Book Market Watch: How to Wrap 5 Eggs

Just so you don't accidentally sell a copy of this at a yard sale for a couple bucks and wind up disliking yourself, even battered copies of How to Wrap 5 Eggs: Japanese Design in Traditional Packaging, by Hideyuki Oka, 1967, are listed for more than $100 on the Internet. Copies in good condition are starting around $250 on most bookselling sites that I keep tabs on. Copies in really good condition might fetch $500 or more. It's sort of a coffee table book - large (about eleven-and-a-half by ten inches), with lots and lots and lots of pictures, most of them in black and white. And we're noticing some turnover (people are buying at those prices).

The sequel, How to Wrap 5 More Eggs is also collectible, but not at quite the same prices. Say the $75 to $200 range for most copies. (Still not something you want to dump at a yard sale.)

Search tip: Some sellers have the book listed as "How to Wrap 5 Eggs." Some have it "How to Wrap Five Eggs." Some have it both ways. When I'm looking, I just use how to wrap eggs. Works for me. You can track both the original and the sequel that way, too, for what it's worth.

I keep thinking the fad - such as it is - will run its course, but I've checked off and on over the last several years, and every time I've taken a look, prices have been high and people seem to be buying. Go figure.