Abe Books: Sell rare and collectible books for thousands

What is Abe Books?

Abe Books is a marketplace for rare and collectible used books, where owners can connect with collectors to buy and sell manuscripts.

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How it works

If you have rare and collectible books — or collectibles and artwork — you can sign up as a seller.

However, Abe Books charges monthly membership fees of $25.

If your books sell through Abe, there’s also an 8% commission and a 5.5% credit card processing fee.

Abe Books Review:

Let’s say you inherit your grandmother’s collection of original Beatrix Potter books — or a rare comic book collection. You can make thousands of dollars selling it on Abe Books, which is the top online marketplace for rare and collectible texts.

Positives

Although the site’s selling fees are a bit stiff, they can be worth it to access the site’s marketplace of collectors. Collectors are likely to know the real value of antique and rare books, so they’re willing to pay thousands for the right manuscripts. Original tales of Peter Rabbit, for instance, are listed on the site for prices ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.

If you want to sell on Abe Books, you can sign up here.

Recommendations

But, if you have just one or two things to sell, this may not be the ideal marketplace for you because of the membership and sales fees. In cases like these, it’s best to check your neighborhood for members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association. Local booksellers will buy books for resale without charging a fee. But you may not get as high of a price when your selling to a bookstore, which is going to mark up the book and resell it.

The site can also help you sell textbooks through its affilliates TextbookRush and Ziffit. However, if you’re selling a text book also consider Bookscouter.

For generic fiction and non-fiction, Amazon or a local garage sale may be your best bets.

Want to sell books to Abe Books?

Click here!

What their users say:

Chris Volk, who operates Bookfever( http://www.bookfever.com.) did a detailed review of the site. Among the cons is the relatively high cost of selling. Specifically: Depending on the number of sales, the average dollar value of each sale, and the number of listings, AbeBooks is arguably the most expensive site to list on, because the fees are a combination of flat monthly fee, commissions and credit card processing fee (charged on both the price of the book and shipping).

Although the nominal 8% commission and 5.5% credit card processing fee is at 13.5% theoretically less than the 15% charged by Alibris and Amazon, the addition of 5.5 % on shipping, the higher flat monthly fees and the minimum fees on inexpensive books can push the total monthly bill higher. Click here to see the full review. 

Updated 3/2/2023