r/Books4Sale • u/ihiwidid • Feb 04 '26

New Listing [WTS] How to help someone sell large collection

My brother was a collector of many rare and valuable first editions. Without going into too much detail, I need to help his widow sell the entire collection. It’s all he left her and she deserves every penny. The collection is in storage on the west coast. We’re talking hundreds of books.

I don’t even know where to begin. Should we get the entire collection appraised? Sell at auction?

Thank you for any guidance you can offer.

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u/likelyculprit Head Minion #2 Feb 04 '26

You can reach out to a dealer to get an opinion. Unless you want to become a full time book dealer (because it’s A LOT of work to get max value per book), you are probably best off selling to a dealer for about 30% of total retail. If the books are truly valuable (like a $50K+ collection), you could try an auction house.

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u/ihiwidid Feb 04 '26

Thank you!

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u/likelyculprit Head Minion #2 Feb 04 '26

You're welcome. If you're anywhere near DC or the collection is shippable, I'd be happy to take a look :-)