Antique Book Values - What's That Collectible Book Worth?

How to Value your books.

Antique book values don't stand still - just like any other tradable commodity, collectible books go up and down in line with supply and demand. If an important book comes onto the market then demand for similar books may also increase as new collectors become aware of the value of the author.

Individual books coming to market in this way may distort valuations for a short period of time as adjustments are made to accommodate the new find. Of course, important books don't come along all that often, so for the average collector there needs to be an easy way to make an informed judgement about what a book is worth.

There are basically two methods of valuing a collectible book. One is to use a reference guide, of which there are many, to quickly look up the rough value. This can also be achieved by looking up antique book values on some websites that have large databases of actual sales prices mainly from eBay. eBay is an important market and despite some people not liking it, it has to be taken seriously. I'll examine the role of eBay later.

The second method is one you would use when perhaps you think you may have a book that is rare and quite valuable. Obviously the fewer books that have come to market, the more difficult it is to put an accurate value on them. In this case it would be prudent to pay someone for a more detailed valuation. As we will see, this need not be as expensive an exercise as you may think. There are plenty of experts out there who can quickly come to some fairly solid conclusions about antique book values for a small fee. I will show one of the better ones here shortly.

Valuation Tips

If you want to have a go yourself, and this is a good idea to practice in order to build up your knowledge bank, here are a few steps you should take to get you started:

• What is book's condition?
• What does a good price guide say?
• Are there any listed on eBay for sale?
• Is it a genuine collectible (First Edition, Signed, Rare)?

Condition - There is no doubt that this is the most important factor when discussing antique book values. In fact this is probably true for any collectible you can think of. With books, any amount of wear, marking, folding, fading, whatever will affect the book's value. So in order to accurately value a book, we need a grading system. You may be surprised to learn that there is still no commonly used and accepted set of standards for grading books. So we have to use what can be considered a common sense approach to grading, using the following methodology, which is based on principles used to value bank notes and certificates:

Reference Guides

Here are a few good books to help you get started:

Book Collector's Price Guide - Richard Russell Reviews of this book are quite good, with comments such as "easy to use" and "filled with information". Although this book is a little old now, it is well worth getting hold of a copy if you are a new collector. Paperback, 400 pages, 1000 color photos and 8000 listings. Release Date - Dec 11, 2009 Publisher - Krause Publications
Book Finds, 3rd Edn: How to Find, Buy, and Sell Used and Rare Books - Ian C. Ellis This book is very highly rated by reviewers, comments such as "a must have book", "full of information", "so well written". The writer has over 20 years experience and subjects covered include First Editions, catalogues, auctions and common mistakes made by collectors. Paperback, 336 pages. Release Date - March 7, 2006. Publisher - Perigee Trade
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World - Laurence and Nancy Goldstone Read this great book before anything else, it will give you a good insight into the world of collectible books, antique book values, valuation methods and adventures of the authors as they scour bookshops for rare and collectible editions. Highly recommended for an easy read and a good introduction to book collecting. Paperback, 224 pages. Release Date - April 15, 1998 Publisher - St. Martin's Griffin