Selling a Book Collection: How a Book Dealer Can Help

One of the things I would like Ink & Signature Books to do more of over time, is work directly with people who have books they wish to sell, whether it is a single volume, a small group of books built around a particular interest, or a much larger set built up over time.

From experience and speaking to friends, family and acquaintances, home libraries build up over time, through deliberate one-off purchases, as part of a collection, or handed down through family. What I have also heard is that regardless of how the collection was built, at certain stages and for a variety of reasons, people decide they want to sell them. Depending on how the collection came to be built, deciding to sell those books can be surprisingly difficult, particularly when they have some history attached to them (I have experienced this myself, moving from being a collector to a seller). At this stage the question is rarely just what they are worth. It is also what should happen to them next, which ones might matter, whether anything is being overlooked, and whether there is a better option than simply putting everything into boxes and hoping for the best.

My First Experience Selling Books for Someone Else

One of my first experiences doing this came through a close friend who had a number of books they no longer wanted to keep. Rather than me buying them outright, we agreed that I would sell them on their behalf, which gave me an early look at a different side of bookselling.

The process was not especially glamorous, but it was interesting. Each book had to be identified properly, the edition checked, the condition assessed, photographs taken, comparable copies researched and a realistic price worked out. From there came the listing, responding to questions, dealing with offers, packing, postage and eventually working out the proceeds after fees and other costs.

What struck me most was that the job was far more than simply putting someone else's books online. I had to work out how best to represent them beyond price alone. This included whether the books should be sold individually or as a set, what was the best channel and how I could advertise the books via social media, which were likely to sell quickly, which might take time, and which probably were not worth the effort involved in selling individually. The distinction I have learned, just like buying and selling books from auctions or other dealers, is that not every book that is collected, bought and sold, needs to be a valuable, old and rare first edition. In many instances it is about providing depth of offering and providing people that love books, a place to find what they are looking for.

Selling Outright or Selling on Commission

There are broadly two ways dealers might work with somebody looking to sell books.

The first is to buy the books outright. This is the simplest option for Ink & Signature Books because there is a clear price, the books change hands, and the transaction is finished. From my side, however, this does mean taking on all of the risk that follows, including the possibility that a book takes months or years to sell, that the market price changes, that the condition turns out to matter more than expected, or that fees, postage and other costs reduce the eventual return. The costs and risks associated with reselling a book is why the price I offer is generally below the retail prices people see online. An asking price on a website is not the same thing as the amount I can pay for a book and still run a viable business.

The second option is commission, or consignment, where you as the book owner retains an interest in the eventual sale, but I handle the work of researching, cataloguing, marketing and selling the book. This can make sense for some higher-value or specialist books, particularly where there is no immediate need for a quick sale, although it also means waiting until a buyer is found.

Neither approach is automatically better. It depends on the book, your priorities as the seller, and whether the material is a good fit for us at Ink & Signature Books.

What I Am Looking For

As Ink & Signature Books develops, I am becoming clearer about the kinds of books I am most interested in acquiring.

That includes rare and antiquarian books, first editions, signed and inscribed copies, books with notable provenance, illustrated books, and material relating to political thought, economics, philosophy, science, natural history and the broader history of ideas. I am still also interested in selected modern literature, children's books and other books that stand out because of their edition, condition, association or story.

A key point is that I am not looking only for obviously expensive and rare books. A collection can be interesting because it has depth, because somebody has spent years buying around a particular subject, or because there are a few unusual books within a much larger group that deserve closer attention. Some great examples I have seen of this is where a collector has carefully curated not just the first edition of a book, but later printings, different jackets, deluxe editions all of the same book. Alternatively, I have seen a collection made up of every UK first edition, first impression, by a single author. Each collection has its own interesting value to the collector and possibly to others.

What About Larger Collections or Inherited Books?

This is an area I would like to do more work in over time but haven’t yet had an opportunity to explore. People sometimes find themselves responsible for books they did not personally collect, particularly after a move, downsizing, or the death of a family member, and it can be difficult to know where to begin. The temptation is either to assume everything must be valuable because it is old, or to assume nothing is valuable because most of the books look ordinary. Usually the answer sits somewhere in between.

If you have a larger collection, an inherited library, or a group of books they think may be relevant to Ink & Signature Books, the easiest place to start is by contacting me via our website. I am happy to get in touch and walk you through the process and to help assess whether the collection or a single book is something that fits with Ink & Signature Books.

If you are based in Sydney, then it is even easier. I would be happy to arrange an inspection where that is practical.

Why Use a Dealer at All?

It is entirely possible to sell books yourself, and in some cases that may produce a higher price, particularly if you have the time to research each book properly and are comfortable dealing with online marketplaces. The trade-off is the work involved, and ensuring you correctly identify the edition, condition etc. Then there is the added work of writing accurate descriptions, taking photographs, answering questions, handling payments, dealing with postage and returns, and waiting for the right buyer can take considerably more time than people expect. Rare books can take a long time to sell. One thing I have become accustomed to is that depending upon the price I am willing to accept; it can take anywhere between months and years to sell a book.

When I purchase a book, I am not simply buying the book, I am also taking on the work and in many cases the uncertainty of how long it will take to sell.

For me, that is also where the interesting part begins, because a book moving from one shelf to another is rarely just a transaction. Sometimes it means identifying something that had been overlooked, sometimes it means finding the right collector for a book somebody else is ready to let go, and sometimes it simply means making the process easier for somebody who does not want to become a bookseller themselves.

I would like this to become a larger part of Ink & Signature Books over time.