At least one person per day asks how to sell their old or rare books. For these, Bookscouter.com is not able to provide vendors since there is no ISBN number associated with them. However we do provide alternate sources to find your books highest rated value.
What is it for, and where did it come from?
W. H. Smith, who was the largest single book retailer in Great Britain, became computerized and wanted a standard numbering system for all the books it carried. They constructed the Standard Book Numbering system (SBN), which was introduced in 1967. In 1970 the ISO, International Organization for Standardization, which consisted of several countries, adopted this standard system. It evolved into the ISBN numbering system and is now the standard in approximately 150 countries.
Books that were published prior to 1970 do not have ISBN numbers. These books may be rare and antique. But, just because they are labeled this way does not mean that they are valuable. The most basic of our economic terms, supply and demand, help us dictate the value of such books. A book found in abundance with little desirability to collectors will normally be worth less than a book that is scarce and in high demand. The demand for less common and more desirable books drives the price up. If you are looking to sell your rare or antique books then look to Abebooks.com or Powellsbooks.com. These are both great places to sell or just price the books. If you think that the books may be of more value than these sites give you, then you can try finding an ABBA (Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America) near you.
A lot of people have been asking for the best way to package a book, so here are some tips that I thought would be helpful.
- Always pack your book in some kind of plastic. You can easily use the plastic bags from the grocery store, or even ClingWrap will do. This is to protect the books from the elements. Not all books are delivered on sunny days, and not all fit into an individual’s mailbox. There’s no sense in buying books only to have them be water-damaged because they weren’t protected.
- Sandwich the book in between two sturdy pieces of cardboard just slightly bigger than the book. This prevents bent corners.
- A cardboard box is probably going to be the safest way to package a book. If you’re on a budget, you can get by using a padded envelope if you use the above tips.
There are no rules set in stone for the packaging of books. The main thing is to put in a little extra effort and make sure the book is water proofed and able to withstand a little abuse. I am not the authority on packaging books, so I would appreciate tips and comments on how you like to package books.
Thanks for reading and happy shipping!
The following sites are the most popular according to the number of visitors sent from BookScouter. This is a good indication of which websites offered the highest prices during the month.
I have had a ‘hidden’ page available for a while where users can enter multiple ISBNs and look up approximate pricing for all of the books on one screen. That page is available at http://bookscouter.com/multi.php and available for anybody to use. It works similarly to the Paperback Swap Lookup that I posted about recently. The pricing displayed is from the last time the book was looked up on the site, and it provides a link for you to refresh with the current prices.
I’m posting this here in hopes of gathering some feedback about how it works, and how you think it might be done better. As usual, feel free to comment here, or send me a message if you have any comments or suggestions.
PaperbackSwap.com is a great site for swapping books with other people. The intention is to make your books available to people, and you can ask for books from anybody else on the site. This works out pretty well, and the service has grown a lot.