The short version
- Typical range: £8 – £120 — see the full vintage books value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Books
Before you photograph it
Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.
- Check the title page and copyright page for the edition and date, and photograph both.
- Assess honestly whether the book is scarce or simply old. Most Victorian and early twentieth century reprints are common.
- Check for foxing, damp staining and a cracked hinge, and never attempt to repair any of them.
The photographs that sell vintage books
Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.
- The book closed, front board and spine
- The title and copyright pages
- The hinges and board corners
- Any foxing, damp stain, inscription or loose page
Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.
Writing the title and description
Title, author, year and binding: “[Title], [Author], 1908, Decorative Cloth Binding”. If the appeal is decorative, say so honestly — there is a real market in attractive old bindings sold for display, and describing one that way sells faster than implying rarity it does not have.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Title, author, publisher and year
- Edition, and whether it is a first or a later reprint
- Binding, and whether decorative, leather or plain cloth
- Condition including foxing, hinges, plates and any missing pages
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about vintage books. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.
Answer honestly. Most old books are not scarce, and saying so while pricing it as an attractive reading or display copy earns more trust than an inflated claim.
Count them against any list of illustrations. Missing plates are common in old illustrated books because they were removed and framed, and it materially affects value.
Photograph the page edges and a typical page. Foxing is nearly universal in books of a certain age and buyers expect it when it is shown.
Pricing it so it actually sells
Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.
The vintage books value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.
What you keep, compared
On a £64 sale — roughly the middle of the range for vintage books — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:
| Where you sell it | Fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| WishThrift | £0 | £64 |
| Poshmark | −£13 | £51 |
| eBay | −£9 | £55 |
| Mercari | −£6 | £58 |
| Etsy | −£4 | £60 |
Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.
Timing and getting it to the buyer
Steady to collectors and decorators year round. Attractive decorative bindings sell reliably; ordinary old reprints in poor condition are slow at any price.
Post in a rigid book box with the book immobilised. Old bindings are fragile at the hinges and a book sliding around inside a box arrives worse than it left.
WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.
Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.
Frequently asked questions
Are old books worth money?
Age alone does not make a book valuable. Edition, scarcity, condition and demand do, and most nineteenth century reprints are common. That is not a reason not to sell — decorative and reading copies have a steady market — but it is a reason to price realistically.
What are vintage books worth?
Typically £8 to £120, with genuinely scarce titles far above. See the vintage books value guide for the condition bands.
Should I sell a book with a cracked hinge?
Yes, described plainly. Cracked hinges are extremely common in old books and buyers accept them at the right price. Do not attempt to glue it — a bad repair is worth less than an honest fault.
See also: what a used vintage books is worth · browse live books listings · condition grades explained.