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Website for finding out what my books are worth



 
 
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  #21  
Old December 20th 07, 07:51 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
Francis A. Miniter
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Posts: 131
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

R. Totale wrote:

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:29:37 GMT, "foad" wrote:


"R. Totale" wrote in message
. ..

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:21:02 GMT, "foad" wrote:


"R. Totale" wrote in message
m...

On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:21:05 -0800 (PST), David Downing
wrote:


I'm looking to sell them for
as much as they're worth. Can somebody tell me what a good website
woulld be for this?

eBay. Start them at 99 cents. They will sell for as much as someone is
willing to pay you for them, and that's how much they are worth.

Wow that's stupid.

How do you figure? Auctions have been used for hundreds of years to
sell items from thimbles to mansions for exactly what they're worth
(at that particular moment in time). How better to determine what
something is worth? A firm cash offer beats speculation, guesses and
opinion every time.


That's very postmodern.

Ebay will tell you the minimum price that the 24 people who are searching
for a particular item in a particular week are willing to pay for it.



As well as the maximum, which is what it's worth.



I don't see Bauman's Rare Books selling their stuff on eBay. There are many
kinds of markets for many purposes. An auction market is fine for certain types
of fungible goods, provided that enough people know to look there, as with the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for instance. But the more unique goods are, the
more you generally need time to sell them. For that, a Bauman's is ideal. They
have a web site and a place of busines. An exception would be the
well-publicized (internationally, that is) auction of a rare work of art. I was
just listening to NPR about the planned auction of a rare (700+ yr old) copy of
the Magna Carta. It is being advertized world wide. It is the only copy likely
to come up for sale in the lives of anyone interested. These circumstances make
it suitable for that special kind of auction. But, you would not sell it on
eBay. The mechanism of eBay is not suitable for such an item. The clock
ticking limits prices on the high end. Retail stores are best for goods that
need to be compared (televisions, for instance). The complexity of our markets
reflects the complexity of types of goods, ways of investigation, social
circumstances. you wouldn't sell the latest Harry Potter on eBay when a fixed
price (more or less) at your nearest Border's gets it to your customer base on
Day 1. Besides, the publishers would want to control the price and on eBay it
could slip below what is acceptable to them.


Francis A. Miniter
Ads
  #22  
Old December 20th 07, 08:15 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
RF
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Posts: 1,802
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Dec 20, 1:51 pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

But the more unique goods are, the more you generally need time to sell them.


Something can not become "more unique".
Either it is unique or it is not.
  #23  
Old December 20th 07, 09:48 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
R. Totale
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Posts: 70
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:51:09 -0500, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

I don't see Bauman's Rare Books selling their stuff on eBay

(followed by lots of other blather)

And this relates to the original poster looking for a =website= (not a
Manhattan retail store, not Sotheby's who wouldn't take his stuff
anyway) to sell his merchandise on, as in the title of his thread,
how?

  #24  
Old December 20th 07, 10:16 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
Francis A. Miniter
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Posts: 131
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

R. Totale wrote:

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:51:09 -0500, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:


I don't see Bauman's Rare Books selling their stuff on eBay


(followed by lots of other blather)

And this relates to the original poster looking for a =website= (not a
Manhattan retail store, not Sotheby's who wouldn't take his stuff
anyway) to sell his merchandise on, as in the title of his thread,
how?


It relates to _your_ comments about eBay and auctions as a mechanism for
determining market value.


Francis A. Miniter
  #25  
Old December 22nd 07, 02:33 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Bill[_2_]
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Posts: 62
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Dec 18, 5:21*pm, David Downing wrote:
I've got a bunch of books that I think might be worth something -- for
example, several P.G. Wodehouse Autograph Editions -- and I'm looking
for a website that would let me input title, author, and other
relevant information and would give me back an estimated value. *I did
Google "antiquarian books" but the sites I got back seemed aimed more
at people who were looking to buy books. *I'm looking to sell them for
as much as they;re worth. Can somebody tell me *what a good website
woulld be for this?
Thanks
David


You are asking the impossible. The only way a website
could CORRECTLY give you the value of a book would
be for them to have a real-time tie in with Abebooks,
Bookfinder, AddALL, etc., and further, to have the
capacity to continually read listings and average those
which were both pertinent and legitmate. That is not
likely to happen soon.

I sometimes see people out scouting around with those
hand-helds which are downloading supposed "book
values" from a service they subscribe to. What a
joke! Not long ago, I noticed someone browsing in
a used bookstores with one of those gizmos.
I struck up a conversation with the person, and I
ask him if he would be good enough to tell me the
value of an expensive art book in the store. Now,
the store had this book priced at $300 dollars, since
it is quite scare and also signed. From curiosity,
I had checked that book out,a couple of weeks
earlier and I knew that there were only two other
dealers offering that book on the entire Interent
(as opposed to any single venue). One offered a
brand new shrink-wrapped copy for $1,000 and
another offered a damaged copy for $250.
Anyway, the person with the hand-held checked
and reported that his service told him that the
book was worth eighty dollars!

That experience provided an excellent example
of how worthless such a "service" is. Providing
they do not cut their data from whole cloth, then
they are selling woefully out-of-date information.
Perhaps that book did cost $80 brand-new a few
years back or pehaps someone listed it for that
on eBay in 2003.. Anyway, if there are only three
copies available on the entire Internet, priced from
the damaged copy at $250 to the shrink-wrapped
copy at $1,000 it is worth a whole lot more
than $80.

Lately I have even seen some seedy-looking
types who are somewhat furtively scrounging
around in thrift stores and library donation
stores with hand-helds, obviously hooked into
something sold as a "book valuation service."
Such folks remind me of those people who
used to invest a couple of hundred dollars in those
"metal finders" and then go out on the beach
and scrounge around for small change dropped
by beachgoers.

Anyway, if anyone is serious about learning
book values, the only way he or she will get that
knowledge is by looking up many thousands of
books in the real-time top venues such as
Abebooks and the others. Wasting money
on cockamamie "book valuation services"
peddling obsolete information in order to
"find gold at your library donation store
or thrift shop" is ridiculous.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

  #26  
Old December 22nd 07, 03:13 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Bill[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 62
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Dec 19, 7:46*am, R. Totale wrote:
On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:33:52 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address





wrote:
I'm looking to sell them for as much as they're worth. Can
somebody tell me *what a good website woulld be for this?
eBay. Start them at 99 cents. They will sell for as much as someone
is willing to pay you for them, and that's how much they are worth.
Wow that's stupid.
How do you figure? Auctions have been used for hundreds of years to
sell items from thimbles to mansions for exactly what they're worth
(at that particular moment in time). How better to determine what
something is worth?


Most goods since the invention of money have *not* been sold at auction,
but by the seller fixing the price.


EBay tells you what you'll get if you advertise to a rather specific
clientele and finish the sale in a week. *It doesn't tell you what
you'll get with different marketing and more patience.


Making EBay the standard is like saying sex is worth what prostitutes
get for it. *Women with better marketing strategies marry millionaires,
but it takes more than a few minutes to make the deal.


But the original poster did not ask for a marketing strategy which at
some time may or may not birng him the maximum possible return upon
surrendering his possessions. He asked for a =website= where he could
sell the items for "as much as they are worth". I'd still say there is
no website better than eBay for his stated purpose.-


Most of the time, listing with Amazon and selling at
the Amazon low price would bring better results
Ebay can be great with popular collectibles, such
as old Wizard of Oz books, vintage Hardy Boys
and Nancy Drews with dust-jackets, and the type
of old cookbooks which are so popular these days
with collectors. But when you get away from the
very popular items which many people are looking
for every day, then you are usually paying
ebay to list something that perhaps no one is
even looking for during the time you have it listed.
Actually, in favoring Amazon I am only referring to
books with ISBN's, because for pre-ISBN items their
search engine is not even close to comparing
with Abebooks or AddALL's.

Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


  #27  
Old January 13th 08, 06:05 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
helloguy
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Posts: 5
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Dec 18 2007, 8:21*pm, David Downing
wrote:
I've got a bunch of books that I think might be worth something -- for
example, several P.G. Wodehouse Autograph Editions -- and I'm looking
for a website that would let me input title, author, and other
relevant information and would give me back an estimated value. *I did
Google "antiquarian books" but the sites I got back seemed aimed more
at people who were looking to buy books. *I'm looking to sell them for
as much as they;re worth. Can somebody tell me *what a good website
woulld be for this?
Thanks
David


This is one of the top questions I receive via my site
http://www.leatherboundtreasure.com/ In my opinion the best way to
find the true value of your books is to search for the same books
listed for sale online. Any site listing values of books are simply
estimating because the values are always fluctuating. It takes effort,
but it is the most acurate way to judge just what your books are truly
worth.
  #28  
Old January 13th 08, 07:00 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
R. Totale
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 70
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth

On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:05:10 -0800 (PST), helloguy
wrote:

On Dec 18 2007, 8:21*pm, David Downing
wrote:
I've got a bunch of books that I think might be worth something -- for
example, several P.G. Wodehouse Autograph Editions -- and I'm looking
for a website that would let me input title, author, and other
relevant information and would give me back an estimated value. *I did
Google "antiquarian books" but the sites I got back seemed aimed more
at people who were looking to buy books. *I'm looking to sell them for
as much as they;re worth. Can somebody tell me *what a good website
woulld be for this?
Thanks
David


This is one of the top questions I receive via my site
http://www.leatherboundtreasure.com/ In my opinion the best way to
find the true value of your books is to search for the same books
listed for sale online. Any site listing values of books are simply
estimating because the values are always fluctuating. It takes effort,
but it is the most acurate way to judge just what your books are truly
worth.


That's "accurate". You seem to be contradicting yourself above. On the
one hand you say you should go look at prices listed online, but on
the other hand you say these are only estimates because the values are
always fluctuating. (You leave out that anyone can put any ridiculous
price on an item offered for sale, which doesn't mean any sane person
would ever pay it.) Wouldn't one be better off checking prices where
an item has actually changed hands, like the auction results which
have been published yearly for more than 100 years in both Europe and
America?
  #29  
Old January 13th 08, 07:30 PM posted to rec.collecting.books
Kris Baker
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Posts: 33
Default Website for finding out what my books are worth


"helloguy" wrote in message
...

This is one of the top questions I receive via my site

(snip)

Which tells people that the best places to sell their
books are EBay [sic] and craigslist?



 




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