Pawn Stars: REBECCA’S TOP 7 BOOK APPRAISALS

i have a 1652 copy of elias ashmore's theatrum chemical britannicum in it is the secret to creating the philosopher's stone [Music] what is that the philosopher's stone was basically the secret manuscript to create gold so the secrets in this book the secrets are in this book i have a 1652 copy of elias ashmore's theatrum chemical britannica i bought the book several years ago from an antiquarian book dealer they say you can't turn lead into gold but i'm hoping to take this book and turn it into cash i believe this is a book on alchemy what is alchemy alchemy is the art of transmutating metals they figured if they could find the right ingredients mercury and some sulfur and a little lead if you come up with a secret to that you can live forever and make gold or you died so there's a formula that will help me turn things into gold inside this book there's actually quite a few formulas sweet i know a little bit about this book i know this was a combination of a bunch of older texts that were translated into english technically this book was illegal the practicing of alchemy when it was printed was a capital crime because all the countries of europe believe if you were actually able to come up with a formula for making gold all the gold in their treasuries would be worthless so there's also books on alchemy that the catholic church actually wrote down on a list this is a heretical book and i think the exact punishment for being caught doing alchemy at the time was to be hung from gilded gallows there were scientists genuinely trying to create gold and thought they might have created something and then there was a lot of charlatans who were going around selling you know i got the secret manuscript you know it's a very interesting history this diagram here contained the key to all the secrets that are in this book have you ever heard of the ninth gate the movie with johnny depp the folding diagram there is called the twelfth gate the ninth gate is a fictional reinterpretation of the 12th gate which that is an actual illustration from there's a lot of interesting things that are going on in that book i think it's really really cool uh-huh how much do you want for it i want 23 000. i i need someone to look at it i just don't know nearly enough about this book that's great give me five minutes no problem here it is the philosopher's stone yes all right i know this book this has sort of a fraught history up until about 1500 alchemical works even though the printing press had been around for 50 years were not printed because the idea was there's only a small circle that kind of kept this among themselves and they didn't want the public to know and it was very important influence on later scientists notably isaac newton used this a lot it was his most consulted alchemical text okay what kind of condition do you think it's in let's see okay because one of the things about this book is that it's really hard to find complete it has the folding plate which most copies don't have that said the thing that appears to be missing in here is a full page engraved plate that's supposed to go here in addition to that looking at the condition here this is a lot of repairs and it's like full page like it's really hard to tell here too like if this entire piece here was missing so what do you think it's worth it's not a book that comes up that often i've known a complete copy that's beautiful without all these repairs that sold for over 30 000. but copies that are incomplete without that folding plate 10 000 or less so this one with all the repairs and missing a plate i would place more around fifteen thousand you're great i think you turned this old dusty book into gold yeah i tried all right thanks joe you're the best even though this is not the ideal copy this book is legitimately scarce i don't think rick would go wrong in buying this at a reasonable price i absolutely love this i'll give you nine thousand dollars for it i don't think i can do nine uh how about 12 no i'll tell you what i'll give you 10 grand for it that's about as much as i can go it's i think it's more than a fair price how about 10 500 you know what i'm feeling very generous today i'll give you ten thousand three i'll take it sweet great you'll go write them up sure let me get this book right now no no no don't touch this just write them up please come on maybe you could just tell me some of those secrets i don't have to read i sure will i got a couple of old historic books i thought you might want to look at okay the 1802 edition of the federalist papers volumes one and two yes it came in two volumes it's the second edition the guy that's name is in there was the fourth postmaster general of the united states i was hoping i was gonna say like george washington or something in it i want to sell my 1802 federalist papers i think someone that's a history buff would be interested in buying the federalist papers to add to their collection i'm asking eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars and we'll put the money towards building a new barn at home if we make a deal today i'm really excited about them they're really neat where did you get these my husband dug them out of the trash and brought them home he dug them out of someone's trash yes wow i'm just sort of like the shock you normally see things like this these were all letters arguing for the constitution we have now and a lot of people were completely against it they wanted us to stay as 13 independent countries with a much weaker central government and hamilton madison and jay were publishing these anonymous letters for the constitution and they were explaining all the different parts of the constitution to convince people to go along with the constitution and there's some pretty interesting writing in here yes there is so you want to sell them yes i do okay and how much do you want for them well i've seen them advertised for 14 to 16 000 so i thought 8 250 would be fair okay so were these prices on the internet or something like that yes it was an internet bookstore all right these things might be in great condition or of terrible condition i have no idea um do you mind if i have someone look at them no that'd be funny i have a friend who knows everything there is to know about this stuff and she's probably gonna completely nerd out on these okay so uh sounds good i'll be right back okay i'm looking forward to hearing their opinion on the books the condition the value and the importance towards our history what do we have these are the federalist papers she says they're the second edition i don't know if these are really bad condition or just bad condition all right let's see 1802 edition the last edition before hamilton's death and hamilton's early death by duel was in fact really kind of a shame for american history because he doesn't often get his due hamilton's really important guy he essentially established the economic foundations for the federal government he wrote many of the essays here and this is one of the great works in american history i mean it's huge and it's something that every collector wants um but we got to stop for a second um i am seriously concerned that this might be mold okay and if it's mold you'd need a very serious cleaning of the paper and boards where did you get this from the trash okay yeah it's probably more but it's worth salvaging okay and the repairs you're looking at probably at least a thousand dollars okay so then how much would they be worth if they were all restored um if it works out nicely it could be up to fourteen thousand i would say okay now she just made everything more complicated thanks rick's trying not to show it in front of the seller but i think he's really excited by this book everyone wants it so important it's some of our most intellectually stimulating and fascinating people in the history of america and frankly it's a good business decision to get okay um what would be your best price i still think they're worth what i'm asking 8 250. i mean this is my situation i buy them off you and somewhere north of a thousand dollars i'm gonna pay to get them restored then i have to wait six months and then i get them back and then i have to sell them how about 7 500. i mean this is literally i give you the money i'm not even going to see any type of return for over a year most likely i mean 65 250. that's bringing me down from my beginning how about seven thousand dollars i think it's a good price is it seven thousand okay i'll take it thanks um cool come this way and uh we'll just paperwork just leave him right there our daughter was always teasing my husband about digging through the trash but it just made us seven thousand dollars richer hey how's it going hi so what do we have here i brought you some beautiful historical books these are the 1814 1815 uh publication of the naval history of the united states that are signed by president john adams oh sweet so this is the history of the united states navy that's cool yes we had the most high-tech ships in the world the uss constitution had the nickname old ironsides that's because in the war of 1812 a british frigate fired on it the cannonballs bounced off the side of it that's awesome and it got the nickname old ironsides so uh we have inside of each book is a book plate from the personal library of president john adams whoa that's fancy the publisher signed these books and gave them as a gift to president john adams right here okay there's one other additional fact too right here the books have been given to lieutenant charles thomas clark and they are signed from president adams that is cool how much were you asking for 200 000. i've sold books that belonged to early presidents for a lot of money before so let me call up a friend of mine if there's anybody on the planet who will know everything about these it will be her okay so sounds great i look forward to talking to an expert to see what they think about these amazing books this is the uber book nerd i was telling you about wonderful and you have something for me to nerd out um yes we have two books from uh president adams library she wants a lot of money for them and i i don't know they're books there's a million and one questions oh presented as a mark of respect to his excellency john adams esquire by the publisher that's nice i mean it's part of the history of how this book came to be in the first place this is clark's naval history there's a close connection that john adams has to this book so thomas clark was an acquaintance of his and he encouraged clark to write this naval history in the first place oh that's so cool this is post war of 1812 this is the second edition and the first station was only in one volume and the second edition was greatly revised and expanded and you know where those revisions and expansions came from oh john adams talking to both clark and the publisher carrie about what he felt should be included so as far as the type of volumes you could have that were once in john adams library this is pretty interesting okay people love presidents and the founding fathers in particular formed a nation based on intellectual ideas that they were reading so if you have a book that one of these founding fathers was reading it's kind of a big deal but this kind of a problem because when the provenance is here and then it is modernly attached here there could be questions about whether this originally went with that lucky you this has evidence of offsetting which is only going to happen over a very long period of time these were together and this is the right book plate for john adams and there are no red flags for me as far as tampering that it could have been added on modernly okay but there is one problem the thing that gets people really excited is when you have writing in the person's hand this is not john adams hand and this is 1817 adam suffered from palsy he very often wouldn't write things himself you can still find letters from this time but uh he had secretaries do a lot of his writing that means you're losing one of the major reasons that people collect such a volume so for that reason i would evaluate this more around the range of 10 to 12 000. okay wow thanks you're the best glad to help thanks thank you take care where i work we sell autograph letters by john adams i'm very familiar with his autograph i'm very familiar with his handwriting it's something that i can recognize immediately and that's what i did not see when i opened the book today so do you have another figure besides 200 000 the lowest i would go is about 50 000. yeah the most i'm gonna go is 10. there you have it thanks for bringing them in hey i'm cool nice to learn about them thanks for your time thanks it's unfortunate that we couldn't make a deal but i'm pretty sure i'll find a good home for them anyway hey how can i help you i have some harry s truman signed books dedicated to his chief economist leon kaiser you're into economics or i'm an economist okay yeah got any stark tips [Music] [Laughter] i came down to the pawn shop today to sell my truman autographed books they've basically been sitting on my bookshelf for the last 20 years i'm looking to get three thousand dollars for them and i think that would be the least i would take it's really neat that he signed these we have them inside the book and in the box it came in mrs kaiserling gave me the books so do you know what the books are about there's two volumes of the memoirs and mr citizen what's mr citizen about uh that's about his job after the presidency okay i mean he was just a normal guy he was a senator from missouri before he was that he ran a haberdashery a hat store that's right harry truman was only vice president for 82 days he became our 33rd president after fdr died in office he did have some major accomplishments he did stop the united states from going back into the great depression after the war was over but he's probably best remembered for being the only president ever to drop an atomic bomb these books are incredible they're awesome i would love to actually read them the atom and the war it was my fate to make the decisions to use the first atomic bomb to bring about the end of a terrible war i'm sure he saw this as an opportunity hoping it would stop the war with the japanese probably one of the more difficult presidencies there ever was harry truman was a very important person in american history if these books were really signed by him they're definitely something that history buffs and rare book collectors would go nuts for so what do you want to do with them um i think i'll sell them do you have an idea what you wanted for them i haven't done a lot of research so you know at the moment i'm thinking maybe 3 000. i'm definitely interested i'm i'm wildly interested there might be a lot of money here i have a friend who's an incredible rare book expert um and she's gonna really help us with the price on these things i am not questioning the authenticity of the books at all and i'm very pleased that they're going to be calling in an expert rebecca how's it going hey nice to see you rick the guys usually call me when they've got a book they don't know much about it they need an expert to come in and give them a real value we have some really cool books here we have one mr citizen and the first two books are as memoirs all signed by truman i've had the signatures check out they're all legit what they're worth um that's why it came to you truman's presidency some of the major events of the 20th century occurred mao's communist china was formed the iron curtain was dropped and nato was created so this is by any standard one of the major presidencies of the 20th century presidential memoirs are hugely sought after because collectors love these leaders of men when you have a presentation copy like this you have to keep in mind not only who it's inscribed to but the substance in the inscription these things will all affect the value okay to honorable leon kaiserling from his long-term friend who appreciates a real economist who understands the needs of this great nation now kaiserling he had a huge amount of influence in the u.s government at this time because he was the chairman of the council of economic advisors so this is a great inscription that is a game changer as far as the value is concerned okay so normally mr citizen if it were just a signed copy of the author's edition you'd be looking at about 2 500. okay the memoirs they would actually go together for about 3 200 signed okay uh but with this inscription here in the mr citizen i would bump this up to 4 000. okay okay and i would bump up the memoirs with the additional signature on the slipcase up to about 7 000. wow okay so that's um 11 000. wow i was very surprised about the value of the books i had said 3 000 which was nowhere in the ballpark so do you mind if we conduct a little business in here i'll rent the room too okay the seller's got to be pretty happy after hearing my 11 000 appraisal because that's a big difference from what she was asking before so you originally wanted like two or three thousand dollars three i thought it was crazy all right you realize i have to make a profit off these yes i do i was an economics professor okay um i'll i'll just get to the heart of the matter i'll give you 5 500 work 55 seems a little low to me even with the profit um i'm thinking on the order of 10. um no i'm gonna have my money tied up for at least a year 65 can't do 65. i think the best i could do would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 95. i go 75 that would be it i just don't think i can do it at 75 but i thank you all right well thanks anyway we weren't able to make a deal today the economy is improving at the moment so the only thing i can think is that the value of the books will be even higher in the future than they are now what have we got this time okay this time i have brought for you the most incomplete book that i've ever brought this is an actual printed page from the gutenberg bible the very first printed book well there was printing before gutenberg's printing press but those all sucked this time i think i brought rick something really unbelievable it's a single leaf from the gutenberg bible is really the first substantial printed book the history of the world so we have a leaf here which is a page this is one page from the gutenberg bible you may ask why there is only one page in the 1920s a famous book dealer named gabriel wells came upon an incomplete copy of the gutenberg bible and he broke it up into single pages and he put it with a bibliographical essay and he had it very beautifully browned and he sold him a single pages where he puts a leaf of the gutenberg bible and in the approximate years that they believe it was printed is it printed on the other side yeah it's a double-sided leaf it's printed on very fine paper that they imported from italy into germany in the period and it's been hand rubricated with colors with red and blue after it's been printed so that it looked more like a manuscript that's pretty amazing the gutenberg bible to this day is regarded as one of the most beautifully printed books he had to invent the type he had to invent the press that it went into he had to invent the it was a massive undertaking it's like the internet to think how quickly they went from printing a book like this to having people copy the invention to go throughout europe setting up printing centers all through europe within 50 years it literally was like the internet it went from this to scientific books to fiction to dirty pictures to a little bit of everything and well there's no more important invention in the history of democracy than the printing press because it's the democratization knowledge it puts the power of knowledge into the hands of the people and you found this in one of your travels well this came from an estate it originally belonged to a printer and i bought it from the estate i mean i was beyond thrilled to find it this particular leaf is from the old testament it's from the second book of chronicles which is towards the end of the hebrew bible and it talks about the purification of the temple in jerusalem cool okay so the big question how much you want for it i came up with a number and you better brace yourself but remember the importance of the book of 65 thousand dollars for the page okay like always i'm gonna call him rebecca um let me get her down here this is uh i would be delighted she's gonna be here i mean she'll be flawed to see it 65 000. hello the world's most famous book person meets the world's most famous book is that what i think it is that's a page of it right a leaf a page to me at least to you well paige is actually one side and then the other so it's two pages one leaf all right you got me okay well the most important thing is it's a leaf from the gutenberg bible and i just touched it so what was the last complete gutenberg bible sold the full set hasn't been sold since the 70s yeah it's been decades upon decades and in the meantime other books have gone for over 10 million dollars i mean this would just be astronomical it would break all the records so the thing is is it real can i hold it up to the light sure okay i've seen gutenberg bibles before but i don't think that i've had a chance at this length to really inspect one like this is a chance that most people are never going to get even rare book specialists i would touch it but i'm afraid i'd catch on fire i'm holding it up to the light so that i can see the chain lines that you see in handmade paper that comes specifically from paper of this period it's real correct yes okay what's it worth dealers i know and trust they're gonna place this around 80 thousand dollars uh so i think that is fair to ask for the way things are looking right now in the market you're the best yep happy to help well thanks so much rebecca i really appreciate it so you heard from your friend and eminent book expert so how much would you be willing to go of all the business we've done over the years and like you give me a number what you're comfortable with 40 000. i can't do 40 on it i mean i mean that's what i feel comfortable with auctions are definitely not an exact science uh yeah i mean 40 000 just so on the low scale in terms of what i can i can take for it i mean i didn't even want to come down so low but 55. right you know i'm trying to be fair with you rick and i know you are i would go 45 000 that's the best i could do i'm gonna offer it to you for 47 000 and it would be foolish for you to say no and that is a price i did not imagine i would even agree to i have a cfo on an office right down the hallway that's going to be really mad at me so 47 what we got to do you're not going to be mad when you make make a small fortune um it's amazing uh i'll meet you right up front let me get someone to keep an eye on this and i'll do some paperwork why need someone to keep an eye it's only a page no it's two pages it's one letter that's right i now own a page of the gutenberg bible hey it's you again what do you got brought for you a book the book of mormon is it the player or the book it's definitely the book it's even harder to get this than tickets to the play oh that must be really difficult then a lot of times theological books are not that valuable they tended to produce them in great quantities but the book of mormon is very rare to try to read a little bit of it i did the wikipedia thing instead to read more about mormonism but i don't want to handle the book too roughly i come back to the shop because from my experience rick has a real appreciation of american history and he also pays fair prices that is really really cool so um not an expert on mormon religion but um what they believe is that joseph smith went out to the woods and wrote the book of mormon because of some plates he undug out in the woods or something like that i don't know the exact story yeah i mean the more mins were really important to american history you know they started more or less the westward expansion of the united states and they even in the 1850s helped found a small town you might be familiar with las vegas um that's right literally like less than a mile from here is the original mormon settlement yeah yeah that's right borman's played a key role in the western expansion of the u.s this book isn't just significant to mormons it's a unique historical document all right is it an older version of it or yeah well this is a version that was printed actually in 1842 but it's considered one of the most collectible versions of the book okay it's the last edition that was published in joseph smith's lifetime two years after this edition he was printed he was actually murdered and that was just before they were persecuted again and then started on their way to utah okay now big question is as usual how much well uh don't get scared by the price but you know this one wasn't printed in many copies maybe 600 something copies and not a lot survived today because people read them like the bible so i was going to ask something on the order of like five thousand dollars for it damn uh well you know the drill you've been in here enough times before i'm gonna call rebecca down to help me out yeah i'd love to get your opinion so so i'm gonna go give her a jingle and hang out for a while okay cool all right man um i'll be right back sounds good rebecca's very knowledgeable so i can't wait to hear what she says i bet you have something good for me if adam's here um try and bring interesting things you you tell me okay the book of mormon the book of mormon wow this is actually really cool these these books are really hard to find the mormons at this point had been through a lot of tomo this a lot of problems for them i mean they had essentially been kicked out of multiple states by this point one of the reasons that these early editions of the book of mormon are so rare is because of all these upheavals i mean if you keep on having to pack up your things best case scenario pack up your things and leave worst case scenario your house is burned down your fields are destroyed people take all your property and then you have to go to the next community that will accept you the idea that something like this would survive it's very unusual mormons believe that the book of mormon is an ancient record of peoples who were in the americas about a few thousand years ago and according to the mormon religion joseph smith found these records with the help of an angel and he translated them through the power of god it's the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints it's a mouthful so people tend to say the mormons there are historians who refer to the mormon movement as the largest and in some cases most successful american experiment in utopic communities the book of mormon actually is hugely important in american history because this is america's most successful homegrown religion and this is the key text for that religion okay so what's it worth that's a great question um rick this is by far the most valuable book you've ever had me appraise colloquially it is known as the fifth edition for a lot of books later editions don't hold a ton of value because they're not the first the first time that appeared in print but the reason that these early editions of the book of mormon will still hold a lot of collectible value is because of all of that history so these types of editions still hold a lot of collectible value okay so i would appraise this book actually at about forty thousand dollars whoa yeah i always like you but today you're particularly wonderful there we go you're the best happy to help nice to see you again evan thank you pleasure to see you yeah thank you not just because of the price yeah mormon collectors love to collect things from the early days of their church and it has huge demand in certain circles plus they are really really uncommon realistically what's your best price i think 25 000 was really fair it's like you know my best price sort of sort of your best price so you take 23. i really think it's a 40 000 book you'll sell it there's a lot of demand for it i think i will sell it too the speed at which i sell it at i don't know and you understand that problem yes but this is something very rare and there is big demand and this will sell fast can you give me a little just let me do 24 000. uh you gave me an extra thousand last time this time i'll give it to you so we'll do it that way that's the deal 24 000. all right i'll meet you over there i'll give you money you want cash or a check i'll take the cash i think okay i mean well you know i'm gonna take this whipped cream yeah it's too valuable just to leave lying around i'm not gonna lay on the counter okay when rebecca said forty thousand dollars i felt it was like maybe like joseph smith when he found the plates hallelujah [Music] how you doing pretty good brought you another very exciting book okay the wizard of oz first edition you mean the wonderful wizard of oz well that depends on what price you paid for it so i bought the book from a family that had it for over a hundred years this book is also one of the first copies ever printed before it became a phenomenal success i travel pretty far and wide looking for interesting libraries and rare books and uh occasionally i find something really interesting let's see what you got this is actually not only a first edition of the book but this is actually a sign first edition that is definitely cool besides maybe alice in wonderland there was never really any books like this it also it's a nice tale it wasn't as scary as some of the tales that had come before that children read at the time like rims fairy tales and things like that when most people hear wizard of oz the first thing that comes to mind is the 1939 film but it was this book that started it all just about everybody has a memory of watching the wizard of oz and that's one of the reasons this book is so valuable it brings back memories even a scarecrow without a brain can figure that one out [Laughter] you can see on the first title page they have the famous tin man the scarecrow which are not so far off from the film adaptations of them i love that they're color illustrations though but my problem is it's in a little rough shape i'll tell you that all right um so how much you want for it i was thinking though something on the order of uh ten thousand dollars all right it is really rough shape it even looks like it has some water damage on it there are obviously some condition issues like you said but i do think this is one of the earliest copies of the book and also it is signed by the author and i think that really adds to its rarity let me get rebecca down here so we can figure out what this thing is worth hang on a minute i'm gonna give her a call perfect thanks so much a first edition wizard of oz can sell for tens of thousands of dollars and the fact that it's signed means so much more but condition is everything so i'm not gonna get excited until rebecca has a look all right let's take a look wizard of oz first edition it's a little rough yeah children's books get a lot more wear because kids are always handling them were all copies like color pages and everything like that yes uh this book the illustrations were very very important it was very very visual baum had a background in stage and musicals and he very much visualized this as something meant for the stage this book tapped into something in the american consciousness it's such an american book and this was in the stage when there weren't many books like that when you were looking at great children's books you were looking at london publications like alice in wonderland and this is one of the very early american fairy tales all right i think i can guess but tell me what your concerns are am i going to be able to sell it in that bad a shape i should tell you by the way i had it restored yeah i can see if that's restored i'd hate to see how it was when you first got it you can see this was put together with tape that was not archival it was very very acidic and it's left all of these marks here well this is a very special copy actually if you open it that's been signed by the author that's unexpected you don't often see this book with a signature it's kind of exciting to have it and it's the earliest state it means that it was probably owned by someone very close to bound that's that's cool yeah so in this kind of shape what do you think it would sell for there will be people who want it however given the shape that it's in people are going to lowball you the only way you're going to realize something is if it gets cleaned up more with restoration and that can get really expensive too oh i know that like thousands should the restoration go well i could see that this copy restored fetching up to 30 000. that's okay see seemingly better thanks you're welcome rick yeah he left us with a puzzle there you go thanks adam this one was really hard for me because the signature is great but the book was just dismal and it really kind of breaks my heart to see how neglected this book was over the past hundred years okay um i just don't know what to say it's a project for you if you want to uh i mean i i think i've had three and four-year projects with books yeah and um sometimes they work out sometimes they don't you know i i don't mean to beat you up but i'd risk three grand on it i wouldn't risk no more and i know it doesn't sound like a lot of money but it's it's going to turn into a two-year project for me that's the price i understand i honestly have more than that in it i mean and the restoration was very expensive what i did so far i mean the absolute bottom dollar number is gonna be something like six thousand dollars i don't think we're gonna make a deal then because the best i'm gonna go is four yeah i i can't do four sorry on this one but you know i'm gonna have to click my heels three times and take it home i think okay all right if you change your mind thanks man nice to see you so much i agree reluctantly with rebecca's assessment of the book but i'm definitely going to come back to the to the pawn shop to try and sell some more books and i mean hopefully the next sale will be more successful than this one you

Channel: Pawn Stars

Views: 1,242,926

Keywords: pawn, pawn stars, pawn stars episode, pawn stars full episode, the pawn stars, pawn star, pawn stars episodes, pawn stars chumlee, pawn shop, pawnstars, pawn stars old man, pawn stars full episodes, watch pawn stars, pawns stars book appraisals, pawn stars books, rare books, rare book value, rebecca pawn stars, rebecca book appraisals, the wizard of oz, theatrum chemicum brittannicum, the federalist papers, john adams, harry truman, 1842 book of mormon, book appraisal

Id: 2dLUnI0rgag

Length: 38min 48sec (2328 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021