07-21-2016 02:26 PM
The 'Most Valuable from 1950's' thread got me thinking that some BSB'ers might find the most valuable American picturebooks list of some value.
The following is an excerpt from a database of 25,000 first edition contemporary picturebooks ('contemporary' being the Newbery/Caldecott era). I've given each book in the database a Collectability and Scarcity Index using a 1-to-10 scale. Note that the values are not the market values but what my database estimates the value to be.
Title | Year | Collect ability | Scarce | Est. Value | Award winner | Illus. Last | Illus. First |
Curious George | 1941 | 9.5 | 10.0 | $ 31,400 | Rey | H.A. | |
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street | 1937 | 10.0 | 9.0 | $ 24,000 | Geisel | Theodore | |
Goodnight Moon | 1947 | 9.0 | 10.0 | $ 22,800 | Hurd | Clement | |
Horton Hatches The Egg | 1940 | 9.5 | 9.0 | $ 18,000 | Geisel | Theodore | |
Make Way For Ducklings | 1941 | 9.0 | 9.5 | $ 18,000 | CM | McCloskey | Robert |
The Little House | 1942 | 9.0 | 9.0 | $ 13,400 | CM | Burton | Virginia Lee |
The Very Hungry Caterpillar | 1969 | 9.0 | 9.5 | $ 13,400 | Carle | Eric | |
The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins | 1938 | 8.5 | 9.0 | $ 10,600 | Geisel | Theodore | |
The King's Stilts | 1939 | 8.5 | 9.0 | $ 10,600 | Geisel | Theodore | |
Where The Wild Things Are | 1963 | 10.0 | 8.0 | $ 10,600 | CM | Sendak | Maurice |
The Runaway Bunny | 1942 | 8.0 | 9.0 | $ 7,800 | Hurd | Clement | |
The Snowy Day | 1962 | 7.0 | 10.0 | $ 6,600 | CM | Keats | Ezra Jack |
Millions Of Cats (250) | 1928 | 9.0 | 7.5 | $ 6,400 | NH | Gág | Wanda |
Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel | 1939 | 7.5 | 9.0 | $ 6,200 | Burton | Virginia Lee | |
Green Eggs And Ham | 1960 | 10.0 | 7.0 | $ 6,200 | Geisel | Theodore | |
The Little Engine That Could | 1930 | 8.0 | 8.0 | $ 5,000 | Lenski | Lois | |
The Five Chinese Brothers | 1938 | 6.0 | 10.0 | $ 5,000 | Wiese | Kurt | |
Millions Of Cats | 1928 | 9.0 | 7.0 | $ 4,800 | NH | Gág | Wanda |
Bumble Bugs And Elephants | 1938 | 7.0 | 9.0 | $ 4,800 | Hurd | Clement | |
The Story Of Ferdinand | 1936 | 9.0 | 7.0 | $ 4,600 | Lawson | Robert | |
Madeline | 1939 | 9.0 | 7.0 | $ 4,400 | CH | Bemelmans | Ludwig |
Thidwick: The Big-Hearted Moose | 1948 | 8.0 | 8.0 | $ 4,200 | Geisel | Theodore | |
Harold And The Purple Crayon | 1955 | 9.0 | 7.0 | $ 3,800 | Johnson | Crockett | |
The Story Of Babar | 1933 | 8.5 | 7.0 | $ 3,600 | Brunhoff | Jean de | |
The Cat In The Hat | 1957 | 10.0 | 6.0 | $ 3,600 | Geisel | Theodore | |
A Story, A Story | 1970 | 7.0 | 9.0 | $ 3,400 | CM | Haley | Gail E. |
The Carrot Seed | 1945 | 7.5 | 8.0 | $ 3,400 | Johnson | Crockett | |
Pumpkin Moonshine | 1938 | 9.0 | 6.5 | $ 3,400 | Tudor | Tasha | |
The Giving Tree | 1964 | 9.0 | 7.0 | $ 3,400 | Silverstein | Shel | |
White Snow, Bright Snow | 1947 | 8.0 | 7.5 | $ 3,200 | CM | Duvoisin | Roger |
McElligot's Pool | 1947 | 8.0 | 7.5 | $ 3,200 | CH | Geisel | Theodore |
If I Ran The Zoo | 1950 | 8.0 | 7.5 | $ 3,200 | CH | Geisel | Theodore |
Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper | 1954 | 8.0 | 7.5 | $ 3,000 | CM | Brown | Marcia |
Horton Hears A Who | 1954 | 8.0 | 7.5 | $ 3,000 | Geisel | Theodore | |
The Travels Of Babar | 1934 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,800 | Brunhoff | Jean de | |
Babar The King | 1935 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,800 | Brunhoff | Jean de | |
Little Tim And The Brave Sea Captain | 1936 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,600 | Ardizzone | Edward | |
Abraham Lincoln | 1939 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,600 | CM | d'Aulaire | Ingri & Edgar Parin |
Mei Li | 1938 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,600 | CM | Handforth | Thomas |
Cecily G. And The 9 Monkeys | 1942 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,600 | Rey | H.A. | |
Bartholomew And The Oobleck | 1949 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,400 | CH | Geisel | Theodore |
The Big Snow | 1948 | 7.0 | 8.0 | $ 2,400 | CM | Hader | Berta & Elmer |
Eloise | 1955 | 9.2 | 6.0 | $ 2,400 | Knight | Hilary | |
Journey Cake, Ho! | 1953 | 7.0 | 8.0 | $ 2,400 | CH | McCloskey | Robert |
The Egg Tree | 1950 | 7.0 | 8.0 | $ 2,400 | CM | Milhous | Katherine |
Finders Keepers | 1951 | 7.0 | 8.0 | $ 2,400 | CM | Mordvinoff | Nicholas |
Curious George Takes A Job | 1947 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,400 | Rey | H.A. | |
Curious George Rides A Bike | 1952 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,400 | Rey | H.A. | |
Donkey-Donkey | 1933 | 7.5 | 7.0 | $ 2,200 | Duvoisin | Roger | |
A Tree Is Nice | 1957 | 7.0 | 8.0 | $ 2,200 | CM | Simont | Marc |
How The Grinch Stole Christmas | 1957 | 10.0 | 5.0 | $ 2,000 | Geisel | Theodore | |
Animals Of The Bible | 1937 | 8.5 | 6.0 | $ 2,000 | CM | Lathrop | Dorothy P. |
Sylvester And The Magic Pebble | 1969 | 8.0 | 7.0 | $ 2,000 | CM | Steig | William |
Zephir's Holidays | 1937 | 7.5 | 7.0 | $ 2,000 | Brunhoff | Jean de | |
Babar And Father Christmas | 1940 | 7.5 | 7.0 | $ 2,000 | Brunhoff | Jean de |
07-21-2016 03:05 PM
You really are the Most Valuable American Picturebook guy around!
Thanks.
07-22-2016 05:35 AM
My first thought was "Audobons Birds" but than decided not what you meant by"picture books"
07-22-2016 12:41 PM
Great as usual, Stan. Thanks!
07-27-2016 03:39 PM - edited 07-27-2016 03:39 PM
@chagrinbooks wrote:Great as usual, Stan. Thanks!
You're welcome Keith, happy to be of some service.
Do you see any books which surprise you (or anyone else here on the BSB)? There are a couple of titles on the list which have never been a subject on the BSB (and I've never wrote about at 1stedition.net), so I'm a little bit surprised no one is surprised about them. Maybe people are stunned into silence!?
07-27-2016 07:15 PM
Thank you for reminding me, once again, why I love children's books as a genre and as a fascinating way to spend some of my time - reading and looking.
07-27-2016 08:10 PM
07-28-2016 07:25 AM
Now that was wierd.
The table for most expensive moderns copy and pasted into Excel directly but I had to transition through Word to get this one to work.
Anyways, thanks.
As a dealer, I'd love the entire database but I understand why you want to keep it to yourself.
07-28-2016 08:24 AM
@taylor_memorial wrote:
As a dealer, I'd love the entire database but I understand why you want to keep it to yourself.
When I get the time, I intend to make the entire database available at 1stedition, allowing people to search by title, illustrator, or author. Just haven't got around to it. I would not allow wildcards in the search, therefore users would not be able to easily download the entire database, only portions at a time. There are over 800 illustrators in the database (and many more authors), so 800 separate queries to see the entire database (the queries executed by pulldown menus with no keyboard entries allowed).
07-28-2016 11:40 AM
That's cool.
A lot of work.
Did you build the DB yourself in Access?
07-28-2016 01:03 PM
@taylor_memorial wrote:
Did you build the DB yourself in Access?
Yes, however I would port it to a web-friendly database (mySQL) and use PHP scripts to produce the output screens.
03-05-2017 05:38 AM
While the Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd collaboration Goodnight, Moon would likely outprice it, in over 25 years of actively collecting 20th century children's picturebooks, I've never seen or heard of a first edition copy of their 1942 Runaway Bunny.
The estimated price in the list is a bit of a stab in the dark - if I had a first edition copy of Runaway Bunny, in very good condition with a very good dust jacket, I would price it over $20,000 and see what the market might bear. And might list it for over $30,000 - it's scarcer than Curious George, and might be more desirable.
12-11-2017 09:26 PM - edited 12-11-2017 09:30 PM
picture*books - If you are around or receive email notifications to this thread, you might be interested to know that someone has what appears to be a first edition of "Goodnight, Moon" and started a thread about it asking for info.
Plus it gives me a good reason to bump up this great thread!
02-06-2018 12:23 PM
Hi Stan
I thought I would go ahead and ask if you have any documentation of a first edition of the Runaway Bunny. Any ideas as to the dust jacket configuration and copyright information needed to identify it as a first? I was able to confirm that the original price was $1.50, but so far that is all.
Any help is greatly appreciated
Justin
02-06-2018 12:31 PM
Forgot to add, i noticed that you had shown interest in this title from the earlier post. I have a copy which i believe is a first. I would be happy to show pictures if you are interested. Like you I have been searching for years for this title and finally managed to find a copy.
Kind Regards