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1965 Cormac McCarthy's "The Orchard Keeper," 1st Edition with Fake Cover

Value (2010) | $100 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
My grandpa's brother died and there were some boxes of books and some of the family members were allowed to, you know, take stuff; I got the books. I haven't read the book, so... don't ask me what it's about. But he had put some of the books in protective plastic. Some of the books had writing on the inside, and so I chose those.

APPRAISER:
It's an interesting thing. When you get collectors that are collecting the modern first editions-- and when I say modern, I'm almost talking the last 70, 80, 90 years-- their dust jacket is the be-all and end-all. You open the book up, and you have the title page. It's in good condition. It's a first edition. But, when you collect this type of book, the dust jacket is almost the whole value. So, one of the items I check for first is a lot of times someone will clip out the price. This has the price. That's very, very good. Another thing that I did is I looked at the jacket, and it's a little hard to see, but the book underneath this is green. And the color of the book bled through on this edge right here. And I opened it up and there's no color underneath here.

GUEST:
Okay, so it didn't bleed through.

APPRAISER:
It didn't bleed through. One of the things that you run into nowadays is where the dust jacket is 90% of the value, there are many people who, sometimes they do it purposely, and they'll copy a dust jacket. They can do it incredibly well nowadays, but it's a copy.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
Or people bought the book and, not trying to defraud anybody, not trying to fake anything, but they just wanted a nice dust jacket on the book.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
One or the other of this happened on this book because if the color had bled through, it absolutely had to be on the other side of it.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
So this is a high-quality reproduction of the dust jacket. Also, the reproduction was taken from a library at some point because you can see that there was some type of library stamp here. So, the book, as it is, with a dust jacket that's not right, is worth, retail, $100 or so. It's not a terribly valuable book. But when you first brought this to me, and I looked at it and I saw this beautiful dust jacket, unclipped, I was saying, "That's a $3,500 book."

APPRAISER:
It was originally worth five dollars, it was free to me, so if it's a hundred-dollar book, you know, it's a hundred-dollar book.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Ken Gloss
Books & Manuscripts
Brattle Book Shop
Boston, MA
Appraised value (2010)
$100 Retail
Featured In
Des Moines, Hour 1 (#1507)
Event
Des Moines, IA (August 07, 2010)
Category
Books & Manuscripts
Period
20th Century
Form
Book
Material
Paper

Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."

Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.

Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.

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