Time for a New Home Scavenger Hunt!
FIRST EDITION & VALUABLE BOOKS
What’s the deal with “First Edition”
To put it simply, a “first edition” refers to the first time a book is published. It can mean the first time ever published anywhere in the world, the first printing in America, or even the first printing in a language different from the original. The first edition tends to be the rarest because it is the earliest or because the first time tends to have the fewest copies printed. This is the first step in judging a book's value.
Huh?
Gently open the book. Flip over any blank pages until you come to the title page. It will show the title, the author’s name and sometimes, the publishing date. The back of this page is where you will find the info we’re looking for. Here are edition details that will list the edition and publisher’s info. 
Antique and Vintage Books- Codebreaking
Don’t be surprised if the date is written in Roman numerals. Older volumes may have Roman numerals to indicate the publishing date.

This is a good time to brush up on them since they can do double duty on improving your crossword puzzle answering skills!
Star Power
As long as you’re on the first pages, how about looking to see if it’s signed by the author?

Any signed edition, but especially a signed first edition increases the book’s value.

An extraordinary example of this is A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway example: It has the original slipcase, it's signed, and this 1929 edition was limited to 510 copies.
Got one of these? It's worth around $18,000!
Two More Crazy Good Examples
A rare, magnificently illustrated, hand-printed copy of ''The First Book of Urizen'' by William Blake, which has been hidden away in a private collection sold for $2.5 million.
Birds of America, James Audubon. In 2000, one of only 119 known complete copies in the world, of Birds in America for $8,802,500. Ten years later, another complete first edition was sold for $11.5 million! 
Old Isn't Everything
Book of the Month Club editions are not generally valuable because they are later editions printed in large quantities, so you can donate those along with Readers Digest condensed editions.
Condition
Most hard cover books published since the early 20th century, originally had a dust jacket. The dust jacket is often the most decorative but also the most delicate part of a book. A missing or damaged dust jacket will significantly cut the book’s value.

Older books did not have paper dust jackets, but had a variety of specialty bindings like Morocco (a type of goatskin) leather and marbled papers. Wealthy people often had their books custom bound in one style so their libraries had all matching volumes!

These books are more difficult to evaluate but we will be happy to help you! Just email photos and descriptions to info@converseauctions.com or call 610-722-9004. 

More importantly, even if your books don't add to your bank account, they are priceless in how much they enrich our lives!