Valuation of books?

Hello there,

Please forgive me if I should post this elsewhere; I'm not sure where to ask this question. However, now that I have this lovely organized listing of ALL our books, is there anywhere that people know of where I can upload the entire Excel list for at least a rough idea of what my library COULD be worth? I know it's not the same as having each book appraised, but the point is to get an idea for insurance purposes. I had thought of sending the listing to Alibris as a 'seller', but I don't want to sell anything (yet!) Any ideas?

Thank you!

I can’t imagine how that would be possible, given that there are so many variables that factor into a book’s value.

The price of a book will depend on its condition (a single dot or a tear may drive it down a lot), edition, printing and pure market - a book that you can sell for $10 today may be worth 1 cent tomorrow if someone else offers a comparable or better copy for a cent. Most standard hardcovers and paperbacks can be found for $1 or less easily enough if you have the time to look for them (library sells, second hand stores, sales and what's not). As your library is private, I am not sure if that applies but...

So... if you are looking for insurance value, check with your insurance agent - 1,500 books is a rather small library and unless you have a lot of rare editions, it is probably not worth worrying about a separate policy. If you are looking at it as your investment for the future, you are better off playing the lottery (again - unless you have rare editions which hold their prices). If you just want a value for your own entertainment, it really depends on what is in that library but with just standard editions, $1/book may turn out to be too generous...

Probably not the answer you were looking for but books are usually not the best investment unless they have something to add to their value...

And internet prices are usually very inflated. What you see are mostly prices that people will NOT pay for the book.

If the purpose is insurance valuation, it depends on whether your policy covers replacement value (in which case they'd usually be willing to pay for new copies) or depreciated value (in which case old paperbacks are basically worthless.) For insurance purposes I just counted up hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and mass-market paperbacks and multiplied by the average current cost of each type, plus mentioning a couple particular volumes that are more valuable. Our policy was fine with that.