To correctly judge the value of a book, you need to have many years of experience as a collector, bibliophile, or professional second-hand book dealer. If you ask any of the people experienced in the book business to give some useful tips, then the approximate procedure will be reduced to the following actions.
Instruction manual
1
Find out more about the contents of the book, or at least its approximate topics, even if the book is in a foreign language or is poorly preserved. Based on these data, we can already conclude that the vast majority of natural science works of the 19th and first half of the 20th century (especially medical ones) are hopelessly outdated, such specific literature is not interesting for collectors. Artistic works (especially by Russian authors) are of much greater interest; the chances of the book being “rare” in this case immediately increase.
2
Try to determine the edition of the book and find out the years of its author's life. The first editions of many works, as well as lifetime editions, usually represent much greater value than subsequent or posthumous editions. In addition, it’s good to find out the circulation of the book - if it is less than ten thousand copies, and the content, as you think, deserves interest, then it is very likely that you are dealing with real rarity.
3
Examine the book for its completeness and safety - see if all the pages are in place, is it said on the cover page about applications (lithographs, stickers, maps) that you do not find in the book. The condition and quality of the binding is very important - whether it is “native” to the book or made by a modern restorer, does it fall away from the book block. The cost of an antique book in good and bad condition can vary significantly, so you should not build any illusions about the high cost of folios corroded by a book worm, half of which is missing or missing at all.
4
Determine, finally, whether the book that you want to evaluate was released on its own or is part of a series (collected works, "multi-volume"). If one of the volumes is in your hands, and the rest of the kit has long been lost, then its value is sharply reduced - the collector does not like to put disparate volumes on the shelf and then search for missing books for many more years. However, any of these rules is not absolute, and only a specialist can make a more accurate judgment on the value of a particular old book.
