Little Golden Books

I don’t usually deal in children’s books, but I did list a collectible Little Golden Book this week.  I needed to do some quick research before pricing it and thought I’d share a bit of what I learned.

Everyone remembers reading the Little Golden Books as a child--Little Golden books were first produced in 1942.  Twelve titles were sold that year. They were an immediate hit with young children and their parents, who loved the 25¢ price.  These older books are quite collectible. If you have an old one in good shape (no scribbles, no missing pages, etc.) you might be surprised how much it sells for. 

One thing to remember:  Never date your book by the copyright.  Copyrights seldom changed and the book that says 1942 just might have been printed in 1980!

For books published in 1947 – 1970, there is an easy way to tell the edition: Look on the last page of the book in the lower right hand corner by the spine. There will be a letter and this letter tells the edition. For example A=1st, Z=26th, AA=27.

For books published between 1971 – 1991, on the bottom of one of the first two pages you will see something like A B C D E or a b c d e. The first letter to the far left is the edition.

For books published after 1991, besides having the copyright date, the book will also have a printing date in Roman Numerals. If a book from this period does not have a Roman Numeral date it is a first printing and it was left off by mistake. If the letter "A" precedes the Roman Numerals the book is a first edition. If an "R" precedes the Roman Numeral then the book is a (R)evised edition.

It’s a complicated system, but good to know if you think you’ve found a valuable book!  Go look in your shelves to see if you have one of the older books!