Things You'll Need:
- Rare book price guides
- Antique book collecting guides
- Computer
- A place to sell your finds
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Step 1
Find several antique book guides. These aren't the same as rare book price guides. Price guides might have a simple entry like: John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, 1st Ed., current value. This is a good reference, but it doesn't tell you how to identify a first edition. When starting out, this is critical! Find books that will actually tell you how to ID true first editions.
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Step 2
Read these guides. Study them. Pick up several. There are some general hints for many books about whether or not they are first editions (like a 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 countdown virtually guarantees a 1st) but others are much harder to identify. Also, it's amazing how many pen names some authors had. Dean Koontz, for example, wrote a LOT of pulp fiction paperbacks under various pen names (numbering nearly a dozen) and each of these little known books is worth far more than you're going to find it for at a used book store, and that excitement of the find is a huge part of what being a book hound is all about.
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Step 3
If you feel overwhelmed early on, choose a "specialty" to focus on to help you get used to being a book hound. For me, I focused in on Sinclair Lewis & Upton Sinclair since those were two authors I knew from studying and whose work I admired. They also had some fairly recent antique books, meaning I could find some true first editions relatively cheap just to get started.
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Step 4
Keep learning, and keep looking. Usually as a book hound I find small deals, but once in a while you get the dandies: that $1 flea market book you sell for $75, or the $50 eBay buy that you turn around for $725 (my best ever to date). You now also have a great excuse to go to every flea market, used book store, estate auction, or garage sale that tickles your fancy.
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Step 5
Enjoy! While also having the chance to be lucrative, being a book hound is just a lot of fun and a great hobby.
