Posted by Richard Gabriel on Sat, Feb 27, 2010 @ 12:20 PM
The last thing you want to do with a collection of rare books and what we in the trade call ephemera (which is anything that is not a book that is made of paper and has print on it) is to sell it in a YARD SALE! People like me will buy these items for usually whatever the price is that your asking.
When I'm out hunting for new inventory, YARD SALES are the first place I go. If you learn nothing else from the blog here, learn this: don't put books and ephemera into a yard sale until you have researched the books and ephemera!
So how do you get some of this: 
into your pocket? There are several routes:
1. There is Ebay and as an example you can visit my store to see how items are listed, priced and watch the transactions for a while: 
2. Auction houses: Here are some great auction houses:
Bloomsbury Book Auctions: 
Heritage Auctions:
Just to name two that have good auction statistics and provide great returns for books and ephemera.
3. Book and Ephemera dealers: There are many book and ephemera dealers throughout the world. The book trade is one of the oldest in history and even during the Roman and Egyptian times, dealers in books and materials were selling works, collections of works or books of written works! The best way to look for book dealers is to go to some of the public databases. Here is one to start:
Abe allows you to not only search for bookdealers in your area but it also allows you to search for books and some ephemera. Go to advanced search and put in your information on your book. The more information you can enter into the database, the more accurate it will be. Then scan the books and you can get some idea as to its value! After that, options for selling it are:
1. ebay
2. Auction
3. Book Dealer
Good luck and we'd love to hear your comments and suggestions!