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Most Valuable American Picturebooks

 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.

 

TitleYearCollect abilityScarceEst. ValueAward winnerIllus. LastIllus. First
Curious George1941     9.5   10.0$      31,400 ReyH.A.
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street1937   10.0     9.0$      24,000 GeiselTheodore
Goodnight Moon1947     9.0   10.0$      22,800 HurdClement
Horton Hatches The Egg1940     9.5     9.0$      18,000 GeiselTheodore
Make Way For Ducklings1941     9.0     9.5$      18,000CMMcCloskeyRobert
The Little House1942     9.0     9.0$      13,400CMBurtonVirginia Lee
The Very Hungry Caterpillar1969     9.0     9.5$      13,400 CarleEric
The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins1938     8.5     9.0$      10,600 GeiselTheodore
The King's Stilts1939     8.5     9.0$      10,600 GeiselTheodore
Where The Wild Things Are1963   10.0     8.0$      10,600CMSendakMaurice
The Runaway Bunny1942     8.0     9.0$        7,800 HurdClement
The Snowy Day1962     7.0   10.0$        6,600CMKeatsEzra Jack
Millions Of Cats (250)1928     9.0     7.5$        6,400NHGágWanda
Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel1939     7.5     9.0$        6,200 BurtonVirginia Lee
Green Eggs And Ham1960   10.0     7.0$        6,200 GeiselTheodore
The Little Engine That Could1930     8.0     8.0$        5,000 LenskiLois
The Five Chinese Brothers1938     6.0   10.0$        5,000 WieseKurt
Millions Of Cats1928     9.0     7.0$        4,800NHGágWanda
Bumble Bugs And Elephants1938     7.0     9.0$        4,800 HurdClement
The Story Of Ferdinand1936     9.0     7.0$        4,600 LawsonRobert
Madeline1939     9.0     7.0$        4,400CHBemelmansLudwig
Thidwick: The Big-Hearted Moose1948     8.0     8.0$        4,200 GeiselTheodore
Harold And The Purple Crayon1955     9.0     7.0$        3,800 JohnsonCrockett
The Story Of Babar1933     8.5     7.0$        3,600 BrunhoffJean de
The Cat In The Hat1957   10.0     6.0$        3,600 GeiselTheodore
A Story, A Story1970     7.0     9.0$        3,400CMHaleyGail E.
The Carrot Seed1945     7.5     8.0$        3,400 JohnsonCrockett
Pumpkin Moonshine1938     9.0     6.5$        3,400 TudorTasha
The Giving Tree1964     9.0     7.0$        3,400 SilversteinShel
White Snow, Bright Snow1947     8.0     7.5$        3,200CMDuvoisinRoger
McElligot's Pool1947     8.0     7.5$        3,200CHGeiselTheodore
If I Ran The Zoo1950     8.0     7.5$        3,200CHGeiselTheodore
Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper1954     8.0     7.5$        3,000CMBrownMarcia
Horton Hears A Who1954     8.0     7.5$        3,000 GeiselTheodore
The Travels Of Babar1934     8.0     7.0$        2,800 BrunhoffJean de
Babar The King1935     8.0     7.0$        2,800 BrunhoffJean de
Little Tim And The Brave Sea Captain1936     8.0     7.0$        2,600 ArdizzoneEdward
Abraham Lincoln1939     8.0     7.0$        2,600CMd'AulaireIngri & Edgar Parin
Mei Li1938     8.0     7.0$        2,600CMHandforthThomas
Cecily G. And The 9 Monkeys1942     8.0     7.0$        2,600 ReyH.A.
Bartholomew And The Oobleck1949     8.0     7.0$        2,400CHGeiselTheodore
The Big Snow1948     7.0     8.0$        2,400CMHaderBerta & Elmer
Eloise1955     9.2     6.0$        2,400 KnightHilary
Journey Cake, Ho!1953     7.0     8.0$        2,400CHMcCloskeyRobert
The Egg Tree1950     7.0     8.0$        2,400CMMilhousKatherine
Finders Keepers1951     7.0     8.0$        2,400CMMordvinoffNicholas
Curious George Takes A Job1947     8.0     7.0$        2,400 ReyH.A.
Curious George Rides A Bike1952     8.0     7.0$        2,400 ReyH.A.
Donkey-Donkey1933     7.5     7.0$        2,200 DuvoisinRoger
A Tree Is Nice1957     7.0     8.0$        2,200CMSimontMarc
How The Grinch Stole Christmas1957   10.0     5.0$        2,000 GeiselTheodore
Animals Of The Bible1937     8.5     6.0$        2,000CMLathropDorothy P.
Sylvester And The Magic Pebble1969     8.0     7.0$        2,000CMSteigWilliam
Zephir's Holidays1937     7.5     7.0$        2,000 BrunhoffJean de
Babar And Father Christmas1940     7.5     7.0$        2,000 BrunhoffJean de
Message 1 of 17
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16 REPLIES 16

Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

You really are the Most Valuable American Picturebook guy around!

 

Thanks.

Message 2 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

My first thought was "Audobons Birds" but than decided not what you meant by"picture books"

Message 3 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

Great as usual, Stan. Thanks!

Message 4 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks


@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!?

Message 5 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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.

Message 6 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

ook
Message 7 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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.

Message 8 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks


@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).

Message 9 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

That's cool. 

A lot of work.

Did you build the DB yourself in Access?

Message 10 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks


@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.

Message 11 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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.

Message 12 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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!

 

 

 

Message 13 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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

Message 14 of 17
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Re: Most Valuable American Picturebooks

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

Message 15 of 17
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