It's Garage Sale Season - Pop-Up Books to Watch For5/19/2009 9:23:00 AMAfter years of buying and selling books online I've gotten pretty good at walking through thrift stores and garage sales and nabbing books that are collectible for just a few cents. Among my acquisitions was a copy of the Jolly Jump-Ups Journey Through Space.
The Jolly Jump-Ups series of pop-up books were written by Geraldine Clyne in the 1940's and 50's. On a very rare occasion they turn up at garage sales. The copy I found I was the rarest of Clynes books, I paid $4.00 for it and later sold it on the internet for $300.00. It was a nice profit for me and the final piece to a collection for the books new owner. The unfortunate thing is that they're hard to come by but, as I discovered, The Jolly Jump-Ups aren't the only valuable pop-up books to watch for.
A few years ago I stopped at a garage sale and for .25 I purchased a beautiful copy of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas pop-up book, which was published by Mouse Wor
ks in 1993. I purchased the book for my son who he loves Tim Burton's work.
When I got home with the book I discovered that a mint condition copy was worth about $129.00. Given its recent publication date I was surprised and from that day on I made a point of watching for it. A few months later I discovered a slightly less pristine copy at thrift store which I purchased and sold for $79.00.