YOU HAVE YOUR SAY
EVERY week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some about our article on investing in books. I HAVE made a bit of money selling off my old book collection. They were mainly out-ofprint military and aviation texts. I did OK, but it’s pretty hard to find anything worth more than a few pounds in charity shops nowadays.
B. B., N. Lincs. MY WIFE used to run an online bookshop and once bought a batch of 500 books for £20. Going through them, she found a Samuel Beckett signed by the writer himself. She sold it for £ 320 but had to pay for transportation and storage.
A. R., Beds. YOU can make good money by finding first editions of modern works. Most people wouldn’t think that a first edition of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan would sell for much, but they can be priced at over £200 and the value is bound to increase.
P. R., Aruba. I LIKE browsing charity shops to buy my books and CDs, but I am not a collector or interested in them from an investment point of view. However, I have noticed some fellow shoppers check ISBN numbers on their phones to look for bargains.
J. D., Kidderminster. I HAVE a book signed by horror writer James Herbert, but he has included a personal message. Once I got home from the signing, I saw several people were already flogging their books on eBay. I won’t be selling mine, though.
M. M., Manchester. I FOUND a full set of James Bond first editions at a jumble sale in the 1990s. I only bought Thunderball for 50p because I liked the dust jacket. I went on to sell it for £250, but I’m sure the full set would have been worth thousands now.
G. D., by email. LIKE many others, I suspect I don’t have any books worth more than I originally paid for them. But a book can still be valuable as a way of escaping everyday life, even if it is worth just 20p.
J. S., Sheffield.
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