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.
