$7.50 Used Book Worth $60,000 Now

There’s a Mr. Reginald Hunter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
who has a fabulous collection of rare books.

It’s valued at $3,000,000.

He’s been a collector for over 50 years. I heard about him
on PBS, the public television station. He specializes in first
editions, mostly fiction, by famous authors, and books about
the Civil War. Recently he was interviewed, and he was asked
about his $3,000,000 collection, and how much he had to pay
to amass it.

Did it cost him $3,000,000? "No way," he said.
The most expensive book he has in his collection is a Civil
War diary by a young Union officer, and he paid $73,000 for
that book several years ago.

Today, he’s been offered $150,000 for the book, but he doesn’t
sell his books anymore.

He said that he used to buy and sell books and make pretty
good money doing it. He’s fallen in love with his books. He’s
not just a book collector, he is a book lover.

He’s got over $3,000,000 worth of books, and he’s never going
to let them go until he dies. He’s going to give them to the
National Archives and a library in Philadelphia where he lives.

Well he paid $73,000 for a rare Civil War diary that is worth
$150,000. That’s a pretty good deal! But, if you’re like us,
you’re probably saying, "I don’t know if I want to pay
$73,000 for a book." Ok then . . . his second most valuable
book is a rare first edition by the famous American author,
Mark Twain.

We’ve all read Huckleberry Finn and some of Twain’s other
books. This book is now valued at $60,000; he obtained
it a few years ago at a West Virginia thrift store, and guess
what he paid- $7.50!

That’s right, a book that is now worth $60,000 that he could
quickly sell to collectors (there are about 150,000 rare book
collectors in the United States alone) cost him $7.50!

Now, that’s exciting!

Mr. Hunter also said that he was able to buy many, many books
for $20 or less that are now worth at least a thousand dollars
each! So, where do you find books for less than $20 that we
can sell for many hundreds or many thousands of dollars?

The wise collector gave us his three favorite hunting places.
Here are 3 easy-to-locate places to find rare and out of print
books you can buy for pennies and auction for huge profits!

1. Thrift stores and second-hand stores.

2. Used bookstores.

3. Small antique stores.

These three types of stores are all over - there’s hardly
a town anymore that doesn’t have at least a thrift store and
an antique store, and most small cities have at least one
store that’s a source of used books!

And the best thing is, typically these stores have no idea
how much some of these books are actually worth.