How to sell art books

January 27, 2019 8:14 AM

I have many many books on art that my mother collected over the years. They range from scholaraly to coffee table style books. Think of the type of books for sale in a museum gift shop. They probably date back to the 60s, in varying condition. What's the best way to get rid of them, in bulk, short of throwing them away. If I could get a little money out, even better.

I'm located just outside of Washington DC

posted by askmehow to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Best answer: These sort of books are ideal for local public library book sales and fund raising. You could ask for a donation receipt/tax write-off.
posted by carter at 8:18 AM on January 27, 2019 [5 favorites]

Ask around to find the best used, rare, antiquarian bookseller in the area. Ask them to visit and make an offer. Some of the book may be valuable, others not, and it takes experience and research to tell.
posted by theora55 at 9:24 AM on January 27, 2019 [4 favorites]

Not sure where you are "just outside of Washington DC" but the Loudoun Library Foundation is taking donations for their big annual book sale, and next weekend is one of the drop-off dates. More info.
posted by mccxxiii at 9:41 AM on January 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You can look up each one on Ebay and Powell's for pricing and sell them individually online.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2019

Best answer: You can use a phone based scanner to relatively rapidly figure out if there's anything valuable or noteworthy that it's worth trying to sell them individually.

In addition to donating ones that aren't really worth spending a lot of time on, you could also see if there's local high school or college students that might be interested in some of them.
posted by Candleman at 2:50 PM on January 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Call Riverby Books (they had a store on Capitol Hill until last year but still have a location about 50m south in downtown Fredericksburg VA). They will buy (read: pay cash up front for) books from you. They definitely sell art books exactly like those you describe. Depending on the size of your collection, they may come to you, otherwise you may need to bring them in person to get a quote. I brought them a lot of academic books not long ago and made a couple hundred, but YMMV.
posted by nightrecordings at 3:08 PM on January 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Wonder Book and Video in Maryland might like to see the collection, too.
posted by ersatzkat at 5:37 AM on January 29, 2019

You never know.... Some of these might be worth money. I would look up the prices online for sure.
posted by xammerboy at 10:24 PM on March 12, 2019