How to Start a Collection of Antiquarian Football Books
Let me start off with a little background history of my experience with collecting books and in particular antiquarian books. I do it for the enjoyment, not for any profit. I collect first editions, rare or scarce copies, signed copies and usually books in better condition and hopefully with a dust jacket. Again I do it for the fun of the search and acquiring a copy of a book to complete a particular section of a collection or just to grow the collection larger. In the past, I have collected golf books and have since donated over 500 books to the Oakmont Country Club for the Henry Fownes Foundation Library. I have what I believe is the largest and most complete collection of shotgun and shotgun shooting sports books in the world and continue to collect on a continuing bases strictly for the pleasure of enhancing my shotgun shooting. I love the game of GIN and have every book ever published on the game. I have a collection of every book on Ohio State football and it grows every year as new books are published. I am now very involved in developing a collection of football books with a target on college football and antiquarian books pre 1930s. I hope someday to donate this collection to a university library or sports museum whereby the public, students, teachers, coaches, sports writers, researchers, historians have full access to the collection. My best collection is my childhood books left to me by my mother. So I am different from what you might consider a typical book collector. But let me give you some further information to start and to enhance a collection of antiquarian football books in this case.
First, take a Saturday and go around and visit your local used book or antiquarian book dealer’s stores. Introduce yourself and get to know them a little bit as they will become a great source for information and books for your collection in the months and years ahead. You can buy plenty of books about collecting books, but only a few football books will ever become rare and or scarce and worth over $500.00. A good relationship with a bookseller will be more valuable. Remember enjoyment, not for profit. Second, learn about the conditions and rankings of book quality from your new friend… the used book store dealer. Learn and understand the difference between "poor", "fine" and "very good" condition, the value of an autographed copy, the physical condition of the book (torn pages or spine problems for example), what is a dust jacket. Ask about how to handle and take care of antiquarian books. If available, buy some plastic protective book jacket covers to be used later with your collection. A book in "poor" condition is generally worthless, but it can bring a lot of enjoyment to the collector and fill in a spot for your collection of say a certain coach or team if repaired and taken care of properly.
Next thing is to determine what you want to collect and only you can really make that discussion. There are hundreds of ways to just look at collecting football books. There have been over 8000 titles published with the word football in the book title and then there are several hundred more about football without any mention of football in the book title. This is part of the fun of building your collection.
But let’s get back to antiquarian football books. After you have visited your local used book dealer, now go to the internet which today has revolutionized book collecting. Here is the most valuable tip I will give you in this entire article; click on www.bookfinder.com and just put in a keyword about football or the word football alone. You will be amazed! It’s like the first time you go to New York City and see all the skyscrapers. Later as you become a more experienced collector, you will be putting in authors or coaches names to find books.Additional places to look are garage sales, estate sales, library sales, auction websites and Half-Price book stores. I personally do not go to EBay anymore as the internet booksellers you will find are much better to do business with in the long term. Check out www.Abebooks.com, www.Alibris.com and www.Bibliophile.com on the internet. Four major independent book stores I check with on an ongoing base are www.Betweenthecovers.com, Gloucester, NJ; www.TatteredCover.com, Denver, CO; www.Powells.com, Portland, OR and www.Strandbooks.com, New York City.
If you collect new or recently published books you can always go to Borders, Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble and on the internet at Amazon. Take out accounts with all of them and use your discounts to the max to expand your collection.
My final personal thoughts are, try to support your local independent book stores wherever you have the opportunity; as they are having a very tough time in this economy to survive. Remember a book is always a wonderful gift to give and or receive and especially now if it is an antiquarian football book.
Brought to you by www.RivalryFootball.com
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