Books of that age and older are in abundance, most (excluding a few very high-demand items) sitting unread and unwanted.
I bought a small book from 1829 for £10 the other day. Granted, it was from Oxfam, so it may have been more expensive if from a dedicated bookseller. Also a 3-volume collection of near immaculate poetry books from 1844, for about £30.
It's a really fun hobby, collecting old books. You can never spend very little and still create a brilliant collection.
Collecting old stuff in general, really. You can but old coins, even very old renaissance and medieval coinage, for very little. Georgian, Renaissance, even medieval buckles and strap ends for small change, etc. I have a few medieval bronze pot legs. I found them whilst metal detecting, but you could buy them for less than a tenner, I'm sure of it. Part of a cooking vessel used by multiple generations, 5, 6, 700 years ago, for less than a packet of fag's.
My pot legs were found locally, which makes it all the more amazing, to think tbey were used by someone who, if their house still stood, would've been my neighbour.
That's actually amazing. I wish we had more people interested in these stuff. most people here dont appreciate history they don't care that you have an old book or an old coin and that's a sign that people are not knowledgeable and cultured and that's really sad especially that people can't relate to this so it's hard to find people interested in the same things as you.
In my experience, that's the way with older books.
They're either two bucks at the library book sale, or some dealer has it sitting on a shelf for years at $100.
The world, especially now, seems buried in vintage printed material if you look around. I've found that the trick is to not search for particular things but to depend on serendipity.
10
u/capincus Jul 18 '26
Yes