Selling a LOT of old, antique, specialist books?

Gemsie

Hi all,

I've been left with the job of getting rid of literally hundreds of antique and specialist books. Most of the books do not have an ISBN number. Although I very much enjoy ebaying, the thought of putting all of those books on there fills me with dread!

Is a carboot sale the best way to go or should I perhaps be approaching specialist book sellers (although these are pretty rare around here)?

Annie021063

Gemsie wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been left with the job of getting rid of literally hundreds of antique and specialist books. Most of the books do not have an ISBN number. Although I very much enjoy ebaying, the thought of putting all of those books on there fills me with dread!

Is a carboot sale the best way to go or should I perhaps be approaching specialist book sellers (although these are pretty rare around here)?

Have you tried Amazon? It might be worth choosing a few at random and listing them on amazon and/or ebay to see their value, or you could get someone out from a book seller to see them. MAybe you could sort them into categories before listing, there was a website I used when I sold books to check value but for the life of me I cant think what it is called, or you could list them as a job lot on ebay. Car boots will net you next to nothing I think. I think if they are are of any value you will have to do the hard work to get that value in cash I'm afraid. Good luck

Eliza_2

We've used Abe books, http://www.abebooks.co.uk/ pretty successfully in the past for this kind of thing.

Gemsie

Thanks guys. I guess I'm just going to have to man up and face the mountain of books! _pale_

dancingfairy

I would have thought a specialist dealer was the way to go, especially if you have loads of them. Maybe they would give you an offer for the job lot?? Perhaps you could email over to them a list of title/editions/rough idea of condition and see what they think? I'd also maybe ask 2 or 3 for their prices just to get a rough idea what the value is before deciding.
Just because they are old does not mean they will be worth a lot of money. ON the other hand they might well be.
Good Luck
df

xeon_2

Gemsie, I enjoy collecting a range of books, especially older ones (my friends say I'm weird!)

I may be able to purchase all of them off you if that would help you? Drop me a pm if this is an option for you.

theoretica

There are antique books, and antique books... If you are faced with Professor Bibliophile's beautiful library you probably will want to research specialist dealers in that field and ask a couple to make you an offer. If it is a good library dealers willt ravel, but it is worth your while to sort out the great books from the more ordinary. Or Bloomsbury book auctions might be worth looking into.

There are many beautiful leather bound books that no-one wants to read but might sell at auction for house decoration etc, especially sets which I would incline to ask a local auction house about.