How would one sell a collection of old books?

[Pamela H in Texas]

I bought a lot of old books based on the earlier levels of the Robinson Curriculum list. I just picked up what I could as I could.

 

As we're downsizing to live in a travel trailer, I need to rehome these; but I don't really know HOW.

 

Here are what I consider "problems" to doing so:

 

1) Many of the books are NOT RC books. They are books by the same authors or other books in the series, but not necessarily RC books themselves.

 

2) The condition of the books vary widely. I have one series which looks like it was just printed and bound and shelved 10 years ago. I have another series which would take incredible care in order to read without the books coming apart. Most are in between, most in excellent condition.

 

3) I have NO clue how to sell this sort of thing. I figure the average person probably has little interest in such things (considering 70% of people don't even read a book per year!).

 

Does anyone have any ideas on finding people who would be interested in this kind of thing? Would these people be able to evaluate the books and give me some idea what is an appropriate cost for the lot of them? Is there any way to do this fairly quickly?

[The Girls' Mom]

Have you tried looking them up on eBay? When we moved into our last house, the previous owner left us with shelves of books. (which I'm now kicking myself for getting rid of some of them) But I ended up selling quite a few of them on eBay. I had a Tom Swift Book sell for over $80.

 

Have you tried Half Price Books yet?

[bookfiend]

Pamela,

 

I think I recall that your children are early teens. If you have a digital camera - this would be a perfect project for them! It is very time consuming to research each book, price it fairly, take a picture, list the item, pack and ship.

 

I would only put the more valuable books ($15.00) and above on Ebay. They take a fairly hefty seller fee, so selling a book for .99 there isn't worth the time.

 

List the remainder of the books on free sites; this FS board, Homeschool Classifieds, HSLDA for sale, VegSource are the big ones I know about. You don't need pictures of these, but should give an accurate description of condition

 

Selling them individually will net you the most profit. Whatever doesn't sell, you could re-list as lots.

 

Again - delegate, delegate, delegate!

[Pamela H in Texas]

Kymberly, my daughter (Kimberly) says "she's mean!" LOL (btw, kids are 17 and 15)

 

I like breaking it up and finding ones worth more rather than trying to sell the lot and taking less for some books.

 

And I agree. The kids can help :)

[MomLovesClassics]

You can also list on Amazon.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My only real concern is that we are hoping to leave on June 8th. They can't come with us, but I don't want them in storage. I guess if I hurry and get them listed this weekend, I might sell a good chunk of them.

[crimsonkelley]

You could also list them on craigslist. Divide them up in sets or lots and sell them in a group instead of individually. You might offer to throw some in for free if they take more than one lot.

 

Best of luck!

[bookfiend]

The only reason I suggest e-bay for the more valuable (and presumably scarcer) books is that they have a bigger audience for collectibles. Craigslist is great if you have a strong homeschool base in your area where people know/want books like these. Otherwise, IMO, the web gives you broader exposure.

 

If your DC get cracking they can have most of the books listed/sold by the end of the month. Then you would have one week to decide what to do with the rest.

 

My children, who have been dusting, vacumming and bathroom cleaning all day also think I'm mean. We're getting ready for guests.... how does the house get in this state? I can't even imagine trying to move. God bless as you follow your hubby.

 

Curious - did you purchase an RV?

[ElizabethB]

abe books is where I've gotten most of my older books, I would sell the more valuable ones there.

 

http://www.abebooks.com/

[RoughCollie]

You can sell books on more than one site at the same time: ie., homeschool sites, Amazon, eBay. If you get a bid on eBay, honor it, and cancel the listing for the book that you have elsewhere.

 

Make sure if you want to sell to people in the U.S.A. only, that you put that in your ad -- it can be a time-consuming hassle to ship to other countries.

 

If you take checks, remember you will have to wait for them to clear before you ship the order.

 

When you send your packages via USPO, be sure to get delivery confirmation and insurance for any book for which you are not willing to give a refund. Add this, and the price of packaging, to the price of shipping/handling. For reference purposes, we buy packaging in bulk and it costs us $0.78 per book. If you don't want to mess with USPO's media mail, you can simply offer priority mail only.

 

The best way to value your books is to go to http://www.abebooks.com, run a search, and see what they are selling for.

 

Do advanced searches because value can hinge on year of publication, edition, dust jacket, whether it is ex-library, condition, and publisher. Be sure to check the "lowest price first" box, along with the boxes for hardcover and dust jacket.

 

Then scroll the list for each book, and pick one out that closely meets your book's condition and other particulars.

 

If you have a series of books, check the last couple in the series because these are sometimes worth far more than the other books in the series. The reason for this is primarily that the market for the series had dropped significantly, so fewer of the last couple of books were published.

 

You can do an advanced search on eBay, too, for titles that seem to be worth a lot. Search completed listings for recent sales, and current sales to see what is happening with your competition. Mind you, we do not sell books on eBay because books sales have not done well there for nearly a decade, by our standards. Our standards are that of a large bookstore, not that of an individual seller, though.

 

Do not get too excited if you appear to have one or more valuable books. The actual value of a book is simply what a buyer is willing to pay for it -- not what a seller is willing to sell it for. There are books listed on every site which are highly overpriced, which is why I encourage you to look at listing based on lowest price first. The market changes swiftly on a per-title basis, and if a book has been re-published, the value of that title, used, will usually plummet.

 

Also, book sales have been falling since the end of 2007. We own what is one of the largest OOP children's bookstores in the world, so I know a lot about this. What this means is that you must be careful to price your books so they will sell quickly. Everyone is looking for a bargain these days. Large bookstores, because of the size of their inventory, would like to sell everything quickly, but know that is impossible, so this factor isn't as big of a deal. Individuals usually don't want to estimate a 6 year time frame for selling a book.

 

Above all, after you do your research, set a minimum price for which you will sell a book and don't waste your time selling books which fall below that. It takes just as much time to complete a sale of a $1 book as it does a $20 book.

 

P.S. You can also take your collection to a used bookseller. Don't expect to get much for it, though. This would be a last resort if I were selling my books because I know how little we pay for book collections. You'd possibly get a bigger break by taking a tax deduction for a charitable donation of the books to Salvation Army. If you do this, get a receipt and value the books according to the low-average price a similar book of each title sells for on Advanced Book Exchange.

Edited May 14, 2010 by RoughCollie

[Pamela H in Texas]

wow, y'all are a wealth of information :)

 

Kymberly, we did find a great deal on a travel trailer! We're so excited. It's 38 ft and has real second bedroom. And it's very low cost. The guy is even willing to work with us on the payments. I just wish we had most or all of the cost NOW.

 

We are planning to leave on the 8th but it will not be with the trailer as we can't possibly pay it by then. Stinks. But at least we'll be together :)

[LNC]

If they are living books history titles, you could join the Truthquest FS yahoo group and list them in lots by author or time period. Just a thought to get them sold faster than individually listing them somewhere.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HIStoryQuesters-FS/

 

 

Do you have a list of titles you could post?