Category Archives: Selling my books FAQS

The five thousand dollar used book

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One of the common things I hear when I am out buying books is “My friend told me this book is worth X amount of money on the internet.”

As a used and antiquarian book dealer this can be frustrating on many levels on certain books. Some books on the internet are priced correctly, but more times that not they are not priced correctly. An experienced book dealer can quickly tell the difference.

Let me give an example of the above. I recently received a call from someone who wanted me to look at their “collectible” readers digest book from 1987. My mind quickly scrambled as I was trying to think of any collectible readers digest book, especially from the 1980s.

After I was told the title the person said “It’s listed online for 5 thousand dollars”.

This is the problem. Many books are listed with a guessing price. I have seen many inexperienced dealers say “Well there were no other copies online and therefore it must be rare and collectible, so I figured it must be worth that much”

That reasoning simply put is insane.

First thing to consider is an internet listing is an “asking price”. It is not a realized value.

Second. Just because a book is rare does not always equate to valuable.

The internet is flooded with inexperienced book dealers who list at extreme prices hoping someone is naïve enough to buy at their prices.

An experienced book dealer will let you know why or why not your book has any monetary value.

The internet can be great for pricing a general, non collectible used book. When you move in to more collectible or antiquarian book it is best to consult a local book dealer.

One last thing. The Readers Digest book mentioned above was the 1987 how to maintain your garden.

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Whats my book worth?

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As a former book store owner in Denver Colorado, one of the most frequent questions I was asked was “How much is my book worth”?

In dealing with monetary value of a book there are numerous factors of which I will cover five here in this article.

Rule 1

Condition is everything. Many of times I have had people call or bring me used books that were there own, or perhaps handed down in their family or found in a dumpster. With a beaming smile they would hand me their book which usually had all or a combination of the following factors. Excessive stains, mildew, water damage, crayon markings, highlights, torn off covers, missing pages, broken bindings. The book would look like it was attacked by Godzilla.

Rule 2. Content and relevance is King. Have a great looking set of the 1984 encyclopedia Britannica lying around? Guess what, so do thousands of others. The information is outdated and at best they can serve as decoration pieces in offices or home libraries. Outdated law books, tax books more than a year old or worthless.

Rule 3. Your grandma’s books are important and have value to you but no one else. Sounds harsh I know, but let’s look at reality. A 1905 reading primer from her school days is worthless. Bottom line. I know antique stores have them priced at 20 dollars and higher, but trust me, rarely do they sell. And when they do, guess who buys it? Someone who doesn’t understand rule number 2.

Rule 4 Edition, edition and edition.

You have a 1955 Shakespeare book that’s “really old” so it’s got to be worth something correct? Let’s put this in historical perspective. Shakespeare works were first published in 1623. So from then until now, were looking at almost 400 years later with innumerable prior printings. Buy a book on first editions and their identifications.

Rule 5. Sometimes, just sometimes there are exceptions to rules 1 through 4.

If you have the original first printing of Encyclopedia Britannica or the First edition of blacks law dictionary, you’re in the money. Have a first edition Moby Dick, with the cover damaged, your still doing all right. Your grandmas school book with a love note from Winston Churchill, yet another example of rule number 5.

To research yourself you will need to know or buy books dealing with first edition identifaction, bibliographies, auction records and so forth.

Theses rules server only as a guideline as many other factors are used to determine a books value. Do your research, or ask a local book dealer in the yellow book for advice.

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Where do I sell my books?

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For many different reasons there comes a time when a book collection must be sold. Perhaps a death in a family, a new interest in a new genre or sometimes money is just needed.

In the old days, that is before the internet people would call there local book dealer and he would come to their home and after a bit of friendly haggling an agreement would be made.

Then came the internet. People figured out how to list on sites like Amazon or eBay, at first this was considered fun since the whole concept was new. As time progressed important factors that were overlooked started to become apparent.

For example, people were selling books considered first editions. I belive that more often than not sellers were simply uneducated but this did not help the buyer.

Tens of thousands of books were sold that and still are, that were never catalogued correctly.

Another factor was time. Not only do you have to list a book (correctly!) which can take up lots of time the more complicated the book, you have to take pictures, answer emails etc ECT.

I think your getting the picture that the trend is starting to reverse.

 From our own experience here at Abacus Books we are seeing more and more people calling us to outright buy their books. Let me give you an example of a recent acquistion.

We had a customer  whose father had passed away whocalled  us about purchasing his book collection. After talking to her for a while she admitted she tried the eBay thing.

“I’m a full time professional businesswoman” she exclaimed and went on to say that dealing with the constant questions about various titles was a full time job in itself.Let alone trying to describe and find the right buyers.

After talking to the lady, which Im sure we both bored her about the trade, we came to an agreement  on a price we both felt was fair.

I could cite many more examples but I think the point is clear. When you want to sell your used books, just  give your local book dealer a call.

My next article will be what to expect when dealing with a used book dealer.

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