Appraising my book collection

On 27 May 2006 09:53:39 -0700, wrote:

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

Another great source....thanks, Lawrence.

On Sat, 27 May 2006 16:18:08 -0700, Some Guy
wrote:

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

Oh *God*. I could see how this could lead to complete financial
disaster. The aforementioned copy of Richard Rhode's "The Making of
the Atomic Bomb" I just found in what must have been an extremely
limited run - in *blue leather* drooling.

For the measly price of $265.00 g

Let's see....I bet my wife would consider this a much better
investment then that silly diamond and sapphire bracelet I bought her
on a special trip to NY so maybe we can trade *that* in and ...g

On Sat, 27 May 2006 19:01:39 -0700, John Pelan
wrote:

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

That sounds like good advice. I suppose the first thing I should do
then is put together a database with what I have - including copies of
some detailed TIF files of the books themselves.

Once I have a package like this together, I'd assume I could put the
contents on CD and send it off to an appraiser for an appraisal, yes?

Or am I completely way off on how best to assemble a good compilation
of what I have?

Do you by chance have the names of one or two appraisers that you
consider reputable, fair, etc?

on Sun, 28 May 2006 07:40:36 -0400, LiRM stated:

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.

Yes, that's the highest asking price. My point, though, is you
need to look at the *lowest* asking price. Remember, these are
books that haven't sold, so the high price might be a pipe dream.

There are 18 hits for your title plus limitations hard cover and
first edition. Some of these are duplicates and some are book
club editions, but still, it's not exceptionally rare. And here's
one that appears to be similar to yours:

THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB; RHODES, RICHARD; 100.00
Biblio A T QUINCY FINE BOOKS SIMON AND SCHUSTER,
1986, FIRST PRINTING, NOT A BOOK CLUB EDITION, PRICE ON
JACKET, ABOUT FINE HARDCOVER BOOK IN DUST JACKET, JACKET
HAS A SMALL STAIN TO INSIDE SURFACE NOT VISIBLE ON OUTSIDE,
JACKET IS OTHERWISE NEAR FINE ISBN -- 0671441337

Whether this book is of lower quality than yours is hard for me
to judge. I'm betting they're similar, but it's always hard to
tell online.


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

Yes, probably. From conversations in this newsgroup, I've
gathered that signatures sometimes add significantly to the
value, and occasionally don't add much. Not having many
signed books, nor many available in the areas I collect, I
don't have the knowledge to comment.


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?

I think it important that you start from the $100 book, not
the $195 book (not that there's a huge difference in price in
this case).


-Allison


--
..

In article ,
LiRM wrote:

That sounds like good advice. I suppose the first thing I should do
then is put together a database with what I have - including copies of
some detailed TIF files of the books themselves.

I would suggest that the FIRST thing you must do is learn how to grade
properly. If in fact the vast majority of your books are actually less
than VG/VG, you're likely wasting your money hiring an appraisor.

Start here with AB Bookman's categories for judging the condition of
used books.:

http://tinyurl.com/cx7xv

Hi Lawrence:

Alison has made many good points, as have others.

First thing, regarding the Mylar jacket, if you care about books and
their value you should stop everything and get some and cover all your
books. THere are many variations available at www.shopbrodart.com and
elsewhere.

The lack of a dust jacket, or wrapper, can reduce the value of a
modern book by 80% or more. Remember, the collector wants to hold in
his or her hand a book that's as close to the original as possible.
Anything that detracts from that experience reduces the value of the
book. That especially applies to damage to the dust wrapper, even
price clipping.

Before embarking on any database projects, you should learn precisely
how condition is described so you can apply it to your collection. In
the $195 example, the book is listed as Fine/Fine, which means
book/wrapper are in new/new condition. There will be no flaws; both
book and wrapper are perfect with nothing to show that either have
been read/ handled. There are some on-line sources about book grading
but you might also want to pick up Ian Ellis' 'Book Finds' which has a
lot of useful info about grading and collecting. Since your book is
not tight, it at best may be a VG in a Fine DW. At best. 'Good to
Excellent' has no meaning in the book world.

Be aware that many books you buy new would not even deserve a
Fine/Fine. Often a new book purchased in your LBS will have a corner
bump or especially, a spine crush.

Also, before you categorize your books, you should be aware that there
are numerous software packages that can make it easier, especially for
books with an ISBN number. They use various on-line databases to look
up the book and fill in all the fields so you don't have to. I use
Readerware but there are many others.

As to the value of a signature, there can be no doubt that a book
signed by the author is always more valuable than a book not signed,
everything else being equal. But after that, it gets complicated. I
sense that with a non-fiction title, there is less of a premium than
with a fiction title. Unless, of course, the author is a celebrity.

One of the things that determines signature value, and value in
general, is scarcity. Watter Mosely, for example, is a tireless
self-promoter--he does numerous signings around the country. Therefore
his signed books command only a small premium. Ditto for Johnathan
Foer; he is all over NYC, at least, so there have been many
opportunities for signing. The value of his signed books has been
declining accordingly. OTOH there are writers who either do not like
readings/signings (Ann Tyler comes to mind) or who do not get here
often (Saramago and Coetzee come to mind). So, to acquire a signed
book from them is a greater feat, and will bring greater value.

In the case of this book, it works in your favor that there is only
one signed copy on line. That might indicate the author did not do an
extensive book tour. It also works against you because with only one
copy on line it is harder to determine what someone might actually
pay.


Denton



On Sun, 28 May 2006 07:40:36 -0400, LiRM wrote:

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 Sun, 28 May 2006 10:40:19 -0700, Scot Kamins
wrote:

In article ,
LiRM wrote:

That sounds like good advice. I suppose the first thing I should do
then is put together a database with what I have - including copies of
some detailed TIF files of the books themselves.

I would suggest that the FIRST thing you must do is learn how to grade
properly. If in fact the vast majority of your books are actually less
than VG/VG, you're likely wasting your money hiring an appraisor.

Start here with AB Bookman's categories for judging the condition of
used books.:

http://tinyurl.com/cx7xv

Ahh.....a great link - thank you! And good advice, too, Scot - I
thank you kindly, Sir.

On Sun, 28 May 2006 13:56:01 -0400, Denton Taylor
wrote:

Also, before you categorize your books, you should be aware that there
are numerous software packages that can make it easier, especially for
books with an ISBN number. They use various on-line databases to look
up the book and fill in all the fields so you don't have to. I use
Readerware but there are many others.

Excellent! I see that it downloads pics of the original cover/artwork
- very nice.

I see that they are offering those old Cue Cats to do the barcode scan
to create the initial db. Superb!

Another prereq for me would be Palm support and I see they also have
that - as part of the regular product. However, they are talking
about some rather old devices - Handspring's Visor, etc.

Have you (or anyone) used this product with one of the newer Palmone
devices (like a Zire 72)?

I'll assume, that the product doesn't support the features of the
newer Palms like screen colors and depths, etc., but if someone knows
of another product that does, that would be great.

I'll split this off into a new thread, so can anyone else offer
comment as to software they use that has the above functions?

Thanks.

On Sun, 28 May 2006 13:56:01 -0400, Denton Taylor
wrote:

Hi Lawrence:

Alison has made many good points, as have others.

First thing, regarding the Mylar jacket, if you care about books and
their value you should stop everything and get some and cover all your
books. THere are many variations available at www.shopbrodart.com and
elsewhere.

Not knowing how best to protect my books, I've kept them stored in Zip
Lock bags - sometimes 2 if it won't fit in one. It may not be the
classical way to store books, but I'm sure glad I have. You wouldn't
believe how crappy the Zip Locks have become over the years.

I have over the years, seen the mylar covers and can understand their
value to protect the dust jacket. But one thing I've never understood
- if that's your sole method of protecting the books - what about the
eventual dust accumulating on the upper edge of the book and grime and
other stuff that will settle on it over time and just add to destroy
the edges of the pages?

Another example: I'm a smoker. So for years I smoked in the house.
You know now why I wanted to keep my books actually inside something
as nothing gets that smell out once it's in. Nor will anything remove
the disgusting yellowing stains. I now only smoke outside, so end of
that problem, but again it's just another thing that can attack the
book - and probably attack the mylar jacket, too.

In spite of these few examples of how books can be ruined by just
what's in the air, I wonder why it's become the standard to use just a
mylar cover for protection. Any ideas?


The lack of a dust jacket, or wrapper, can reduce the value of a
modern book by 80% or more. Remember, the collector wants to hold in
his or her hand a book that's as close to the original as possible.
Anything that detracts from that experience reduces the value of the
book. That especially applies to damage to the dust wrapper, even
price clipping.

Before embarking on any database projects, you should learn precisely
how condition is described so you can apply it to your collection. In
the $195 example, the book is listed as Fine/Fine, which means
book/wrapper are in new/new condition. There will be no flaws; both
book and wrapper are perfect with nothing to show that either have
been read/ handled. There are some on-line sources about book grading
but you might also want to pick up Ian Ellis' 'Book Finds' which has a
lot of useful info about grading and collecting. Since your book is
not tight, it at best may be a VG in a Fine DW. At best. 'Good to
Excellent' has no meaning in the book world.

Be aware that many books you buy new would not even deserve a
Fine/Fine. Often a new book purchased in your LBS will have a corner
bump or especially, a spine crush.

Scot just mentioned this, as well as others, so I understand its
importance. Thanks.


Also, before you categorize your books, you should be aware that there
are numerous software packages that can make it easier, especially for
books with an ISBN number. They use various on-line databases to look
up the book and fill in all the fields so you don't have to. I use
Readerware but there are many others.

As to the value of a signature, there can be no doubt that a book
signed by the author is always more valuable than a book not signed,
everything else being equal. But after that, it gets complicated. I
sense that with a non-fiction title, there is less of a premium than
with a fiction title. Unless, of course, the author is a celebrity.

Something I've wondered about is whether or not a signature inscribed
to a particular person weighs in as part of the value. I can think of
obvious cases where it would increase the value tremendously (oh, I
don't know, but let's say a copy of Stephen King's "Misery" inscribed
to Kathy Bates with the words "You should really consider acting in
addition to your daytime job" g).

But let's say "Regular Joe" gets the same book signed. He opts for SK
to sign it "Dear Regular Joe - Best Wishes - SK" as opposed to simply
Stephen King's signature.

Any comments?


One of the things that determines signature value, and value in
general, is scarcity. Watter Mosely, for example, is a tireless
self-promoter--he does numerous signings around the country. Therefore
his signed books command only a small premium. Ditto for Johnathan
Foer; he is all over NYC, at least, so there have been many
opportunities for signing. The value of his signed books has been
declining accordingly. OTOH there are writers who either do not like
readings/signings (Ann Tyler comes to mind) or who do not get here
often (Saramago and Coetzee come to mind). So, to acquire a signed
book from them is a greater feat, and will bring greater value.

In the case of this book, it works in your favor that there is only
one signed copy on line. That might indicate the author did not do an
extensive book tour. It also works against you because with only one
copy on line it is harder to determine what someone might actually
pay.


Denton



On Sun, 28 May 2006 07:40:36 -0400, LiRM wrote:

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?

THere are a couple of schools of thought on that, both which have been
argued here.

One school of thought is that with ebay and online sellers committing
fraud and forging signatures, the more writing the better, as it is
then easier to see if the writing is forged.

The other school of thought, to which I subscribe, (while giving the
above its due) is that 'best wishes' is strictly for amateurs and a
simple signature will endear the book to others down the line.

This is complcated by the fact that some writers will only sign, and
some will only inscribe.

A book like you theorize is called an 'assciation copy' and will
generally be worth more than either signed or inscribed.

However if you have a lot of money and plan on building a collection
that will be world-renowned that 'Dear Lawrence' inscription will, in
some decades, make it an association copy :-)

Denton


On Mon, 29 May 2006 09:09:50 -0400, LiRM wrote:

Something I've wondered about is whether or not a signature inscribed
to a particular person weighs in as part of the value. I can think of
obvious cases where it would increase the value tremendously (oh, I
don't know, but let's say a copy of Stephen King's "Misery" inscribed
to Kathy Bates with the words "You should really consider acting in
addition to your daytime job" g).

But let's say "Regular Joe" gets the same book signed. He opts for SK
to sign it "Dear Regular Joe - Best Wishes - SK" as opposed to simply
Stephen King's signature.

Any comments?