I grew up in a home where two 10-foot tall bookcases made of dark mahogany always took up a corner of the living room or office. These majestic book cases were perfect for putting virtually anything on display, but not everyone has a family heirloom from a family lumber business with over 9 decades of …
There’s a lot to love about antique books. While some book hounds just do it for the money, and nothing wrong with that, many of us who would be considered old school at this point remember the hunt, the feel of a book in hands, the distinctive smell of old books when turning the pages. …
Among the many tools at the disposal of young book hounds are apps designed for book buyers and sellers. Some of the smartphone apps are based around organizing libraries, others at checking prices, and others still put plenty of listed titles up on auction at your fingertips. While many predicted that the wired world of …
Old vintage hardcover books come in many different styles and I’ve always been fascinated by everything about them. The materials used for covers, the cloth, the copyright pages, that distinctive old book smell – these have always spoke to me even as a kid so it should be no surprise that I would end up …
There’s no question that times have changed for book hounds. Back in 2005 when I first got into this as a hobby, flipping wasn’t a common term and there certainly weren’t smartphones with dozens of apps designed to scan and identify valuable antiques of all types. Back when my parents were learning the ropes of …
I spent a lot of time with 20th century American literature when it came to antique books, which made it much easier to date them as even books in the early 1900s generally would have a copyright page from most major or even mid-sized book publishers. This made my search for publication dates easy as …
Even if you’re not going to read an antique book, and there are good reasons for not, showing them off is a major part of having an impressive collection. The problem is that many common ways of stacking, shelving, or otherwise showing off books can actually cause wear or damage over the long-term, especially on …
One thing that has been interesting to watch with the growth of flipping channels, shows like American Picker, and the explosion of YouTube (and society’s obsession with side hustles) is watching something like antique book flipping, something that used to be incredibly niche, going very mainstream. This is to the dismay of some of us …
One thing about being a bookhound is that you are always going to eventually run across something different, something weird, something interesting. Whether it was wood cut prints a few centuries old to books too damaged to be valuable but with crazy illustrations on good pages in the interior or uncut pages, there’s always a …
This is a topic that is extremely close to my heart, and with good reason. Sinclair Lewis first edition novels are valuable collectibles, as this oft-forgotten author’s influence on American literature and American society can’t be underestimated. In his time he was a literary giant, someone everyone during the times of Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and …