Used Books: A Guide to What's Valuable and What's Not

If you spend any time around a used book store, you've no doubt been a witness to this scene: someone pulls up with a trunk load of used books. Load by load, they struggle to carry them into the used book store, dropping a few along the way. Once inside, the buyer quickly shuffles through them, then makes an offer. "Not much we can use here...we can pay you $10."

"For ALL of them?" the dejected seller responds.

Knowing what's worth actual cash in used books is not too difficult, as long as you understand a few simple guidelines, and look at it from the buyer's perspective.

Before you trying selling any used books, here's are some broad guidelines:

* There are two types of books that are generally worth money - newer titles and collectible titles. Newer books are generally anything published in the last year or so. The best time to resell a hardback book is BEFORE it comes out in paperback. Used books stores have the most demand for recently published books, so they are most anxious to acquire these. The sooner you sell a new book after you read it, the more you are likely to get for it.

* Collectible titles can cover a broad range, but the most sought after are genre fiction (mystery, science fiction, etc.), first editions of popular works,
certain children's titles, art books and nonfiction categories where the information is not time-dependent. (Last year's guide to Mexico is going to be worth very little this year, because the information is all out date.)

* Categories that often have very little value include book club editions, outdated textbooks, dated guides and annuals, encyclopedias, outdated reference, etc., etc. One other category that can have very little value is mega-bestsellers. The used book market is all supply and demand, and something that sold millions of copies has a HUGE supply, so once the demand drops off, there is very little value for the used copies.