I’m not a fan of collecting things for their own sake, but I have to admit that I have started to become a collector of old mining supply books. I have two books, one from the late 1800s which was an absolutely amazing, lucky find, being the first in a popular series, and another from 1937. I also have a book from the 20s that features mining improvements, no doubt published to push the sale of such equipment.
These appear to have become more scarce in recent years, and records show quite a number selling in the early 2010s. I’m no antiquarian, but these days I tend to only see those that were produced in large quantities. The others have disappeared off the market.
And what I find is that many people selling these books are absolutely clueless as to their value.
My buying limit is somewhere in the range of $50-120. That “zero” edition I bought for around $80. What I didn’t know is that another copy of this, in far worse condition, sold for $600 several years ago (to be fair, another sold for around $150). The 1930s book I bought was maybe less, I think around $60. Some fool, no, TWO fools, have listed newer copies for over $300. I want to say, “ARE you stupid? Or do you really just think that if you hold out long enough, somebody will bite?” It’s like they never bothered to do any research whatsoever. They might have had it in their storage, or bought it with other things at an auction, and assumed that simply because it was old it must be worth a lot. Rookie mistake.
Mind you, that “mining improvements” book I bought had the symbol “2.00” written on the inside of the cover, meaning it was probably sold for $2. It was then listed for $20, and I paid that. It’s entirely possible that person was thinking how much of a sucker I must have been to pay that when they only paid $2, but the truth is, bargains are rare, and it takes an awful lot of time to find them, and time is money. If anything, I’m the one who came out with the deal, as all I did was plug some keywords into eBay. Granted, looking at old stuff is cool, so I’m hoping the seller was the sort of person who had fun doing that. Really, for the hassle of finding that sort of thing, listing it, and shipping it, it was a good price, but nobody’s getting rich selling $20 antique books. I’m just glad they decided to sell it instead of chucking it in the trash.
$300. Ha! Ha-ha! Oh, man, that’s rich.
However, right now I’m in a small conundrum. I found an antique store that has a very important, very rare mining book from the 1880s, but it’s $900. Now, with something like that, you barter: do not pay full price unless you have to and really want it. Wanting something too much puts you at a disadvantage. I think a lot of these antique stores like having items like that (locked in cases, mind you), as it contributes to the mood of the store, but they also don’t stay in business by keeping glass cases full of things that nobody is buying. Right now, I can’t quite stomach the thought of spending even a few hundred on a book like that, but don’t think I’m not considering it. It wouldn’t be wrong for me to buy that, but the opportunity costs are all up in my grill, and this is a healthy thing. Just because I have the money, doesn’t mean I should spend it. I can buy a lot of backpacking gear with that money, and that gear can actually get me to some of these mines, so there’s always that to consider.
But this $900 is actually a pretty fair price. Another one just like it sold for $700 many years ago. Considering inflation, the historical value, rarity, and the fact that it’s probably been leeching AC and heat from the store for many years, well, that’s not an unreasonable price at all. I saw another selling online for over $1,000, so yeah. Those guys have the price pretty spot on, I think.
I guess I could have called this post “antique economics”, but I’m not that invested in antiques. Not yet.
All that to say, old crap can be very expensive, but YOUR old crap is probably not worth very much. You have to do your research, or it’s just going to sit on eBay. The people who know their price points and who actually know the market value for their crap are the people who make sales. Those are the people I buy from. And truly, honestly, most things do not hold value well over the years. Just because old stuff sometimes sells for high prices doesn’t mean it has appreciated over the years. And don’t collect old crap unless you have a vested aesthetic or research goal in owning said old crap. The Babbitt metal I found on my grandma’s farm is only worth $10 if I sell it, but it’s worth a lot more to me because it came from the family farm and has an intriguing history (my grandpa never used Babbitt).
Old stuff only has the value that is ascribed to it. It is not inherently valuable. Don’t forget this!