Oftentimes when I am at a client’s home, they hand me boxes full of boxes. Books are things that are easy to collect. They hold countless facts, tell us tales and invite us into the lives and minds of the author. They are amazing and usually treasured parts of a household. But they also take up lots of space and weight a lot – so thus are easy candidates to purge whens simplifying a home.
People tend to think that books should hold their value, particularly those of popular authors. But this is not necessarily true, which is a shame considering the effort gone into producing them. I’ve had to tell many a hopeful client that out of the hundred books they’ve given me, that likely only 10% or so will sell for more than $5. The rest? Probably not worth much more than a couple cents.
Here’s some guidelines on re-selling books:
- Popular fiction author’s rarely hold their value. They are so mass produced in multiple editions, that the bookstores get flooded with them. Which means the resale market for them is rather limited.
- First Edition / First Prints of some of the author’s first titles do hold some value
- Signed copies, if not personalized, can increase their value
- Selling a huge set of an author’s books can increase the value. For instance, I once sold a set of 14 hardback Steven King books on eBay for $37. On Amazon Marketplace, each was only worth a penny.
- Hardbacks usually have more value than paperbacks.
- Small release books hold their value best. If there are less copies in production, then there may be more demand.
- The better the condition of the book, the better the value.
- Books with writing inside are not generally of interest to others
- Books with clean covers and minimal shelf wear can be sold for a higher value
- Non-fiction books that aren’t outdated tend to do better than fiction.
- Mass produced book of any sort generally don’t have a lot of value – if you bought it at a wholesale club, then it’s probably not going to sell for a lot.
- Textbooks only have value if they are still being used in courses somewhere. It’s best to sell them as soon as possible after your course ends, and a few weeks prior to the beginning of a semester. And just because it’s not in use at your campus and your bookstore won’t buy it back, doesn’t mean other colleges and universities aren’t using it.
- Books from book clubs rarely have value. This includes Reader’s Digest collections, and the like.
Usually with each client I discover a few gems that have unexpected value. So the process of going through a stack of books is worth the while and it only takes a few moments to check. And then I get inventive with putting lots of books together to sell as sets on eBay – either in groups by author, genre or topic. The rest get donated.
Gerbino Mosiac Vase
Originally uploaded by Serolynne
This recent Purge Genie item from a client of mine was a heck of a lot of fun to research. It’s owner wasn’t able to give me many details on it, and didn’t think it would be worth much at all. I discovered a bit of its history, listed it on eBay and had the actual artist contact me to fill in the details! It sold for $78, and ended up going to a buyer in Vallauris, France – the vase’s birthplace. I was so happy to hear from the buyer that it arrived safely – I had fallen in love with the beauty of this piece.
Purple Bubble Wrap!!!
Originally uploaded by Serolynne
One of the things I love about doing Purge Genie, is getting to use office supplies. I’ve always loved office supplies, and I’m enjoying having an excuse to buy them. When looking for where to purchase my next supply of bubble wrap from, I came across colored bubble wrap for about the same price as what I had been paying for clear.
And bonus.. they had it in purple! So now, most Purge Genie buyers will receive their fragile items safely wrapped in purple bubble wrap, complimenting my spiffy new purple logo!
And who could resist not wrapping themselves up in bubble wrap??
Published on March 2, 2008
in Tips.
For Christmas, I received an EyeFi Wireless SD Card. It sounded really cool, an SD memory card that will wirelessly transmit photos as you take them to your PC and/or your favorite photo sharing sites.
As cool as it was, the card sat in it’s box for the last month or so.
Until yesterday, when I had a realization as I was taking pictures for Purge Genie listings. See, my little lightbox photo studio is set up in my dining room, and I generally make my listing entries in my office. I was typically photographing a batch of items, and then downloading the photos to my computer to process(I was previously using a SD card that converts to a USB device). Which means if I discovered later that I needed a different angle, better lighting or changed something about the items in the listing – I had to go reshoot just that one item. That meant putting the card back in the camera, reshooting, taking the card out and then re-downloading. While not terribly difficult, it was just extra steps that added to the complexity of things, and made me bit more reluctant to go back and take the perfect picture.
And then I had an ah-hah moment in which I remembered I had the EyeFi card just sitting there in its ultra nifty packaging. I set it up – slick and easy to do – and viola.. my process greatly simplified. Now, my photos auto upload to a directory on my computer as I take them, no more shuffling cards about. I take pictures as I need them, and usually by the time I walk back into my office the photos are waiting for me to upload to eBay.
Very nice. I’m quite pleased with the EyeFi and how it’s made my listing process just a bit easier.
