{"id":200990,"date":"2025-09-05T01:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200990\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T01:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:08:11","slug":"first-edition-book-of-mormon-auction-ends-with-240000-sale-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200990\/","title":{"rendered":"First-edition Book of Mormon auction ends with $240,000 sale \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon sold for $240,000<\/a> Thursday at an auction hosted by Potter & Potter Auctions in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Reid Moon \u2014 owner and collector of books, documents and artifacts at Moon\u2019s Rare Books<\/a> in Utah \u2014 told the Deseret News the $240,000 sale price is a record, as a first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon \u201chas never sold for more than $200,000 at auction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous high was set in 2007<\/a>, when a copy with provenance sold for $180,000.<\/p>\n

That copy had belonged to Orson Pratt, a former apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n

Yet having submitted a final bid of $180,000 \u2014 or $216,000 with fees \u2014 for the recently sold copy himself, Moon said he was \u201cnot really surprised\u201d to see the copy sell for \u201calmost a quarter-million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s never a copy just sitting out there on somebody\u2019s website waiting to be sold. I literally have dozens of people on a waiting list waiting for a copy,\u201d he said. \u201cI would not be surprised to see a first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon sell for $1 million in the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moon explained it\u2019s long been assumed that roughly 10% of the 5,000 first-edition copies printed in 1830 by E.B. Grandin in Palmyra, New York, had survived. Yet, the fact that he has sold more than 300 copies in the past 25 years leads him to believe the number of surviving copies is closer to 750 to 800, he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A first edition of the Book of Mormon (1830) is on display as part of the Foundations of Faith exhibit at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News <\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand has accelerated in the past year,\u201d Moon explained, \u201cwith demand far outstripping supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

For context, Moon shared that a first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon usually sells for more than a first-edition \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d by Jane Austen or a first-edition set of \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d by J.R.R. Tolkien. These typically sell for roughly $150,000 or $100,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

As for a comparison with other first-edition religious texts such as the King James and Gutenberg bibles, price trends for these two texts differ because of availability. <\/p>\n

For instance, Moon explained that the price of a first-edition King James Bible has remained \u201cfairly constant\u201d at about $100,000\u2013$150,000, seeing there are always several copies available for sale. In contrast, a first-edition Gutenberg Bible \u2014 of which a complete copy has not been sold in almost 50 years \u2014 is \u201cexcessively rare.\u201d And if sold today, Moon said it would likely sell for $25\u201350 million.<\/p>\n

Having recently visited the Library of Congress<\/a> \u2014 the largest library in the world, located in Washington D.C. \u2014 Moon also shared he learned that the most requested book<\/a> to see there is a first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is out of over 25 million cataloged books,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

From his experience, Moon estimates that more than 90% of purchases for first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon have been made by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The other 10% have been made by institutions and other persons interested in the book\u2019s historical significance.<\/p>\n