Books....how can you tell if a book is valuable?

missindecisive

does anyone know? obviously I don't know much about the subject!:j
found some books in my grans garage and she said I could sell on a car boot sale.
ive just been looking on ebay and one of the titles is for sale already with a power seller book seller, they are asking £25 for it.

any advice or tips greatly appreciated....gotta get sum funds together for the kids hols x:T

PurpleSmile

I think what they are currently selling for on ebay is a good indication. ebay attracts a bigger number of potential buyers than a car boot sale.
However if the other book is £25 it may be brand new.
So it could sell for less.
Also take into account the fees on ebay and paypal fees.

I think your best bet is ebay overall though, you can add a reserve price if needed.

soolin

PurpleSmile wrote: »

I think what they are currently selling for on ebay is a good indication. ebay attracts a bigger number of potential buyers than a car boot sale.
However if the other book is £25 it may be brand new.
So it could sell for less.
Also take into account the fees on ebay and paypal fees.

I think your best bet is ebay overall though, you can add a reserve price if needed.

Offered for sale is not the same as selling unfortunately and as the minimum reserve is £50 it might be an unrealistic target.

OP check completed listings on ebay, see if the book has ever actually sold, also checkout Amazon, is the same edition for sale there from market place sellers, if so how much and more imprtantly what is the sales rnaking?

Then for obscure books try this:

http://www.bookfinder.com/

barksdale

It's very difficult to realistically value a lot of books. Certainly don't put any stock in the prices you'll see things listed for on Amazon, Abe or the like - sellers will often put a ridiculous price on something if they're the only one with a copy in stock, just on the off chance that someone is desperate for a copy.

If it's not particularly rare, you should get a decent price by listing it on eBay at 99p with no reserve - the market should find the right price. If you do the listing properly then you should get a fair price. For real rarities, this logic goes out the window as you really need to find the right buyer to get the best price.

soolin

barksdale wrote: »

It's very difficult to realistically value a lot of books. Certainly don't put any stock in the prices you'll see things listed for on Amazon, Abe or the like - sellers will often put a ridiculous price on something if they're the only one with a copy in stock, just on the off chance that someone is desperate for a copy.

If it's not particularly rare, you should get a decent price by listing it on eBay at 99p with no reserve - the market should find the right price. If you do the listing properly then you should get a fair price. For real rarities, this logic goes out the window as you really need to find the right buyer to get the best price.

On Amazon the rnaking gives a clue as to whether the book is a likely seller or not. Also book finder (the link I posted above) shows everything for sale In Europe and again you can see whether this appears to be a rare book or just one for the charity shop.

Also with ebay I woudl always suggest caution with 99p starts on books, th emarket is not huge and of course you need two good buyers to get you over that 99p start otherwise you could easily end up with a sale at strat price. There is also the difficulty of capped postage of course, so if you can't ship the book for £2.75 then you need to add the excess postage to your start price which again makes a 99p start a bit unrealistic.

missindecisive

thankyou especially soolin x