[Books] Advice on selling books sought.

[fes]

I after advice about recommended ways of selling my collection of motor racing book collection.

Top of the list is a complete set of Autocourses, Motocourses and Rallycourses - every annual and monthly since they started.
I thought about Bonhams and Coys, e-bay and advertising in motoring mags like Classic Car etc.

Anybody any thoughts ?

Also how to get a valuation without paying a fortune !

Cheers

[Adam43]

Well you could register to a motorsport forum and surreptitiously mention that you have a lot of books for sale.

Welcome to 10-10ths

I think that lot will be worth £20. I'll give you £30 though to help you out.

[Rockmunky]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Well you could register to a motorsport forum and surreptitiously mention that you have a lot of books for sale.

What a good idea, i bet he hadn't thought of that!

[tator2001uk]

we put a lot of speedway books and old bike books on ebay that sold for good money.
With autocourse and opthers similar when in big sets they dont always get good money as people who may have say 10 and wish to buy another 10 wont be bidding on the full lot
list them seperatly, put a reserve unless you aint bothered what they fetch

[thebear]

Amazon.com is also useful however there may be difficulty with early titles that have no I.S.B.N. barcode. You would have to search by title and author.

There are 145 "Autocourse" volumes listed HERE on the US website. Some of them are quite expensive.

The UK Amazon should display similar results. An Amazon account is easy to set up and is secure. It is possible to sell books worldwide but make sure of the shipping charges before you list. Pretend it is being sent to Australia or Japan. Amazon's shipping allowances can be minimal and you can not recover more than they state. The listing set up page will advise you of all charges including the Amazon comission (~20%) before you actually submit the listing.

I have sold books from the US to Italy and South America but almost lost money due to the shipping. . .

[terence]

So ,any advance on thirty,do I hear thirty five,

[Aysedasi]

I've sold one or two on eBay - although nothing of enormous value.

[TimD]

I'd recommend you have a closer look at the auction-house route. H&H seems to do well with runs of the specialist annuals, although they don't always realise what they should on some of the recognised rarer definitive titles.

The trade would probably be trying to get the set of Autocourse out of your hands for less than £2500, but they've got margins, rent and wages to factor into what they offer you.

With all of these, condition is absolutely critical. Anything less than really fine will take a big hit in value, so whatever you do, don't let anyone cherry-pick the best ones, leaving you with an incomplete run. Splits in dustwrappers, glued endpapers, inscriptions from Auntie Betty wishing you a happy Christmas are all killers when it comes to book values.

As a rough reckoner, most of the dealers would be asking these sorts of prices for the individual items in the collection in very fine condition:

Autocourse Magazines 1951-56 £50-60 each - maybe more for vol.1 no.1
Autocourse Magazines 1957-58 £40-50 each - they're rare, but there's not much meat to them.
Autocourse annual 1959 £350
Autocourse biannual 1960/1 £250-325 each
Autocourse annuals 1961-66 £270-350 each
Autocourse annuals 1967-70 £180-275 each
Autocourse annuals 1971-75 £150-250 each
Autocourse annuals 1976-80 £90-150 each (more for 1978 - its scarce)
after 1981, the only really precious one is 1994 - maybe £120 for a very fine one, the rest can all be found for the £50 mark. Nothing since 1996 is worth much at all, because too many people have looked after them and the print runs were extensive.

I've seen two complete sets in my time. Their respective owners were asking £7500 and £9000 for them - I don't know if they actually got it!

Motocourse - only the first four are truly difficult to find (1976-7 can fetch £400 on its own) but the other seventies editions will be advertised in the low £200s usually.

Rallycourses won't break £100 each yet, no matter how mint! 1986-1990 seem able to command £80 if they're really fine.

There you go - a valuation without paying a fortune! I can't emphasise enough though - the prices I've stated are only for books that are mint in every way, no price clips, no tears, no inscriptions, tight binding, no warping to the boards. And those are the prices you'll pay at any of the recognised dealers. They won't buy in for anything like that, and there are enough of the books floating around that they'll probably politely decline on anything that looks anything less than fabulous.

[Aysedasi]

Hmmm. Interesting......

I suspect that you won't be accepting Adam's offer then.........

[TimD]

It's an old thread, Ayse - Adam may already have been lucky....!

[Aysedasi]

Just makes me wish I had had the foresight to buy and look after some of these things way back when...... When I think of the stuff I've either given away, or worse still - thrown away..... I can feel the tears welling up even now.........

[Rob29]

Interesting.Looks like my Autocourses are worth at least £1500! Any offers for a complete set of Louis T Stanley's 'Grand Prix World Championship' 1959-69?

[TimD]

Not offering, Rob, but if they're mint, I'd insure the set for about £600-ish.

As with the late fifties Autocourse magazines, the last few editions of Lou Stanley's annuals are the scarcer books, but are worth less than the early ones. His sales were being squeezed by Autocourse and the publishers skimped on the presentation and content.

Condition has even more of a bearing on these than on Autocourse. If one wanted a set of reading copies and you weren't worried about dustjackets, I don't think you'd have to pay more than £20 for any of the individual books - save perhaps 1967. I still haven't been able to get my hands on that one.

[JamesRamone]

you know the 1994 autocourse, well i just wondered why it was valued so much. Is it just because it was snapped up by everyone due to the events that year? Or is there another reason (fewer printed etc).

I actually have a spare MINT version of the 1994 annual.

[ensign14]

The story I heard was that in 1992 they ordered loads cos they thought Mansellmania would mean the shelves would be swept clean for Chrimbo prezzies. And it was a 2 year contract for supply. As it was everyone and his auntie came out with Mansell cash-ins and Autocourse got lost in the shuffle. And given that 1993 was a dull season with Prost being presented the title on a Damon Hill-shaped cushion the second year sold about 6 copies. I fancy there's still tens of thousands in a lock-up in Dorset or something.

So for 1994 they cut back and didn't produce so many - and didn't realize that the ghouls would descend on Senna's death...

[luke]

Autocourses don't go for much on ebay these days. Amazon is your best bet, I am yet to have a go with Amazon but they seem to sell not far off the standard price so!

[TimD]

Luke, I know what you mean about eBay prices. The thing is, books are so condition-critical for their value that most people are hesitant to bid top amounts when private sellers may "forget" the fraying to the dustwrapper or the snapped spine which you can't quite see in the pictures.

I know I come across as a bit of a book-snob sometimes, but I am aware of what the serious collectors will demand. Myself - I go for quantity of library rather than individual mint examples. My Autocourses are frayed and battered and I paid pennies for them in comparison to the mint prices, but I know that I would spoil a mint one in the number of times I take it down off the shelf. My "Racing With the David Brown Aston Martins" cost me a fraction of the £200 a decent set will cost, but it's yellow, rank and smelly having been in a heavy pipe-smoker's house until I rescued it from him by pressing a £50 note into his hand. It's never going to be worth much more than that, but that's okay, because there's too much good information in it for me ever to be disappointed.

The key thing is, if you want a reading copy of any book, it's never too difficult to find them, so don't go paying over the odds. In fact, I sometimes think that some books look better without dustjackets on them at all, but that's a very subjective opinion. Other people want them mint, just as the publisher intended, and that's where the money is, because by their very nature, mint examples will always be in the minority.

[luke]

Hmm well I was selling the CART Autocourses brand new from the '90s yet they wouldn't even go for £4!

Which annoyed me as they used to go for atleast £20... The OWRS ones stilll sell quite well just no one cares about the CART Indy Car days no matter if they are mint and a few quid!

So soon I am going to try Amazon..

[autoavia]

I have always found books hard to sell on Ebay. I think the problem is that books are (obviously) heavy so the postage costs tend to pile up and this is what deters buyers.
I did look at Amazon at one time but their commission for selling items seemed pretty steep.
You could try some of the lesser known sites such a Specialist Auctions. The downside is less punters but then they don't charge listing fees and their selling commissions are reasonable too meaning you get to hang on to more of the cash if it does sell.
Sorry I can't offer any more constructive suggestions but most of the other posts have already highlighted the pros and cons of most methods.

[Kaziz]

Hi I have an "AUTOCOURSE MARTINI RACING" book. Can anybody tell me what value it has as I have only found 1 at £115??? and it said very rare??? HELP please...

[GreenMachine]

Holy necro thread revival Batman - 16 years dead, thread opened by a newbie who never again posted, another newbie who clearly knows enough to search first, finds it and revives it!

Will this thread kill off another newbie? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!

[GreenMachine]

This revival is topical, as I am thinking about what is going to happen to my books when I kick the bucket, and wondering if/how I should pre-empt that.

Anyone from the Aussie crowd who has any tips on auction houses or websites, love to hear from you about avenues for disposing of aviation, particularly Australian aviation, and motoring/motor sport collections.

[Truckosaurus]

I think the advice above is still relevant even 15 years down the line - list on eBay or Amazon with a hefty price tag and see what gets a nibble, especially if you are in no rush to get rid of things.

Anything with a barcode can be scanned and most of the advert pre-populated.

I keep meaning to do that with some of my collection that is just gathering dust.