Understanding Book Values And Pricing
How do you know whether you are paying a fair price for a book, buying the book at a bargain, or paying five times as much as you should?
The quick answer is that you shouldn’t be buying any book for more than $5.00 unless you really know what the fair market value is. And how do you know what the fair market value is? Well, you can check Bookfinder at http://www.bookfinder.com for other copies. You can try to find it in American Book Prices Current or Ahearn’s guide.
Just remember that the condition and scarcity of a book or item of ephemera is a major element in determining the value that item. The economical principle of supply and demand plays the major part in regulating the worth of books and ephemera.
The price of a book at auction is often a “wholesale” price- the actual value of the book could be considerably more- when a bookseller has bought the book with the intent of reselling it. The dealer knows that there is a certain amount of demand for certain author’s works. And they know what they can buy at auction and resell for a good profit. Most of the time though dealers will buy books at auction on behalf of a client. The client is paying the bill plus an agreed upon commission for the dealer.
Although, in general, the value of collectable books increases with time, book values do not always increase – sometimes they retreat.
One of the pleasures of this business is doing a little collecting for yourself. In fact one of my goals is to collect books now that I can sell during my retirement. This is a long-term investment and I watch it closely, checking the values of books I placed in my portfolio to make sure they are performing according to expectations. If they don’t perform I sell them and accumulate other properties that I expect to perform better.
As I mentioned previously values are tricky, but if you stick with known authors, well written works by those authors printed in small quantities you are practically guaranteed to have a valuable property some day.
Condition, Supply & Demand Comparative To Value
A average book in fair shape generally has little or no value – one will easily discover a very good or fine copy of a average book. Even a common book in appreciable demand will still generate a low price. When one considers the small supply of an rare or a scarce book, it’s easy to comprehend that there may be a market for a good copy, perhaps even a fair copy and even in these lesser conditions the book now holds some value.
In the instance of a rare book, the value of a good copy would plausibly be only 20 to 50% of the value of a fine copy of the same book once there’s demand for the book.
A very good copy of the like book could bring 50 to 90% of the fine copy. In the field of modern first literary books, if a desired title lacks a dust jacket the value drop-off significantly.
If such a book in fine condition with a fine dust jacket is selling for $five hundred, the same book lacking its dust jacket is likely available in the $50 to $100 price range.
In the field of Americana, the want of a dust jacket on a $500 book in fine shape could mean a price of $400 to $450 (the dust jacket is worth less in the case of a genuinely important and historic book). If the book is in very good condition instead of fine, it may sell for $400.
Finally, supply, demand and condition are the most crucial factors in deciding the value of a book.
© 2009, Work At Home Covert Opps!. All rights reserved.
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