harry Potter signed first edition which sold for over $55,000 at auction.
Everybody has a favorite book. Sometimes it's a book that was read to you in your childhood, and sometimes it's a book that you read in a particularly memorable time in your life. It might be, of course, that your favorite book is a book that you simply found so ingenious and compelling that you still marvel at the writing and the brilliance of the whole story.
People collect rare books for all sorts of reasons. For many, they cherish to very act of reading so dearly that they want to create their own library of historically perfect tomes. Perhaps they want to furnish their favorite reading room with rare and collectable books. Many books collectors wouldn't dream of actually reading rare 1st edition books in their original dust jacket in case they damage them but 1st edition books are just so wonderful to behold, and to be in the presence of, that this in itself is reason enough to seek them out, buy them and treasure them whilst keeping a "reading copy" nearby which isn't so precious in terms of condition.
1st edition books can also be a good investment. Some recent books have gone on to become hugely sought after and hence have been fantastic investments for their owners. Perhaps the best example of recent publications are the Harry Potter series. Eagle eyed book collectors who realised the potential of the Harry Potter Series by J.K.Rowland and snapped up first editions of the early books have made a very good return.
Book collecting, as with any form of collecting, can be an inexpensive hobby if you simply crave complete copies of books that you like and want to read, or it can be a fairly pricey affair if you decide to collect the rarest and most sought after published editions and these are normally the 1st edition books that are often the hardest to find. For many people, their book collection falls somewhere in between and they have a reading collection of books that they happily handle and read and maybe even lend to trusted friends, as well as some that have been bought or acquired to keep in the condition they were bought in, and to have and to take pride of place on their bookshelves. You could, for example, buy signed copies of new books by your facorite authors that you like.
If you are eager to get started on the search for some rare 1st edition books to add to your collection then please take a look at the menu on the top right of the page where we are creating category specific pages of rare books that you can buy online now. The website is completely free to use, and you can browse at will. Like all the best bookshops, you are also welcome to settle down with a nice cup of tea while you browse the virtual shelves to see what is on offer. We're fairly confident you will find lots of 1st edition books amongst those offered for sale.
Incoming search terms:
- signed harry potter for sale
- jack kerouac first editions for sale