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 How Much Is My Book Worth?
How To Determine Value
I receive a number of emails each week from people who have acquired old books, magazines, and other paper materials and are looking for value and who to sell it too. I wish this question could be easier to answer, but it's not. There are just way too many factors involved in selling and buying vintage ephemera. What I can do is give some guides and information to you regarding what collectors are looking at and how that affects the buying and selling relationships.
What Is It Worth?
Where does one go to find out what something is worth? As with anything, your book is worth exactly what people are willing to pay for it! A quick way to determine what that book is worth is to go to a book site like
Amazon
and enter the title of the book. See what the sellers are selling it for. Find a listing which matches your book by publication date, publisher, condition.....etc.
There you will find many of the same books being offered for sale by independent sellers and this will give you some idea of the book's market value. Always remember, of course, that just because someone is trying to sell a book for $25, that doesn't mean it's worth $25 unless someone buys it.I often use
Addall
to price my books and magazines. I see a larger group of sellers on Addall that give me more price ranges to work with. I don't use auction sites like EBay, however, I will look at that book under sold items to see what the actual end price was when it sold. Sometimes that will give me more about what people are willing to pay. However, that is never a guarantee. Some sellers and buyers do just get a steal that is worth tons more. You will also see the buyers who have some kind of personal attachment to the book, and pay top dollar no matter what it's real going price is. The bottom line this is tricky business.
It can be very difficult to determine book value. There is no actual list out there that provides the exact worth of any particular book. I do not believe there even is a consensus on age of book that is really considered antique. None of this information is actually measured or determined for sure. The one way most sellers determine price factors is based on it's actual selling price by other sellers. There are many sites I have not listed above that you can determine some range on what sellers are listed a book for. I have included links below to help with doing the research for your book.
You will need to understand supply and demand, condition and differences between Book Club Editions and First Editions, cover types, and so much more. It is just not a simple task for someone who just wants to get the best possible price for their book or magazine.
I can't tell you how valuable doing the research is! If you don't do the research and know what you have, you can either throw away an expensive and valuable book at a very low price, or you may not sell it at all because your price is too high.
Lets say you have a lovely book with a real nice cover and has a copyright of 1890, it's got to be worth something right?
Well it took me over 2 hours on just this book alone, to find sellers who had this book and what they were listing it for. I didn't find a whole lot, which means there aren't very many of these out there for sale online. I had to base my price on a small handful of what sellers are selling it for. I checked Addall, Amazon, Book Finder, Google, Half, Biblio, Choose Books, Independent Websites, and several other sites to find this one book and title. Once I found it, I had to read some of the descriptions the other sellers were describing about their copy, compare mine condition, copy, publisher, other editions listed, and so on.
If your not in the business of selling books and magazines, all the research for each one can be way to time consuming and often overwhelming to a seller who just wants to get a good price and value for his or her book.
Where Do I Sell My Book?
You could offer your book or magazine to a seller who sells books, and hope to get a decent price for it. It is probably still a very good idea for you to know ahead of contacting a independent book seller what that book value is close too. Online booksellers, are going to keep in mind the value and do their own research, and the cost of shipping supplies, time researching, storing, listing and paying listing or hosting fees and other time on that book. That will bring down the actual value you may have discovered your book is worth.
Some people will open an account at Amazon, Ebay, or other established sites and sell their books independently. That would probably be the cheapest route to take once you have established values and done some research. The problem with some of these sites like Ebay is that it is an auction site, and you really do not have a store setting so your limited to how long your book will be out there for people to see. You are also paying for that auction site's listing and selling fees. Let's say you list a book on Ebay for 7-10 days, your going to pay close to 10 percent of the sales in seller and listing fees for a short duration that it will actually be out there. You are also going to be targeting your potential buyers to find you on Ebay. Not everyone will shop on Ebay or want to do auctions. More and more people are interested in the buy it now options. You are also competing with tens of thousands of people selling books and trying to find yours. Amazon you can list a book on, for free until it sells at which time you will pay a 15% sales fee. So looking around is very important to where you sell your book. Independent booksellers are in the business to make some profit, so they are going to do all the research and get back to you and let you know what they can offer, but it may not be close to what you feel you want for it.
Does Alana's Books And Magazines Buy From Other Sellers Online?
No we do not but we can offer the links below to help you find sites that you might get some idea of the value of your book based on what it is selling for.
Helpful Links
Alibris
Biblio
AbeBooks
ABAA
Antique Booksellers Association Of America
ABAA
Evaluating Books
My Wings Books
Identifying Book Club Editions
Reference Guide
Grading Books
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