Appraising my book collection

Greetings,

I have a small collection of signed, first edition books that I've put
together over the years.

I started a google search to try and find some web sites where I could
check the price of what the books might be worth, but was inundated
with hundreds of links.

I started going through them and quickly realized it would take me
days to figure out which were the best sites to use.

Therefore, here I am.

Could you be so kind as to post some of your links as to where I might
go to find to figure out what my collection might be worth.

Additionally, I am always on the hunt for personal favorites (books,
of course) and if you have links that might be exclusive from the
above list as to where I might find them, could you post those as
well.

Thanking you in advance for any help you might be able to offer me.
I'm a complete novice at this - I've just assembled my collection from
meeting my favorite authors at book signings and the like. So my book
collection isn't comprised of any books solely based on their value
for money - only to me because I've loved the books and in that
regard, when I've been able to find a first edition and get it signed
by the author, it's priceless I am, however, curious as to what
they are worth "on the street", so to speak.

Warm regards,

LiRM

Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton



On Sat, 27 May 2006 10:00:23 -0400, LiRM wrote:

Greetings,

I have a small collection of signed, first edition books that I've put
together over the years.

I started a google search to try and find some web sites where I could
check the price of what the books might be worth, but was inundated
with hundreds of links.

I started going through them and quickly realized it would take me
days to figure out which were the best sites to use.

Therefore, here I am.

Could you be so kind as to post some of your links as to where I might
go to find to figure out what my collection might be worth.

Additionally, I am always on the hunt for personal favorites (books,
of course) and if you have links that might be exclusive from the
above list as to where I might find them, could you post those as
well.

Thanking you in advance for any help you might be able to offer me.
I'm a complete novice at this - I've just assembled my collection from
meeting my favorite authors at book signings and the like. So my book
collection isn't comprised of any books solely based on their value
for money - only to me because I've loved the books and in that
regard, when I've been able to find a first edition and get it signed
by the author, it's priceless I am, however, curious as to what
they are worth "on the street", so to speak.

Warm regards,

LiRM

"Denton Taylor" wrote in message
...
Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton

Keeping in mind that you're looking at *unsold* books.

Kris

http://www.bookfinder.com/ is your friend. It pretty much searchs all
the major and many of the minor sites.

Lawrence Person
Lame Excuse Books
Stock available online at www.tomfolio.com (searched by
www.bookfinder.com), or at:
http://home.austin.rr.com/lperson/lame.html

on Sat, 27 May 2006 15:22:37 GMT, Kris Baker stated:


"Denton Taylor" wrote in message
.. .
Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton

Keeping in mind that you're looking at *unsold* books.

Yep. My experience is that books on eBay will sell for
less than the median-low price on used.addall.com. (And
often for less than the lowest priced copy on addall, but
also with the flukes where some newbie nuts will go into
a bidding war for a $5 book, and end up paying $50 or
more. That's rare, though.)

If I'm really interested in a book I'll track it on eBay
for as long as it takes to see a few copies sell (or quite
a few, if I'm lucky). Only works for books that aren't
super-rare, of course. Most sales are 7-day auctions, so
I only bother checking in once a week for a title.

For a vague general rule, though, I'd look at the price
range on addall (for comparable condition and edition, as
said above) and assume my book is worth somewhere in the
bottom quarter to third of the price range.


Someday, in my copious free time, I'll start sifting
through the 1000 or so books that it turns out I don't
really need, and see if there's any point to trying to
sell any of them. Gotta finance the (other) book
addiction somehow. And make room for those new arrivals.


-Allison
Life is fraught with difficulties.


--
..

Kris Baker wrote:
"Denton Taylor" wrote in message
...

Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton


Keeping in mind that you're looking at *unsold* books.

Kris



It also pays to look at the number of copies, always after correcting
for dealers that list a book on several services.

Case in point: Tim Power's "On Stranger Tides" is currently showing up
on Addall with 177 entries but the cheapest one is 14 dollars for a mass
market PB. That's a pretty high floor for a book that common, and I
suspect a lot of them don't sell at that price at all.

On the other hand, Jim Brandon's "Rebirth Of Pan" currently has only one
copy listed at about 150 bucks U.S., and that is the only one available.
I've never seen more than 2 copies listed at once, so it's probably a
good ballpark for what it's worth. I've picked up a couple of copies on
eBay for 60-70 bucks each and keep them in my collection for just that
reason.

Allison Turner- wrote:
on Sat, 27 May 2006 15:22:37 GMT, Kris Baker stated:


"Denton Taylor" wrote in message
. ..

Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton

Keeping in mind that you're looking at *unsold* books.


Yep. My experience is that books on eBay will sell for
less than the median-low price on used.addall.com. (And
often for less than the lowest priced copy on addall, but
also with the flukes where some newbie nuts will go into
a bidding war for a $5 book, and end up paying $50 or
more. That's rare, though.)

I agree with this.

If I'm really interested in a book I'll track it on eBay
for as long as it takes to see a few copies sell (or quite
a few, if I'm lucky). Only works for books that aren't
super-rare, of course. Most sales are 7-day auctions, so
I only bother checking in once a week for a title.

The email feature on eBay searches is particularly handy for finding these.

For a vague general rule, though, I'd look at the price
range on addall (for comparable condition and edition, as
said above) and assume my book is worth somewhere in the
bottom quarter to third of the price range.

This is probably the hardest part of the puzzle for non-collectors or
non-booksellers to grasp: that condition is actually pertinent to
value. Even antique dealers that don't know books will sometimes try to
overprice a falling-apart book merely because it was published 150 years
ago.

Someday, in my copious free time, I'll start sifting
through the 1000 or so books that it turns out I don't
really need, and see if there's any point to trying to
sell any of them. Gotta finance the (other) book
addiction somehow. And make room for those new arrivals.

Books you don't need? What are those? grin

On Sat, 27 May 2006 10:00:23 -0400, LiRM wrote:

Greetings,

I have a small collection of signed, first edition books that I've put
together over the years.

I started a google search to try and find some web sites where I could
check the price of what the books might be worth, but was inundated
with hundreds of links.

I started going through them and quickly realized it would take me
days to figure out which were the best sites to use.

Therefore, here I am.

Could you be so kind as to post some of your links as to where I might
go to find to figure out what my collection might be worth.

Additionally, I am always on the hunt for personal favorites (books,
of course) and if you have links that might be exclusive from the
above list as to where I might find them, could you post those as
well.

Thanking you in advance for any help you might be able to offer me.
I'm a complete novice at this - I've just assembled my collection from
meeting my favorite authors at book signings and the like. So my book
collection isn't comprised of any books solely based on their value
for money - only to me because I've loved the books and in that
regard, when I've been able to find a first edition and get it signed
by the author, it's priceless I am, however, curious as to what
they are worth "on the street", so to speak.

Warm regards,

LiRM


You'll be getting a lot of bad advice in due course. Consider that
most comments regarding eBay are from people that are very
unsuccessful at marketing their stock.

What you want to do is catalogue everything properly and have an
acknowledged expert price the material. From that point you can make
intelligent decisions as to what you really have and what you can
realistically expect on the secondary market.

Cheers,

John

On Sat, 27 May 2006 10:54:43 -0400, Denton Taylor
wrote:

Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton


Great site - exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Ok, so as a test, I did a search for Richard Rhodes "The Making of the
Atomic Bomb" - which I happen to have a signed First Edition, First
Printing, Simon and Schuster version, not a book club edition
(egads!).

Mine is what I would consider good to excellent - it has a dust jacket
- no dog eared pages, the binding is good - not tight as a
......well...never mind g, no coffee rings, etc. In other words it's
in great shape.

I go to this list and high price is listed at 195.00. This one has a
mylar cover, mine doesn't. Here's a link to the data:

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/Mem...648199-243&a=a

But I'm suspecting the signature makes it much more valuable, right?

I suspect my biggest problem is going to be figuring quality of my
books, but I'm sure I can find what differentiates excellent from good
on that site - just haven't looked yet.

So would it be safe to assume mine is worth more then the one that's
listed at 195.00 because of Richard's signature?

On Sat, 27 May 2006 15:22:37 GMT, "Kris Baker"
wrote:


"Denton Taylor" wrote in message
.. .
Your best bet would be to go to www.used.addall.com, sort by
descending value, and pay careful attention to condition and edition.

Denton

Keeping in mind that you're looking at *unsold* books.

Kris


Ya. Good point