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Posted: 1/26/2021 12:21:19 AM EDT
I've spent a surprising amount of money on various gun and/or military books and have amassed quite a few. The wife hates it.
 I have them stuffed everywhere. Many are out of print and prices are quite high now. Everyone always thinks about valuing their guns, coins, art, etc.... I guess I should make a list of books that my family shouldn't just take to goodwill or Half Price Books if I kick off early. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 12:26:12 AM EDT
[#1]
As someone who has inherited several hundred books with some dating back into the 1800’s and done quite a bit of research, I can say that books really aren’t worth anything.
I have a few books that were selling for $500 or more a few years ago. Now? $50 if I’m lucky. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 1:27:24 AM EDT
[#2]
I gave away a very fine autographed copy of Steven Weinberg’s Dreams of a Final Theory. He is a Nobel laureate in physics. I have other autographed books, several by established Civil War authors.
I have several rare books 70-80 years old. Most of my collection are high quality books, but would bring 1.50 to 2.00 dollars each, if that. Buy back prices suck. You can check prices at this site: https://bookscouter.com/ |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 1:43:06 AM EDT
[#3]
Books are like baseball/football cards.
99.9% don’t hold there value. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 1:51:46 AM EDT
[#4]
I have the Harry Potter series, Hatchet & Brian's Winter
I'll take no less than $1k/book. No low ballers...I know what I got |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 1:57:05 AM EDT
[#5]
I have about 70 books that are worth about $75
I have 5 books that are priceless. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:00:49 AM EDT
[#6]
Have about 50 books, most valuable is an anatomy book...about $1200.
Have 2 copies of Spectropia first edition. Rare spectral evidence book from 1864. They're about $900-$1k. Have others worth $200-$400. Then other $20-$60 |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:01:00 AM EDT
[#7]
My kids will get mine, and they want them. And that's the best outcome I could hope for.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:03:24 AM EDT
[#8]
I have the complete collection of the TV Guide... they're worth, like... a lot of money...
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:13:15 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: As someone who has inherited several hundred books with some dating back into the 1800's and done quite a bit of research, I can say that books really aren't worth anything. I have a few books that were selling for $500 or more a few years ago. Now? $50 if I'm lucky. I was coming in to say roughly the same thing -dozens (hundreds?) of old, influential, rare, and interesting books inherited by my wife that "should go somewhere". Spent many days moving and researching. Not worth the price of shipping them anywhere. I would do it again, but wouldn't have high expectations. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:22:28 AM EDT
[#10]
I've got a shit ton of books, a lot I spent good money on. No clue what they're worth. All kinds of topics, many obscure, many common.
The Karem/Steves Karabiner 98k 4 volume set alone is worth far more than I paid. One book of the set, out of print, is selling for $300 plus, versus the $100 purchase. When my mom died, me and my brother took her collection of steamy Danielle Steele romance-type books to Half Price Books. They gave us like $60 for a truck bed full of books. Wasn't worth the effort. I won't sell anything, someone else will have to do that. If someone with deep pockets examined my collection, I'd take 5k, and renew my library cards. Love books. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:24:15 AM EDT
[#11]
I have 3 full size and one half size book case full of my firearms and military history books. I know there are a few that may be worth a few hundred each but most are worth about what I pay for used books from eBay the last few years which is probably not very much. But to me, the information and reference library I have built to support and research my historical military firearms and militaria hobbies, they are priceless. I have frequently, in fact twice in the last few days, referred to information I have gathered to answer questions on other forums and for my own information. Some of the "books" I made and are actually printed pages in a loose leaf folder form for certain subjects. I could never replace my library today without many thousands of dollars.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:44:48 AM EDT
[#12]
I have a ton of sci-fi paperbacks, but I doubt they are worth much. My comic books are worth more than my books.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:51:36 AM EDT
[#13]
Only books that have value usually tend to be 1st edition releases.
Most are all mass produced so anything this century forget about it. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:54:33 AM EDT
[#14]
I probably have some of my college texts. They must be worth something since I paid $200-300 for most of them.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:56:02 AM EDT
[#15]
I've done pretty well on this one...
 They seem to be selling in the $600 to $800 range these days. Think I paid around $70. 
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Posted: 1/26/2021 2:58:49 AM EDT
[#16]
My undergrad collection is a 100lb ball and chain of intense personal value and professional reference.
My graduate collection is a library of professional reference and looks hella cool on a bookshelf making it invaluable. My personal collection is now "Small Arms of the World" to read in the crapper in the few free minutes of my day. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:07:49 AM EDT
[#17]
My wife and I both have extensive book collections. We can’t put a $$ amount on them. She has many first editions as do I and books handed down from relatives. When the time comes we will donate some of our collections to museums and other preservation groups.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:10:58 AM EDT
[#18]
I purchased quite a few of the Collectors Grade Publications books, as well as every edition of Robert Balls Mauser books as well.... I was shocked to see what they are selling for now.....I'll die with them however....
Possibly the most valuable book I own is one I never thought about till I saw one pop up on Antiques Roadshow..... 1st printing, 1st edition of "Where the wild things are" , signed by the author....Maurice Sendak .......with the jacket.... turns out it's worth between 7-10 thousand dollars. I'd post a pic, but my wife has it hidden away somewhere so I won't sell it and buy "more gun shit"..... |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:20:54 AM EDT
[#19]
Just the comic books. Yes they are worth more than the $.10-$.25 I paid for them.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:32:17 AM EDT
[#20]
What are these "books" of which you speak?
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:47:51 AM EDT
[#21]
I have quite a number of out of print books that are hard to find.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 3:51:50 AM EDT
[#22]
Books, like everything else, are worth whatever someone will pay for them. In most cases it isn't much.
Sold prices are what people are willing to pay, not asking prices. For example, Quote HistoryQuoted: I've done pretty well on this one... https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1524/1342/products/MB2026_1.jpg?v=1571453835 They seem to be selling in the $600 to $800 range these days. Think I paid around $70. 2 sold in the last month (ebay and gb auction) for around $300. Still valuable, but a far cry from the $600-800 everyone on amazon and other sites are asking and think it's worth. Another example is Janzen's book on bayonets. Talk to any bayonet collector and they'll tell you it's a valuable out of print book worth $200. Look on ebay and asking prices are usually around $75, and sold prices are mostly under $50. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 4:20:14 AM EDT
[#23]
99% of my written works are PDF.
I hate real books because you can't CTRL+F to search, they occupy much physical space, and are easily damaged. If I had good/rare books I'd want them all scanned to PDF. Then I'd probably sell them. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 4:30:45 AM EDT
[#24]
I have a copy of Dennis the Menace #1 that's worth a few hundred bucks.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 4:31:12 AM EDT
[#25]
I had a ton of books before I got sick and had move etc...Fiance way back owned a bookstore didn't help, she later became a librarian at a major university. Lot of technical stuff I've hoarded over 50 years.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 4:41:52 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: As someone who has inherited several hundred books with some dating back into the 1800’s and done quite a bit of research, I can say that books really aren’t worth anything. Looking at my collection, the value is more intrinsic, especially for when we all get deplatformed and lose access to instant, internet knowledge  I've done a fair amount of buschraft, wilderness/urban survival, and primitive living as a hobby, so plenty of books there. Add in all the how-to books for gardening, plumbing, electric, basic carpentry, farming, meat processing/curing, medical, dental, reloading, the whole Foxfire series, etc., etc. and it's a pretty valuable library. Oh, and my tons of old military manuals (some back to the Cold War era tactics...and dozens and dozens of military history books. My wife, on the other hand has taught middle school ELA for the past decade or so and has amassed a ton of literature books...their value is more in weight training when having to move them around ROCK6 |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 6:39:51 AM EDT
[#27]
Before we moved from Montana I sold almost all of my books.I had literally hundreds;some collectable stuff too (nearly complete set of Gun Digest,including rare first edition and a rare encyclopedia set history of WWI)I had many nature books,history,military and reloading,shooting,etc.
I just happened to hit a weekend for a gun show in Billings and rented 4 or 5 tables and loaded them with used books.I did pretty well......sold 80% and had about $2000. hated to sell but really had no choice............. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 7:18:28 AM EDT
[#28]
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Posted: 1/26/2021 7:21:14 AM EDT
[#29]
I have thousands of dollars in college text books I'm sure I could sell for closer to $20 now.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 7:44:11 AM EDT
[#30]
Have collected first edition and autographed/inscribed outdoor/fishing/hunting books for more than fifty years.
Robert Ruark, Gene Hill, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Pat McManus, Nash Buckingham, Gordon McQuarrie, Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, George Bird Evans, Harry Middleton, Nick Lyons, Norman Maclean, Corey Ford, Jim Carmichel, etc. They are touchstones of sanity in an insane world. I knew many of the authors and their work brings me great pleasure. Priceless. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:13:05 AM EDT
[#31]
lots of money in old books?
sure, just like beanie babies. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:16:52 AM EDT
[#32]
Autographed copy of Mark Baker's Sons of the Trackless Forest bought at retail from Mark. Now you can't get it w/out paying hundreds.
Professional Gunsmithing by James Howe (authographed bookplate) Kill Or Get Killed autographed by Col. Rex Applegate. Saw him at a anti-terr conference and bought the book and asked him to autograph it there. Roar of the Tiger autographed by Col. James Howard Joe Foss: American and autographed by Gen. Foss. Got his autographed photo too when he was pres of the NRA. Civil War Guns by William B. Edwards. He autographed it to me. Civil War Firearms by Joe Bilby - autographed to me. Marine Sniper hardback autographed to me by Carlos Hathcock Out of Nowhere bookplate autographed by Martin Pegler & many other Pegler books The First and the Last autographed by Galland and many many more |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:35:28 AM EDT
[#33]
I have an old geography book. School textbook I think. Published in the late 20s early 30s. It has a lot of "What are America's interests in this area of the world" in it. Definite, pre-commie, points of view.
The part about Asia particularly wrote of Japan's rise. Hints of war to straighten shit out over there. Chillingly prescient. Fascinating. In about ~20 years after the book was printed, herculean effort to build ships that didn't yet exist would form the mightiest naval fleet the world will ever see. Many hundreds-of-thousands of men would be afloat in these fleets at a time. Some of the men on those ships might have read the textbook I have. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:48:15 AM EDT
[#34]
Quoted: I've spent a surprising amount of money on various gun and/or military books and have amassed quite a few . . . Many are out of print and prices are quite high now. Everyone always thinks about valuing their guns, coins, art, etc.... . . . I've been to too many estate auctions to believe books are worth anything. If you can sell them yourself, one at a time, on ebay you might have a chance of recouping some money. You'll need to find the next generation of YOU to buy them. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:54:26 AM EDT
[#35]
One of our local charitable thrift stores will no longer take books as donations.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:59:39 AM EDT
[#36]
I own every D&D book from the first edition to 3.5.
They have gone up in value since the 80s when I first started buying them in middle school. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:00:09 AM EDT
[#37]
Probably worth much more than the $5 I paid for it. I have a few I suspect are worth a bit.
 Attached File |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:00:22 AM EDT
[#38]
I have many 1st Edition, 1st Print hardbound classics ....... Catcher in the Rye, Atlas Shrugged, All Quiet on the Western Front just to name a few. Fortunately I bought most of them before prices went loony tunes.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:01:39 AM EDT
[#39]
I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:01:49 AM EDT
[#40]
$87
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:29:39 AM EDT
[#41]
It's POSSIBLE that someday books will be highly collectible. Once websites and PDFs and instant brain dumps have made the printed page obsolete and a few generations who never held a book in their hand have passed, then MAYBE books will be precious. It's not likely, though, and we'll be long dead before it happens.
Better stock up now. You never know. Someday . . . |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:33:53 AM EDT
[#42]
-$500 on the open market. Generally books are worthless, and I don’t own anything collectible. Of course they are (or were) valuable to me, which is why I bought them.
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Posted: 1/26/2021 9:43:38 AM EDT
[#43]
Virtually my entire living room and dining room consist of bookcases. I have books going back to the 1930s that I inherited from my father. My own books go back to the early '60s. I have more books on the Soviet Union, Japan, China, WWI and WWII than most book stores in the Cleveland area.
I just had to move due to a fire next door that made my old place uninhabitable. It took me a good six months just to get enough book cases to unpack all of my books. At one time, I'd bought all of the book cases in the right finish for about three suburbs in any direction. For the first time in forty plus years, all of my books are on shelves and organized by subject. Before I got back into the old apartment after the fire, I tried to imagine what the books would be worth if lost. Some of the out of print Collector Grade books are going for hundreds of dollars on Amazon. Some of my books might cost thousands to replace. Fortunately, while the fire was hot enough to break my living room windows and melt my vertical blinds, nothing else was damaged. If I'd been one unit closer to the street, I'd have lost everything, and might have been killed. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 11:46:19 AM EDT
[#44]
There's one book I don't have.
Back ... then, I read an intriguing review in something like Publisher's Weekly, or Bookman's Review, and ordered a copy of an unknown book from the Naval Institute Press. Fast-forward years, and the book never came back from the downstairs neighbor I had lent it to. She couldn't find it. The Hunt for Red October, first edition first printing. Motherfucker. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 11:54:33 AM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: 99% of my written works are PDF. I hate real books because you can't CTRL+F to search, they occupy much physical space, and are easily damaged. If I had good/rare books I'd want them all scanned to PDF. Then I'd probably sell them. Its one of the reasons book values have dropped for the most part. So much is getting scanned and put online. I have some collectible Armour books from various museums that have held or increased value but for the most part book value is down. Same with comic books, baseball cards and stamps. Once they are on line why pay to own them? |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:25:42 PM EDT
[#46]
People had better wise up and not expect things that Marxists don't like to be available on the internet. People here above all should know that.
They can take this site down. They can't pull the plug on my copies of Small Arms of the World or the SF Programmed Text on Improvised Demolitions and Explosives. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:28:36 PM EDT
[#47]
No I haven't.
But I'll bet I can replace my entire book collection for less than a trip to the grocery store...
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:32:21 PM EDT
[#48]
No. I have an extensive collection of Louis l'amour books including some 1940's pulp westerns where he wrote under a pseudonym.
My personal favorite book is a Zane Grey "Riders of the Purple Sage" 1st edition from 1912. |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:35:17 PM EDT
[#49]
I haven't taken the time to value my collection, but I have almost everything entered into my Libib account. It has saved me from duplicating books a few times now.
Yes that was a problem before! |
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Posted: 1/26/2021 8:37:34 PM EDT
[#50]
I figure my collection's worth at least a buck o' five.
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