I know it may seem passé in the age of iPads, eReaders and Kindles, but one of my passions is collecting books, especially investment classics. I didn’t know it at the time, but the first classic I read was in 1959 when I was 8 years old. It was my father Phil Fisher’s New York Times Best Seller Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. I complained about it cutting into my summer vacation and didn’t really understand it, but it probably sparked my love for investing books.
During my adult life I reckon that I have collected more than 1,000 books on investing alone. Many cost as little as a few dollars, and some were free because they were thought of as basically worthless by the seller in a yard sale or junk store. Classic books in classical fields are widely recognized by would-be collectors but not so much the ones I like to collect.
One of my favorites is a tiny book a quarter-inch thick called Stock Market Manipulation by Edwin Lefèvre. It looks like nothing, but it is probably worth $500 or more.
Another equally as valuable is my 1938 edition of Lefèvre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, complete with dust jacket. Mine was store-bought in 1996 for $30. (I also have 1923 first editions without the jacket.) Demand for this title grows as publishers keep creating new editions that sell well and promote early editions.
Of course Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s Security Analysis is an alltime classic. Good-quality first editions can cost $5,000 to $25,000. Here’s a book destined to gain in value: Roger Babson’s pre-1929 Business Barometers for Anticipating Conditions (see my Aug. 22, 2011 column). It now costs $5 to $30. But I think a good copy will be worth $500 in 20 years.
Continue reading.
During my adult life I reckon that I have collected more than 1,000 books on investing alone. Many cost as little as a few dollars, and some were free because they were thought of as basically worthless by the seller in a yard sale or junk store. Classic books in classical fields are widely recognized by would-be collectors but not so much the ones I like to collect.
One of my favorites is a tiny book a quarter-inch thick called Stock Market Manipulation by Edwin Lefèvre. It looks like nothing, but it is probably worth $500 or more.
Another equally as valuable is my 1938 edition of Lefèvre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, complete with dust jacket. Mine was store-bought in 1996 for $30. (I also have 1923 first editions without the jacket.) Demand for this title grows as publishers keep creating new editions that sell well and promote early editions.
Of course Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s Security Analysis is an alltime classic. Good-quality first editions can cost $5,000 to $25,000. Here’s a book destined to gain in value: Roger Babson’s pre-1929 Business Barometers for Anticipating Conditions (see my Aug. 22, 2011 column). It now costs $5 to $30. But I think a good copy will be worth $500 in 20 years.
Continue reading.
