QUESTION: I have a copy of The Adventurer by Mika Waltari, 1950, that goes for $15 to $60 on Amazon. I discovered two black-and-white photographs of the author stamped “G.P. Putnam’s Sons” on the back, probably mass produced. How can I find out if the photos are worth anything? Should I keep them with the book or separate them? I did a search on Google and Ask.com, but didn’t get anywhere.
ANSWER: I’m betting what you have is a review copy of the book, along with the author’s publicity photos from the press packet sent with the review copies. Fortunately, instead of the reviewer throwing the photos in the trash, they stayed with the book.
It’s really nice to have the photos, but if they’re not signed they’re probably not worth anything in themselves since thousands were probably sent out with the review copies. If you didn’t turn up anything on Google there probably isn’t a big market for this author’s photos. There does seem to be decent interest in that book “The Adventurer” after all these years though.
I’ve had a similar situation to this a couple times, and what I did was list the book as “collectible” and explained the book came with the original author publicity photos. So it allowed me to get another $10 or $15 for the book.
If I were you, I’d add a second collectible listing under this book’s mass-market paperback listing on Amazon, giving you double the exposure. Just don’t forget to delete the second listing when the first one sells!
So it’s not a windfall, but look at the bright side. Your listing will be super-competitive with the competition, who has plain old copies of the book. Sooner or later a fan will find it, thanks to Internet searching and Amazon.
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3 Comments
As a general rule, anything extra sssociated with a book will increase its value if sold along with the book, but such items are usually worthless if sold separately> I am thinking of stuff like your photos, publicity material sent out with the bok by the publisher, etc.
Dick Thurston
I didn’t think you could list an item under 2 separate headings simultaneously unless you have both actually in stock.
Am I wrong?
I do this frequently, George: Put a collectible listing under two or three of the available formats of the title. If it’s collectible under the hardcover, it’s collectible under the paperback, plus it can get more exposure listed with the paperback.