Collectors tend to compromise on children’s books as well.
The desire for first edition copies of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in
Wonderland, Green Eggs and Ham and other classics is strong enough to overcome
quibbles about condition. “Even a book that lacks a page can be excessively
valuable,” says Justin Schiller, founder of a Manhattan rare children’s book
business that bears his name. He cites a purchase his firm made at auction a few
years ago of the earliest book of Mother Goose rhymes, published in 1744. It was
only the second copy known to exist; the other is in the British Library. “This
copy lacked a double page of text and illustrations, but we still paid about
$75,000 for it, and we had a bid from our client that was upward of $250,000,”
he says. “Imagine what it would have been worth had it been complete.” Bidding for Hogwarts
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series stands as
something of an anomaly in the collecting world, since the wild popularity of
the Potter novels has driven the price of some earlier books into the
stratosphere. The first U.K. edition, which appeared in June 1997 and bore the
title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, commands five figures, an
astonishing sum for a recent work of fiction. The Potter books show the effects
of the three criteria in action, particularly rarity. Since Rowling’s novel made
its debut in Britain, the Philosopher’s Stone is considered the most valuable of
its first editions. Only 500 copies were printed, further boosting its value.
The first U.S. edition, published in 1998 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, is also desirable, but not nearly as much so. This first edition numbered
50,000, and copies sell for $3,500 to $5,000. “I made a mistake on Harry
Potter,” says Bauman, who has never seen anything like the frenzy of interest it
sparked. “A client asked me to get him a signed first edition of Philosopher’s
Stone. The price was $28,000 then, one year after it came out,” she recalls. “I
said to him, ‘That’s crazy. I can’t advise you to spend that much on a year-old
book.’ But he insisted, and I said OK. Now that book is worth $50,000 to
$60,000. He was right. I was wrong.” Whether the book will retain its high value
is another question. Bauman believes it will: “If you’re building a children’s
library, Harry Potter has to be in it. It is also a very good book.”
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