First decent book find! Catcher in the Rye!

[Spartcom5]

Hey guys found my first decent book today at an antique store. Pretty happy about this one. Paid $3 for it and looks like it sells for quite a bit more. Not too much but still for $3 I'll take it! Cool thing about mine is that it still has the original book club insert which are hard to find, don't have pic sorry. I remember reading this thing in high school like 3 years ago. Only bad problem is that it got a little mold on the top, luckily just on the top and didn't leach into the pages. Called a rare book dealer and he said to basically take it outside and wipe with a dry cloth, I did and a good amount came off. Just looking at some on eBay and unless I'm looking at the wrong thing they go for a decent amount! This one is expensive because of the picture on the back, it's a first dust jacket edition, unfortunately not the insanely expensive first edition like this one First Edition Stated First Printing The Catcher in The Rye Salinger July 1951 | eBay
These are mine....
The Catcher in The Rye by J D Salinger BCE 1951 Hardcover 0316769533 | eBay 1951 Catcher in The Rye by JD Salinger First BCE with First State Dust Jacket | eBay
Here is my book, note this is pre mold cleaning.

Never thought I'd be happy to buy a book after buying books for college classes....

 

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[Spartcom5]

Doesn't sunlight kill mold as well? If only the sun were anywhere to be found lol.....

 

[vpnavy]

 

[GarageSaleKing]

I've never had too much luck with books. Sometimes, you can make money on college textbooks and other collectible books, but it is rare to find good ones. Last season, I bought 6 books from an old lady. They were old books. Inside the books, she had marked high prices. She said it was what they were worth but she didn't sell on the internet. She only wanted $1 each for them. I bought them all because one of them was marked over $100. I was thinking to myself, even if it is only worth 20 or 30, it is still worth it. The others were all marked in the 10 to 50 dollar range.Turns out, the over 100 dollar one is only worth $5. The others, not worth listing. They will be going to my annual garage sale, where I will try to get 1 dollar each for them.

 

[Spartcom5]

Yea, I normally don't buy books at all but sometimes I'll pick one or two up and look them up. Got lucky on this one. Rare book store near me said he'd value it at $40-50, saleability on this one is very high as well! $3 well spent.

 

[treasurekidd]

Nice result for a $3 score. Great job!

 

[WesP]

I remember reading it freshman year 1962............

 

[Spartcom5]

The story behind the value of this book is that the picture on the back was removed because Salinger didn't want his picture on the back anymore, he was very reclusive apparently. So only the early copies/editions have the picture where as the later ones don't.

 

[DizzyDigger]

The actual 1st Ed. was not a BOMC, rather BOMC used the 1st Ed. plates
for printing.

Here are the points for confirming a true, First Ed. of that work:

First Edition Criteria and Points to identify The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

[Spartcom5]

YeS, thanks for the link! I know mine is just the early book club edition, already confirmed it's not the true first edition. That's why it's worth $50 or so and not in the hundreds lol! Dang! First thing I did when I found the book was to look for the first edition mark. At least it's still a true early dust jacket with the picture!

 

[cyberdan]

I remember reading it freshman year 1962............

You beat me by 2 years. I thought I was the old man here.

Do I know you? I just moved out of Brea. I belonged to a great MD club in Garden grove, they meet next week and a gold prospectors club in Brea. I think meet this saturday.

 

[kcm]

Dang Spartcom, you're still a YOUNG pup!! ...But then I'm not quite the old codger that Was and Dan are.

Good find on the book. We normally don't look at books, other than cook books. Found a cookbook last year that we got for a few dollars, but saw for sale online for $20 or $30 up to over $200. But we don't let potential value dictate whether we're interested or not. Wife just likes collecting cook books. ...As well as a million other things!!

 

[GibH]

My best book scores tend to be non-fiction stuff. Still waiting for that retirement type find though.

 

[dejapooh]

I do extremely well with books on Amazon. I sell about 200 a year for at least $10 each. I've sold a few for over $100. Rarely pay more than $1.

 

[scaupus]

Good catch. Yes, it's possible to make money on books.

 

[sprailroad]

I use to search out some "junk" stores, looking for older First Editions, they are out there, but then I searched for "Signed" First Editions, and had found at least a few, and THAT was like searching for the needle in a "field" of haystack's. It's like an indoor treasure hunt. Ya never know.