I have collected cookbooks for 30 years. What could I do to sell them besides ebay?

Question

I would like to know if I had any worth anything but I do not know where to look. I already looked at some reference books.

Answer 1

I have a nice collection of some 1930's and 40's cookbooks and I go on ebay for some that are of interest. First of all, I would like to try to convince you that Ebay is probably the best medium for you to sell your books. The short reason is coverage, coverage, coverage. If you do not like Ebay there is also Amazon and Yahoo auctions. I would emphasize that Ebay does have the foot traffic that you would need for your particular area of printed literature. There are also enthusiast groups for virtually anything. You have a computer, simply search for cookbook collector clubs and there is most always some way to sell your stash. When selling books; the condition is king. That is the better condition the book along with the perceived rarity, the better the price. Look for dogearing, staining and signs of hard use that many cookbooks that are truly worth their salt will have. I have a great book that belonged to my grandparents from Betty Crocker that has never been opened, came in its original shipping box from General Foods dated 1962. It is a lousy cookbook however and never got a bid. The usability of a cookbook will affect whether a person will want to buy that book. That is, unless there is a particular theme or brand name that gets a persons attention. I personally like books with older, non-fat conscious recipes. I also like wild game books of very old vintage. You say that you have collected these books over the last 30 years. Were the books bought by you new or were there some valuable old gems gleaned from your local garage sales? There are many differences that can be explored. All I can wish you is good luck with your selling.

Answer 2

One place people haven't mentioned is Craigslist. You don't get the huge coverage that you do on eBay, but if you are looking to sell locally Craigslist is really great. And it's hard to beat a free listing.

Another option for getting more information on what you have is to get yourself involved in an online community where other people share your interest in vintage cookbooks. You'll want to find active message boards with a reasonably large population. Once you've found your niche, you are likely to find folks who are specifically interested in what you've got on your bookshelf and could give you the sort of feedback and information you are looking for. Just for kicks I plugged in "vintage cookbooks" and forums into Google and immediately got some likely links (a sampling below).

Answer 3

You could launch a freebie website like Tripod or Geocities. If anyone googles a keyword like "antique cookbook" or one of the titles. your site would come up.

Value is a toughie. It seems to depend more on condition than anything else. It's low tech, but what if you haunt used bookstores looking for your titles and see what they are asking? Or you could try doing an internet search on each title and then compare the condition of yours to theirs.

My cookbook collection is unusual because I specifically want books that have writing on the pages, but that will lower the value. I love them though.

Answer 4

If you have a lot of them, and books like the early versions of "the Joy of cooking" and standards like that, it couldn't hurt to contact an auction house and see what they say (try Palm Springs, the market is really good there for vintage)

Personally I'd love to know what you have, since I collect cookbooks myself. There is a market for them :-)

Answer 5

I promote on eBay and Amazon and consider Amazon is larger and less complicated to make use of. I could assess them out. You too can open your possess internet website. It's truly convenient to do and no longer steeply-priced in any respect.

Answer 6

Maybe you should make every food in the books and then make a store call it something catchy then sell the food you made.

OR

sell it on ebay

Yard sale?

Hamster bedding

paper for cutting into shapes or making airplanes

Handing down to your son to give to his son then sell it on ebay

give it AWAY to a pooR famiLY

OR Just

sell it on eeeeeeeebay

Answer 7

You can check the titles at www.amazon.com and www.abesbooks.com to see what other sellers are asking for used copies of these books.

Answer 8

Go to ebay and search completed auctions for the titles you have.... that will tell you what they are going for. You will probably be pleasantly surprised.

Answer 9

get them appreised or have a yard sale

Answer 10

flea market