It is a book called AN ESSAY ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
the book is by Cesare Beccaria
From what i can tell from the little research ive been able to do, it appears to be a first edition
The answer is: Nothing is worth anything at all until the moment you agree on a price with a prospective buyer. Go to a dealer in second hand books and work something out!
The answer is almost certainly yes. This is surprising because 90% of the time a book appears to have value it has none. Go to www.abebooks.com, go to advanced search and search by author. Select to list by highest priced first.
It seems like it may be worth about $1,000, presuming you find the right buyer. You may be best served by doing some research and putting it on ebay. I will do a bit more research and see if I can find a good cite.
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
thanks for the help
Out of curiousity, where did you get it? From the date, it does appear to be the first English language edition, which isn’t the same as the true first edition. Still, many collectors are as interested in the first English edition as the true first, so that doesn’t hurt value much.
If selling it, I would scan the title page and not try to use descriptions like “good for its age”. Start by describing the binding and then page through carefully listing any and all defects you find. Those brown spots on the title page are called ‘foxing’, for instance. You should note whether that occurs throughout or only on the title and end pages.
Also, from your picture it looks like the book has been rebound. If so, you should mention this and try to estimate when the rebinding took place.
i got the book from a library sell for about 30 cents many years ago, and yes the foxing does appear throughout, but besides that there isnt any real issues with it that I can tell
Was the book part of the library’s collection? That will bring the price down considerably, along with the rebinding. Library books usually get a lot more handling than books in private collections do, and they also have various markings indicating that they are library property, and various stamps and maybe even embossments, plus of course the card pockets.
A good way to get a feeling for the value of a used book is bookfinder.com. It aggregates listings from ABE (mentioned above), biblio, Amazon, and dozens of other sites.
Be aware, though, that when only a few copies of a book are available, the price can fluctuate madly. If someone looks for comparative pricing online and can’t find their particular book, they may list it for a thousand dollars when it typically sells for ten (or vice-versa).
Also, many (most?) of the people listing books online these days have no concept of the proper way to describe a book’s condition, how to determine whether it’s a first edition/first printing, what has a minor effect on the value (e.g., former owner’s name written on folio page) vs. a major effect on the value (e.g., rebinding), and so on.
the only stamp on there is for a second hand store in london that from searching the address listed on it no longer exists and to the best of my knowledge it wasnt part of the library’s collection
the last price listing i have found for this book is this
I have had many dealings with Bauman’s - they are at the highest end of the premium bookdealer scale (I sell them books when I am trying to fund something new ;)). Their prices are absolutely no indication of what you might get for the book. If anything, they might be an indication of how much you might sell them that book for - e.g., at a wholesale price, 50% or less of their list price. And you would need to understand what is similar vs. different between your copy and theirs - what edition, binding, provenance, associations and the basic condition of the book.
So you have found out that the book you have may have some value, but there are still many steps in the journey…
Take it to a few book dealers and ask for offers. Then list it on ebay with a reserve amount of the highest offer you got…
Two more things to keep in mind.
One, if you take the book to an average book-dealer, it is unlikely he will have any real idea as to the value of such an usual book. And if he does, he probably will not be interested in buying it. You need to find an old-book specialist, probably at an auction house.
Two, monetary value of a book is an ambiguous concept. About ten years ago I came into possession of a book published in 1558 which is excellent condition. After an extensive search on the internet, I found four references to it. Two libraries had a copy, one in England and one in Germany. Two book stores, one in Austria and one in Australia, had copies for sale. They each had it priced at around $6000. A few months ago I checked back and discovered that the two book stores still have the books in stock and for sale. They haven’t sold in ten years. Now tell me, what is my book worth?