So, only recent books with ISBN #s have value now?
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Ed Augusts
Apr 6, 2008, 2:54:02 AM4/6/08
to BOOK & MOVIE ADVENTURES with Ed Augusts
I today discovered a ridiculous situation exists regarding the value
of books! It turns out that a lot of otherwise fairly smart people
are hot to load-up their shelves with recent text books and other
modern printings, and by modern I mean, books published within the
last 30 years or so, and that older and scarcer books are no longer
desired, and those who have big collections of old books might just be
out of luck when the time comes to sell! . Nobody is going to want
them, I guess, because of the all-important numbers (ISBN numbers!)
by which a recent titles and editions are identified.
Here's the darn thing that happened! I was curious about selling books
on-line, not selling them myself, but selling off bunches of them at a
time to some other retailer, who buys at wholesale, over the
Internet. I quickly discovered there are two competing businesses
purportedly eager to purchase books. Here, jot these down, I don't
mind giving them a little business, they seem honest enough, if maybe
a little short-sighted!
One's URL is: http://www.cashforbooks.net/main/ and the other one,
almost indistinguishable in many respects, except color scheme and the
fact one features a pretty young college student beaming slyly as she
nestles on the carpet amid a pile of textbooks, is http://www.webuyyourbooks.com
Here is the beauty of it all, and also the insanity, thereof: All you
have to do is enter the ISBN numbers...those 10 or 13-digit codes that
identify a book.. into a little "box", and with one "click", the
website digests those numbers and comes up with a CASH $$ OFFER $$ for
one's books!. These ISBN numbers are a kick, although I preferred the
Old Days when books were identified by author and title, etc., not by
lengthy numeric codes... By the way, these ISBN's replaced the
shorter (by several digits) Library of Congress numbers that served
the same function for many years prior to the mid-1970's when ISBN #s
came into common usage. Now, just like longer & longer zipcodes, we
have longer & longer numerical ID's instead of authors and titles.
Book buyer stands in front of counter, looking for some help.
"I'd like an Ernest Hemingway, 'The Sun Also Rises".
"Oh, I'm not familiar with that... Sir, do you by any chance mean the
8-452-135-019?"
Anyway, the best was yet to come! Both book services offered $2.50
to $3.20 each for some textbooks, of which only a couple of copies
exist on the Internet, $1.40+- for the Illuminatus Trilogy, 60c to
$1.00 each for herbal healing books, etc. Neither book buying company
was interested in more than 2 out of 20 of the interesting selection
of 1970's--current books I entered onto their search engine. It was
slightly worse than bringing my books in to an average used book
dealer!
But neither wanted my two SIGNED editions, you see,THERE WAS NO WAY TO
TELL THEM that a book was Sgned & Inscribed by its Author, and if it
had had a zebra-skin dustjacket, or had a unique 1850's tintype of
Abraham Lincoln tapping a ball into his tipped-over hat with a croquet
mallet inserted loosely at the front end paper.,or been tied up in the
pink bow and dedicated to General Ulysses S. Grant by W'm Tecumsah
Sherman, I couldn't have entered any of THAT into the Search Field
either.
Even worse, both services stated flat-out that they did not buy books
which did not have ISBN numbers, i.e., nothing before 1972 or 1973 or
so! That is exactly what I expected, since these 2 companies live or
die by ISBN numbers, but when you think about it, it is SO BIZARRE!
For generations, for centuries, collectors have been elbowing each
other out of the way to get to the rare old editions. Now people are
tossing old, valuable, calf- and morocco bound books aside to find the
recent ones with the ISBN #s. And if there's no hardcovers, they'll
grab the paperbacks! When I got into books more than 20 years ago, a
bookseller wouldn't have looked TWICE at these ISBN #'d dogs.
Nowadays, (and I have seen these technically well-educated zombies at
several of my recent book sales), 'robotic' book scouts are out in the
field, scanning ISBN numbers to see if a 1980's or 1990's book might
be worth buying for 50c or a dollar so that it could be selling for
$2.00 or $3.00, but PASSING UP rare old First Editions, Art Books,
gilt-eded 18th Century Bibles, philosophy, turn-of-the-century
psychology, military, rare metaphysics -- everything and anything that
dates from earlier than the early 1970's! This seems to be a fad
indulged in by guys in sports cars. One guy took 45 minutes to pick
out 3 books and bought them for $1.50, saying he might make $2.00
profit over at Amazon or ABE. Now, if you ask me, those people are
nuts! This sudden elevation of the ISBN number to Holy Icon status is
not only for the birds -- it's stupid! The valuable books are the
books that were published long, long before ISBN numbers had even been
dreamt of -- and nothing will change that! -
---e.a. http://www.edaugusts.com
of books! It turns out that a lot of otherwise fairly smart people
are hot to load-up their shelves with recent text books and other
modern printings, and by modern I mean, books published within the
last 30 years or so, and that older and scarcer books are no longer
desired, and those who have big collections of old books might just be
out of luck when the time comes to sell! . Nobody is going to want
them, I guess, because of the all-important numbers (ISBN numbers!)
by which a recent titles and editions are identified.
Here's the darn thing that happened! I was curious about selling books
on-line, not selling them myself, but selling off bunches of them at a
time to some other retailer, who buys at wholesale, over the
Internet. I quickly discovered there are two competing businesses
purportedly eager to purchase books. Here, jot these down, I don't
mind giving them a little business, they seem honest enough, if maybe
a little short-sighted!
One's URL is: http://www.cashforbooks.net/main/ and the other one,
almost indistinguishable in many respects, except color scheme and the
fact one features a pretty young college student beaming slyly as she
nestles on the carpet amid a pile of textbooks, is http://www.webuyyourbooks.com
Here is the beauty of it all, and also the insanity, thereof: All you
have to do is enter the ISBN numbers...those 10 or 13-digit codes that
identify a book.. into a little "box", and with one "click", the
website digests those numbers and comes up with a CASH $$ OFFER $$ for
one's books!. These ISBN numbers are a kick, although I preferred the
Old Days when books were identified by author and title, etc., not by
lengthy numeric codes... By the way, these ISBN's replaced the
shorter (by several digits) Library of Congress numbers that served
the same function for many years prior to the mid-1970's when ISBN #s
came into common usage. Now, just like longer & longer zipcodes, we
have longer & longer numerical ID's instead of authors and titles.
Book buyer stands in front of counter, looking for some help.
"I'd like an Ernest Hemingway, 'The Sun Also Rises".
"Oh, I'm not familiar with that... Sir, do you by any chance mean the
8-452-135-019?"
Anyway, the best was yet to come! Both book services offered $2.50
to $3.20 each for some textbooks, of which only a couple of copies
exist on the Internet, $1.40+- for the Illuminatus Trilogy, 60c to
$1.00 each for herbal healing books, etc. Neither book buying company
was interested in more than 2 out of 20 of the interesting selection
of 1970's--current books I entered onto their search engine. It was
slightly worse than bringing my books in to an average used book
dealer!
But neither wanted my two SIGNED editions, you see,THERE WAS NO WAY TO
TELL THEM that a book was Sgned & Inscribed by its Author, and if it
had had a zebra-skin dustjacket, or had a unique 1850's tintype of
Abraham Lincoln tapping a ball into his tipped-over hat with a croquet
mallet inserted loosely at the front end paper.,or been tied up in the
pink bow and dedicated to General Ulysses S. Grant by W'm Tecumsah
Sherman, I couldn't have entered any of THAT into the Search Field
either.
Even worse, both services stated flat-out that they did not buy books
which did not have ISBN numbers, i.e., nothing before 1972 or 1973 or
so! That is exactly what I expected, since these 2 companies live or
die by ISBN numbers, but when you think about it, it is SO BIZARRE!
For generations, for centuries, collectors have been elbowing each
other out of the way to get to the rare old editions. Now people are
tossing old, valuable, calf- and morocco bound books aside to find the
recent ones with the ISBN #s. And if there's no hardcovers, they'll
grab the paperbacks! When I got into books more than 20 years ago, a
bookseller wouldn't have looked TWICE at these ISBN #'d dogs.
Nowadays, (and I have seen these technically well-educated zombies at
several of my recent book sales), 'robotic' book scouts are out in the
field, scanning ISBN numbers to see if a 1980's or 1990's book might
be worth buying for 50c or a dollar so that it could be selling for
$2.00 or $3.00, but PASSING UP rare old First Editions, Art Books,
gilt-eded 18th Century Bibles, philosophy, turn-of-the-century
psychology, military, rare metaphysics -- everything and anything that
dates from earlier than the early 1970's! This seems to be a fad
indulged in by guys in sports cars. One guy took 45 minutes to pick
out 3 books and bought them for $1.50, saying he might make $2.00
profit over at Amazon or ABE. Now, if you ask me, those people are
nuts! This sudden elevation of the ISBN number to Holy Icon status is
not only for the birds -- it's stupid! The valuable books are the
books that were published long, long before ISBN numbers had even been
dreamt of -- and nothing will change that! -
---e.a. http://www.edaugusts.com
Tina Whalen
Apr 6, 2008, 9:02:43 AM4/6/08
to BOOK-ADVENTURES...@googlegroups.com
I wonder what books they are actually buying, because I tried a few numbers
and none were books they are actually buying right now. So, how does a
person know what they can sell to these places? BTW---the second site,
webuyyourbooks, does have an email option for books without ISBN's. They
will take a look at it and see if they are interested, but likely it's still
a hard sell for older books. It won't be long before people don't want ANY
books, just read it on a computer or hear it on CD....very sad indeed!
Tina
and none were books they are actually buying right now. So, how does a
person know what they can sell to these places? BTW---the second site,
webuyyourbooks, does have an email option for books without ISBN's. They
will take a look at it and see if they are interested, but likely it's still
a hard sell for older books. It won't be long before people don't want ANY
books, just read it on a computer or hear it on CD....very sad indeed!
Tina
> --
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> 7:53 AM
>
>
Ed Augusts
Apr 6, 2008, 10:41:36 AM4/6/08
to BOOK & MOVIE ADVENTURES with Ed Augusts
Heya! Well, my intention was not to give a whole bunch of free
advertising to those 2 companies, but one of them does post a link to
a list of books they have 'recently' (?) purchased and the prices they
claim to have paid. This list yields some surprises, and a study
could be done on why they would spend $25.00 to buy a textbook that
you or I would never have picked out of a box at a rummage sale for
50c, maybe recent texts can be expensive, not to mention, they're
required reading at more than one college or university, so perhaps
there is a constant demand for certain textbook titles that we poor
mortals who look for literary and non-fiction gems wouldn't know
about. But I always found it risky business buying textbooks since
they go right out the window and become dogs as soon as the Academics
declare them 'dated'. Then they aren't even worth 50c.
Between those 2 companies, and based on the 75 to 80 books I fed into
their "machine", there was an overlap of about 90% in which titles
they would offer me cash for, but the one company was consistently
just a little higher, like $3.23 instead of $3.11, ..that sort of
thing!
Of course it was exciting to realize there was a firm buyer at the
$3.00 level for a book I'd paid 25c or 50c for, but not so hot when I
remembered that there were only 2 or 3 copies for sale anywhere in the
world of that title and edition, and the prices for those started at
$25.00. So how much money can a person really make by selling them at
these wholesale rates, versus, how much can they LOSE by not selling
on ABE or Alibris or E-Bay (Stores, not auctions!) at closer to retail
value. IT WOULD HAVE TO BE SOMEONE EXTREMELY DESPERATE. And in the
time it takes to enter-in all those ISBN's, a person could drive the
books to a used & rare book store and maybe get the same deal anyway!
I was surprised by certain things I discovered:
They both were willing to pay $2.75--$2.85 for my "New Orleans Voodoo
Tarot" book. Looking this title up on ABEBooks the low is $14.50, the
high is $65.00, so this is not one of those books of which there are
20 copies out there priced at $1.00 each, i.e., it DOES have
value... one was willing to pay a dollar for one in the (I think her
name is Marion March) "The Only Way to Learn Astrology" series
(softcover), but they're taking a risk there, since a few bad apples
are dumping copies of the series in that same $1.00 range, but other
copies are on the line for up into the $60's. Hey, here's a good
one... one dealer is selling a paperback copy for $52.00. that has
highlighting in it! Har har har! That's funny, to think someone
will pay $52.00 for a highlighted book unless it has, maybe a $50 bill
tucked inside.. Oh, well! What do some of these DEALERS know? Some
of them are trying to sell $5.00 books for $50.00, and others, who
must have Grandpa's storage locker full of old books, are happy to get
$1.00 each, and don't even look-up the title, not dreaming someone
might pay $500.00 for a rarity. A person could make a living just
picking-off the cheapest of the best, and then reselling. Oh, okay, I
got distracted, sorry! Haven't had my coffee yet... Anyway, they
also offered 60c for a Yoga of Herbs trade softcover that is probably
worth $8 to $12, BUT, here's where I was really surprised: neither
company wanted Alice Bailey "Lucis Press" softcovers such as "Esoteric
Astrology" that I've sold for $15 --$20 each on various venues in the
last couple of years.
Even MORE surprisingly, neither one cared to make an offer for any of
the THREE DIFFERENT James Braha "Hermetician Press" Astrology books
that wonderfully present both Western and Vedic (Hindu, Sidereal)
Astrology, I would say each of those books is worth about $15--$20 in
the resale market, WHY would these squeaky-clean book buyers not want
a piece of THAT action? Well, I think I just figured out why... Braha
IS popular. There are 133 copies of books under his name on ABE right
now, divided-up by a half dozen or so titles... A few desperates and
semi-conscious sellers are offering one of his titles, it must be the
cheapest one, "Astro-Logos", for $1.76 and up. But the cheapest of
the nice Vedic + Western studies that I have, are offered at $4.50 or
so, and go up to $55 or so in softcover. (These are large softcovers,
quarto, not octavo!) I'm not so puzzled anymore, with 133-odd copies
out there, the Braha series is just too popular for any of its titles
to be RARE and PRICEY, alas. So these on-line buyers don't want it.
They might only triple or quadruple their invested dollar, ha ha, when
what they want (and who can blame them?) is about 10X return on every
book they purchase. Because they will have to accept shipment,
warehouse them, advertise them, and sooner or later make their profit
-- or not, maybe the books will sit in Beaverton, or wherever, for
years. So anything is a risk. So these folks are looking for the
"sure thing", and the sure thing only!
By the way, I wasn't really looking to SELL these Astrology titles, I
just found it kind of fun, and very curious, to see what they would
and wouldn't offer cash for. Anyway, don't feel back they didn't offer
you anything for any of your books, I had to feed in 15 or 16 ISBN's
of books which I THOUGHT should sell for $15--$30 retail before a
single book met with a "WE'LL BUY THAT ONE!" response. Maybe they're
working off "Want Lists", but if so, it's not any want list I know
about! Again, only for the desperate, or only for those who have
hours & hours to squint at the tiny little ISBN numbers and type like
crazy!
Best, -----Ed
http://www.edaugusts.com
http://www.getrichbuyingatyardsales.com
> > One's URL is: http://www.cashforbooks.net/main/and the other one,
> > 7:53 AM- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
advertising to those 2 companies, but one of them does post a link to
a list of books they have 'recently' (?) purchased and the prices they
claim to have paid. This list yields some surprises, and a study
could be done on why they would spend $25.00 to buy a textbook that
you or I would never have picked out of a box at a rummage sale for
50c, maybe recent texts can be expensive, not to mention, they're
required reading at more than one college or university, so perhaps
there is a constant demand for certain textbook titles that we poor
mortals who look for literary and non-fiction gems wouldn't know
about. But I always found it risky business buying textbooks since
they go right out the window and become dogs as soon as the Academics
declare them 'dated'. Then they aren't even worth 50c.
Between those 2 companies, and based on the 75 to 80 books I fed into
their "machine", there was an overlap of about 90% in which titles
they would offer me cash for, but the one company was consistently
just a little higher, like $3.23 instead of $3.11, ..that sort of
thing!
Of course it was exciting to realize there was a firm buyer at the
$3.00 level for a book I'd paid 25c or 50c for, but not so hot when I
remembered that there were only 2 or 3 copies for sale anywhere in the
world of that title and edition, and the prices for those started at
$25.00. So how much money can a person really make by selling them at
these wholesale rates, versus, how much can they LOSE by not selling
on ABE or Alibris or E-Bay (Stores, not auctions!) at closer to retail
value. IT WOULD HAVE TO BE SOMEONE EXTREMELY DESPERATE. And in the
time it takes to enter-in all those ISBN's, a person could drive the
books to a used & rare book store and maybe get the same deal anyway!
I was surprised by certain things I discovered:
They both were willing to pay $2.75--$2.85 for my "New Orleans Voodoo
Tarot" book. Looking this title up on ABEBooks the low is $14.50, the
high is $65.00, so this is not one of those books of which there are
20 copies out there priced at $1.00 each, i.e., it DOES have
value... one was willing to pay a dollar for one in the (I think her
name is Marion March) "The Only Way to Learn Astrology" series
(softcover), but they're taking a risk there, since a few bad apples
are dumping copies of the series in that same $1.00 range, but other
copies are on the line for up into the $60's. Hey, here's a good
one... one dealer is selling a paperback copy for $52.00. that has
highlighting in it! Har har har! That's funny, to think someone
will pay $52.00 for a highlighted book unless it has, maybe a $50 bill
tucked inside.. Oh, well! What do some of these DEALERS know? Some
of them are trying to sell $5.00 books for $50.00, and others, who
must have Grandpa's storage locker full of old books, are happy to get
$1.00 each, and don't even look-up the title, not dreaming someone
might pay $500.00 for a rarity. A person could make a living just
picking-off the cheapest of the best, and then reselling. Oh, okay, I
got distracted, sorry! Haven't had my coffee yet... Anyway, they
also offered 60c for a Yoga of Herbs trade softcover that is probably
worth $8 to $12, BUT, here's where I was really surprised: neither
company wanted Alice Bailey "Lucis Press" softcovers such as "Esoteric
Astrology" that I've sold for $15 --$20 each on various venues in the
last couple of years.
Even MORE surprisingly, neither one cared to make an offer for any of
the THREE DIFFERENT James Braha "Hermetician Press" Astrology books
that wonderfully present both Western and Vedic (Hindu, Sidereal)
Astrology, I would say each of those books is worth about $15--$20 in
the resale market, WHY would these squeaky-clean book buyers not want
a piece of THAT action? Well, I think I just figured out why... Braha
IS popular. There are 133 copies of books under his name on ABE right
now, divided-up by a half dozen or so titles... A few desperates and
semi-conscious sellers are offering one of his titles, it must be the
cheapest one, "Astro-Logos", for $1.76 and up. But the cheapest of
the nice Vedic + Western studies that I have, are offered at $4.50 or
so, and go up to $55 or so in softcover. (These are large softcovers,
quarto, not octavo!) I'm not so puzzled anymore, with 133-odd copies
out there, the Braha series is just too popular for any of its titles
to be RARE and PRICEY, alas. So these on-line buyers don't want it.
They might only triple or quadruple their invested dollar, ha ha, when
what they want (and who can blame them?) is about 10X return on every
book they purchase. Because they will have to accept shipment,
warehouse them, advertise them, and sooner or later make their profit
-- or not, maybe the books will sit in Beaverton, or wherever, for
years. So anything is a risk. So these folks are looking for the
"sure thing", and the sure thing only!
By the way, I wasn't really looking to SELL these Astrology titles, I
just found it kind of fun, and very curious, to see what they would
and wouldn't offer cash for. Anyway, don't feel back they didn't offer
you anything for any of your books, I had to feed in 15 or 16 ISBN's
of books which I THOUGHT should sell for $15--$30 retail before a
single book met with a "WE'LL BUY THAT ONE!" response. Maybe they're
working off "Want Lists", but if so, it's not any want list I know
about! Again, only for the desperate, or only for those who have
hours & hours to squint at the tiny little ISBN numbers and type like
crazy!
Best, -----Ed
http://www.edaugusts.com
http://www.getrichbuyingatyardsales.com
>
> - Show quoted text -
Tina Whalen
Apr 6, 2008, 1:30:35 PM4/6/08
to BOOK-ADVENTURES...@googlegroups.com
Guess what else I found? When I went to ABE to find a few ISBN's, I did a
little more looking and found that ABE seems to be buying books as well!
Just go to the home page, click on "sell books", and you'll see "just a few
books". Click on that, and it gives you a form to fill out for multiple
books. Of course, only open to people in the US, because they pay for
shipping and US media rate is cheapest available anywhere.----Tina
little more looking and found that ABE seems to be buying books as well!
Just go to the home page, click on "sell books", and you'll see "just a few
books". Click on that, and it gives you a form to fill out for multiple
books. Of course, only open to people in the US, because they pay for
shipping and US media rate is cheapest available anywhere.----Tina
daniel nociaro
Apr 6, 2008, 3:28:11 PM4/6/08
to BOOK-ADVENTURES...@googlegroups.com
good hearing from you, how is everything.??
dan
----- Original Message -----From: Ed AugustsSent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 11:54 PMSubject: So, only recent books with ISBN #s have value now?
daniel nociaro
Apr 7, 2008, 5:12:17 PM4/7/08
to BOOK-ADVENTURES...@googlegroups.com
not good you got in time. property values have drop 25% in some arrears.. I
am fighting to keep up till thinks turn around maybe 1yr. who knows. any
how goes it with you are you selling lot of books.? where do you live az.? take
care if I want a book I will come to you
thanks
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