<\/p>\n
Renee Woodleigh says she bought the book at the St Vincent de Paul op shop in Huonville. (Facebook: Collect O’Maniac)<\/p>\n
Ms Woodleigh told ABC Radio Hobart<\/a> she had decided to sell the book, and had already attracted a potential buyer after advertising it online for $44,000.<\/p>\n But there are many variables when it comes to what makes a book worth tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n A Tasmanian expert says it comes down to the story of the copy of the book itself.<\/p>\n A lesson in never giving away a book<\/p>\n Toby Wools-Cobb owns Launceston’s Quixotic Books, which he describes as a “curious, niche” shop specialising in “hard-to-find” books.<\/p>\n He once had his own brush with a classic children’s book worth tens of thousands of dollars, when a customer came in seeking a copy of a Roald Dahl first edition.<\/p>\n “It was a very limited, 100-print run that were given only to [Dahl’s] friends,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mr Wools-Cobb said. Toby Wools-Cobb describes himself as a “detective for books”. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n “And I was there going ‘Oh, gosh, good luck ever finding it.'”<\/p>\n But Mr Wools-Cobb said he was able to track down a copy that was for sale for about $60,000.<\/p>\n “And this gentleman laughs because he then tells me he actually had that copy, but he had given it to a friend when moving house 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n “He was kicking himself that he just gave it away.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n An inscribed copy of The Gremlins by Roald Dahl. (Supplied: www.raptisrarebooks.com)<\/p>\n First editions, misprints and censorship<\/p>\n Mr Wools-Cobb said although the book was a case of a first-edition run being highly valuable, other print editions and variations could also be highly prized.<\/p>\n Many of the things that may make a book attractive or appear valuable have little to do with its actual value.<\/p>\n “A lot of people equate being old and looking nice to being valuable, and that is not necessarily the case,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mr Wools-Cobb said.<\/p>\n “You have got to go with scarcity of copy runs, or the attachment of a particular print run with a sort of personality.”<\/p>\n Toby Wools-Cobb says it is difficult to judge a book by its cover. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n In the case of The Hobbit and other famous books, the first edition became valuable in retrospect because it, The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien himself became beloved.<\/p>\n Op shop purchase of The Hobbit could be worth thousands<\/a><\/p>\n A woman who bought a copy of The Hobbit from an op shop in the 1990s says even then she suspected it could be worth a considerable amount \u2014 experts now say it could be worth tens of thousands.<\/p>\n “It’s not like a rare mineral that just by being a book with some paper in it, that suddenly makes it astronomically valuable,” Mr Wools-Cobb said.<\/p>\n “It’s always about, ‘does that first printing, first edition, have a story.'”<\/p>\n Mr Wools-Cobb said “the famous case” was people believing they had a first edition print run of the first book in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series \u2014 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone \u2014 not knowing there were multiple print runs of the first edition.<\/p>\n “Or there might be other kinds of first editions of The Philosopher’s Stone,” he said.<\/p>\n “You’ve got the American first edition and you’ve got the UK first edition, which will have different spellings.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The UK first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (Supplied: www.raptisrarebooks.com)<\/p>\n Mr Wools-Cobb said there were famous cases where books were valuable because they were initially printed with typing errors \u2014 known as “errata” in the industry.<\/p>\n The forced cancellation of a print run for cultural reasons may have also made first editions particularly valuable in retrospect.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n