Generally, the three factors that most effect a Bible’s price are:
Age… a 1595 printing costs more than a 1645 printing
Size… a 12 to 17 inch tall “pulpit folio” costs more than a 9 inch tall “quarto”
Extra Features… the Book of Common Prayer, Psalter-Hymnals, Almanac-Calendars, The Genealogies, Maps, Concordances, Illustrations, decorative red ruling, etc.
To a lesser extent, the elaborateness of the binding will effect the price, though the age of the binding usually has only a minimal effect, if any, on the price. A Bible’s value depends mostly on the completeness, condition, content, and size of its pages… and not on the age of the piece of leather that it happens to be bound in at this time. Most of our customers actually prefer a strong, fresh, new leather binding, to the worn and somewhat less attractive ancient bindings… though some do prefer the quaint, simple, somewhat distressed look of the older bindings.
Collectors of classic cars don’t usually expect a car have its original paint job, and if it does, they will usually give it the nice new coat of paint that it needs. For the same reason, collectors of ancient Bibles are generally not hung-up on the originality of the binding. It’s not about the binding… it’s about the quality of the pages of text.