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Finding old high school yearbooks can be very profitable! When a high school orders yearbooks, they order only what they need for that years students. Some schools may have ordered an extra yearbook for the high school library, and even those may be tossed after a few years. Many people that become famous, do so after high school. Their high school pictures from their yearbook, may not even reflect the person they have become. Many of these old pictures are used as the ones posted in the movie theaters of "Who Is This". If someone is famous in your yearbook, prices can start at around $100.00, and can go up go up as high as $1000.00 or more. Imagine what an "Elvis" collector would pay for one of his high school yearbooks, knowing the chances of getting one is slim to none.
Not only are these yearbooks sought after for the old high school pictures, but the autograph as well. Many people use old yearbooks from an area to locate ancestors, or to track birth parents and other genealogy. Many sports also have yearbooks featuring rookies, and special events. And today many yearbooks are being produced in CD-ROM, DVD, or just a yearbook online, just ask your classmates to autograph your CD. Year books will one day be a thing of the past.
In effort to get some history and information on yearbooks and their collections we contacted Seth Poppel of Yearbook Library. Seth is a well known collector of yearbooks, and an expert in the field. Many thanks to Seth for sending us the history of yearbooks: The following is taken from "History Worth Repeating - a Chronology of School Yearbooks" which is a comprehensive history of the yearbook published by Jostens (year book publisher).
"Scholastic publications are a time-honored tradition in American education. As early as the 1600’s, there is evidence of school scrapbooks filled with student memorabilia. The first handwritten school publication appeared as early as 1777. Some colleges published literary magazines and newspapers as early as 1799. The Quill and Scroll Society documents that the oldest surviving college magazine, "The Transylvanian", or "The Lexington Literary Journal" was first published in 1829. The oldest surviving college yearbook, Signia, was founded in 1823 by the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. Quill and Scroll also cites that high school yearbooks first hit the scene in 1845. In that year, the Waterville Academy in Waterville, NY began publishing “The Evergreen”. Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, CT, followed in 1846 with the publication of its yearbook, “The Annual”. The first Collegiate yearbook in North America is attributed to Yale University (1806). In the 1880’s, the arrival of the letterpress process accompanied by halftone printing signaled the beginning of a more economically feasible, mass-produced yearbook. Thus, the modern year book was born."
Mr. Poppel pointed out that the oldest high school yearbooks are not the most valuable. The most money ever recorded having been paid for a yearbook, was paid for Mickey Mantle's VERY OWN copy of his own yearbook (5 figures). Other 4 figure yearbooks would relate to Presidents and iconic personalities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, James Dean, etc. A very special part of the Yearbook Library is the section where we have the Celebrity's VERY OWN Copy (the one that was theirs in high school).
Poppel currently "screens" high school (no college) yearbooks for over 600 booksellers throughout the US. The booksellers send Poppel lists with the year, name of the high school, city and state. Then Poppel archives the collections list through their "one-of-a-kind" data base of where celebrities attended high school, as a student, before they became famous. Which is almost impossible to do by looking through the book, based on time, ability to recognize original names, and knowing EVERY famous person.
If you send Seth a self addressed stamped envelope, or e-mail - and the name of your high school, city & state, and the year published, he can tell you if there is someone famous in your yearbook (Even if names have changed). Yearbook Library has over 6,000 yearbooks in their collections and will tell you of yearbooks from your area that they want, and will pay fair prices for.
Yearbook Library
Seth Poppel
309 Lake Washington Blvd.
Seattle, WA 98122
Toll Free Phone: 1-877-HIGHSCHOOL
E-Mail: Seth
This article was originally published and is a copyright of Mister Find IT from Newsletter of October 2002, and was updated January 2008. You hereby have permission to copy the title and create a brief description of no more then 25 words, (which can be from the article) but your description and / or the title must be linked back to the URL of the full article.
(http://www.misterfindit.com/yearbook.html)
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