Signed, First-edition Book: Penny Stock or Valuable Investment?
Nov 19th, 2009 by Carlos
A few months ago I decided to try different things to make some extra money. Since I love books, I figured I’d give selling used books a shot. My first try ended with some people calling me a thief. But after that I went to a used book store hunting for valuable books that were being sold on the cheap.
The idea was to buy them and then sell them online for a profit.
It hasn’t worked out so well: I spend around $40 and sold one of the books. I did make a profit off it, but the other books haven’t sold, so I’m in the hole.
But one of the books I found was a first edition copy of Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side. The book is also autographed by the man himself, who just happens to be an idol of mine.
The Dilemma
Now that the book is being turned into a big Hollywood movie (comes out on Friday) and there is a lot of chatter about Lewis’ book, I figured it would be a perfect time to do my very first giveaway on The Writer’s Coin. I could create some buzz on the site by getting people to comment or subscribe to my RSS feed, or something.
But then I opened the book up and flipped through it a little—it’s in fantastic shape. It’s autographed by the man himself. It’s about Michael Oher, whose story is unbelievable and who may turn out to be a force in the NFL (he’s a rookie this year).
Hell, he may turn out to be a monster in the NFL, one of the greatest ever. And that means a signed, first-edition book about that player’s life written by one of the greatest writers of our generation would be worth quite a bit of money down the line.
You see where I’m going with this?
Give Away or Invest?
For now I’m keeping the book, but I’m curious to hear what other people out there think about treating this book as a potential investment. It feels like I have a penny stock that I think might shoot up in 10 years, but that’s quite a long shot.
If that were to happen, I would look back at the time I gave the book away for a few extra RSS subscribers and think to myself, “What the hell did you do that for?”
Nut – I’m surprised your post hasn’t engendered more comments. Why do you think that is? There are so many book lovers out there, including myself.
Andre Agassi is my hero, as I’m a big tennis fan. I met him last Fri and got a signed book. I will treasury it FOREVER and never give it away.
I had an e-mail conversation w/ Michael once b/c of the industry I’m in. He lives right here in the Bay Area actually. Nice guy!