Wisden Historical Valuations - Updated June 2010

I have taken it upon myself to study old Auction sales and catalogue prices back to the year of my birth - 1976. I have noted 3400 prices up to 2007 and managed to calculate a further 2000 prices. From these individual sales I have managed to calculate an index from 1976 to 2007 and formulate the appropriate graphs. I still need to look into the rarer items as the number of sales are low and the sample size is small.

I am currently calculating 2008 - 2010 , however in this era, dealers like to keep prices of the rare books to themselves which makes it difficult.

This valuation is for the average price of buying the following years:

1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1946 in rebind or Original Paperback

It is only in the later years that the Original Paperbacks have come at a premium, this may accelerate in 08.

-----

The Hardbacks show a much steeper incline in the last couple of years. Below is the Index Table for a 1920's Hardback (Compared to the Rebind Curve above)

More noted trends coming soon..