October 23, 2013 0 found this helpful I am actually looking for some vintage encyclopedias in great shape. I like the Brown and Gold, Burgundy and Gold, and Black and Red (typically Collier) sets. I think the craftsmanship and overall looks are beautiful. This same travesty that is happening with encyclopedias is happening with other lovely books like the older Reader's Digest Condensed books, the ones with the awesome patterned covers. Book Stores won't take them, and folks almost can't give them away. Right now I make shelves out of these books, as well as hollow book stashes. I understand some of you may think that is horrible, and that I am destroying these books.
In my mind, this is one of the only ways to save these books so people of this generation can still enjoy them in some way, rather than just throwing them away. Email me here (smartdesign at live.com), or at my Etsy shop if you are interested in selling, or donating. Honestly I can't pay much (typically less than a dollar a book), and only have enough storage room for one or two sets at a time. I will consider partial sets as well, depending on price and condition.
Thanks so much. August 25, 2016 1 found this helpful Many people have old books they think are valuable and would like to sell. Most old dictionaries, references etc., have very little value, a few dollars at most. Encyclopedias dated after 1923 are essentially worthless but crafters may be interested for the old pictures.
Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc., receive donations of tons of old encyclopedias, dictionaries and reference books but send them to recycling centers or dumps as they cannot use or sell them. You can check online for old book collectors, on EBay, Craigs List and other retail sites for possibilities. Everything is now online and updated constantly so old books are just that-old. October 29, 2013 0 found this helpful I see this question asked a lot. Usually, they are worthless except for craft projects, because they are so outdated with incorrect information. You might try selling them as a set online but shipping will be probably more than the encyclopedias are worth.
Encyclopedias that are over 100 years old or have some other historical significance might be worth something. In that case, I would take it to a bookstore that specializes in old or rare books.
Good luck, let us know what the outcome is?
October 23, 2013 0 found this helpful I am actually looking for some vintage encyclopedias in great shape. I like the Brown and Gold, Burgundy and Gold, and Black and Red (typically Collier) sets. I think the craftsmanship and overall looks are beautiful. This same travesty that is happening with encyclopedias is happening with other lovely books like the older Reader's Digest Condensed books, the ones with the awesome patterned covers. Book Stores won't take them, and folks almost can't give them away. Right now I make shelves out of these books, as well as hollow book stashes. I understand some of you may think that is horrible, and that I am destroying these books.
In my mind, this is one of the only ways to save these books so people of this generation can still enjoy them in some way, rather than just throwing them away. Email me here (smartdesign at live.com), or at my Etsy shop if you are interested in selling, or donating. Honestly I can't pay much (typically less than a dollar a book), and only have enough storage room for one or two sets at a time. I will consider partial sets as well, depending on price and condition. Thanks so much. August 25, 2016 1 found this helpful Many people have old books they think are valuable and would like to sell.
Most old dictionaries, references etc., have very little value, a few dollars at most. Encyclopedias dated after 1923 are essentially worthless but crafters may be interested for the old pictures. Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc., receive donations of tons of old encyclopedias, dictionaries and reference books but send them to recycling centers or dumps as they cannot use or sell them. You can check online for old book collectors, on EBay, Craigs List and other retail sites for possibilities. Everything is now online and updated constantly so old books are just that-old. October 29, 2013 0 found this helpful I see this question asked a lot. Usually, they are worthless except for craft projects, because they are so outdated with incorrect information.
You might try selling them as a set online but shipping will be probably more than the encyclopedias are worth. Encyclopedias that are over 100 years old or have some other historical significance might be worth something. In that case, I would take it to a bookstore that specializes in old or rare books. Good luck, let us know what the outcome is?
Volume 1 of the 14 th (1929) edition of the contains a Preface. Here the history of the Encyclopedia is described as well as what changed from edition to edition. In the chapter “Twenty Years Ago” of the Preface, when comparing the 14 th edition to the 11 th edition(1910), it is noted briefly what terms and words are now prevalent or out of use. We do this easily now with digital searches, but in this more analogue version, some of the changes noted in those 20 years are: “There is no article on Isotopes; nor on Quantum Theory nor on Brownian Movement Hormones are only mentioned in a few sentences here and there. There was very little about the Cinematograph.nothing about Broadcasting. There is no separate contribution headed Aeroplane. It was the same and more markedly with Wireless.
A few pages about it came under the head of Telegraph and nowhere is there any anticipation of.” The editor further states “On the side of scientific thought and practice, generally, the difference between the Eleventh Edition and its present successor is like an advance not of 20 years but of a hundred.” I think that the same cannot be said of scientific thought and practice in the 84 years between 1929 and now, 2013. By comparison, we would have to say that the change in the last 83 years is like an advance of 5 times that period or 420 years. No, I think we have made incremental advances that were based on the seminal findings made before 1929. What do you think? In the section Changes in Two Decades, sub-titled II. Mechanisms and Customs of Life (1908-1929), a lot of changes have occurred in daily life: “In ordinary human habit and its familiar appliances, there is, let us repeat it, as much difference in many ways between the present and the preceding generation as between the latter and the middle ages.” (An interesting observation with some truth to it.
D.Segal) To demonstrate that “giant leap for Mankind” ( to quote, moonwalker), the editors go on to say: “The Atlantic has been flown both ways. These isolated exploits may (emphasis D. Segal) foreshadow regular services before another two decades are over. Some believe that in the end, the great airships will best provide for long-distance voyages over the oceans and between continents inhabited by the English-speaking communities.
Air-craft are still but passing specks across the spaces of the sky, often not so conspicuous to an upward view as is a flight of birds. (I think this description of the empty sky is worth noting. Segal) the dense increase of motor traffic by private cars, “taxis” and the bulkier public and commercial vehicles, has done more than any innovation for many centuries to alter the aspect both of crowded cities and of open roads, while accelerating the spirit of human movement and spreading manipulative skill.
( Dense traffic indeed! Segal) World-telephony is beginning. It has happened to the present writer, expecting a London call, to find himself rung up for a quarter of an hour’s conversation with Los Angeles over six thousand miles away. Television itself has become a real thing, starting modestly like all the other miracles of modern invention, but promising to reveal some day to each other faces and places at any distance apart. Will the time come ever, thought far hence, when people anywhere without stirring shall be able to visit the, the Prado, the Accademia, the Uffizi, the and the rest? Some experts say “Yes!” We see ourselves at the outset of another potent agency-the creation of regional and national networks of electric supply whether generated by coal burned or by falling water. These volumes record the new researches looking to the conversion of crude coalinto oil with a residual smokeless fuel.
Are Encyclopedia Britannica Worth Anything
Success in this direction seems already fairly sure to attain that priceless gain to the comeliness and health of human conditions-a civilization industrialized and urbanized yet smokeless.” (Still trying to work out “smokeless”, 84 years later.