# Why are used books worth so little? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481 "2014-11-12T22:59:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/41 "2014-11-14T00:14:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Recycle books in San Jose has been open for over 40 years, even opened a branch. And there is another used bookstore, even bigger, in Mountain View on Castro which has a small branch in Monterey. A block from the hotel we stayed at, much to my delight. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/42 "2014-11-14T00:17:48Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Most books are not worth reselling especially popular fiction. I expect the “bestsellers” genre to be the second to go predominantly electronic, right after textbooks. I’d say first. Textbooks have graphics issues for readers (though I suppose tablets are okay.) Bestsellers have no issues at all. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/43 "2014-11-14T00:20:05Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And the markup is so high. What ever happened to the 25 cents each used bookstores. I know they don’t pay much more that that for them. I’m at the point where I just donate my old books to the local school/public library. Time and inflation happened to them. I used to buy tons of 1950s sf magazines for 25 cents each - but that was in 1968. Glad I did, could never afford all of them even now. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/44 "2014-11-14T00:24:28Z")
> [@Cardboard](#): > > I’ve sold some books on eBay and have a few observations I would like to note. > > Age doesn’t matter when it comes to books printed ~1880 and after. A standard school textbook from 1892 probably won’t get a lot of action, so the ‘antique’ factor doesn’t work with books. That’s because books tend to last. What makes antiques special is there is a rarity factor to them, but old books often aren’t that rare. There are university and college libraries with books from the 1700s that you can check out if you so desire. It is scarcity also. On the east coast 1890s books were quite cheap - I got Mr. Dooley collections from about that time for a couple of bucks each at Cranbury Bookwork, and I got a 1870 Jules Vernes (pirated in the US, of course) at Brattle Book Store in Boston at a price so low that I didn’t think twice even as a college student. Older books in the Bay Area suburbs are mostly in specialty stores and seem to be a lot more expensive. They’d be behind the glass in Recycle, not sitting on open shelves. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/45 "2014-11-14T01:14:13Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Think about it - look at the best-seller list from the NYTimes or wherever from 20 years ago. How many of those are flash-in-the-pan books that nobody really cares about any more? The very few who care either already read it or can get it at the library. The cheapest price I see on [bookfinder.com](http://bookfinder.com) for GREAT LION OF GOD, by Taylor Caldwell is $25.00 with a dust jacket. OTOH, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN, by John Fowles can be had for $6.00, or less for poorer copies. Older books’ prices can’t be judged by popularity. Even popularity can’t be judged by bestselling lists. The Fowles book was a huge, huge seller but they printed so many that finding them is easy and large percentages of buyers kept it. Probably not true for Caldwell, so anyone who’s looking for her has to pay more. > [@](#): > > the exceptions tend to be genre books like mysteries or science fiction. Authors in those genres can (used to?) make a steady living form their back catalog of books, much like rock musicians from the 50’s through 70’s (but not as lucrative). Agatha Christie and Isaac Asimov still sell books. Romances, however, are less memorable because it seems they are formula churned out by the bucket-load. Used to. Except for a tiny handful of the biggest names, older genre books are no longer reprinted by large publishers. There is a cottage industry of tiny presses who print some, but in tiny numbers. We have no idea at all what the romance boom will result in, but I certainly wouldn’t try to argue with their fans that they are less memorable. Voyager, you can’t buy individual issues of 50s sf magazines cheaply now, true. At the same time you can’t sell them either. There’s just no market for them except for people looking for specific stories or collectors looking for mint copies. A search on eBay for astounding science fiction 1952 brings up 74 results. That makes them far easier to find than in 1968. But I bet that almost all of them will still be around if you waited a year. I have thousands of old sf magazines and I have no interest in listing them individually. I’d never get the time back in money. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/46 "2014-11-14T06:16:10Z")
I bought an old oversize book, lavishly illustrated with beautiful typeset, #1 of limited edition 1,000 copies for $4 from Goodwill. I later sold it when the money was tight for about $120 on Amazon which netted me around $90. It was the only one available online and the only one I’ve seen since was listed for nearly $500. I shipped it priority mail and didn’t even get a feedback. My guess is the book is worth hundreds and I wish I still had it to keep for my own. Most of my sizable book collection is worthless though. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/47 "2014-11-14T09:35:10Z")
Just checked on Ebay, and I think the copy I sold went for under $50 a couple months ago looking at the completed listings. It’s maybe not worth much after all, but limited editions can be hard to track down. ---
**Author:** ![Jesta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jesta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jesta)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/48 "2014-11-14T11:59:09Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I don’t know for sure, but I suspect people open these stores just to accumulate a large collection of used books and then sell them in some way that we all may not understand. > > For example, perhaps they get a rate for selling bulk paper to a recycling plant and this is the best way they can accumulate a large bunch of paper and then sell them - not as books - but as scrap. > > Very similar to selling old defunct autos for their scrap metal value. > > But I’m just guessing. I really don’t know for sure. The average national mill buying price for the 17 grades tracked by The Paper Stock Report on November 10, 2014 was **$103.14 per ton**. > **[Recycling and Composting Online](https://www.recycle.cc/freepapr.htm)** > > The latest news and trends in recycling and composting [Average Postage Weights for Shipping: Average Weight of A Paperback Book / Hardcover Book](http://avgpostageweights.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/average-weight-of-paperback-book.html) has a list of average book weights, for convenience sake, I’ll run with 1lb 2oz as an average average, and call that close enough to .5kg, making it somewhere around the 2000 books per ton… buying 2000 books for $50, aiming to roughly double your money before taking expenses into account gives an average buying price of 2.5c per book. I can’t see this working out well. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/49 "2014-11-14T14:20:56Z")
> **[Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell (1970-05-03): Talor Caldwell:...](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Lion-God-Taylor-Caldwell/dp/0002212951)** > > Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell (1970-05-03) \[Talor Caldwell\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell (1970-05-03) Great Lion of God - from $4.84 on Amazon, dozens to choose from. Once again, even with that book, supply exceeds demand. Plus, if you’ve gone 44 years without reading it, I’m sure you would find it more convenient to borrow a library copy. (If available). That came out years after my Caldwell reading binge, so this is the first I’ve heard of it… ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/50 "2014-11-14T14:55:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Because there are millions more just like yours and you can get them for free from the library. Like any collectible, value depends on scarcity and condition. Around 1989 or so, when James Dickey was still alive and poet-in-residence or some such thing at the University of South Carolina, I bought a first edition of _Deliverance_ to help kick-start what I was hoping at the time would be a nice collection of first editions. Nothing ever came of that, but that’s beside the point. What I wanted to share was that the guy who sold me _Deliverance_ told me I was lucky I wasn’t paying extra for it … because I was buying it in Columbia and it _wasn’t_ autographed. Apparently Dickey had a reputation as being rather generous with his pen. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/51 "2014-11-14T15:16:14Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > [Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell (1970-05-03): Taylor Caldwell: 9780002212953: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Lion-God-Taylor-Caldwell/dp/B0026Q1WV2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415974651&sr=8-1&keywords=great+lion+of+god) > > Great Lion of God - from $4.84 on Amazon, dozens to choose from. > Once again, even with that book, supply exceeds demand. Plus, if you’ve gone 44 years without reading it, I’m sure you would find it more convenient to borrow a library copy. (If available). That came out years after my Caldwell reading binge, so this is the first I’ve heard of it… To be fair, you really have to include the shipping cost, so $8.83 will get you a copy of this book that’s been out of print for 30 or 40 years. So many copies of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” have been printed over the years that there are hundreds available on Amazon for $0.01 + $3.99 shipping. I guess the takeaway is that if you want cheap, old books, use Amazon. If you want collectible books, use Bookfinder. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/52 "2014-11-14T16:19:18Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Voyager, you can’t buy individual issues of 50s sf magazines cheaply now, true. At the same time you can’t sell them either. There’s just no market for them except for people looking for specific stories or collectors looking for mint copies. A search on eBay for astounding science fiction 1952 brings up 74 results. That makes them far easier to find than in 1968. But I bet that almost all of them will still be around if you waited a year. I have thousands of old sf magazines and I have no interest in listing them individually. I’d never get the time back in money. I often buy them by the Lot on eBay, I pay a decent price. Mind you sometimes a year is missing a issue, but there’s still tons of great reading there. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/53 "2014-11-14T16:21:27Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > [Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell (1970-05-03): Taylor Caldwell: 9780002212953: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Lion-God-Taylor-Caldwell/dp/B0026Q1WV2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415974651&sr=8-1&keywords=great+lion+of+god) > > Great Lion of God - from $4.84 on Amazon, dozens to choose from. > Once again, even with that book, supply exceeds demand. Plus, if you’ve gone 44 years without reading it, I’m sure you would find it more convenient to borrow a library copy. (If available). That came out years after my Caldwell reading binge, so this is the first I’ve heard of it… I exclude Amazon from searches because it’s ridiculously hard to tell what you’re buying. The cost of an old book is what you have to pay for a very good or better copy with dust jacket that is not a ex-library book. You can find reading copies for less, often down to nothingness (i.e. cost of shipping) but those make the whole concept of comparing value impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/54 "2014-11-14T16:39:45Z")
Stephen King once joked that if anyone has an unautographed copy of _The Stand_, they should hold onto it, because those are rare. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/55 "2014-11-14T18:58:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I exclude Amazon from searches because it’s ridiculously hard to tell what you’re buying. > > The cost of an old book is what you have to pay for a very good or better copy with dust jacket that is not a ex-library book. You can find reading copies for less, often down to nothingness (i.e. cost of shipping) but those make the whole concept of comparing value impossible. True, if you want “keepers” it’ll cost more. The question is, who are buyers of old books? Are they people who want a nice library, or people who simply want to get a copy because someone said “you have to read this!” (or it’s an author they discovered) and they just want a read. I bet more than half of Amazon older book buyers is the latter. And, that is what your used bookstore buyer is up against - an entire world (or at least, the whole USA) that can offer the same book for cheap, and has a much better selection. I suspect the number of buyers who will pay a serious premium for a long-out-print book in good condition, is fairly small. I suspect the bookstore is better off trying to sell whatever they have for cheap than holding out for buyers wanting “good” quality, unless the book is absolutely mint condition. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/56 "2014-11-14T20:31:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Voyager, you can’t buy individual issues of 50s sf magazines cheaply now, true. At the same time you can’t sell them either. There’s just no market for them except for people looking for specific stories or collectors looking for mint copies. A search on eBay for astounding science fiction 1952 brings up 74 results. That makes them far easier to find than in 1968. But I bet that almost all of them will still be around if you waited a year. I have thousands of old sf magazines and I have no interest in listing them individually. I’d never get the time back in money. Well, I have them all for 1952. I haven’t looked on line for any since I’m so backlogged anyhow. In any case doing a search is not sporting. Not as much fun as finding an obscure magazine in a dusty bookstore. Or a dusty magazine in an obscure bookstore. I haven’t checked sale prices because that is a problem for my heirs. Alas, MITSFS has part of the Library in storage. They need to get a third room, then I can dump it all on them. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/57 "2014-11-14T22:34:09Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In any case doing a search is not sporting. Not as much fun as finding an obscure magazine in a dusty bookstore. Or a dusty magazine in an obscure bookstore. If the whole issue is irrelevant for you, then it doesn’t make much sense to complain about prices or the Internet or bookstores, for that matter. Yeah, it’s not 1968 anymore. Anyone who reads science fiction ought to be able to handle that. I love bookstores myself, and I stop in them wherever I go. But I’ve changed what I look for over the years so there is a possibility I can find something I might want. I expect that the minimum price they charge has gone up as well, or they won’t stay in business. Heck, library book sales used to sell hardbacks for a quarter. Now they’re often two dollars. The first day of the fabulous Friends of the Ithaca Library sales puts them at four dollars. (250,000 books, all alphabetized in categories.) The real problem is that all of us who used to have to work to amass that stuff and did so for years have gotten it all and then aged out. Internet or no, there’s no good way to get into my basement and search through boxes and there’s no good way of getting into yours or the dozen others here on the Dope. That’s always been the problem with old books and nobody’s come up with a solution yet. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/58 "2014-11-16T03:08:50Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Oh dear, I guess I didn’t really answer the question posed by the OP. > > Why are they worth so little? This is just a guess but, the answer may be that from a commercial point of view, people are just not willing to pay hardly anything for these books. > > Moreover, the cost of running a storefront that buys and sells used hardback books makes it almost impossible to make a profit. > > Most every used bookstore that has opened in my neighborhood, has gone out of business within 2 or 3 months after opening. > > I don’t know for sure, but I suspect people open these stores just to accumulate a large collection of used books and then sell them in some way that we all may not understand. > > For example, perhaps they get a rate for selling bulk paper to a recycling plant and this is the best way they can accumulate a large bunch of paper and then sell them - not as books - but as scrap. > > Very similar to selling old defunct autos for their scrap metal value. > > But I’m just guessing. I really don’t know for sure. Resale stores of any type rarely last unless the owner knows what they’re getting into. That includes things like furniture and clothing, too. It’s because they have no idea what they’re really getting into, and often pick inappropriate locations. p.s. Most dealers can’t give away Danielle Steel books. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/59 "2014-11-16T03:27:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > If the whole issue is irrelevant for you, then it doesn’t make much sense to complain about prices or the Internet or bookstores, for that matter. Yeah, it’s not 1968 anymore. Anyone who reads science fiction ought to be able to handle that. I wasn’t complaining. Someone mentioned not being able to buy magazines for a quarter and I said you could - 45 years ago. The cover price of new books has gone up as fast as the price of used ones, and I’m not complaining about that either. I don’t buy magazines on line because of backlog and lack of shelf space, not because they are too expensive. Some magazines were expensive even back then. I bought a bunch of Unknowns in 1975 for $9 each, and have never regretted it. > [@](#): > > The real problem is that all of us who used to have to work to amass that stuff and did so for years have gotten it all and then aged out. Internet or no, there’s no good way to get into my basement and search through boxes and there’s no good way of getting into yours or the dozen others here on the Dope. That’s always been the problem with old books and nobody’s come up with a solution yet. I’ve got all my sf books out and they are all indexed, so I could shoot someone a list of them in a second. I keep pdfs of the magazines and books on my phone so I can check to see if I own an interesting looking book. Which 80% of the time I do. I have a tattered copy of the Day checklist (and a pristine one too) which I also use, and some checklists I make myself. I have too many books and too few remaining brain cells to remember what I have and don’t have. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481/60 "2014-11-16T04:18:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’ve got all my sf books out and they are all indexed, so I could shoot someone a list of them in a second. I keep pdfs of the magazines and books on my phone so I can check to see if I own an interesting looking book. Which 80% of the time I do. I have a tattered copy of the Day checklist (and a pristine one too) which I also use, and some checklists I make myself. I have too many books and too few remaining brain cells to remember what I have and don’t have. Sure, I have my books on computer, too. But if you were to simply list your books for sale, anybody with an once of sense would pass them over without a second glance (unless they were priced at a penny). Are they first editions? Do they have dust jackets? What’s the condition? (Both boards and jacket.) Do they have any internal markings, bookplates, dealer’s labels, price stickers? Same goes for paperbacks and magazines - you list every dent and ding and crease because that makes them more sellable, not less: it tells the customer exactly what they’re getting. But that takes time and means handling each one of them individually. Unless you’re willing to make that slight profit on the difference between media mail rates and shipping costs, you’ll wind up with as many books left as you started with. Most people who look for old books on the internet don’t want reading copies; they can go to [paperbackswap.com](http://paperbackswap.com) and get those. They want something of value and that is almost always dependent on condition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-used-books-worth-so-little/704481.md?page=4)