Antiquarian & rare books

I have a copy of Kathleen Norris's book: Mother.  It is signed.  The inscription reads:  To those who liked "Mother" many years ago and to the children of that day  who like her now-
  With my love-
                         Kathleen Norris

It has a jacket in very good condition and the pages are all in tact, yellowed with age.  I found a copy on this site without the jacket going for 150.00.  Any ideas what this one might be valued at? 

Thank you.

I just picked up a fair copy of Poe's 'The Raven' illustrated by Dore (1874 1st. edition HC) from a book shop here in downtown Detroit for $75!! I think it had been sitting there in the back of the top shelves for a while, as when I brought it up to pay for it, the owner of the shop rang me up, and hesitated at first, saying "You just got the deal of the decade."
HAHA...I had been looking for a copy of this Poe/Dore for a couple years now, and though I have found several, NONE were priced even close to $75.

Just thought I'd share my glory with you guys! Look on them top shelves...even if u have to go drag that ladder from 3 rows over!!

-S.G. Martin

I have signed copies of The Great Tree of Avalon Book III The Eternal Flame by T.A. Barron & Broken Prey by John Sandford. First Edition. How much would these books be worth? I am interested in selling these books.  Thanks for any help.

About half my collection has been in storage for more than a year *sob*. The one lesson I learned was to use smaller boxes that can be easily managed, assuming you will be lifting them yourself. Books can really rack up some weight in a hurry. Liquor boxes made for handling the weight of glass and liquid are great and small enough to do the job. Our liquor stores stack their empty boxes on the back loading docks and they almost always get carted off right away by movers. Depending on the type of room and the flooring you may want to stack them on pallets. You can usually get them for free if you look around at any company that does a lot of shipping. Giving them away is better than having to dispose of them. Don't forget to label them, because if you've got a lot and six months from now you really want to find something, you will be tearing your hair out and have books all over the place. Good luck.

Hi Everyone,
Recently I bought some acid-free mylar dust jacket covers from Highsmith.  They're the "E-Z Fit" covers with paper backing attached to the top of the mylar cover, open at the bottom.  The idea is to slide the dust jacket between the paper backing and mylar from the bottom, snug the dj across the top where the paper is sealed to the mylar, and fold up the bottoms of the mylar and paper to fit the bottom of the dj.

What I'm finding is that it's impossible for me to get a dj into the cover without leaving a visible line of the paper backing showing at the top.  The bottom snugs up OK but that's because I can fold it to fit.   However the top of the dj can't be forced into the top far enough to completely cover the backing.  That visible line of paper backing at the top looks lousy, especially if the dj is dark in color.

As luck would have it, I can't fold the top before inserting the jacket because then I won't have enough cover material left at the bottom to do the fold there.  This book has a huge jacket: 16" tall at the spine.  The largest Highsmith cover with paper backing is just large enough to accommodate it with no fold at the top and a very slight one at the bottom.  

I was wondering if there's some trick to getting the jacket snug at the top between the mylar and the paper backing.

If not, I guess I'll just start over from scratch with separate pieces of mylar and paper backing, and put it all together myself.  It defeats the purpose of "E-Z Fit" which is supposed to eliminate the need to attach the paper to the mylar at the top; but with the top sealed the way it is, it doesn't work well for me.

BTW this is that monstrous "Red Book" by Carl Jung.  If you buy it, I suggest that you check the binding carefully.  I went through a few returns before I got one that was adequately bound for the weight of the thing.  The first two started pulling away from the endpapers, cracking, and creasing as soon as I started reading the book - and I handle valuable books very carefully.  The binding is a little on the wimpy side for this massive book.

Thanks for your time reading this long message,
BoMoon

I was wondering if anybody knows if it is possible to have a softcover book made into a hard cover, leather-bound copy? I was told of a bookbinding company (McSpadden out of Shawnee, OK) that may do it, but I have not contacted them yet. I figured I'd try to get an answer on here first. Thanks!

-S.G. Martin