‘Best’ sellers

The average trade paperback is $7.05, while mass-market paperbacks average is $2.06, according to the Cornell University Library’s Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance. While the USF Library has sidewalk sales where students can purchase a bag of used books for $5.

However, there are a few books that sell for higher amounts. Here is a list of more expensive books:

• Shakespeare’s First Folio (Comedies, Histories & Tragedies), a first edition collection of his plays, was sold for $5.1 million in 2006, according to most-expensive.net.

• The first atlas, Cosmography by Ptolemy, was printed in Bologna, Italy in 1477. It is priced at $4 million, according to forbes.com.

• A 62-pound handmade book illustrating the life and art of Michelangelo is valued at more than $100,000, according to yahoo.com.

• As of 2007 there were only 48 copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the prices range from $20,000 to $100,000, according to wackyarchives.com.

—Candace Kaw