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We support the following credit card types for orders paid in U.S. currency:

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ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT

We also accept checks (personal checks are just fine), and money orders.

We recommend money orders over checks -- we will process an order paid for by a money order or certified check upon receipt of payment; orders paid for by check will be processed when the check clears. Rare Bibles and More only accepts these methods of payment in U.S. currency.

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We will try to inform you of any anticipated delays in the completion of your order, and we check continually for orders that may have slipped through a crack. However, if your order is taking longer than expected, and you haven't heard from us, please feel free to contact us.

If your order has been delayed in shipment, please let us know -- we may have more success getting it backtracked -- or if it appears to have been lost or damaged we can begin reprocessing your order immediately.

 

We do our best to keep the information on our site up-to-date. There is a small chance that an item on our site may be out of stock, and we would have a delay in replenishing our inventory. In the event that an item would be temporarily out of stock, we will contact you.

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We will reprocess your order as soon as we have determined that it has been lost. For traceable shipment: we will have an inquiry initiated, and if the shipper cannot locate the parcel, we will reship. If the shipment is international, it may take several weeks before determining that the package has been lost. In either case, we will handle any paperwork required by the shipper and if the shipment is deemed lost, we will reship your order as quickly as possible.

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If you receive a damaged package, please refuse delivery and contact us as soon as possible. We will reship your order and file any necessary paperwork.

If you don't have a chance to refuse a damaged package, or if the package is not damaged, but the order is, contact us as soon as possible so that we can reprocess your order right away. The shipper may wish to inspect the damaged package or goods, so please keep the package and its contents for at least
two weeks (they also may wish to retrieve the order).

 

Guaranteed!

 

All merchandise is carefully packed in bubble-wrap in tubes/boxes. Rare Bibles and More fully guarantees that your order will arrive in stated condition.

Our Return Policy

If you are unsatisfied with your order for any reason, please contact us immediately. You may return item for a store credit within 3 days of receiving any merchandise.

We cannot accept the following returns:

Any order returned more than 3 days after it was received
Any damaged or otherwise non-resalable item
Returns are Simple!

Please notify us of all returns before proceeding -- we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited returns. After you have notified us, please repackage the item in the original shipping container and be sure to include your order number. We recommend that you send your return back via an
insured carrier to the following address:

 

Rare Bibles & More
Attn: Returns
14111 Pennsylvania Avenue
Hagerstown, Maryland 21742

If you are not satisfied with your Rare Bibles and More purchase, we are happy to work with you to make the return process as smooth as possible. We abide by the following refund policy:

Historical Reproductions will exchange your item for the same item or an in-store credit.
We will reship any order that arrives damaged or in error
Packing material must be provided for insurance purpose. If not provided, 1/3 of your purchase order will be credited.
Store credit only for any custom serviced items.
Store credit only for any order paid for with prior store credit
Please note:

Shipping charges are not refundable
Return postage is the responsibility of the customer
Credits are not applicable to damaged returns

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Ensuring that your information is safe

We guarantee that all our transactions, our credit card numbers and other personal information is 100% secure when you make a purchase at Rare Bibles and More.

Prefer not to use our credit card on the Internet?

No problem. Although we assure you that your information is completely safe and secure, you can call in your order and credit card number or mail us a check. We are open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST.

 

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Our privacy policy lets our customers and visitors know what information we gather and what we do with it.

Identifying Personal Information

Order Information

We only gather information that visitors to Rare Bibles and More are willing to give. Some of it is required to fulfill orders (like names, shipping addresses, and phone numbers) and we ask for some information so that we can provide better service (e-mail addresses and phone numbers for example).

Email

We keep all the email we receive and send so that we can find all the information we need about particular order histories.

We send email to customers only if it concerns a specific order or question, or if the customer has opted to receive promotional emails.

Privacy

Rare Bibles and More maintains a strict privacy protocol for all customer information. Occasionally, we email our customers to let them know about new products, services, offers, promotions, and anything else we think be of interest (unless you don't want us to, in which case just let us know and we won't).

Non-identifying Information

We collect all kinds of statistics about visits to our site -- where the visitors came from, what they did and viewed during their visit. However, we do not (and cannot) collect any personally identifying information (names, email addresses as such) this way.

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The reproductions of items on this website are made viewable for the sole purpose of promoting and selling the items from their authorized sources. These images may not be sold, reproduced or distributed for any other purpose. Restrictions include both print and electronic forms of reproduction and distribution. It is explicitly prohibited to sell any printed or electronic copies of these images.

Website Content

Price and availability information on the inventory is subject to change without notice.

Fraudulent Transactions

Rare Bibles and More reserves the right to investigate and/or refuse any transactions/purchases that would appear in the estimation of the vendor, to be fraudulent, dishonest or deceitful.

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Most Bible collectors have probably been asked repeatedly, usually by someone with little knowledge of Bibles and their value, "What's this Bible worth?" Persons assume that there must be [a]…"Blue Book" which fixes a specific sale price for every Bible…. In the U.S. the entire retail sales industry is predicated on the principle that all goods and services carry a set price, often with very little opportunity for dickering….

But this system works quite differently when it comes to certain other objects. Perhaps the automobile industry would be the primary example of an exception to this rule. Few people expect to pay the sticker price on a new or used car. And, knowing that, probably most dealers price their cars accordingly, prepared to reduce their asking price and still make a reasonable profit. "Antique," "Second Hand" and other stores dealing in used merchandise usually operate on a similar principle.

But back to Bibles. Is there really a fixed price that one might expect to pay for a particular Bible? For instance, what is a 1611 King James "he" Bible worth? Or how much would you expect to pay for an 1876 Julia Smith Bible? Or a 1782 Aitken Bible, the only one recommended by the U.S. Congress of the United States to be read by its citizens? …Is it possible to see advertised in the Bible catalogs of various book dealers the same Bible or New Testament listed at widely differing prices? And who hasn't seen that? Why would prices on similar pieces not be more uniform and less variable (depending on condition, of course)? Surely there must be reasons. …"What determines the selling price for a particular Bible?"

SCARCITY

Perhaps the most common basis for determining the sale price of a Bible would be its scarcity. The fewer available copies of any book naturally makes the remaining small number of copies more expensive. This is the principle of supply and demand, so well known in industrialized nations, which dictates the going price of virtually any item. The more people attempting to acquire the few available copies naturally forces the price higher. People who really want a particular Bible are willing to pay an elevated price to get it. And as copies of the available items become fewer and fewer, the price of the remaining ones grows higher and higher. Surviving inventory records occasionally tell of the bulk of an initial printing of a particular Bible or New Testament being destroyed in a warehouse fire, making the few remaining copies very scarce. Thus, scarcity is a major factor in regulating price.

But the question naturally arises, "Is a particular Bible really scarce? Who says it is? And who actually knows how many there are out there?" This raises the issue of the accuracy of such terms, utilized in used book trade advertising, as "very rare," "rare," "scarce," "quite scarce," "hard-to-find," "seldom seen," "much-sought-after," and others. Business people (and even most private sellers) obviously want to make as many sales as possible, so sometimes put the most appealing "spin" on items they adversities (within the limits of remaining truthful, of course) in order to attract customers. After all since we aren't speaking of an exact science here, the judgment of the seller as to a book's scarcity determines what descriptive word he chooses for a book's availability. Then, of course, a given seller may not have seen many copies of a particular book, so rightfully advertises it as scarce based on his limited, personal knowledge. So, the more scarce a seller perceives a book to be, the more money he feels justified in asking, and expecting to receive, for it. So an asking price may or may not be an actual indication of the book's actual scarcity, and therefore worth. This makes used book prices relative, not absolute. But, if someone wants a book badly enough to pay a high purchase price for it, that fact tends to increase the price on most future sales of that title.

What happens, then, when a choice volume stops circulating from publisher to dealer to collector and ends up in a Bible library or museum? That is often its last stop, since such institutions aren't often inclined to part with a long-sought book. Out of circulation, permanently, the number of remaining copies of that version or edition is gradually reduced, driving up the price of the few remaining copies.

CONDITION

Another obvious criterion that regulates the price of used Bibles is their condition. Condition involves several aspects: cover (soft cover, hardback, full-leather, half-leather, etc.), binding (sewn, perfect bound, stapled, comb-bound, etc.), paper (acid free, glossy, weight, etc.), and size (folio, quarto, octavo, etc.). Then, of course, condition would include such things as the degree of wear on the cover (rubbed), torn or missing pages, foxing of the paper, loose contents, weak or cracked spine, markings or underlining, presence of worm holes, signs of mildew, etc.

A very old book that was never read or used much, in mint condition, will demand a higher price. This means an "ex-libris" copy (from a library) will often bring less money due to the excessive use and wear and tear it may have undergone. Of course, "condition" is often in the "eye of the beholder," with some collectors being more discriminating than others.

Some collectors are primarily interested in the "artifact" aspect of collecting, placing their cherished volumes in bookcases, some glass-covered, and seldom handling them. Others, however, view their Bibles as working "tools," to be used for study and comparison of scripture passages. Such use, obviously, calls for Bibles in better condition. In some cases, a collector will obtain two copies of a favorite version, one to keep as a "collector's item," while the other is for "everyday" use.

Of course, the better the "condition" of a Bible, the higher price it would bring for purchasing or selling. Condition can greatly affect a Bible's price, and ultimately determines its value.

EDITION

No less important than the scarcity and condition of a Bible to many collectors, is its edition. As with most books, a first edition is always in high demand, considered a choice acquisition and consequently commands the highest price. Because first editions often are printed in smaller press runs and may contain various errors and typos, they are soon replaced with slightly revised subsequent editions, making the first edition no longer available, scarcer, and often in higher demand to collectors. This, of course, increases their price to those collectors who are especially interested in "firsts."

Then some collectors specialize in acquiring each succeeding edition of a Bible, containing variations from its original text (improvements or corrections). When these editions go out of print, they are usually never again reprinted and so become highly sought by certain collectors (with correspondingly high prices). When one of these editions contains an especially odd or unique rendering (a 1716 Bible reads "sin on more" instead of "sin no more"; a 1795 Bible says, "let the children first be killed" instead of "be filled," and many more), that oddity makes them choice acquisitions by certain collectors.

There are certain other qualities which increase the demand for a particular edition: the first Bible printed in America; the first printed in a certain state; the first to use "immerse," etc. Also Bibles that once belonged to a famous person are usually more expensive. These often have some personal note penned on the flyleaf, together with the famous owner's signature. Copies personally signed by the translator are usually more valuable than those without such autographs….

Hardcover or leather editions of a particular Bible, initially costing more to produce, are worth more than soft cover or paperback editions when used. This is not only true because of their greater durability but because collectors tend to prefer, by far, hardcover books over soft. Such books not only last longer, but also hardcover books are viewed as esthetically more appealing.

So "edition" can make a big difference in the price of a potential Bible being considered for acquisition by a collector.

AGE

The person asking you "How much is this Bible worth?" may also add "It's really old." Of course, the book may have been produced in the late 1800s, making it just over 100 years old and therefore not really "old" in terms of antiquarian Bibles. Such family Bibles often have little worth to Bible collectors, being more valuable to their owners as a family heirloom. Most collectors have been offered such a Bible as a gift, and usually graciously accept it, while replying with a sweet smile something like, "Yes, it's nice, thank you."

But, when the Bible can be dated to the 16th, 17th, or even 18th century, provided it is in acceptable condition, the price can go up to several hundred or even multiple thousands of dollars. By virtue of time and wear, relatively few Bibles from the early years of printing have survived, making them more costly to acquire. And many of those that were located have been dismantled in order for certain individual leaves to be sold separately. An additional factor is that such Bibles were virtually always very ornate, and contained splendid illuminations, making them truly works of art. Collectors of antiquarian Bibles and especially Bible museums are always anxious to acquire such volumes, driving up the price.

However, age may not be the only factor in determining the price of a Bible. There are a few translations, usually privately published versions, that have come to be in great demand for various reasons. Some of these were produced in extremely small quantities (several hundred copies, or fewer), produced as typewritten manuscripts and then either hand-bound or preserved in a loose-leaf notebook, or mimeographed sheets in a professional binding. Some of these will fetch hundreds of dollars.

While age is generally a major factor in determining price, other reasons can affect the amount as well.

AVAILABILITY

Bible translations are to be found scattered to the farthest reaches of the globe. In ancient times, as the New World was discovered and ultimately explored, Bibles were often prized possessions transported to each new location by pioneer settlers.

Sir Francis Drake's chaplain is thought to have used a Bishops' Bible during their first Anglican church service on America's west coast (possibly in California) in 1579. Puritan Pilgrims from England brought a Geneva Bible with them when they landed at Plymouth Rock in New England in 1620. The mutineers from the H.M.S. Bounty used a 1764 King James Version on remote Pitcairn Island, more than 4,000 miles south of Los Angeles, in 1790.

Because there are Bibles virtually everywhere, some of the choice volumes desired by collectors may be difficult to locate. Once translators of obscure versions have passed on, their heirs often dispose of the remaining copies in remote places that maker their discovery something of a scavenger hunt. Some collectors have spent considerable time over the course of many years trying to track down a coveted version or edition. Numerous letters, countless trips to used book shops, garage sales and antique stores, book auctions, catalog searches and phone calls may all be involved in the relentless hunt for that all-elusive Bible to fill in a gap in their collection. All of this time, effort and expense are often viewed by collectors as worthy of remuneration when they eventually sell their collections. Then when that volume is ultimately resold, the increased cost is passed on to the next collector or museum.

The lack of easy availability of certain Bibles translates into higher prices for those eventually found.

FINANCES

While several factors we have considered bear on Bible prices, most of them account for why prices go up. But there is one factor that may account for the lowering of prices.

From time to time Bible collectors have been known to sell off their entire collections as a complete group to a college library or Bible museum. ….But sometimes Bibles are sold piece by piece to other collectors, who rejoice at the opportunity of obtaining choice volumes they had previously had little hope of finding. …To accomplish this, …often…many of the Bibles must be sold at a sacrificial price. When sold as a group to an institution, such organizations can seldom afford to pay the highest price, or when making a bulk purchase of an entire collection, they often expect a concession from the seller in the interest of affecting the sale. Also, if the collection is going to an alma mater, or to some non-profit institution, the seller may desire to offer his collection as a partial gift.

But when selling the books individually, it often becomes necessary for the collector to lower prices on each volume in order to dispose of them more quickly. This is especially true if there is a dire or immediate need for funds by the seller. While it may seem unfortunate that a collector is forces to take a loss when selling off his collection, extenuating circumstances often leave the collector with no other choice. He no doubt collected his Bibles for reasons other than as commercial investments, yet when placing them up for sale, they do constitute a sizable asset which can provide him with a significant sum for whatever his emergency need may be. In any event, his collection of Bibles is likely to change hands with the prices of individual volumes decreasing in salable value. This situation is fortunate for the buyer while being unfortunate for the seller.

So sometimes a Bible collector will liquidate his entire collection at ridiculously low prices, which, when the volumes are later resold, may constitute their changing hands again at less than top dollar.

Another factor that might affect the lowering of the price on a given Bible is when it enters the reprint market. As long as a Bible is available only in an original edition, the relatively few copies that exist retain their value (and price), but when such a volume becomes abundantly available in reprint format, the prices on the older (that is, original edition) books may drop dramatically, especially in the minds of prospective buyers who are interested only in the text and not the artifact.

CONCLUSION

The various factors we have considered account for the prices Bibles will sell for. There is no "standard" price regulated by some agency empowered to set proper prices. Their scarcity, condition, the editions, age, availability, and finances all must figure into a selling price. The cost that Bibles sell for often reflects the level of knowledge about Bibles possessed by the seller. Certain venues tend to provide a purchaser with an extremely low price (used book stores, rummage sales, garage/yard sales, flea markets, or other such sources), the reason being that such sellers may know little about the value of Bibles (and may have correspondingly little invested in them). Most Bible collectors will have one or more stories to tell of acquiring a valuable Bible or New Testament for only pennies on the dollar of their "real" value. Sometimes there is little correlation between cost and value. Other venues will usually require paying top dollar (knowledgeable antiquarian Bible dealers, book auctions, e-Bay, experienced collectors, etc.), sometimes at sums that very few collectors can afford to pay. Generally, prices for Bibles from private collectors will cost less than those purchased from dealers or auctions, where profit margins and commissions are involved. So that means a lower price paid for a Bible tends to bring prices down generally, while higher prices paid for them tend to raise their cost.

Remember the question, "What's this Bible worth?" I'm afraid there can be no pat answer to that query, for Bible prices will invariably vary…sometimes widely. Certain prices will be exorbitant, while others will be a "steal." The only thing you can count on is that they will all be arbitrary. In the end, what a collector will pay tends to level out, with Bibles continuing to sell for whatever price the traffic will bear. Perhaps the best summary of the price of a Bible are the words of Arnold D. Ehlert, editor of The Bible Collector, forerunner of this publication, when he said, in the June 1978 issue, "It is worth what you have to pay for it if you want it that badly; or, it is worth what you can get for it if you want to sell it that badly!"

By: William E. Paul
William E. Paul, M.S.L., is a retired minister of the Church of Christ, and serves as Chief Editor of Bible Editions & Versions. He lives in Franktown, Colorado.

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