talkmagic.co.uk

I'd like to ask a question that I've been pondering lately, how do you go about forming a sensible offer?

If you shop on magicweek you'll often see "offers please" or "sensible offers on...." but how does one go about figuring out what something is worth?

For my thoughts to make sense I'll use an example, Cardshark by Darwin Ortiz. If you want this book you can't just pop the shop for it as its out of print, so you'll have to hunt about. If you have a look on magic week you'll see "Sensible offers on the following"

Now being that this is a book, it's not made of precious metals or anything it's only value is in what people are willing to pay for it, but how do we know when the offers are behind closed doors?

Amazon has a copy for £125

Abe books has copies listen for £80 and £90

Michael Vincent has one listed for £500 but that doesn't seem very sensible to me.

But who know's how long they've been listed, and how many copies change hands privately and at what amount?

If you google around for reviews people mention how fantastic the book is, how its worth every penny you pay and people saying things like "I'd never sell my copy"

So without even going near the whole First edition, 2nd edition etc, how would you go about pitching a "sensible offer"?

You could always ask the seller what they think is sensible but if they won't play ball then, if Amazon have it priced at £125 then perhaps a 'sensible' initial offer could be £100 and see if the seller is willing to take that amount. After that any increase woild depend on your budget and if you're willing to pay more. As you say, it's only a book but the knowledge in it may be worth many times the asking price to someone.

You say that it's only a book and not precious metal but it's the order in which the letters are placed on the pages which make its worth.

The trouble with this is that until you read the damned thing you won't know what it's worth is to you! One persons junk is another persons treasure.

I would say, make an offer that is sensible to you. They can only say no!

Alec

Alec Kobain wrote:You say that it's only a book and not precious metal but it's the order in which the letters are placed on the pages which make its worth.

The trouble with this is that until you read the damned thing you won't know what it's worth is to you! One persons junk is another persons treasure.

I would say, make an offer that is sensible to you. They can only say no!

Alec

Sorry, I wasn't trying to play down the worth, my point was that precious metals such as gold has a set price, we can all see the price of gold and copper are going up, and have a reference point.

There is no reference point for a book of information, so if nobody wants the info, it's worthless, if ten thousand of us want the info, and there are only one thousand books, it's quite valuable.

It was a poor attempt at getting across how tricky it is to value things such as magic books, especially because as you mentioned, until you read it you don't know what it's worth to you and that offers are behind closed doors we have no point of reference for a "going rate"

Base your offer on the average valuation from elsewhere - ebay, Google and so on, if no other sources see if you can track down the original selling price and make an offer of about 50% with the option of increasing to your agreed limit. If it's a rare book for whatever reason there ought to be some mention of it on book valuation sites.

I tried to sell my signed copy of Cardshark on the cafe for £100 but it got taken down. Bar stewards. But being told to make a "sensible" offer annoys me a lot...just set a price.

Lenoir wrote:I tried to sell my signed copy of Cardshark on the cafe for £100 but it got taken down. Bar stewards. But being told to make a "sensible" offer annoys me a lot...just set a price.

Did they tell you why it got taken down?

I'm not sure I'd go as far to say it annoys me, but it does make valuing things pretty tricky.

Did you do any kind of research before picking your asking price or was it just a price you'd be happy to let it go for?

No worries if you'd rather not answer why you picked your price, your reasons are your own.