I have a full set, of Collier's Encyclopedias, in mint condition, printed in 1959. Though I realize these are incredibly outdated, is there any value in keeping/attempting to sell these?
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They wont have any valid until they are 100 years old, and considered antique. Donate and take the tax deduction.
Someone on Amazon is ASKING $125 www.amazon.com/
You?tag=thrif06-20 may want to watch this to see if it sells. A sold price would give you today's current market value. Asking prices are NOT value--they are just what the seller wants to get for an item. Sold prices = value in today's market.
I can tell you that where I am in Pittsburgh, very few places will take these as a donation, or at least that was the case a few years ago when I inquired.
At one point, one of the artist centers/colonies was taking them for their artists who work in paper and or assemblage art. I haven't looked in a while to see if that is still the case.
I find it so sad that I have seen many a set of these being tossed into the city recycling bin for hardback books. It is better than the dumpster, but still sad.
You can see if you have an artist group (terms to Google are your town or city and the phrase "paper artists" or "collage artists" or "junk journal artists" or "smash journal artist" or "assemblage artist") and see if there are organizations or Facebook groups that you could reach out to to sell or donate. One of the coolest things I ever saw an artist make from a set of these was a lamp. It was really lovely and functional. I was so impressed. They wanted a lot for it too!! Now I can't remember if I saw it sell or not. It was a while back.
Post back what you decide.
Blessings!
Love the idea of donating to a local artists group! Thank you for the idea.
I hope one with take them. Junk journals are very popular now! They have great art in those old books!
Encyclopedias are not in the younger crowd's list of wanted or needed items anymore so parents and grandparents are trying to dump their sets just to clean out the house.
Collectors are usually only interested in top condition rare editions and there are still plenty of those available and usually at low prices.
1959 is not one of the rare editions so it may take a long time to sell even at a low price. Shipping is also expensive (even with Media mail) and the books are heavy and are easily damaged during shipment. This is the reason you may see listings with "local pick up only".
ThriftyFun receives a lot of questions about all brands of encyclopedias so read the answers on this link:
www.thriftyfun.com/
eBay is the best place to search for prices (only sold prices will give you current value) and also is a good place to research to find how other sellers are listing their books.
Here is a link to eBay's current listings. You may not find an exact match but you can place a watch on any set to see if it sells.
www.ebay.com/
You can also occasionally check the recently sold listings for any set like yours.
www.ebay.com/
www.ebay.com/
Craigslist is a good place to list a set as you can start your price at anything and lower it if no one shows an interest.
You will need several good pictures and a good description no matter where you try to sell.
I know that most people are saying these sets are worthless but that is not always the case.
Sets are being sold on eBay, Etsy, Craigslist and Amazon but not at a fast pace.
It is true that most thrift stores and book sales do not want encyclopedias but the reason being they are slow sellers and take up room needed for other stuff. But online sales are a different commodity and have a lot more traffic than a local thrift store.
If I had one of these sets and a convenient place to store it, I would definitely do research and list it for sale on several selling sites that have local pick up. If the price is in line with other sales of the same year then it may be worth waiting a few months to see if it would sell.
Not everyone is in a hurry to dump a set of nice books like this and just may make some money listing them.
Dump them or list them for sale?
Your choice but do your research first.
ENCYCLOPEDIA'S HAVE NO VALUE.IF THEY WERE OVER 100 YEARS OLD,THEY MIGHT BE WORTH SOMETHING.THERE IS TOO MUCH TECHNOLOGY PLACED IN A PHONE THAT WEIGHS VIRTUALLY NOTHING.
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