What is this rare archeology book worth?

November 5, 2005 7:20 AM

I recently came into possession of a book called Archeology of the Florida Gulf Coast by Gordon R. Willey with a copyright of 1949. I would like to know what it's worth. It is in good condition - not great, but good. Googling allowed me to find a reprint edition from 1973 priced at $85.00, but I can't find the value of an original 1949 copy.

If I'm not mistaken, this book is pretty rare and, obviously, very specialized. It is a large book of approx. 700 pages and has many great illustrations of pottery patterns, about 60 pages of photographs of pottery and a bunch of big maps of archeological sites that fold out of the book. It is a very cool book.

posted by wsg to science & nature (6 comments total)

At abebooks this is advertised at prices from $30 to $165. If you were selling to a bookstore, you'd do well to get half as much. In short, it's probably worth tens rather than hundreds of dollars.
posted by misteraitch at 7:31 AM on November 5, 2005

Willey is relatively famous by archaeological standards, but this book isn't particularly exceptional as far as monographs are concerned. You may be able to get in the range that misteraitch suggested, and I would say try to sell it directly to an interested party. I checked out the AAA and SAA websites, but neither has a bulletin board where you could post it for sale. My suggestion is to contact anthro departments at universities in your area and ask them to circulate your info and see if anyone bites. A quick google search turned up these results of places to start looking. You'll find people that are a lot more interested in it than your standard used book seller.
posted by The Michael The at 9:22 AM on November 5, 2005

books very rarely are worth big bucks.
posted by edgeways at 12:19 PM on November 5, 2005

Naturally, there are exceptions.
posted by spock at 2:49 PM on November 5, 2005

In addition to abebooks (which is excellent), bookfinder.com, is also a good place to "price" a book you have. It includes results from abebooks as well as other online book vendors of new, used and rare books.

Usually, though, as misteraitch says, you'll get less than what you see on, say, bookfinder, since you'll likely be selling it to a book vendor. If you have many used books, you might consider getting your own vendor's account on abebooks or alibris. Of course, you could try to sell your book on ebay or half.com as well.
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 2:51 PM on November 5, 2005

Somewhat relevant.

It is a very cool book.

Seems to me you've already determined its value, then. :)
posted by mediareport at 9:28 PM on November 5, 2005