Advice sought: Old Guidebooks - collectors?

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 Spike 20 Jan 2021

HI all

after some advice - are there guidebook collectors out there?

My folks are moving house and have some climbing guidebooks which much be 50 years old I guess. Do these have any value (either financial or interest or both)? If they do I will try to sell them on here (but I'm not doing that through this post)

I hope I have managed to save some photos of them at this picture sharing site

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DCKaVvKR5NQBtHFJA

Thanks

S

 mrphilipoldham 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

They'll definitely have value and I'd be particularly interested in some of the older grit ones

OP Spike 20 Jan 2021
In reply to mrphilipoldham:

thanks - I have one also for Borrowdale (bently beetham guide, illustrated by W Heaton Cooper), not in the photos but similar look to the other Lakes ones, a Second Series which has an editors note from 1953, so I'm guessing the rest will be within a few years either side of that.

Would be good to know roughly what they might be worth (I know this is a tough one) and then I can advise my folks.

cheers

 mrphilipoldham 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

Anecdotal here but I paid about £10 for the old green Laddow guide previously, and about £15 for the Kinder one of the same vintage.. both in pretty good condition. But I've seen them online for double that also, whether the condition was any better is unknown but I wouldn't have paid much more anyway, personally speaking. They do crop up on eBay from time to time, if you search for 'completed listings' then you might get a decent idea of what they might sell for 

 deacondeacon 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

I'll give you a tenner for the red Sheffield area book 🙂

 Bob Aitken 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

Maybe worth trying David Price, see https://cockerelbooks.com/Default.aspx

 DerwentDiluted 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

I listed several hundred old guides on here for what I thought were reasonable prices, mostly £3 -10 area. A lot went, so as long as you have realistic expectations about prices and describe the condition adequately then you should shift a fair few.

 Mark Stevenson 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

I've been collecting, buying and selling old guidebooks for about 15 years. 

As already mentioned, most of them are worth between £3-£10, however there are a few there potentially probably worth £15 or even £20 each.

The FRCC and Climber's Club hardback are pretty common so value depends largely on condition, so they are all probably at the lower end. The hardback Peak District guides (other than the Laddow one) tend to be rather more sought after so the Sheffield guide is definitely worth a tenner, although probably not a great amount more.

The rarest ones are generally the pamphlets.

I'll drop you a message about a couple. 

Post edited at 16:47
OP Spike 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

Thanks all for your help.

I'll relay the info to my folks and once I have the books in my hands (as soon as travel is allowed and is sensible) I will give a better description and get in touch with those who have expressed an interest in specific ones. May also have some other books as they clear through items from 50 years ago, already have 2 full length ice axes and an original "joe brown helmet"

S

 Offwidth 21 Jan 2021
In reply to deacondeacon:

Cheeky..... they go for over a hundred if in good nick. 

3
 Offwidth 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Spike:

You need to look online, especially ABE books...  sadly climbers can't resist a bargain and will offer well below the current price levels. Of the first series gritstone only Laddow tends to be cheap (below £20 for a copy in good condition). 

 Mark Stevenson 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Offwidth:

> Cheeky..... they go for over a hundred if in good nick. 

No they really don't!

You've fallen into the classic trap of thinking that an online advertised price for certain items has any relation to actual sale prices.

They don't sell for £100 - if they actually sold for that money, you would not still find them listed for that amount on abebooks.co.uk, they'd all be sold! 

I'd also be about £500 better off as I've sold seven copies in the Series in good or very good condition in the last year for £20-£40. 

Online prices for things like antiques and antiquarian books only tell you what things ARE NOT selling for. Some guides do genuinely sell for hundreds (e.g. Laycock's Some Gritstone Climbs) but because they DO sell, there aren't ever any copies for sale. 

Some copies of Gritstone guides listed by at least three prominent book dealers have been on abebooks for over TEN years and still haven't sold. Traditional antiquarian book dealers work on turning over as little as 10% of their stock per year so are absolutely not in any rush to sell and their prices reflect that. 

Private sellers rarely have the luxury of either waiting years or, as the large online book sellers do, listing at a speculative price and then gradually reducing it over a period of weeks.

That said, something is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Admittedly these days it can seem rather hit and miss and super dependent on whether some opaque algorithm puts the advert in front of enough people's phone screen. Loads of people are content to make impulse buys with doing the slightest research, so despite having a clear personal view of the intrinsic value of certain items, I'm continually surprised how much over the odds certain things sell for!

FWIW I'd feel guilty asking for much more than £15 plus postage for a copy in that condition, but some vintage Climbers' Club guides I advertised recently would have sold half a dozen times over within a morning so maybe I'm guilty of selling things for slightly too little...

Post edited at 12:01
 deacondeacon 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Offwidth:

> Cheeky..... they go for over a hundred if in good nick. 

It wasn't cheeky, I genuinely thought it would be worth £5-£10 (still do to be honest).

I'm in no way a collector, but I have around 200 guidebooks, from all eras and have never paid more than a tenner for any second hand ones.

Spike: if you can get £100 for it, you go for it. 

 Offwidth 21 Jan 2021
In reply to deacondeacon:

Thee are two editions of Sheffield Area an original (1951) and a revised (1956). A very good condition original edition is quite rare and sought after. You can pick them up cheap but only if people don't know what they are selling, need to sell quickly or are being kind (a bit pointless in my view: better to  give copies to those keen on history but with no spare cash). Booksellers have to make money so will offer less but usually set a price that will sell.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/climbs-gritstone-volume-sheffi...

2
 Offwidth 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Mark Stevenson:

Yes climbers who watch and wait can get bargains. That means they have been lucky enough to pay less than the real value of the book. £20 to £40 for a volume in that series in good condition is fair (but good value for the purchaser) except Sheffield Area 1951 and West Yorkshire (both normally more expensive) and Laddow (normally cheaper). I collect some categories of guidebooks and have friends who are very keen collectors and they know pretty much all the major booksellers who specialise in climbing guidebooks and they say their books are usually priced at competitive levels

Post edited at 15:58
2
 deacondeacon 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Offwidth:

Ive just had a look and I have a green 1951 edition, in pretty good condition.

It has M. Ablethorpe's name handwritten on the cover but googling him I just get loads of websites for Mablethorpe. 

 Offwidth 22 Jan 2021
In reply to deacondeacon:

Mine has Geoffrey Sutton. Not quite entirely sure it is THE Geoff Sutton, author and manager of White Hall

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/rediscovered-tv-film-of-climbing-history


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...