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Selling book collection


kevblokey
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Having had a massive sort out, I have about a hundred Railway/bus/underground/misc transport books for sale. Does anybody have any recommendations on the best way to dispose of these, in particular if I wished to dispose of as a collection, who are the recommended buyers in the trade?

 

Thanks,

 

Kev

Edited by kevblokey
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AS far as I can see the bottom has dropped out of the secondhand books market. Mid 2019 I tried to sell some of mine and also a collection that I knew of, I couldn't find anyone to be interested. Unless it's a rare book when someone MIGHT be interested.

 

John

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We used to have a forum on here for sales but that closed some time ago. You could ask Andy if he would have any objection to you posting a list on here and seeing if members were interested, although you are more likely to get individual sales then the whole collection.

 

Alternatively facebook now have dedicated sales forums for particular interests - I'm a member of at least one model rail sale forum on there, otherwise its ebay and the the like.

 

Rovex

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AS far as I can see the bottom has dropped out of the secondhand books market. Mid 2019 I tried to sell some of mine and also a collection that I knew of, I couldn't find anyone to be interested. Unless it's a rare book when someone MIGHT be interested.

 

John

Tend to agree. I've lately picked up a few titles I've wanted for many years for a lot less than the asking prices used to be.

 

I have a clearout of surplus books every couple of years. They get donated to the nearest heritage railway so the proceeds help with whatever their current project might be.

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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AS far as I can see the bottom has dropped out of the secondhand books market. Mid 2019 I tried to sell some of mine and also a collection that I knew of, I couldn't find anyone to be interested. Unless it's a rare book when someone MIGHT be interested.

 

John

You can see the future?

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If you have a local model railway show hire a small stand to sell the books and any other railway/model railway related items

 

I have noticed second hand books becoming much cheaper, bought two or three at Bodmin station for knockdown prices, then picked up a couple off eBay and Amazon, again for silly money

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I tried to sell my collection last year, over 300 books. Contacted 6 dealers around the country with photos and lists of the collection, none of them interested. Ended up giving them to a friend that runs a show, who will sell them with all the money going to charity.

The magazine collection went to the dump.

 

Simon

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I have already started disposing some of my less read books to the dump, having tried all the respectable means of getting rid of them. SH shops weren't interested, there are no heritage lines around and train shows bring the same ones as those I'm trying to get rid of! I do have a couple of potentially valuable tomes but not enough to rely on as investments! So all the others will no doubt end up in dumpsville also; sad but a reality.

 

Brian.

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If you are happy to donate them some charity shops will take them.  One of the local charity shops accepts reasonable numbers of railway books and seems to have a market for them. 

 

The books rarely remain in the shop for more than a week - as I have found when I have gone back to try to buy a book I wasn't sure about the first time I saw it.

 

David

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I was talking about this topic with a very well known seller, one of the very few who still has an entire, real, proper, fascinating, shop devoted to second hand railway books when last I visited, and it is clear that a high percentage of railway books are effectively valueless.

 

Genuinely old, genuinely of very good quality content, genuinely technical, highly specialist and only published in small runs etc do sell, as it would seem to 'proper histories', but things like albums of photos, especially ones that were sold through 'book clubs' in large numbers, clearly don't.

 

I cut about a third out of my collection when we moved house eight years ago, and those I gave to a local charity book shop, where I know that they went for c£3 each, to people like me, who buy there, read them, then re-donate. It's a sort of 'paying library', but £3 spent there is far better value than £4.50 spent on a magazine.

Edited by Nearholmer
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Are people really taking them down the dump and putting them in the rubbish?  :scratchhead:

 

 

Put the good ones that you can't get rid of on eBay. Ask at local railways if they will take them as a donation.

 

Anything that is not going to sell then take them to your local charity shop (including magazines). Even things that don't sell get sold to organisations such as World Of Books who pay for them by weight.

 

Where does everyone think the books and magazines sold on eBay, the internet and in second hand shops comes from? Places like World Of Books is the answer.

 

https://www.worldofbooks.com/

 

That's also where places like Magazines Exchange get their magazines and then sell them for about £5 each.

 

The dog eared and worthless books and magazines go to pulp, but they still pay for them by weight.

 

 

 

 

Jason

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There is a bookshop opposite Pickering station which sells railway books for about £3 a throw, not rubbish, OS Nock British Steam Railway Locomotives that sort of thing, shelves full 20 feet long six shelves high all in good condition so lord knows how little they pay for them. Another at Grosmont NYMR is similar.  Got an Immaculate "Stroudley Locomotives" Alec Swain for £4 at Newton Abbott  market.   Some heritage railways get donations and try to sell them at silly prices but by and large the bottom has dropped out.  We enthusiasts are dropping like flies and no one wants our prized collections.  No one wants middle aged magazines,  even some heritage railways won't accept them.  I reckon any mag newer than 1973 is essentially worthless.

You either donate them, get ripped off by a dealer or waste hours putting them on Ebay.  

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We are just completing a complete remodelling of the downstairs of our house including a large wrap around extension, whilst we are going for a minimalist style for the kitchen family room our larger lounge will have at least 2 large bookcases as both my wife and me have reasonable large book collections, according to my daughter we should dispose of our books and buy Kindles. I have decided to annoy her by calling our new lounge the library !!

 

No doubt like our vinyl collection books will make a come back 

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Secondhand railway book prices have been in the doldrums for years - common three or four years ago to see auction lots often containing a few good titles (of the sort instanced by 'Nearholmer' go for an average of no more than a couple of £s per volume; any sort of wholly 'album' style lot usually wouldn't sell and went into the skip.  We used to sell some surplus books on Amazon and again what shifted reflected very much the pattern described by 'Nearholmer' - anything else used to go in the Oxfam bookshop bag.

 

You might actually get something from a specialist bookseller for sought after volumes but they won't invest in stuff that stands little chance of selling and have it cluttering their shelves and using up their money.  So maybe try Amazon as a sales route and cross your fingers.

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Well if prices are ! In the doldrums can any on help me find a copy of Russell's Great Western Wagons as I lent mine out years ago and it hasn't come back.....the model club we were in folded up and I moved away!

Thank fully I have a copy of Aitkins GWR wagons bought new for £25ish so I don't need to spend £109 on that at world of books ! Cough! Cough!

Edited by Graham456
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What I have found is that both plans and books of plans still fetch decent prices, I actually bought a copy of Russels GWR coaches vol 1 without a dust cover at about a quarter of the price of one with a dust cover, for some strange reason his book on SR coaches is not as expensive

 

Try Amazon

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0902888013/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1515241274&sr=8-14

 

Or eBay

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XPictorial+Record+of+Great+Western+Wagons.TRS0&_nkw=Pictorial+Record+of+Great+Western+Wagons&_sacat=0

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The National Trust are building quite a network of secondhand book shops and would welcome donations I am sure.

 

On the High Street Oxfam seem the most organised book dealer with a network of specialist book stores.

 

If you want to realise any money from your collection then the work is to go through each title on Amazon and see what they are going for, select those worth putting on there for sale and donate the rest to charity.

 

Good luck, Simon.

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Having been a former transport book dealer, a s/h dealer will not offer you more than 50% of what he can sell it for, worse still, will offer you zero for any title that's been included in the RBC - which is quite a large list. Better off to sell privately.

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Barter Books in Alnwick seem to take railway books and give reasonable credit notes, miles away from you though! Might be worth contacting them to see if they would be interested, not sure how you would get them up here as they'll be heavy to post though.

Edited by Norm81
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