Review: "Identifying and Pricing Guide to Indian Arrowheads", Overstreet

[MikeD]

If you buy, sell or just want to know the value of your native American arrowheads, the Overstreet Pricing Guide (9th Edition) is a must have book. There are over 1100 pages of photos, identification tips and prices for arrowheads found throughout America. The book is organized by 10 geographical areas.

The first 100, or so, pages of the book contains contributions by members of the artifact community, detailing cultural periods, point typology, buying and selling tips, and much more. The majority of the book (over 1000 pages) contains photos of points, blades and artifacts. Each point type includes age, grade and prices based on size and grade. At the beginning and end of the book is a collection of colored photos of points spanning a timeline of artifacts from 300 years B.P. to well over 10,000 years B.P.

Each geographical area includes a map, showing the states in that area, and a summary of general point types for the area, simplifying point typing.

The 2nd image below shows the typical information that you will find in this book.

Click image for larger view



The book was written by Robert M. Overstreet and published by Homestead Publishing Company.

[Malcolm McLaughlin]

I would add the following notes for first-time readers:

Each section of the Overstreet book is put together by a separate group of regional experts and contributors in an effort to assure regional accuracy. There are always a few fakes that make it into each edition, but the book is a great place to start if you are a ground-zero newbie who knows nothing about point types. As far as the pricing, IMO the ranges are fairly subjective and often inflated to a high-end "retail" value, but there is good consistency in the variation of pricing between different point types. So use the prices in a subjective manner to determine relative values of one point type compared to another, but not as a gospel value for any one point. As with all things, an arrowhead is only worth what someone will pay you at the time......

This is the first book I got four years ago, and it is a good starting point to take in a lot of typology quickly. But do be advised that some fakes sneak in every year (maybe 5% of the points at most). That's not Overstreet's fault; no one authenticator or "expert" is perfect.......

My review: 4 stars out of 5 (worth having at least the last two or three editions for reference)