How You Can Discover Good Antique Book Prices

How can you know whether the antique book you're looking at is priced right? Who decides anyway what an antique book is priced at? How can you discover what good antique book prices are? If you are looking at buying or selling antique books, you'll need to understand the answer to these questions before you start. If you know very little about antique book prices, you are probably going to pay too much for a book or make mistakes, but you can learn.

Someone once said there are three factors that determine the price of antiques that have nothing to do with their age. They are, condition, condition, and condition. So without seeing a book and researching it, it's impossible to have any idea how to value it.

Another thing is the value someone places on a book, and the price someone wants to sell the same book for may be two completely different things. For example if you have a family bible passed down through the family for generations, it has tremendous value to you but it actually is a very common and normal quality bible. So the truth is your highly treasured family bible might really only be worth a few dollars if you wanted to sell it.

There really are three factors that determine price: condition, scarcity, and demand. The age of a book has little to do with its value. A first edition book from 1900's will often bring a lot more than an ordinary book a couple of hundred years old. To a book dealer, a book from the 1800's is not old. Instead a book needs to be dated in the sixteen hundreds or earlier to be considered old.

As has been already said the variable that most strongly affects the value of a book is its condition. And this includes that the book has its original jacket. Though the jacket may seem unimportant, in fact it is the most likely part to be damaged or missing. Sometimes in fact, the jacket might be more valuable than the book itself. Books with missing pages are almost always worthless no matter what.

So if the condition of a book is good, what other considerations affect its price? Price is really a reflection of how desirable it is. So the price of an antique book is determined by its significance, its rarity, and its attractiveness.

So what really sets the value of an antique book rarity or demand? Well, probably it depends somewhat on how patient the seller is.

Unfortunately, there really is no universal set price list. This is because prices are constantly changing. As a result each individual decides what to charge for their antique books. Reputable vendors whether online or local should have a good idea of what the fair market value of a book should be.

That brings me to something else. There are a lot of online sellers of antique books and they are a great resource. You can easily check to see if there is a similar book for sale and what they are selling it for, which will help you know if the book you're looking at buying or wanting to sell is priced right.

One last thing Antique book prices are sometimes negotiable, so it never hurts to make a lesser offer; you might be surprised by the response!

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Tips for Buying Antique Books

So you're interested in collecting books and want to buy antique books and become one of the many new book hounds around. But do you know how to properly identify an antique books condition or its value? Or do you know the difference between old books and antique books?


Here are some tips to help you know the answer to these questions and more.
Well one of the first things you need to learn is the difference between old books and antique books. That's because not every old book is worth some money. Now they may be worth something to you because of who they came from or they've been in the family for years, but other people won't pay anything for them.

That's the difference. In fact there are lots of books that were published around 1900 or before that aren't worth anything. At the same time there are books even paperbacks from the 60s or even the 70s that are worth a couple hundred bucks each. So an old book is just that and an antique book is an old book that people want to collect and people are willing to pay money for. Knowing which is which is extremely important.

The price of antique books is often dependant on how rare the book is as well as its condition. But the popularity of the author or of the book play a huge roll in how much a book is worth. As well as how many copies there are left around of a particular book.

Many great vintage collectible books that have value are first edition books by popular or famous authors. For that reason a first edition novel by Charles Dickens is often considered worth more than even a much earlier collected one of his works. But, a collected edition of a book by Charles Dickens would have a higher price than an edition of a much lesser known writer.

Of course the condition of a book also plays an important role in how much the book is worth and whether people want to collect it or not. So you should be looking to see that:

• Both the cover and the dust cover are present and they shouldn't be warped. 
• It should have all its pages are present. 
• Its pages shouldn't be creased or ripped. 
• The binding should be intact. 
• After you know that everything is there that should be there, now look for the presence of things that shouldn't be there. 
• For example handwritten notes in the book perhaps by a previous user. 
• Though in some cases, these notes can actually add to the value rather than detract from it. This will all depend on who wrote the notes. If they were written by the author or someone who is famous they can often add value.

So when you get a book in good condition it is very important to keep it that way. To do that they need to be kept on flat, smooth shelves that will support their weight properly. And the shelves should be made with properly sealed woods and they should be kept out of the sun to prevent fading.

One of the great things about becoming a book collector is you can get started with very little money. You can literally spend as much or little as you can afford. As not all antique books are worth a lot of money, you can buy several for really very little cash. However if you're looking for books that are very collectible and were written by well known authors, then they can be a challenge to find and the prices can be quite high.

Really the fun is in the hunt and the joy is being able to buy a great antique book without having to pay too much for it. So enjoy the adventure you've started and happy hunting.

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Where To Find Antique Books

Collecting books is an increasingly popular passion for some people. If you like books and want to make some money from home or just start a new hobby, then collecting antique books may be a natural step for you. It doesn't matter what your reasons are, learning how to become a vintage book collector for fun or profit is not difficult. One of the real questions is where do you buy antique books?

Though it may sound intimidating to some, it actually is not difficult to learn how to become a book collector. There are some good books on the subject and there is a lot of good help on the internet on everything you need to know about finding, identifying, buying, and selling antique books in a step by step format.

Places where you have opportunities to find valuable antique books being sold sometimes well under their actual value are local auctions, book fairs, antique book stores, flea markets, and even on the internet. You can often buy them for a great price and then turn around and sell them for a decent profit.

Before talking about where to look let's look at what makes a book a good one to buy. Just being old is not enough to make it a good book to buy. There also needs to be some demand for the book and the condition of the book is also very important. Books that are very close to their original condition or mint condition are very rare but obviously have the most value. Books that are dirty or have been written in have a lot less value.

One exception to this rule is when the book was written in by someone famous. First editions of a popular book signed by the author or owned by someone famous can make a huge difference to its value.

Let's look at one of the places to find great antique books; the Internet. The internet can not only help you discover information on collecting them but it is a great place to buy them. The Internet can bring you all the information on book collecting you need to know to become an accomplished book collector. Things like recognizing first edition books and how much they should cost.

If you are looking for a specific book or author it is easy to dig deeper and find what you're looking for on the internet. A good way of saving some money is to search on eBay or Amazon first. Great books can be found on eBay and at prices that are much cheaper than a lot of local book shops. It's good though to shop local as well. You can start shopping for the books you're looking for on eBay within minutes.

Amazon is also a great resource in fact Amazon is an even better resource because it specializes in books. The great thing is people from around the world sell their used unwanted and often antique books here.

Antique books are truly amazing and collecting them can occasionally be very lucrative. You may get lucky and be able to buy a true first edition book at say $50 and then be able to sell it for several hundred dollars. Many people have done it.

From the first vintage book you buy you will be on the way towards becoming an inspired antique book collector.

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