Hey, can I help you?
Hi.
I have a book for you to look at.
OK.
"To Kill a Mockingbird."
Pretty cool.
I probably read this book when I was around 20,
and I'm 29 now, so.
[laughs]
GABRIELA: I have a first edition "To Kill a Mockingbird"
that I'm trying to sell today.
The condition is not perfect.
It has definitely had some wear and tear on it.
But I'm hoping to sell it for $5,000.
RICK: This is interesting.
I think it takes place in the 1950s.
It's about a-- a teenage girl named Scout.
Her father Atticus is defending a black man
that's falsely accused of raping a white woman.
And it's the trials and tribulations
of what the family goes through, and the trial,
and all these other things.
It's a really, really heavy book.
It's one of those books where you read it for an hour,
you got to put it down for a little bit.
You know, I mean, just you get a little emotional.
But it's a pretty amazing book.
I know this book has never gone out of print.
And besides the Bible, I don't know of any book that's been
in print for going on 60 years.
It's super collectible.
Do you know if this is a first edition or not?
I believe it is.
From what I looked into it, I think it is.
OK.
All right, I don't know if it is.
Well, it says first edition right there.
OK.
But there's first editions, and then there's first editions.
You can have a first edition, but different states
of a first edition.
Because they might start putting it out and then realizing
there's a typo or something like that, and they go fix it.
OK, so then you have the first edition second state
and so on and so on.
I can tell you right now there's going to be condition
issues with this thing.
Yeah.
The dust cover is in really rough shape.
The spine is all tweaked out on it.
It's been well-used because it was a library copy.
But being a first edition, even in terrible shape,
is worth money.
So how much you looking to get out of this?
I was kind of hoping 5,000 range maybe?
OK, I have no idea, to tell you the truth.
OK?
But I do have a friend.
Let me get her down here.
She'll take a look at this.
And I promise you she'll know everything
there is to know about it.
Perfect.
OK, I'll be right back.
GABRIELA: I think it's a great idea
he wants to bring in an expert.
I'd like to learn more about the book myself.
[cash register dings]
If you want to talk about books changing people's lives,
this is one of the best examples.
"To Kill a Mockingbird," published in 1960,
this is on the eve of the civil rights movement.
And many, many people consider this their favorite book.
This is one of the books that essentially, right
when it was published, it immediately
entered the American canon.
And in fact, Harper Lee is one of the few women who
was immediately sort of crowned into American literature
as a contender for the great American novel.
OK, so it says first edition in it.
Yes.
This book does say first edition on the copyright
page, which is important.
So what I want to see, a 3.95 price.
We've got a blurb by Capote here.
So these are the kind of things you're looking for.
These are what we call "points"--
the price, the blurb.
And this all actually checks out to be a first issue,
which means it was part of the first batch issued
to the public.
OK.
So there was multiple states?
Yeah, there were multiple issues.
This is the first of the first.
OK.
Good news.
Oh, yeah, definitely good news.
Now she's going to give us all the bad news.
Yeah, now-- now I've got to look a little
closer at the condition.
So the first thing I noticed, it's an ex-library copy.
You've got the stamps here and here.
You've got a few stains.
But the jacket is really the king here,
and you can see remnants of a laminate, which these are
all very common sort of treatments
that you see for a book that's been in the library system.
But in the collectible market, it kind of kills it.
So what's it worth?
So given the condition here and the fact
that I would consider this poor, I'd say it's probably $1,000.
OK.
Glad I could help.
Thanks.
REBECCA ROMNEY: Thanks.
GABRIELA: Thank you.
[sighs]
OK, so, obviously, $5,000 is not going to happen.
Yeah.
OK, I'd give you 500 bucks for it.
1,000?
No, if I bought and sold stuff for the same price,
I wouldn't be in business long.
What about 7?
I'll go 600 bucks.
That's the best I can do.
Sure.
All right, we got a deal.
I'll meet you right over there, and
we'll do some paperwork Great.
GABRIELA: I ended up selling the book for $600, which
is far less than I was hoping to get for it,
but is definitely more than the 3.95
that's printed on the book.
[music playing]