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Field notes
What we learn from the books that pass through our hands: how to value them, how to spot the fakes, and what to do with the ones you have.
Settling a Michigan estate with a library? When you need a book valuation, fair market value versus insurance value, what the estate inventory asks for, donations over $5,000, and how to avoid giving valuable books away.
A case study in spotting facsimile reprints: why a ‘signed 1909’ copy of A. E. Waite’s The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal is really the 1975 Yogi Publication Society edition, and the checks that prove it.
Clearing a house, downsizing or settling an estate with hundreds of books? What to check first, what not to throw away, and how a free book pickup around Ann Arbor works.
Age isn’t what makes a book valuable. Edition, condition, demand, signatures, scarcity and completeness are. Here is how booksellers judge value, and how to check prices yourself.
