Old cookbooks are not just for collecting, but they are indeed fun to collect. I can not say I have any particular sense of reasoning when it comes to my own collection, but I sure have a lot of them. As a great eBayer, I was constantly picking them up for a song and a dance compared to the local shops. It isn't just local shops that sell some pretty great old cookbooks. My favorite spot to find them is at thrift stores. One such book is the 'Country Living Recipes', book by Jean Wickstrom Liles. It was published back in the 80's, and contains some of the best tried and true old country food recipes for familiar, easy, yummy, down home style comfort foods.
Not all cookbooks have to be extremely old to be collectible. This book has easy recipes and also some very good hints for the cook. Hints such as, freezing soft cheese for 15 minutes before trying to cut or shred it. Another tidbit is to place one or two avocado seeds in Guacamole dip to keep it from turning brown. Not all cookbooks can be found easily, but we did find a handful of this one on eBay for around $5 each. If any are available at this time you can just click the cookbook picture and they will appear.
Q: As a collector of Belleek, I say the first markings are in black, but a lady I email back and forth with says it was different colors. Could you tell us who is right?



Sheet music many both collect and sell for profit are works that have a musical documentation of history. It may be a favorite old Dixie song, or the music that was played at an inaugural event. Historical songs depicting an era or event in history.
Black artists sheet music is also very collectible. It often sells for between $35-$100 dollars a sheet for vintage sheet music. If the cover depicts a particular artist, it may even go higher and if it is signed it will be very valuable. Toss in our artists from specific periods and you have a winner!
Lastly I would like to advise both buyers and sellers that you may either get a great buy, or give a huge profit away. The picture to the left is an auction gone wrong. The seller did not take time to sort through and market this stack of old papers. Among them you will notice a ton of money gone down the drain. The buyer got a big bonus with this lot. They paid approximately $26 for the whole stack. Among this lot is historical documents,old comic books, old time prints, postcards, sheet music, original pamphlets and more. As I went through and identified the stack, the value should have skyrocketed upward of three to four hundred dollars. Buyers, keep an eye out for this type of auctions, and sellers, divide your stash and see what it is really worth.