old books

Kevin wrote:

 > Can any one tell me about the books on this link
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://public.fotki.com/hossgeek/incoming/" target="_blank">http://public.fotki.com/hossgeek/incoming/</a> and if they are
 > worth anything? I would greatly appreciate it.

Kevin, at first glance they look quite interesting, but we seem to attract a
steady flow of people who

a) appear to know nothing and care nothing about books except how much
**money** they can get for them
b) approach the newsgroup asking others to do their homework for them
c) don't even have the common courtesy to say thank you for the work others
have done on their behalf

Of course, they're not all like that, and I'm not saying you are, but you
understand if, in such circumstances, people aren't falling over themselves
to answer your question.

Instead, here are some links that will help you to answer your own question:

1. <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.trussel.com/f_books.htm" target="_blank">http://www.trussel.com/f_books.htm</a>
From here you can search most of the online bookseller catalogues. ABE is
the main one, but if that doesn't come up trumps one of the others might.
Bear in mind that these are *asking* prices, and the books may not actually
sell at these prices. If you can't find an exact match for your book, check
other books by the same author and/or other books on the same subject and
published during the same period to get some idea of what dealers are
asking. It's also worth checking recently-finished auctions on eBay to see
if the same or similar material has recently been sold there. In a sense
that's a more realistic benchmark, as it does show what someone was actually
prepared to *pay*, as opposed to asking prices.

2. Library catalogues and meta-catalogues.
Here are some useful online resources:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/wzgw?f=f&form=A%2FT&id=240868" target="_blank">http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/wzgw?f=f&form=A%2FT&id=240868</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/kvk.html" target="_blank">http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/kvk.html</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://catalog.loc.gov/" target="_blank">http://catalog.loc.gov/</a>
There's also a backdoor into the OCLC catalogue (for books in English only),
via ABE; fill in a nonsense entry at the ABE search prompt then, when it
comes up blank, click on "Find it at a local library". That takes you into
OCLC, and you can conduct searches there.

The point about such searches is not directly to establish value, but to
establish scarcity, which *can* (but does not necessarily) have a bearing on
value.

3. Google search, research in your local library.
A search for your author and/or title may turn up copies not listed on the
main book search organs. It may also turn up things like biographies of the
author, academic papers referring to the author, or to that particular work.
These can help you find out what kind of esteem your author/work is held in,
which may help you to establish whether there is likely to be any demand for
the book in question. If your search of library catalogues shows the book is
scarce and your other research suggests that the book is in demand, then
that suggests it may command a higher price.

These guidelines really just scratch the surface of the total sum of
resources available, but I hope they help, and I hope you understand why I,
at least, am reluctant to give you a more precise evaluation.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->