At the Library - Autographed Books

On Thursday nights, Library traffic is pretty low. Last night I logged in $3 in sales - and one of those was my own. So spending my time listing books for sale online makes a lot of sense.

I may have mentioned that we use Amazon's web site. And they are starting to bother me.

The trouble is in what are labeled "collectible" books. For example:

I had a hard cover copy of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears. First edition, 1991. When you look that book up on Amazon, there are over a thousand copies available, and some are listed for $.01 (plus shipping).

I had in my hands an autographed copy. In order to list a book as "collectible", Amazon will not let you list the book at anything less than the full publisher's price - in this case, $26.95.

If you could get a book you wanted for $.01, how much would you reasonably pay for an autographed copy? I'm thinking not $26.95.

I listed it, and several others autographed books, including Madeleine Albright's autobiography, and that biography of Roberto Clemente that David Maraniss did. I could list them as regular used books for $10 or $15, and put "autographed" in the description, but I am afraid they will get lost in the shuffle of all of the books that are selling for pennies.

I do not have a good answer for this yet.