Posted on 04/26/2011 4:15:10 PM PDT by greatdefender
SALT LAKE CITY – Book dealer Ken Sanders has seen a lot of nothing in his decades appraising "rare" finds pulled from attics and basements, storage sheds and closets.
Sanders, who occasionally appraises items for PBS's Antiques Roadshow, often employs the "fine art of letting people down gently."
But on a recent Saturday while volunteering at a fundraiser for the small town museum in Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake, Sanders got the surprise of a lifetime.
"Late in the afternoon, a man sat down and started unwrapping a book from a big plastic sack, informing me he had a really, really old book and he thought it might be worth some money," he said. "I kinda start, oh boy, I've heard this before."
Then he produced a tattered, partial copy of the 500-year-old Nuremberg Chronicle.
The German language edition printed by Anton Koberger and published in 1493 is a world history beginning in biblical times. It's considered one of the earliest and most lavishly illustrated books of the 15th century.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
GGG PING!
"I'll give ya $150 bucks for it."
How about 300? :p
LOL! You beat me to it. The first thing I thought of was Pawn Stars.
"The last 500 year old book we had in sat on the shelf for over a year, and I'm gonna have to pay someone to fix this thing up. I just don't see any money here.... $150 Bucks".....
I love these two quotes from the article:
“But what’s it actually worth? Turns out, not much.”
“Because of this book’s tattered state, Windle said it’s likely worth less than $50,000.”
Oh gee. Only 50K. Too bad.. I thought he had something there. LOL!
“Honestly, I just don’t know enough about this stuff to even put a price on it. Lemme call a buddy of mine...”
Interesting. I’ll bet it came back in some GI’s dufflebag in 1946.
I collect books. My oldest book is a text book. It's signed and dated by the previous owner, Feb. 11, 1890.
Helen Thomas’ High School Yearbook?
If it was borrowed from a library, somebody owes about a trillion dollars in fines.
That is pretty cool. I bought a Bible circa 1900 at a flea market. It has a page stating "Our Public School Bible". What a rare find. Still have it. It is on display at my kids school.
I don't know.... $50k just doesn't go very far these days. It's just barely enough to fill up the car with gas, go out to eat at a nice restaurant, get some groceries, and buy off a politician. Sometimes you can score a 'two-fer' with the nice meal and buying the politician by landing tickets to a $25k per plate fund raiser.
From the title I thought it might be the original book of Mormon :)
I have a Webster’s dictionary, bindings have come loose, set of 2 (A-L and M-Z) dated 1935, big books with colored plates of flags, flowers, etc. and they were only 50 cents each years ago at a thrift shop. Read somewhere they are much sought after by designers for the colored plates (state flowers, etc.) Have no doubt I could get a whopping 40 cents each from the right buyer.
My school has a shelf of Euclidean geometry books from the 1880s in the classroom we use for detentions. When I am taking detention, I make the boys copy out pages from the books - they really hate it.
Jeez, it’s spotting and falling apart and I can get an electronic version on my kindle for ten bucks, so I can’t see any value here....
Gotta love how “Not much” is $50,000.
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