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books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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Posted by deep___roots (My Page) on Fri, Nov 7, 08 at 12:45
A book's value is subjective in one sense, i.e. in what it contains between the covers. On the other hand, with the coming of the Internet the "monetary" or "market" value of any book is certainly easier to find these days.
I buy most of my books at thrift stores or rummage sales and I am not buying these books to resell. However, the other day at a thrift store I found a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence that looked interesting. Took a flyer on it at 6 bucks. Internet searches have a value on this of at least 50 bucks. (details: Jonathan Cope publisher, 9th impression 1937 edition, very good condition).
And have you seen people at your local community or library book sales lately with a bar code scanner, I guess getting instant info on a book's value or perhaps cross-referencing some list of buyer's requests? The world is changing fast!
Got a story? Or a comment? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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Interesting you should mention this. Yesterday I went to our library book sale and I saw someone with this beat-up gizmo scanning books. Someone asked him what it was for and he said it gave him internet access so he could look at books there to see if they are interesting and worth reading. I did not buy it myself. I knew he was likely scrolling through amazon seeing how much the books were worth.
It does't really bother me that people buy books to resell. It DOES bother me though when these people take away books that others are interested in only to read. Those looking to resell should not get first pick.
CMK |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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| I have to agree with CMK - at our FoL book sale, the line winds its way out of the door at the beginning of the sale, but it is mostly made of second-hand booksellers who are gathering inventory for their shops. This rankles me somewhat as I think it's unfair in some ways to the common reader when booksellers raid the book sale buying up all the best stock to sell at their own shops when the average reader has to wait, get off work and then make it to the sale. Admittedly, there were still plenty of books to choose from, but it still rankles me a bit. I know that booksellers have every right to line up at the book sale - same as I do - but I think they get carried away. For example, a friend of mine who runs a secondhand store bought 12 copies of The Kite Runner leaving only one or two for the poor slob who has to wait until five to come to the sale. I torn between the two - I can see both sides but the bookseller side still annoys me. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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| I bought a 1907 edition of The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright for $1.00 at a sale and thought I had a real bargain. Instead, I found that there are a zillion of them out there and this copy might possibly be worth $10. Shows how much I know! I'm back to buying only what I want to read. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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| I went to a local library used book sale a few weeks ago, and everything was priced at fifty cents, even hard backs that looked brand new. There was a man and woman there filling box after box after box full of books, and not looking at the title of the book, but rather the condition. It was pretty obvious they were buying to re-sell. It did annoy me a bit, since here I was, looking to fill just one bag for my own reading; carefully checking each book to make sure it was one I would actually read! I still wonder what books they made off with that I might've liked;-) |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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I don't like fighting off dealers to go through the books either, but they do fill the library coffers. I would like to see our library do the "early shop for a fee-no dealers--but then again, how would they police that? Would they let an interior decorator in who just wanted "pretty books" (we have discussed this issue before-just using it as an example!) or even worse, an "artist" who wants to cut pictures out of books and frame them-but not a bookseller who buys the books so that a reader can eventually enjoy them?
I try to keep the "So Many Books, So Little Time" mantra in mind-if I don't know what I missed, I didn't miss it. Right now my TBR pile is approaching 200-and there is always paperbackswap and bookmooch. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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CC: 200 TBR's! Was your hammering man building you a library extension?
I haven't noticed any dealers at our local library sales but then we don't get very much stock that would interest them. On the other hand, I sometimes buy a cheap good condition book that I know will be bought by the local bookswap owner after I have read it. She knows that we do this but said she has no time to check out the sales and charity shops and is quite happy for us to do this for her as it adds to her stock anyway. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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I don't think we have 'library sales' in the UK as you do in the US.
The library is funded by the County Council (through our Council Tax) as are the salaries of the staff, although one of two 'older ladies' volunteer to dust the shelves. I expect the Union of Library Workers would protest if their jobs were taken over.
We do however, occasionally see a few books for sale in the entrance, but they are usually so tatty or unreadable (or both) they are not worth buying.
How come your US libraries have so many 'nearly new' books to off-load? |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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| We have several library sales in my area, run by "Friends of the Library", who also use volunteers to run a used bookstore inside our public library. If you join the "Friends" your membership entitles you to a pre-sale preview, so you get first choice. What makes my blood boil is seeing antique dealers cutting engravings out of antiquarian books in order to sell the artwork, meanwhile gutting the tome and ruining what might otherwise be a unique or valuable work. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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My county library system (1 main, 4 branches, 12 affiliate libraries) actively collects donated books all year-they are lucky enough to have donated warehouse space, and a core of fervent devoted volunteers who sort weekly. They have also acquired a couple web-savvy ones who have started putting the very valuable books into internet auction-an ancient Boy Scout manual brought thousands! They also sell deaccessioned books from the library shelves, but they are a small proportion of the whole.
Most of the nearly-new books are donated-people who buy a book, read it once and then get rid of it. A lady came up to the library circ desk on Tuesday and handed me the newest Anne Perry Christmas novella. It has been out all of a few weeks. She'd read it-did we want it for the next sale?
I donate any hardbacks I don't want anymore-those I acquire through swapping, buying at last year's sale or gifts-to the sale. I also donate any paperbacks which have been on my trading lists for a long time. The better to make room for next year's haul.
Our book sale is held in a roller rink-an enormous barn of a place. Literally tens of thousands of books, easily. All organized by catagory and set out on tables, filled boxes of more of the same underneath. You always see people on the floor under the table going through the boxes-often with little flashlights. |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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Veer that is HORRIBLE that you do not have library book sales. Do you think most people over there are more likely to just go to bookshops and trade than donate?
I was quite surprised to find so many new books at the sale too. I did notice there were about five 'The Mermaid Chair' books there. Now I wonder why someone would get rid of them? ;-)
-ccrdmrbks, I was that person under the tables. Except I did not think to bring a flashlight.
CMK |
RE: books of $$$ value.....cheap: got a story?
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| I'm usually under the table with my cellphone, calling DD to see if anything I come upon in the "Commentary-Literature" or "Drama" boxes would be useful to her in grad school! |
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