On the Selling of "Ancient" Books

Mertzy

My college library regularly puts a cart out front of old and discarded books for students/faculty to take before they throw them out. I've been finding some really interesting copies lately. Anywhere from entire, hundred-year-old volumes of 19th century poets to entire volumes of texts in complete latin, also at least fifty to one-hundred years old. My most recent find was a lovely 4-piece "History of the World" collection, in pretty nice condition with wonderful illustrations and such. I figure my growing collection may be worth something, as I am running out of space in my meager dorm space.

Does anyone have any information regarding selling old books such as these online? I've checked a few sites on google but a lot of them seem pretty sparse and questionable in regards to price ranges. If anyone could recommend me somewhere I'd really appreciate it.

DasUberEdward

Ebay has a section for antique books if that is an option. You may be able to find some titles you have and make appropriate prices. Alternatively, I will gladly take them off your hands as I am incredibly envious. Seriously though those are always awesome finds.

Edit: Now that I look through the ebay section it is a bit odd. You may be able to stop into a local antique shop and ask if they could direct you to someone who could price some of the items.

Sharp10r

Not google, addall.com!! Who did History of the World? Can you let me know if you have any philosophers?

Sharp10r

Also abebooks.com.

AtomBomb

abe is awesome for that. however, i'm sure your books are cool, but they probably aren't worth that much. just being old doesn't make a book valuable (unless old is 200+ years). library editions usually are less valuable (because of stamps and glued in cards and whatnot). you may have something valuable, but i wouldn't get your hopes up.

keep in mind i'm somewhat jaded on the subject, as i worked in a used bookstore for 5 years. every day someone would come in with something from grandma's attic that they were sure was worth a stack of cash. 99% of the time it wasn't worth $5. that 1% was really cool though

good luck.

Szechuanosaurus

Usually first editions are the only books worth big bucks, whether they're old or new. I'd imagine there's exceptions, such as if somebody famous once owned it and wrote stuff in the margins or if there was a certain edition that differs from the others and is thus prized by collectors, but as a rule of thumb, if it's not a 1st it's not going to pay off the mortgage.

wallabeeX

This guy's in college, I'm sure anything more than $20 is worth his time.

Szechuanosaurus

wallabeeX wrote: »

This guy's in college, I'm sure anything more than $20 is worth his time.

Good point. In that case, I'd recommend trying to snatch up all the reasonably up-to-date text books. Those things can often cost £50 a pop, so if you can get pretty modern ones then you'll easily shift them onto other students for £10-£15 each. If you really want to make money, focus on what is in demand - obscure texts on family lineages and 1700s sword fighting techniques aren't nearly as popular as marketing, law and medicine text books even if they're not the most current edition.