Yet another discovery… I love this hobby!

March 27, 2015 by  
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From time-to-time we (Rare & Early Newspapers) talk about one of the joys of the hobby being the unearthing of unexpected “finds”. A few weeks ago this was played out in spades as

Guy Heilenman, President, Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers

we learned that the same issue we had sold for under $50 sold at a well-known auction house for well over $5,000 – the price driven by content we did not know was present. While we do our best to discover such hidden gems before offering issues, the reality is, it is nearly impossible to find everything of historical interest and/or collectable value. Some wonder if hearing about such events bothers us. Quite the contrary. This is one of characteristics of collecting old newspapers which make the hobby so enjoyable. While not all “finds” bring financial reward, it is rare to read through a rare newspaper from cover to cover without finding something unexpected beyond the original reason for purchasing – an interesting ad, the mention of a noteworthy name, contemporary viewpoints which add depth to the key content, etc. What fun!

While we won’t mention the exact date or title (that would be too easy), we will say the issue was from the 1760’s and was not American. 🙂

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Comments

One Response to “Yet another discovery… I love this hobby!”

  1. Kevin Faile on May 26th, 2015 8:24 pm

    I just started collecting rare/old newspapers from your company and Ebay. I have collected newspapers since 1990. It drove my wife crazy and everyone thought I was just a hoarder. Sometimes I’d buy 20 issues if it was historic. I bought many Boston Globes when the RedSox won the world series in 2004 for example. As I read your blog for the first time I think of the 1,000’s of newspapers I’ve kept in the dark all these years in storage. And I can’t help but think now as newspapers fold to the internet that one day a newspaper will be totally obsolete. Then each paper will be a collector’s dream. Those of us who collect history everyday aren’t as crazy as they thought. Up until recently I didn’t even know you could buy a newspaper from 1676. I just never thought about it. Each of us live in a section of the U.S. where a tiny newspaper could instantly be a collectors dream just because of were we live if a huge event happened there. History is yet to be written. And like the California gold rush we never know when newspapers will be the gold of tomorrow. Thank you for introducing me to rare/old newspapers it’s been a blast reading from 200 years ago. These won’t last Ebay is telling the world what we all knew all along. Collecting newspapers is collecting raw history. It’s priceless. And that price is literally skyrocketing.

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