3 ms·

That's a far stretch to "tens of thousands of dollars." A valuable second-hand book can be $50.

by TedDoesntTalk 4y ago

kragen 4y ago
It's true, if none of the books were rare, it might have only been thousands of dollars.
- TheCoelacanth 4y ago
  It easily could have been worth tens of dollars. Random books donated to Salvation Army aren't likely to be ones that people actually want. Books by the Foot will sell you books for about $0.20 per book https://booksbythefoot.com/product/shelf-filler-bulk/ https://booksbythefoot.com/product/shelf-filler-bulk/
  - kragen 4y ago
    The article said, "there were some very old, and often valuable, books in this boxes," which is somewhat difficult to interpret but seems to be saying that many of the books were valuable in the sense of fetching a high price, unlike those sold on the rather offensive page you link.
iratewizard 4y ago
The article is about a guy who finds a friend inside of his pallet of books and you're all arguing about the theoretical value of the books.
- bobsmooth 4y ago
  Never change, HN.
  - mitchdoogle 4y ago
    Pointless arguments happen all over the Internet. Have since the beginning. It's a human thing, not an HN thing
joyfylbanana 4y ago
I quite recently bought a used book for something like $100. Certain books can be expensive, it was not a popular or particularly good book, but the writer was a character and I guess therefore his written books are valuable niche items... Also no more will be printed, so there is limited supply. Similar for some old music sheets or records. However these are definitely not liquid, if you are going to sell them you maybe have to store them for a long time.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  ...and there are good condition, first-edition old books that sell for thousands. How does that relate to this thread?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
samstave 4y ago
I had a first edition "Understand? Good. Play!" (A book of translations of quotes from Hatsumi Masaaki, GM of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu... At one point it was hard to get and were selling for $700 - they are now $50. Had a friend find a bunch of $100 bills in a used book in Salvation Army in SF...
Amezarak 4y ago
A lot of older books that are now out of print often run many hundreds of dollars, if not more. For example, I've been trying to find a complete unabridged edition of Fraser's Golden Bough, which isn't that niche - you'll find it cited somewhere in any work on mythology- and it seems to run in the high-hundreds to low thousands. A quick look shows a first edition selling for 12k all by itself. Similarly, I'm looking for the complete Collected Works of Carl Jung, and that's got a hefty price too. Maybe one day. :) I'm sure both of these examples are sitting in some old man's study and are getting sold for nothing at estate sales, if they aren't just thrown in a dumpster or pulped after being donated to a library that can't get rid of them either. But nobody is indexing estate sales.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  > Collected Works of Carl Jung Out of curiosity, why this specific publication? Can’t you get everything in that collection from other publications (perhaps not in one volume)?
- shakethemonkey 4y ago
  But a pallet of old academic books is unlikely to be composed of such books. It is probable that most of the books are worth less than the cost of shipping, and some of the books will have some value but not tremendous value. It is astonishing the number of wonderful, high quality books that can be bought on Abebooks for $1.
  - jacobolus 4y ago
    Did you look at the picture? https://i.imgur.com/0qiTKSQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0qiTKSQ.jpg Books I commonly buy secondhand that look roughly like those pictured are anywhere from $10–$200 each (depending on how common the particular book/edition is); we’re talking about pretty ordinary old academic books, nothing fancy or extremely rare. A pallet of books is ~500–1000 books (there are maybe 400 in the picture, but the blog author claims that is a "sampling").
    - TheCoelacanth 4y ago
wowokay 4y ago
Idk with the amount of books referenced and the definitive fact the some of them were resold at least indicates a good chance of making thousands of dollars, otherwise It’s logical to assume if the effort has not been worth it the author would have commented as such.
ticviking 4y ago
I have a book printed less than 5 years ago that routinely sells for $800 online now. The niche religious press that published it simply cannot keep all of the authors work in print and his more academic work gets printed maybe once a decade in a run of 1000.

That's a far stretch to "tens of thousands of dollars." A valuable second-hand book can be $50.

kragen 4y ago

It's true, if none of the books were rare, it might have only been thousands of dollars.

TheCoelacanth 4y ago
It easily could have been worth tens of dollars. Random books donated to Salvation Army aren't likely to be ones that people actually want. Books by the Foot will sell you books for about $0.20 per book https://booksbythefoot.com/product/shelf-filler-bulk/ https://booksbythefoot.com/product/shelf-filler-bulk/
- kragen 4y ago
  The article said, "there were some very old, and often valuable, books in this boxes," which is somewhat difficult to interpret but seems to be saying that many of the books were valuable in the sense of fetching a high price, unlike those sold on the rather offensive page you link.

iratewizard 4y ago

The article is about a guy who finds a friend inside of his pallet of books and you're all arguing about the theoretical value of the books.

bobsmooth 4y ago
Never change, HN.
- mitchdoogle 4y ago
  Pointless arguments happen all over the Internet. Have since the beginning. It's a human thing, not an HN thing

joyfylbanana 4y ago

I quite recently bought a used book for something like $100. Certain books can be expensive, it was not a popular or particularly good book, but the writer was a character and I guess therefore his written books are valuable niche items... Also no more will be printed, so there is limited supply. Similar for some old music sheets or records. However these are definitely not liquid, if you are going to sell them you maybe have to store them for a long time.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
...and there are good condition, first-edition old books that sell for thousands. How does that relate to this thread?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

samstave 4y ago

I had a first edition "Understand? Good. Play!" (A book of translations of quotes from Hatsumi Masaaki, GM of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu... At one point it was hard to get and were selling for $700 - they are now $50. Had a friend find a bunch of $100 bills in a used book in Salvation Army in SF...

Amezarak 4y ago

A lot of older books that are now out of print often run many hundreds of dollars, if not more. For example, I've been trying to find a complete unabridged edition of Fraser's Golden Bough, which isn't that niche - you'll find it cited somewhere in any work on mythology- and it seems to run in the high-hundreds to low thousands. A quick look shows a first edition selling for 12k all by itself. Similarly, I'm looking for the complete Collected Works of Carl Jung, and that's got a hefty price too. Maybe one day. :) I'm sure both of these examples are sitting in some old man's study and are getting sold for nothing at estate sales, if they aren't just thrown in a dumpster or pulped after being donated to a library that can't get rid of them either. But nobody is indexing estate sales.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
> Collected Works of Carl Jung Out of curiosity, why this specific publication? Can’t you get everything in that collection from other publications (perhaps not in one volume)?
shakethemonkey 4y ago
But a pallet of old academic books is unlikely to be composed of such books. It is probable that most of the books are worth less than the cost of shipping, and some of the books will have some value but not tremendous value. It is astonishing the number of wonderful, high quality books that can be bought on Abebooks for $1.
- jacobolus 4y ago
  Did you look at the picture? https://i.imgur.com/0qiTKSQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0qiTKSQ.jpg Books I commonly buy secondhand that look roughly like those pictured are anywhere from $10–$200 each (depending on how common the particular book/edition is); we’re talking about pretty ordinary old academic books, nothing fancy or extremely rare. A pallet of books is ~500–1000 books (there are maybe 400 in the picture, but the blog author claims that is a "sampling").
  - TheCoelacanth 4y ago

wowokay 4y ago

Idk with the amount of books referenced and the definitive fact the some of them were resold at least indicates a good chance of making thousands of dollars, otherwise It’s logical to assume if the effort has not been worth it the author would have commented as such.

ticviking 4y ago

I have a book printed less than 5 years ago that routinely sells for $800 online now. The niche religious press that published it simply cannot keep all of the authors work in print and his more academic work gets printed maybe once a decade in a run of 1000.