{"id":948,"date":"2011-01-30T17:19:50","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T17:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1stedition.net\/posts\/2011\/01\/30\/the-top-100-collectible-childrens-picturebooks\/"},"modified":"2011-01-30T17:19:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T17:19:50","slug":"the-top-100-collectible-childrens-picturebooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1stedition.net\/blog\/2011\/the-top-100-collectible-childrens-picturebooks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 100 Collectible Children’s Picturebooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h3>\n

\"First Taken as a whole, this website provides collectors and booksellers with the context for specific first edition picturebooks within the collectible children’s book market. This context is based upon the intermingling of two primary ingredients, the relative scarcity and the collectibility of the book. <\/p>\n

The relative scarcity of a first edition book is a function of the demand and supply equilibrium in the market. <\/p>\n

The collectibility of a book is a potpourri of Factors Affecting Collectibility<\/a>, which we first described in Chapter 2 of the Children’s Picturebook Price Guide<\/em><\/em>. From Chapter 2:<\/p>\n

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"Note the key factors that impact the collectibility of the books. Each is a high quality story with imaginative or inventive illustrations, therefore the reading public has recurrently purchased the books for decades. Because of this, the books have stayed in print since their original publication and gone into many, many printings. Many of the books have earned a children’s picturebook award, while many of the illustrators have won numerous awards. All of the illustrators have high esteem within the book publishing market place. Many of the book’s characters became franchise characters, where one or more sequels were published, and line extensions have been made into other consumer product areas (i.e. toys, games, dolls, costumes, decorations, etc…). Lastly, many of the books or characters have crossed over into pop culture, either via a TV or feature film adaptation."<\/em> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Experienced book collectors and booksellers have an idea of the relative scarcity and relative collectibility of a book, therefore understand its context within the market and within the hobby. This information lets them make an educated estimate for the value of the book, and depending upon which side of the ledger they reside, either purchase or sell the book at a fair price. As an experienced book collector I continually make context based buy-side decisions. To expand upon this, it is important to understand that booksellers make pricing decisions, while book buyers make valuing decisions. <\/p>\n

Booksellers make pricing decisions based primarily upon the asking prices for comparable books currently in the market, sometimes research the history of comparable books sold, mixed with their experience associated with the book\u2019s particulars (i.e. author, illustrator, genre, and so forth). While this is an oversimplified synopsis, suffice it to say pricing a book is more art than science. <\/p>\n

Buyers of collectible books are aware of \u2018the art of pricing\u2019, therefore understand the why\u2019s and wherefore\u2019s for a particular book\u2019s offering price. Obviously it is easy to assess whether the price is a fair price relative to comparable books on the market. But is it a good value? Since buyers of collectible books have limited resources \u2013 money \u2013 they must deploy it effectively. Effective purchase decisions are based upon more than whether a book is fairly priced relative to comparables, and instead weigh this price against the value of the book in the context of other elements. <\/p>\n

To help readers establish their own context, this series of articles will develop the list of Top 100 Collectible American Picturebooks and explain the rationale for each book\u2019s inclusion. After the list is completed, the reader should have a good understanding for the context I use to classify most first edition picturebooks. Understandably the Top 100 will be my myopic perspective \u2013 it is not meant to be definitive and instead just a vehicle for our use. <\/p>\n

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Criteria for Top 100 Collectible Children’s Picturebooks<\/h3>\n

Selecting the books would be easy if value was used as the sole criteria. The 25,000 books in my picturebook database could be sorted by value and the 100 most valuable selected. <\/p>\n

Instead, the basis for selecting the books for the list are the six Factors Affecting Collectibility<\/a> (numbered for reference purposes only, not meant as a prioritization), with two oher factors thrown in. Click on the factor to read a detailed definition.<\/p>\n

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  1. Aesthetic Quality of the Illustrations and the Story<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Eminence of the Illustrator<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. 1st – Early – Late in the illustrator’s body of work.\n