how can i find out the value of a book?

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priced to sell!

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:03 (eighteen years ago)

Antiques roadshow.

― libcrypt, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

how can i find out the value of a book using the internet?

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

www.ebay.com

― milo z, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:09 (eighteen years ago)

amazon marketplace thingy.

― jed_, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:11 (eighteen years ago)

Get comparable prices here: http://used.addall.com/
The Amazon Marketplace seller's friend.

― Rock Hardy, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:14 (eighteen years ago)

abe.com

― Mike McGooney-gal, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:15 (eighteen years ago)

ebay doesn't have my book

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:18 (eighteen years ago)

hmm, addall and abe.com have a lot of copies, but they don't seem to show what the item has sold for in the past. $60 sounds great but will anyone pay that much? how to know?

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:20 (eighteen years ago)

read it.

― s1ocki, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

I'm in the same boat. I have an autographed leatherbound copy of some Robert Jordan book that retailed for $250, but I can't find where one has ever sold before. Since it's just taking up space here I'm going to throw it up on Ebay for $20 and see what happens.

― milo z, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

Find comparables, decide how much of a hurry you're in, settle on a price. No way to know until you offer it up. (xxpost)

― Rock Hardy, Sunday, 6 May 2007 19:25 (eighteen years ago)

I'll tell you - what's the book? (i has connections!)

― Ned Trifle II, Sunday, 6 May 2007 20:49 (eighteen years ago)

abebooks?

that will tell you the cost of it -- if not the value -- in diff places...

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

it's a 1971 copy of "Dadas On Art" by Lucy R. Lippard. i don't know the jargon for book conditions but there are no tears, or markings except on the inside cover with an old price in pencil. the back cover has a slight crease where your finger would hold it while reading, if you were holding it along the long edges.

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

not rare, i know.

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

no dog-ears

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

Amazon.co.uk has paperback copies for £4.49 if that's any help

― braveclub, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:19 (eighteen years ago)

mm, not looking good -- £1.52 new (w.out p&p) on abe. mind you that's like $500 isn't it?

― That one guy that quit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:22 (eighteen years ago)

lol, yeah

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:29 (eighteen years ago)

mine is an older edition though. whatever, it's not like i have too many books or anything, i just figured somebody might enjoy more than me. i'm not so obsessed with dada anymore.

― lfam, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:30 (eighteen years ago)

Awesome, just found out a copy of this stupid Robert Jordan book I've got sold for $190 on Ebay last week.

― milo z, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

In other news, anyone want an autographed Neil Gaiman novel (Anansi Boys) or something by Anne McCaffrey? I sell cheap.

― milo z, Sunday, 6 May 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

What about the one of the rarest Muddy Waters records? I've been wanting to sell that for a while. it's $250 in 'excellent' condition on ebay, but hmmm..

also, is a copy of Paradise Lost once owned by CS Lewis worth anything? i would assume so..

― the table is the table, Sunday, 6 May 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)

GUYS, ITS ONLY WORTH WHAT SOMEONE WILL PAY

― sanskrit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 23:38 (eighteen years ago)

IF I HAD TIME I COULD DIG UP TONS OF CRAZIES SELLING "RARE" BOOKS OR RECORDS FOR LAUGHTER INDUCING OPENING BIDS

― sanskrit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)

i suggest popsike (still dubious) or perhaps ebay search by completed auction (under advanced search)

― sanskrit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)

also, is a copy of Paradise Lost once owned by CS Lewis worth anything? i would assume so..

If he made marginal notes, then definitely. Otherwise, probably not.

― libcrypt, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:30 (eighteen years ago)

i had a college library item out once from the early 1800s. after noticing the front cover inside sleeve had it marked as being from the library of Samuel Clemens, i notified the librarians in order for them to move it to the rare books archive. they basically told me it was a worthless book, even with that ownership provenance.

― sanskrit, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

It also probably didn't hurt that it was a forgery. Samuel Clemens was 15 in 1850.

― libcrypt, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:53 (eighteen years ago)

I own a dozen books printed a century before I was born, but that doesn't make them forgeries.

― Rock Hardy, Monday, 7 May 2007 01:08 (eighteen years ago)

read it

― youn, Monday, 7 May 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not saying the books themselves are forgeries, but point taken.

― libcrypt, Monday, 7 May 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

yeah you kind of sonned yourself there

― sanskrit, Monday, 7 May 2007 02:34 (eighteen years ago)

Alibris dot com

― g®▲Ðұ, Monday, 7 May 2007 02:43 (eighteen years ago)

kind of like GEMM for books.

― g®▲Ðұ, Monday, 7 May 2007 02:43 (eighteen years ago)

i suggest popsike (still dubious) or perhaps ebay search by completed auction (under advanced search)

-- sanskrit, Sunday, 6 May 2007 23:39 (Yesterday)

this is just what i was looking for THANKS lock thread

― lfam, Monday, 7 May 2007 03:07 (eighteen years ago)

yeah you kind of sonned yourself there

A little slow. I thought I'd get a hi-quality ILM gotcha at least an hour sooner. What, were you out drinking and carousing or something?

― libcrypt, Monday, 7 May 2007 03:09 (eighteen years ago)

also, is a copy of Paradise Lost once owned by CS Lewis worth anything? i would assume so..

This kind of thing can be if you find the right buyer. I once sold a copy of a poetry anthology to the Irish National Library because it had been owned by Joseph Mary Plunkett (Irish nationalist) and had his name and the date in it. They wanted it because there was a good chance he had used it in his teaching and I think it might have been mentioned somewhere in a letter he wrote. If Lewis used that copy of Milton in his teaching, you could get some money from an Oxford library, or a C.S. Lewis collector, but you might have to work for it.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 7 May 2007 07:44 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbIPtrELRCI

― gershy, Monday, 7 May 2007 07:52 (eighteen years ago)

A little slow. I thought I'd get a hi-quality ILM gotcha at least an hour sooner. What, were you out drinking and carousing or something?

-- libcrypt, Sunday, May 6, 2007 11:09 PM (Yesterday)

don't be a poor loser

― s1ocki, Monday, 7 May 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

I've always used "formal" sites like alibris that use established used book dealers - prices on ebay, Amazon etc. vary wildly.

― cecelia, Monday, 7 May 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

yay, my book was worth $185.

― milo z, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

My tpb of Christiane F. is worth $50-80 based on what I've seen on alibris & ebay. SO tempting for popo me to sell, but fuck, I'd never find a copy of it again.

― Abbott, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:39 (eighteen years ago)

I have a US 1st HC of The Stand -- first hardcover book I ever bought ($12.95, lol). Too bad I read it a dozen times and it's pretty beat up... if it were in mint, I could get a few bucks for that.

― Rock Hardy, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

I have this Henry Miller book "Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel" that was handmade by Loujon Press in an edition of like 1400 or something. I got it at a library book sale for thirty bucks, but it's probably worth around 100 dollars, even though it's not in mint condition. No, I'm probably not selling it.

― freewheel, Monday, 7 May 2007 22:58 (eighteen years ago)

I've always used "formal" sites like alibris that use established used book dealers

In my brief career as a book dealer I discovered that the prices on such "formal" sites are often based as much on crossed fingers and guesswork as those on Amazon and eBay. They also vary hugely. When I used to deal on ABE, they had a rule that you couldn't advertise books that were less than $1, because it was too much work for them, and also gave the site more gravitas and made it seem like less of a clearing house.

― accentmonkey, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 08:56 (eighteen years ago)

Too much experience with unethical sellers on Amazon, people who will step in and undercut your price, sometimes in a bloc, or the minute you have the lowest price, they will step in with five copies cheaper than yours, thus pushing you off the front page. They don't offer addresses or anything to indicate how legitimate they are, either.

Like I said, I found two copies of The Price of Loyalty on half.com - one for less than two dollars and another (unsigned) for more than two hundred.

On ebay, the price depends on whatever five or ten people happen to bid on your book - that could be anything.

― cecelia, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 14:27 (eighteen years ago)

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