I often work with Towns in the Northeast and the question comes up (similar to the article Peter posted about York County PA having flood damage to historical records) about "What is this deed book worth?  What is this 1790 map worth?” 

For example, years ago I asked the Listserve about finding some scarce books.  “The Chip Hilton” sports series published by Clair Bee. I purchased as many of the books as I could find as I wanted my kids to read them growing up. Now I am told they are valuable.  But one person tells me each original book is worth $300 each another tells me that they are worth $6.00 if you can find a reader wanting to read the book.

Short of eBay or an auction house, how do you value something.  (I am not selling the books.  My kids turned out pretty good reading these moralistic tales so I will soon encourage grandchildren to read them.) But how do you find the value of rare documents, original deed books, a letter from Thomas Jefferson but on a mundane topic? 

Because I am older, collections I vaulted when they were just valuable have moved on to become more valuable, priceless??  But how does one track value?  Who measures scarcity, uniqueness, content?

The article about the Library of Congress made me think of this as books that you could reference 50 years ago might be off limits now. Has anyone on the List visited it, checked out a book, asked to perform deep research?  What was that like?

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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