Collecting guides

In celebration of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America's (ABAA) 75th anniversary, we interview dealers who are breaking the mold and re-defining the art of book collecting.

Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) President, Alexander Akin, shares a beginner's guide to the art of book collecting.

Coffee-table books make exceptional gifts and collectibles. More than just books, they are gateways to other worlds, encapsulating the essence of art, culture, photography, literature page after page on a wide range of topics and interests. Beyond their gifting charm, they are also prized collectibles. Start or expand your collection with these rare and captivating editions.

In 1941, with Britain facing invasion by Germany, Collins published series of social history books called Britain in Pictures to create a record of British life. George Orwell, Graham Greene and Edith Sitwell were among the writers to contribute books. Today, these books are highly collectible.

Cosway bindings are beautiful books with miniature paintings inset into fine leather bindings. They are named after miniaturist portrait painter Richard Cosway. Bookselling firm Sotheran's invented the concept with Miss C.B. Currie providing the art.

Postcards were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories.

Move over Hemingway, Steinbeck and Twain. Humble cookbooks have become highly desirable in the book collecting world.

Learn about the most common abbreviations of book terms and more in the AbeBooks Book Collecting Guide

A popular way to narrow down a particularly broad area of interest is to focus on a specific time period. If you're a medical professional and find books about surgeries fascinating you might find it less daunting to begin collecting texts strictly from the Victorian era, for example.

Incunabula, also known as incunable and incunabulum, are printed materials, primarily books, created before the start of the 16th century. The printing era began with the creation of moveable type and the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Discover more about these early printed books which mark the start of mass communication.

Books are good but signed books are better. An autograph from your favorite author can turn a book into a collectible item and increase its value and desirability. Many collectors based their collections around signed books and they are a staple of the rare book business.

There are two main points to consider when looking at an illustration. Who created the illustration, and what artistic method did they use to create it?

Just as many materials can be used to bind books there are also many types of paper used to make book leaves. Without getting into the names for various thicknesses and modern paper types, here is a basic list of paper varieties used in antiquarian and luxury books.

A list of the best books about book collecting including guides for beginner and experienced book collectors. Discover John Carter’s classic ABC for Book Collectors, modern guides to book collecting in the Internet age, and how to identify first editions.

Ephemera are objects, usually made from paper, created to be used for a short time only - things designed to be temporary. Learn about examples of ephemera, including greeting cards, newspapers, magazines, maps, menus, letters and postcards, and vintage posters.

One popular theme for collections is books by your favorite author. This could be as simple as finding a single copy of every title published by your beloved writer, or the more specific goal of finding each first edition.

Some book collectors choose to focus all of their attention on a single title by a particular author. This may sound simple but can become a monumental task depending on the book in question. A classic work - like Shakespeare’s plays or Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales - will have been republished hundreds of times in various formats, with different illustrators and different cover art, by different publishers, in different countries, by different translators, and so forth.

Since the first goal of book collecting should be to collect books that you are interested in it shouldn't be much of a surprise that collections will often be built around a specific kind of fiction or non-fiction topic. Even if you do not consider yourself a "book collector" you can probably take a look at your bookshelves and find the beginnings of this kind of collection simply based on your reading tastes.

Fine presses, private presses and small presses vary from traditional publishing houses because of their size, scope and intention. Books produced by these publishers are often adored by collectors who desire books that are not run-of-the-mill.

A collection doesn’t have to be based around a particular author or subject matter, books themselves can be things of beauty and many collections are assembled because the books are presented as pieces of art. Art and literature have been closely linked for centuries, and artists can ply their trade on the cover, the binding and even the edges of the pages.

A pre-first edition is any limited run copy of a book printed before the first standard edition is published. These include advance(d) reader copies (ARCs), galleys, salesman’s editions, proofs and sometimes manuscripts. The importance of these editions varies from collector to collector - some enjoy seeing the evolution of a book from concept to publication while others are only interested in collecting the editions meant for public release.

AbeBooks sold a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for $88,140, one of only 500 copies printed. Do you have a valuable Harry Potter book? Learn more with our guide to collecting rare Harry Potter books.

Discover the world's most valuable children's books from The Hobbit first editions to Peter Pan's first appearance in a book.

New to art collecting? Use our glossary of art terms to help you understand the words and jargon used across the art world. From methods of painting to artistic movements, sculpture and types of fine art prints.

Vintage magazines appeal to people who have a particular interest in old paper, to be sure, but they are also collected for the specific content on and between their covers.

A book’s format refers to the shape and dimensions of the physical book. Learn more in our guide to book collecting.

It's easy to understand why people are interested in vintage airline posters that were designed to last for just a few months. The imagery, the colors, and the messaging that air travel was glamorous and accessible to all still catches the eye today.

The binding of a book describes the material that is used to make the upper (front) and lower (back) covers. Books are bound in all manner of materials including various papers, cloths, hides and even metals to increase aesthetic appeal or durability.

The Limited Editions Club of New York was started in 1929 by George Macy. At 29-years-old, he was an avid reader who wanted to make his living from books. His business revolved around publishing beautifully illustrated classic titles in relatively small quantities with club members paying a subscription.

The publication of folio-size sheets of American popular music dates to the late 18th century, but the practice didn't pick up steam until the 1830s, '40s, and '50s. That's when upright pianos first began to find their way into the parlors and salons of U.S. homes.