Book collecting

A collection of the first Harry Potter novel became the third most expensive sale on AbeBooks of all time. Plus: More iconic children's books, Shakespeare, Frankenstein, and more.

In celebration of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America's (ABAA) 75th anniversary, we interview dealers who are breaking the mold and re-defining the art of book collecting.

Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) President, Alexander Akin, shares a beginner's guide to the art of book collecting.

An iconic collection from Romantic poet Lord Byron, special editions from literary titans James Joyce and George Orwell, plus a handwritten manuscript from Salvador Dalí.

Classic literature, poetry, a bank check and more.

Literary masterpieces, fantasy, poetry, a comic strip, and more.

A spectacular, 1,200 year old manuscript, iconic works by Oscar Wilde, T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell, and more fantastic books sold by expert sellers.

Welcome to our most expensive sales in April, May and June 2023. Our list features illustrated books, signed books, autographs, original art, a manuscript, and a rare facsimile.

Our list includes a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which became AbeBooks’ second most expensive sale of all time.

The list includes a book about Italian architecture and a landmark book about the stock market. There is also an illustrated poetry book and a famous novel about time travel.

Books of Hours were medieval bestsellers. Sandra Hindman, an expert on medieval manuscripts, explains why these books were, and still are, so important.

Discover collectible editions of famous children's books with this list of first editions from authors who either won a Newbery Medal or received Honors.

Discover AbeBooks' most expensive sales in 2021. This list includes a rare illustrated book from the Wild West containing a grim reminder that crime doesn’t pay, an autograph letter from a German author whose writing inspired one of the great ballets, and life advice from Yoko Ono.

You don't need to purchase expensive first editions of famous novels or books signed by Nobel Prize winners to have an outstanding rare book collection. If you want to collect books on a budget, here are five ways to acquire affordable collectible books.

Move over Hemingway, Steinbeck and Twain. Humble cookbooks have become highly desirable in the book collecting world.

The first edition of Salem's Lot with its original dust jacket is the Holy Grail for collectors of Stephen King books.

AbeBooks' list of most expensive sales in July, August and September 2020 features dinosaurs, the wife of a Beatle, a play that flopped, a piece of pop art, the definitive Beat Generation novel, a book signed by 124 movie stars, and a set of legal thrillers.

Without doubt, The Savoy Cocktail Book is the coolest book in the world.

AbeBooks' list of most expensive sales in January, February and March 2020 features some eye-catching items and covers subjects such as surrealism, American politics, forestry, and spying. However, the ninth item on our list is truly special - the biggest, heaviest book that has ever sold on AbeBooks.

Learn about the most common abbreviations of book terms and more in the AbeBooks Book Collecting Guide

A popular way to narrow down a particularly broad area of interest is to focus on a specific time period. If you're a medical professional and find books about surgeries fascinating you might find it less daunting to begin collecting texts strictly from the Victorian era, for example.

Incunabula, also known as incunable and incunabulum, are printed materials, primarily books, created before the start of the 16th century. The printing era began with the creation of moveable type and the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Discover more about these early printed books which mark the start of mass communication.

Books are good but signed books are better. An autograph from your favorite author can turn a book into a collectible item and increase its value and desirability. Many collectors based their collections around signed books and they are a staple of the rare book business.

There are two main points to consider when looking at an illustration. Who created the illustration, and what artistic method did they use to create it?

Just as many materials can be used to bind books there are also many types of paper used to make book leaves. Without getting into the names for various thicknesses and modern paper types, here is a basic list of paper varieties used in antiquarian and luxury books.

A list of the best books about book collecting including guides for beginner and experienced book collectors. Discover John Carter’s classic ABC for Book Collectors, modern guides to book collecting in the Internet age, and how to identify first editions.

One popular theme for collections is books by your favorite author. This could be as simple as finding a single copy of every title published by your beloved writer, or the more specific goal of finding each first edition.

Some book collectors choose to focus all of their attention on a single title by a particular author. This may sound simple but can become a monumental task depending on the book in question. A classic work - like Shakespeare’s plays or Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales - will have been republished hundreds of times in various formats, with different illustrators and different cover art, by different publishers, in different countries, by different translators, and so forth.

Since the first goal of book collecting should be to collect books that you are interested in it shouldn't be much of a surprise that collections will often be built around a specific kind of fiction or non-fiction topic. Even if you do not consider yourself a "book collector" you can probably take a look at your bookshelves and find the beginnings of this kind of collection simply based on your reading tastes.