Website for finding out what my books are worth

R. Totale wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:51:09 -0500, "Francis A. Miniter"
> <miniter DeleteThis @attglobalZZ.net> 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

On Dec 18, 5:21 pm, David Downing <David.H.Down....TakeThisOut@comcast.net> 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.]