Selling or downsizing a book collection

Most books in most collections are ordinary reading copies. A few may need a closer look. Before anything goes, take the time to find those few, because they are the ones that are easiest to let go for too little.

• Set aside signed and inscribed copies, first printings, and books with an interesting former owner.
• Set aside older books, especially those printed before about 1900, and books in fine condition with their dust jackets.
• Set aside specialist subjects — local history, natural history, travel, children’s books with plates — which often have their own dealers.
• Then sort the rest: duplicates, books nobody will reread, and books in poor condition.

• A second-hand bookshop. The quickest route. A shop buys to resell, so it usually offers well below its own shelf price, and many offer more in store credit than in cash. It may only take what it expects to sell.
• Selling online yourself. Usually the best return for books with a real following, and the most work: photographing, grading, describing, packing, posting and answering questions.
• A specialist dealer. Worth approaching for rare or antiquarian books, or a collection built around one subject. Some buy outright; some sell on your behalf for a commission.
• An auction house. For important books or a whole collection. Auctions charge the seller fees and commission, and can take months from consignment to payment.
• Donation. Libraries, Friends of the Library sales, schools and charity shops all take books, but each has its own rules about what it can use. Ask before you deliver.

Selling the whole lot to one buyer is simpler; selling book by book usually brings more and takes far longer. Neither is wrong. Decide how much time you want to spend before you start.

• Look at what copies actually sold for, not what sellers are asking. Asking prices are often hopeful, and a book can sit unsold for years at an optimistic price.
• Compare like with like: the same edition and printing, in similar condition, with or without the jacket. A later printing or a missing jacket can make a large difference.
• Look at several sales, not one. A single high sale may have been a lucky day.
• For anything that might be important, get a dealer’s opinion before you sell, and remember that an offer to buy is not the same as a valuation.

• Book condition grades explained →
• Cataloguing a collection for insurance →

• Leaf through every book. Letters, photographs, pressed flowers, banknotes and old bookmarks turn up inside books all the time.
• Look for family inscriptions. A book given from one generation to the next may mean more to a relative than to any buyer.
• Ask the family first. It is much easier to set a book aside now than to trace it after it has been sold.
• Update your catalogue as books go, so your list still matches your shelves.

• Passing on a library: planning for your heirs →