Valuation of book collection

[LaBelleSauvage123]

This is a bit of an obscure request but does anyone know the best way to get a whole book collection valued? My father was a book collector all his life and has over 2000, some of which we know are rare, collectible and valuable and some we don’t know about. I contacted an auction house who said they would come and value it, but it turned out they wanted to take some of the books away on the spot and we just want a valuation for now. Any recommendations or ideas would be much appreciated.

As it happens, I've just read the first two books by Shaun Bythell, owner of Scotland's largest second hand bookshop, which also specialises in rare/valuable books.

www.the-bookshop.com/

In the books, he talks about buying books off people like you, and I think he might also do valuations, I'm sure he mentioned it at least once. So someone to contact, especially if you're in Scotland, or very northern England as that seems to be where he travels to mostly.

I would get in touch with a specialist in second hand/rare books - either a physical shop if you have one near you or look for someone online who is close enough to come out to you. I would assume an auction house is probably not specialist enough.

Is this for insurance purposes? The value for replacement is going to be vastly different to the amount you'd get selling them to a dealer.

If you have time, you can look at each book on abebooks.co.uk, but you have to be careful to make sure that you have the right edition (use advanced search and put the publisher in) and also be aware that a lot of the prices on there will be very optimistic. But it'll give you an idea which ones are worth something.

In terms of getting someone in to value them, a book dealer will be better than an auction house - look on the PBFA website for dealers near you and contact them. They may charge for a valuation if you're not looking to sell.

My dad’s a book dealer with a shop - they are the ones with the expertise to value books. Though I should warn you he is quite brutally honest when valuing and only takes the ones he is interested in (I’ve heard him telling clients to take the rest to the tip 😬). You might be better off if your dad was actually a collector though as the quality of the books should be higher! As PP have said the PBFA will have registered bookshops.

Thank you everyone. We do want to sell them - or as many of them as we can. DFs house is on the market and when it sells, the books will need to move. My siblings and I will take some but the rest will have to go as none of us have the room, sadly. My dad knew this would happen eventually and did his own valuation, but it’s over 10 years old now. He has dementia so isn’t able to redo it.

Can you give an idea where you are? I have a contact in the NW

Somerset, sadly!

A while back someone was asking about getting a book collection valued for sale. A person who responded said they had a contact in the NW. I wonder if that person could help me, please? My 98yr old Mum has had to go into care & needs to shift her books, unfortunately. Thank you.

Bonhams have an online form.

You can take books to their offices in Edinburgh or London. We just sold a book with them at auction and the experience was good.

You will need to look at the value of individual books rather than as a collection.

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with a lovely man called George Wewiora is the company that helped me with my late husbands book collection in Manchester

@Smilerjoy good luck with it - it's a tough thing to do