Our own Victoria, BC’s ABEBooks.com posts a list of the most expensive sales through their system in 2008. The list is very interesting. The number one sale was for $17,216 for Etudes à l’Eau-Forte by Francis Seymour Haden. Number two was $13,000 for L’Abou Naddara, Journal Arabe Illustre (1878-1884) by James Sanua.
Now, what do you think was number three? Would you believe Harry Potter?
Yes, a Harry Potter book sold for $12,874. It is a first edition, signed by the author and the artist of the dust jacket illustrations.
The whole list is quite interesting, including the Most Expensive Sales of Religious & Theology Books in 2008, and several other categories. They even include "Ephemera" which are non-book items sold through ABEBooks. The most expensive Ephemera was George Bernard Shaw’s typewriter, going for $7,979.
Another category of interest are the top three science fiction sales for 2008:
AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales of Science Fiction & Fantasy Books in 2008
- Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis – $7,950
First edition of Lewis’s earliest and rarest works from 1938.- Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell – $7,000
A complete set of the children’s fantasy series containing Beyond the Deepwoods, Stormchaser, Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, Cloud Wolf, Curse of the Gloamglozer, Last of the Sky Pirates, Vox, and Freeglader. All titles are first UK editions with signatures of Stewart and Riddell.- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell – $6,780
First edition, first printing, of Orwell’s 1949 dystopian classic featuring the red dust jacket.
I think that should pique your interest. As a bibliophile, the list very much intrigued me.
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