The prices of Books on Tarot

Desecrated

The Happy Squirrel said:
Not necessarily. First edition Harry Potter is about $5000. It isn't special physically in any way other than it is a first edition. So in this case it's historical and literary (I.e. Content) context is valuable. Leather bound 200 year old books can be bought for $20. The Gutenberg bible is expensive not because it is leather bound or because it is old. Those are factors, yes. Bu the value mainly lies elsewhere too.
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"Hardcover first edition first printings of this 1997 book have become the ‘Holy Grail’ for Potter collectors. If you find one in the attic, then you’ve hit the jackpot. Only 500 were published and 300 went to libraries. "

I just went online to check with my dealers and I can get all the 7 books for 50 bucks. If I just want the normal editions.

So yeah, you can find a leather bound book cheap, but not if it was released in small numbers.
I can go out and get a Leather copy of Charles Dickinson for 20 bucks. But first edition, first print costs about £4,750.
And if you want to go for the really limited editions you have things like:
(DICKENS, Charles.) BROWNE, Hablot K.
Suite of 29 original drawings for Bleak House. 1853
£95,000
 

The Happy Squirrel

AJ said:
One rare one in "our field" so to speak is 13 Moons

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=163794&highlight="13+Moons"

I hunted forever for it, paid more than I was comfortable for it,



and found there was nothing in it for me... :)

Does that lessen it's value, or the fact it was easily sold on increase it's value

and what was valuable, the scarcity or the content?
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Both. at least from what I can see collecting bits and bobs books (I am not a serious collector). There are rare, old, out of print, nicely bound books that no one is interested in reading. So it doesn't sell. So the price remains low. Collecting is a funny thing. For example I heard of someone who collects oil rags. Yep. BUT. We are taking of the value of books here. Without the content a book is nothing. Once desired, if it is scarce, the price naturally goes up. How far up will depends on how much people are willing to pay for them I.e how high the perceived value is. I am sure there are people who collect books for its biding art. But probably obvious reasons this group is much smaller so the demands from that camp is smaller too and therefore prices are lower.

But books on tarot or other occult and esoteric subject matters is a very specialised area. Related to the previous comment about the quality of their general content, I also wonder if because it is such a narrow specialised area, the progress and development of its literature is slower too. So body of work accumulated very slowly. And so the gems amongst them are few and far between too.....
 
Recommendation please. Good comparative studies.