Does anyone know to price old books?

[benhogan]

I have a few first editions that I would like to price.

I looked on Half.com and new versions are selling for $30+

These are turn of the century books. English I think.

I can barely read myself but if I can sell them for enough money to buy a couple of Oil filters and a couple of jugs of Mobil1, I'll be a happy camper.

Simplicity is bliss!

[The Clk Man]

I use ebay for real value of things. It has worked for me.

[tbomachines]

I would price it according to your competition on the internet (assuming this is the method by which you are selling) and depending on condition. For a quick sell, price lowest...you MIGHT be able to list it on Amazon depending on the book, but sounds like this might have been before the ISBN system

[DieselPaul]

A high school teacher of mine retired and opened a vintage book store. You could call him or another shop and see what they have to say. Just be like I'm curious as to whether or not they are worth anything, ask for a ballpark not a sale price. Just try to feel them out so you don't get their wholesale buy price, or if you want them gone fast see if they want them.

[kerry]

You could log on to www.alibris.com and look up the books you have to find out their selling prices.

[benhogan]

thanks for the tips guys. i"ll check those leads out.

time for a stupid joke...

One of the books is an autographed Guttenberg!!!

I didn"t know.......that Guttenberg"s first name was "Steve"??

[elchivito]

I sell the odd first edition now and then. A good place to price books is abebooks.com. You can search by author, title and ISBN. It will give you a low to high asking price for the volume available thru various independent book sellers.

[t walgamuth]

I have quite a few old books. I stopped buying them a couple of years ago when I realized I was leaning toward hoarding.

Like with cars rarity and age do not equal value. First editions by noted authors are best, first printings too. Autographed is very good if the author is noted. If the book came with a paper slip cover not having it slashes the value in half. Condition is also everything.

I need to start selling off mine one of these days so when I die my kids won't have to give them away! (same for old benz parts!)

[Dee8go]

Originally Posted by kerry

You could log on to www.alibris.com and look up the books you have to find out their selling prices.

I was going to suggest Alibris, too. I believe that's where I have both searched for hard-to-find out of print books and tried to determine values for some books I owned already.

It's probably good to find a dealer local to where you are, with whom you can develop a relationship with and who is accessible enough to be able to take books to in person to get values.

[benhogan]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I need to start selling off mine one of these days so when I die my kids won't have to give them away! (same for old benz parts!)

that is a smart thing to do. i once knew a guy who collected stamps. he did this for years. one day he had to sell them. the dealer quoted him a price PER POUND!

[Dee8go]

Isn't that the truth? We spend our lives collecting things that are valuable to US. When we die our children typically look upon our treasures as "a bunch of old crap that needs to be cleared out of the house so we can sell it."

[Phil]

I have sold books to local book dealers from time to time. Try looking up used and rare book dealers in your area and show the books to them, see what they offer and figure that is the low end.