I recently purchased one of these limited edition books signed by Ken Bressett for 70 dollars + s&h. I haven't been able to bring myself to remove the cellaphane* from the book to find out what number I got, but I do know its atleast one of the first 2500 cuz 2 days later I saw them trying to sell it still (which surprised me cuz I was sure they would sell out fast) and said they had already sold over 2500 and had less than 500 left. I was wondering If I had been made a fool or if anyone else purchased this book. I would take a picture of it, but I don't have any place on the net as of yet to store images. When I do finally bring myself to open it up I'll let you know what number I got. Hopefully It will be under 1000, although I have no clue if that would change the value any. hmm. I wonder if the value does change as the number goes up. I personally have a feeling that this book will double in value by next year, but that could just be a good sales pitch that worked on me . Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. When I do open it up and find out I am going to close it right back up and stick it in a vacuum sealed bag and hide it in a drawer somewhere.
To tell you the truth,I was tempted for the first time to buy this from Home Shopping Network but I resisted the devil's call.That being said,I'm a bit jealous of you 'cause they're beautiful.Did you see that Robert Chambers kept #0000? That rat..LOL
Personally, I think you are going a little overboard with a book. Sure, it's signed; got gold leafing on the ends of the pages ..a real nice keeper. The nervousness about opening it up is a bit over the top. The number has no impact of value. While there are some number freaks out that need to have number one (these guys also buy first strikes ..hahaha). The number is assigned randomly. Open it, flip through the pages and then put it on the shelf. Don't vacuum seal it. Read up on book conservation and buy an acid free box if you really want to go the whole 9 yards. Just remember that it a book about coins with prices that are already out of date. It's not the Magna Carta or a Guttenberg Bible. Just enjoy it. Never believe the sales pitch of a TV salesman. Snake oil for the 21st Century
I went ahead and opened it up and found out I received #523. Here is a photo of the outside and the inside. I cropped the inside one so that the resize didn't blur out the number.
So far I've never bought anything but the regular versions of this book. Each year I buy one hard bound one for my book case and 2 ringed versions for around the house. I also buy the soft cover ones for Christmas Presents. I have from the 12th Edition to present never opened in the bookcase. I have from the 8th to 11th used because back then thats all there was. I would like to someday get 1 to 7 but as for a leather bound version of a book so full of errors, outdated prices, missing information, no thanks. Just a book.
Well, I don't buy many books to start with; and Ive never had a signed book. So I thought this would be a nice book for the eventual library I've always wanted. The book is real nice looking with the gold colored page edges to boot. So even if its never worth anything atleast its a nice looking book. Ya gotta start somewhere.
There are quite a few cases where a numismatic library belonging to a collector is worth more than the coins he owns. And that is how it should be. Books are what every collector should buy first - in fact I would go so far as to say that collectors should buy books and study them for a year or two before ever buying their first coin. For one thing, it would save them a ton of money. I have books that I have paid several hundred dollars for each, and each one of them has paid for itself several times over. When it comes to numismatics, you can never have enough books.
Red Books and Blue Books are a definite collectible by themselves. There are many special editions that have been issued and are worth a lot of money, for example the 1987 ANA edition (only about #500 printed) would easily sell for over $1,000 to $1500 today, and it was a give away at the '87 ANA. There are many others with nice value and there are more and more collectors every day. So, continue to collect those special editions, I do, and I have never been sorry, except for the SS Central America. Originally it was thought to be very scarce, now fairly common. The values go up nearly every year. Good luck.
I was at Books a Million last Wednesday and they had one and only one of the signed Red Books for $69.99 I was tempted to get it but I resisted the urge. I do have THE OFFICIAL PRICE GUIDE to MINTING VARIETIES AND ERRORS signed by Alan Herbert book #117 dated 5/11/91 and I use it all the time. Bought it for 10 bucks at a second hand store. Lou
