selling railroad books - help!

[espeenut]

Hi gang, my best friend and faithful railfan companion passed away late last year after battling Parkinson's disease for several years. He was an ardent collector of railroad books, MBI publishing, Morning Sun publishers, books by Ted Benson, Steinheimer, Brian Solomon, etc. Lots of titles about almost every road in North America. His wife has asked me what the best way is to sell them, she doesn't know what they're worth and isn't wanting anything close to what they might be worth. There hasn't been any local train shows in these parts, Vancouver Island and British Columbia, due to covid so that won't work until things start to return to some semblance of normal.
Are there any suggestions as to where I can even start to help her?

Thanks guys, cheers,

Lorne

[lvrr325]

eBay will at least show you what they're worth. Some of the older out of print books command a premium. Others, you might get $10 or $20 for.

And the generic books that just cover trains in general usually have almost no value. Some of the Don Ball and other color books have picked up in value I think. But the ones that somebody who doesn't know trains bought at the mall to give as a gift usually you about have to pay someone to take.

And to get the value for them eBay might be your best option, or someone with an Amazon account. In the US you can ship with Media rate which helps, but I don't know what being in Canada will do to that. Even selling them in bulk is tough because they're heavy so it almost has to be to someone who can pick them up, or that you can deliver to.

[canrailfan]

Hi Lorne,

Take a look at AbeBooks/Ziffit buyback program (AbeBooks Buyback). You could try it with a couple of books to see how it works. They apparently offer free FedEx pick-up service.

AbeBooks was founded and has their headquarters in Victoria although they're now owned by Amazon.

Hope this helps.

[12bridge]

There are some railroad books that hold value (Morning Sun, and other rare books). But the vast majority unfortunately do not, especially the mass produced books of the 80's and 90's. I was at a train show about 3 years ago, and a seller was selling off Emery Gulash's book collection, simply at 20$ for hardcovers, and 10$ for soft covers, unless it was something very rare or oddball. If you sell on ebay, amazon or anywhere else, your gonna get hammered in fees, and you have to deal with shipping it.

Best bet is to hit a train show to clean out the majority of them.

[espeenut]

I just edited my post, I had Sun Rise publications written and it is supposed to say Morning Sun... He had well over 50 books from them.

[lars]

eBay is going to get you for around 13%. Not ideal but not terrible either. eBay is still one of the best places to get top dollar for more obscure items because there is so much traffic on the site. The only thing I would recommend is to be extremely thorough. Find every little blemish and document it. Book buyers can be extremely picky and will want their money back for real minor stuff. At least if you’re up front about if you have something to stand on if they try to force a return or refund.

[lvrr325]

actually eBay in book categories charges 14.55%. Not sure why.

Morning Sun are hit or miss on value. I've picked up some cheap at shows and looked on eBay and ended up keeping them.