I have 9 books from the 10 set of encyclopedias. Collier, Publisher, New York 1888. The inside pages are in good condition. The bindings on the books are unglued inside and frayed on the top and bottom edges.
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It might be worth something because it is over 100 years old, but it is incomplete. Take it to a couple of dealers for free appraisals
Sets this old are usually bought by collectors and, unless it is very, very rare, they generally want books in at least fair condition and the bindings are very important. I believe the condition of your books will hinder a fast sale and you may have to go with selling individual books instead of as a set. Books may sell for $8-$15 each but all of these are very slow sellers.
How I would research to find a current market value is as follows:
Go out to eBay and search completed auctions (see the link below):
and look for an apples to apples match to find your EXACT set (same number of books, same year, same condition) and see if they sold and what the selling price was.
If you use something similar you are not going to get an exact value as sometimes there are similar items where one has a lot of value and the similar none...so if there are no sold listing for you exact set, keep checking back.
You may want to see if there is an exact match in the active auctions and set up an eBay WATCH to see when/if it sells and for how much.
If there are multiple exact items sold for different prices, I usually do an average to help me value my items I sell.
www.ebay.com/
I recommend ONLY using sold price not using current auctions and asking price, as people can ask the world, but value is only what people will pay.
At the moment there are 62 completed auctions for items with Chambers encyclopedia in the title on eBay, but if you filter to sold, there are only 10 sold and those 10 are all different looks/styles/conditions and values.
When trying to determine your selling price (value), I use the price people paid PLUS shipping (which I know a lot of people disagree with me about) because if you are selling them at a face to face venue, it is helpful to know the EXACT amount someone forked over for an item when setting your price.
So, if someone paid 100 with free shipping (you could value the item at 100). If someone paid 50 for an item and 50 for shipping, same thing (50 + 50 = 100).
The thing with VALUE is it is TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN PROFIT.
Meaning in the eBay example... if the item sold for $100 with free shipping, the seller only netted (and I am using round numbers for reference only) less than $50 because shipping something this heavy is expensive in that case is paid by the SELLER, plus the eBay and Paypal fees are paid by the seller also.
The same less than $50 value is evident when the BUYER pays shipping (the seller can't count shipping as profit because even though the buyer paid for it, the seller spends it to get it to the buyer--but it can be counted as item value if selling in a face to face venue where no shipping is involved. The seller still pays fees here also so that is a wash.
Condition is everything, so if someone is selling a pristine set and it sold for $100, a less than pristine set would go for anywhere from 15-20% less...or even more if the condition is really bad.
Hope this helps you determine value for your books! Good luck!
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