Bad news if your one of the many Kiwi families who has an encyclopaedia set proudly lining your bookshelf – they’re barely worth the paper they’re printed on.
A big investment (around $800-$900 at the time), the set of, on average, 32 books was once an essential part of homework time but the rise of CD encyclopaedias such as Encarta – and eventually the internet – has killed any use the books once had.
“Modern, 20th-century encyclopaedias really aren’t worth anything at all now,” rare book dealer Derek McDonnell told ABC Radio Perth.
Second-hand bookshops can no longer sell them and some charity stores also reject them as they are no longer a desired item, not even for nostalgia’s sake, McDonnell added.
Sold door to door, families could either purchase the books in one hit or become a subscriber to receive them in instalments. To own a set was quite an achievement.
“I’m 58 now and can still remember the door-to-door salesman selling my parents a set of Colliers Encyclopaedia in the late ’60s,” caller Jack told the show.
“They were great for settling arguments in the day … they now rest at my place, I just couldn’t bear to see them thrown out.”
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