Your Vintage Cookbooks Could Be Worth Up to $15,000

For decades, Julia Child’s cookbooks have enriched home cooking with classic recipes. The same cookbooks can enrich your bank account, too.

In 1961, Child and co-authors Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, published “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Because it made French cuisine accessible, the cookbook earned Child her own cooking show, “The French Chef,” and was described as having done “more than any other event in the last half century to reshape the gourmet dining scene.” So, yeah, Child’s cookbook is a pretty big deal.

And if you, by chance, have an autographed first edition sitting in your kitchen shelf, it could earn you a big payday, too. According to Woman’s World, a rare copy could fetch up to $5,000, while selling it as a set alongside its 1970 sequel could double the price to $9,500. You can perhaps even get more if it’s in mint condition, meaning it doesn’t have sauce stains after your grandmother tried making Child’s beloved beef stew.

As consolation for those who have an unsigned first edition, you can still roll in the dough (not literally, unless you’re trying Child’s pastry recipes) by selling the copy for as much as $250.

Don’t have any of Child’s cookbooks? You can also make money by selling other rare titles, such as a 1907 edition of Auguste Escoffier’s “A Guide to Modern Cookery” (as much as $2,500), a signed copy of Salvador Dali’s “Les Diners de Gala” ($4,400), and a 1931 edition of Irma Rombauer’s “The Joy of Cooking” ($15,000).