If collecting Bibles is your hobby, searching for them at estate sales is a great place to start. There are many antique and rare Bibles that are sold at these sales and they are an excellent investment.
If you do not have that much knowledge on what exactly to look for and want to collect Bibles, here is some useful information to help you gain a better foundation on collecting them.
One thing that you want to take into consideration is that the Bibles value is determined by many factors:

  • Provenance (Did a famous person own it and did they sign it?)
  • Rarity (How many of these actually exist?)
  • Binding (Is it original and nice or does it need rebinding or restoration?)
  • Historical (Is it historically important?)
  • Collation (Are pages missing and if so how many?)
  • Market (Are collectors wanting to buy this Bible?)
  • Condition (Are all of the pages in great shape or poor shape?)
  • Age (How old is the material?)
  • First Edition (Is it an early edition or the first of this type printed)

All of the factors that are listed above are going to help you determine if the Bible you are looking at is worth the purchase.

Decade And Value

The 1900’s Bibles that were printed in this decade are going to have little value to collectors. One of the exceptions for this decade to be worth some sort of money is the First Edition of the New American Standard Bible which was dated in 1901.
The 1800’s Bibles will probably be worth around $50.00 with an exception of the 1833 Noah Webster Bible.
The 1700’s Bibles have a great chance of being valuable from this decade if they are in the English version only.
The 1600’s and earlier Bibles really tend to be the most valuable and are definitely worth doing the timely research involved. You may even come across Bibles that are bound with rare gems and precision metals.
Always remember that the Bible is the world’s most popular and best selling book and over seven billion copies have been printed. At least 100 million copies of the Bible are produced each year because it is important to many people’s faith and religion. Bibles come in different sizes, shapes, languages, and typeface.
Do you own an antique bible and want to know how much it is worth? Prestige Estate Services also does antique appraisals.