- So what do we have this time? Well, this time I bought you
something wildly interesting. [LAUGHS] Which is? A book by Oscar Wilde. You really need to
work on the jokes, dude. And that's among
the best of them. [BOOING] I bought this one privately
from a family that inherited it. I love Oscar Wilde. There's just a lot of wit
and charm in his works. I'm asking a really reasonable
price today of $2,000. You know, it's so reasonable
I don't think I want to take much less than that. OK, this is interesting. "The Happy Prince and Other
Tales" by Oscar Wilde. Printed in 1888. 1888. Is this a first edition? This is a first edition. And it's a very
interesting book. This was really the
first book that sort of cemented his literary career. Yeah, and half the
country loved him-- loved his works,
and thought he was just a complete genius, and
the other half absolutely hated him. Exactly. I'm sure you know
Oscar Wilde was one of these great personalities
of the 19th century. Yeah. Well, yeah, he was
a very odd cat. [LAUGHS] Exactly. Well, I consider him
sort of like the Lady Gaga of the 1890s. [LAUGHS] Oscar Wilde published
the majority of his work during a seven-year
stretch in the late 1800s. And even though he's still
considered a creative genius, he seems to be
remembered more today for having that
over-the-top personality and just being a funny guy. So how many actual
stories are there in here? Well, there's five
stories in there. Definitely cool, man. So how much do you want for it? I'm looking for $2,000 for it. [MUSIC PLAYING] Which might very
well be a good price. I'm not sure. I'm going to call Rebecca up. I'm going to get her down here. She will help me out with this. - Oh, of course, yeah.
- OK? Hang out a little bit.
I'm gonna go give her a call. Great.
Thanks so much. A first edition
Oscar Wilde would be an amazing item for the shop. But I don't want
to get too excited until Rebecca gets here and
tells me it's the real deal. What have we got? We have something really wild. Yeah. You gotta stop
those bad jokes. You both need to
stop those bad jokes. Oscar Wilde. Well, this is the book. He says it's a first edition. May I pull it
out of the Mylar? Of course. You know how to
handle these things. This was the sort of
breakout work for Wilde. He had printed a
number of poems. He was famous for doing reviews. But this is when the literary
establishment starts taking him a little bit more seriously. And just a couple of years
later, he ends up producing "The Picture of Dorian Gray." And then, of course, his big,
big hit was "The Importance of Being Earnest." And he lived a very
extravagant lifestyle, too. Even on his deathbed, he
was sipping champagne. And he supposedly said, alas,
I'm dying beyond my means. [LAUGHS] I'm a fan of Oscar Wilde
because he is all about style. He had a number of contributions
in the literary world, but also, he was kind of
important in the history of authorship, of
this superstar author that everyone paid attention to. So it's definitely
a first edition? In this case, we actually call
this the first trade edition because the same year,
there was a deluxe edition published of 75 copies. OK. And this is the trade
edition, the first that was pretty much open access. You didn't have to
pay specially for. And there were 1,000 copies
of this printed, which is still a very small number. OK. So what do you think
of the condition? Listen, I've seen better,
but I've seen worse. OK? This book is notorious
for this kind of soiling. Japanese vellum, which
is what you've got here, this is what happens
with it, unfortunately. The materials used
were very beautiful. Wilde was very, very
sensitive about how his books were published, and
he wanted them to be beautiful. The problem is he
didn't anticipate how they would age 100 years later. So it does have, obviously,
an effect on the value. Just like coins and
other things, some of them age better than others. You're right. There are some books, when there
are certain condition traits that are acceptable
that would be utterly unacceptable in another book. All right, so-- value? This book, you do see a big
range, depending on condition. I'd be willing to place it-- I would say 2,600. Optimistically, 2,800. OK. All right? Thanks.
You're the best. You're welcome, Rick. Thanks so much, Rebecca. Bye, Adam. This book is not as famous as
some of the other Oscar Wilde works. But I don't think he's going
to have a hard time moving it because it's Oscar Wilde. Everyone loves him. OK, so we're not
so far off this time. Give me a number. Let me have it for 1,500. Well, you know,
when I was younger, I thought money was the most
important thing in the world. And now that I'm
older, I know it is. [LAUGHS] That's Oscar Wilde. What about something
about, uh, 21? Didn't you say earlier
you wanted 2,000? Just-- she gave me a better
appraisal than I thought. There's a lot of
demand for Wilde. I'll give you 1,700 bucks. I'll come down. But give me a little bit more. Give me 1,800. That's a fair price. You're going to sell this. I know you bring me
stuff all the time. And this one, I actually
think will sell quick compared to some of the other things. So 1,800 bucks. Do you want to
wrap it up for me? And I'll meet you
right over there. Yeah, let's do that. I'll bring it over. We ended up on
settling on 1,800. I mean, that's a
really fair price. I'm definitely going to be back. I'm saving some books that
I think Rick will like. And I'm definitely
saving some books that I think Rebecca will like.
