Fair dealing

[David Filsell]

I fear I will soon be forced to cull my book collection, mainly Great War but also WW 2 plus military aviation and other wars. (And other 'stuff too). I understand dealers must profit by their activities but who is who is the fairest of them all? What are the experiences of forum it's selling via the forum. What about the risk of auctions?I don't want to gouge anybody, they were not bought as an investment but like many of us I want a fair price. If anyone should ask, I have not started the painful duty of listing those who must seek shelves anew.

[museumtom]

A different view if I may. My interest in books are purely for the information they contain. So, I order a book from the library, photograph every page and hand it back. A book takes about 30 minutes to 1 hour to do. I also got rid of all my books that way. Now, I have all my books on my computer and they never degrade.

Simples.

Cheers.

Tom.

[auchonvillerssomme]

David in my opinion you can't sell without having an idea of value and if selling as a job lot, what you would be comfortable walking away with, if I was in your position I would check out sites such as abebooks and take out the ones that are of real value, you may be surprised, knock a few quid off so they will sell and offer them on ebay. The rest offer to a dealer or two but have a fixed idea of what you want.

[MikeyH]

David,

In my experience book dealers, be they motoring, aviation or military specialists, will only offer around a quarter or one fifth of the current resale price, they have to make a 'decent' margin. Ebay will be your best outlet to secure a good price, do not let them go 'for a song'.

Mike.

[Guest]

This is what stock brokers call 'price discovery'. In deep liquid markets it is easy to benchmark. If you are selling something quite rare, less so and you have to rely on a small number of experts in a very narrow field and things become very risky. Abe seems fairly efficient, although the search engine designer needs to have a good hard look in the mirror.

For original books on the Great War (a slightly less liquid market than re-prints) I use Turner Donovan as the benchmark. I have used Tom's service for some time and find it to be very efficiently priced. I have in the past sold off books 'surplus to requirements' and the garage has about 50 books on military history looking for a home.On re-prints, given the supply is theoretically infinite, I mentally write them off to zero, particularly if they are out of copyright - the bargain bookstores sell the classics for £1. Original publications are of course different as there are people who always want an original book. Me included. So, I am steadily dumping N&M Press reprint books as I replace them with original volumes. The value of the reprints is zero to me, and in the open market soon will be in the internet age.

If you are selling, let me know as I am an avid collector of original Regimental, Bde and Div (great war period) histories and still have lots of gaps. Happy to benchmark off Turner Donovan.

If anyone represents a military museum and is looking for free books please PM me. Mostly modern re-prints though. (Crimea, Indian Mutiny, Napoleonic wars etc..areas of past obsessions now blotted out by the Great War). I am loathed to give them to 'charridy' shops as they will simply molder faster than in my garage. MG

[Derek Black]

A different view if I may. My interest in books are purely for the information they contain. So, I order a book from the library, photograph every page and hand it back. A book takes about 30 minutes to 1 hour to do. I also got rid of all my books that way. Now, I have all my books on my computer and they never degrade.

Simples.

Cheers.

Tom.

With a rare exception i'm the same, only info for me.

[Guest]

A different view if I may. My interest in books are purely for the information they contain. So, I order a book from the library, photograph every page and hand it back. A book takes about 30 minutes to 1 hour to do. I also got rid of all my books that way. Now, I have all my books on my computer and they never degrade.

Simples.

Cheers.

Tom.

Interesting. I have had all my books scanned and turned into PDF files.... and stored in the cloud. Accessible anywhere with an internet connection..... Scanning is ultra cheap now. That said I still love to hold the read deal. Best of both worlds... have you by any chance photographed Jourdain's Connaught Rangers - 3 Vols. Quite scarce. Just curious. My set smell of cigars and as a non-smoker it is a bit of a challenge.

Not sure I would agree that they never degrade.... I am sure you have backed the files up... MG

[museumtom]

Nope, not the Connaught Rangers, yet!

[centurion]

Not logical I'm afraid but I have a instinctive problem with disposing of any book.

[Derek Black]

Not logical I'm afraid but I have a instinctive problem with disposing of any book.

You'd never get a job in the IWM library then it seems.

[centurion]

You'd never get a job in the IWM library then it seems.

I turned down a job with the IWM in 1966

[MartH]

Interesting fashion and anniversaries impact price. I would build a bibliography/list. Obviously the rare stuff is worth more in sets. I hope nothing untoward has happened that has forced you to have to sell them.

[barkalotloudly]

I think the method of sale will be absolute dependant on what the titles, condition etc of the books are, about 15 years ago I sold my first collection {consisting of most of the regimentals and nearly all the divisional histories] to Brian Turner and Tom Donovan for many `000`s

however this was before the days of the `orrible reprints and I don't think I would get the same price today {even then the popular wisdom was a third would sell immediately, a third within a couple of years, and a third, well who knows!}

dealer wise all i would suggest is to see who is interested and at what price for a bulk purchase {if you do not wish to spend the time selling them yourself} Tom is a good place to start but "other dealers are available"

local auction? you take your chance perhaps general dealers looking for some stock maybe interested?

e *** unless it is anything very scarce etc you will almost have to give them away I know I have been there! and will be again shortly!

I was approached by a large London auction house regarding if I wanted to sell anything but declined at this time but have noted for the future but there would be quite a cost involved using this method

On a slightly different note I have pondered on this problem as well and have discussed with my daughter whose "problem" it may well be to sort out my collection and consequently for several years now all my purchases have been made with a "easy" sale in mind rare items, one offs original photographs, manuscripts etc

wish you well!!

[auchonvillerssomme]

I won't disgarre

e *** unless it is anything very scarce etc you will almost have to give them away

I won't disagree with that, I buy and sell, but it could be suggested that as that is one place where book collectors and book dealers are looking, those items have found their real price.

[barkalotloudly]

yep probably about right there

[David Filsell]

Thanks team. Most helpful and I think pretty much as I thought of the problem. There is no real crisis in am glad to say, just a space and recognition of narrowed interest, 30 or so review additions to the collection and recognition that I have nowhere else to put shelves. I do sell a few of the reviewed books my WFA branch and donate some every now and then a as raffle prizes. One point as yet unanswered is that of selling via the forum. My only experience of trying is an attempt to find a new home for and SRD container. One response. No sale. I have even considered setting up shop on Abe. Further thoughts welcome. I'm not trying to make a killing, but I just don't wanted be skinned!

[MartH]

Interesting that auctions are costly, father once sold a load of Janes, got very little and high costs. I have not sold a book for a long time, but have done in the past to prove I could sell for more than I paid. Which I did.

Are there any specialist auctions on the Great War coming up? One other tip is if there are rare SA books I would contact a dealer there.

[Black Maria]

I sell my spare books on Amazon, where it is free to list books and you only pay a fee when the book sells. The advantage is that you make the money you want for a

particular book, but the disadvantage is that it may take a long time for a book to sell. I personally think that to sell your valuable books on e-bay is too much of a lottery,

I have seen too many rare memoirs sell for peanuts ( great if your a buyer though !).

I did once (pre-internet) try and sell one of my spare books to a dealer but although it was a rarity they weren't interested because I wanted just less than 50% of what

they would have sold it for, so I personally wouldn't bother again. Also pre-internet days I sold a lot of books to a local book shop, to be honest it was more like I gave

them away, I think it worked out at a pound for every hardback book. I have also thought about selling on ABE where I think the books are more easily found by potential

buyers (Amazon's search facility is a nightmare) but I believe you pay a regular monthly fee to be on there and I have doubts I would sell enough books to make it pay.

[barkalotloudly]

I `ve got a feeling that Tom Donavon is doing another bookfair specializing in the Great War, it maybe worth exploring that avenue, I have no idea of the costs involved but at least you would be in front of the interested party and can do some bartering should you so wish?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

There seem to be 2 versions of this topic & I must have posted on the wrong one.

I have usually sold my surplus books to Tom Donovan and he's always given me a fair price. Frankly I can't be bothered with all the hassle of waiting for bids to come in & then having to pack the damn things up and hump them down to the post office. Having been a collector for nearly 40 years & therefore only looking for the rarest of books, I'm increasingly dependent on book dealers to find them for me. The trouble is many of the specialist dealers in our field no longer exist so I feel it's in my best interest to keep those still active in business.

[Chris_Baker]

David, I have no idea of his buying practices but it might be worth talking to George Murdoch who runs Armchair Auctions from his home in Andover. I can send you his contact details. George runs a monthly postal auction of WW1 and WW2 books, listing dozens of titles per month. Judging by his comments in his list, he seems to acquire collections.

[healdav]

If you have a reasonable number of books, you could register with Amazon as a bookseller, an then specify the price, etc.

[Felix C]

Amazon takes over 15-17% as commission depending on shipping cost but you can use Media Mail which is inexpensive and pocket the shipping credit they provide. Ebay takes 10% but that includes shipping fees as well so it is more than 10%.

Recommend start a free website at wordpress. Domain name is not needed and post the books with pricing and a contact email or Google telephone number to call.(it is free and anon.) Create good meta-tags and the listing will appear in search engines.

Rare books in demand will sell on either Amazon, Ebay or dedicated enthusiast sites. Run of the mill will languish unless the pricing is so cheap no one would pass it up. The former is a plus for the seller, the latter for the buyer.

You can have an idea of how to price by viewing search returns on Bookfinder.com or sold items on Ebay. You can find an idea of what is too much by noting the completed/unsold sections of ebay for the title, if there, to see what is too much to ask for.

Good Luck.

I sell my rare and desirable books fairly quickly at good profit but the other stuff rarely moves. You will know your market after a bit.

[David Filsell]

Thanks helpful as ever. However the waters are very muddy clearly. And it would appear no views about listing on forum which is interesting - not least is any one buying or selling on the Forum? Selling things one owns like books, cars, furniture is not taxed. If one registered to sell on abebooks by setting up an account may be considered business I suspect. As people have pointed out selling ones books is hard, and perhaps foolishly, emotionally difficult. A decent, fair, price would be a balm.

Regards

David.

[Felix C]

Paypal and Amazon report a seller/vendor to the IRS after $20,000 annually is generated otherwise IRS does not know. Ebay prefers payments via Paypal so anything sold there is recorded with Paypal. Amazon handles their own transactions. I have never looked at Barnes and Noble as they have the worst site I have ever struggled through.

Abebooks is a pay-in service. That is you pay a fee for their maintaining your inventory with them.

Oh, you mean the forum here. I thought I read at least a specific number of posts were required to post for sale items, I did not qualify(corporal and all that), so did not read further. I am sure you qualify based on your number.

Selling in one venue is easy but is very time consuming if using three different types of locations as in Ebay, Amazon and own site or listing service such as Abebooks.com