Knowing what you have and what it's worth

Inventory & Valuation

Inventory

At some point every collector will want an inventory made of their collection.  As well as providing an updated register of every item in the collection, an inventory helps to identify the strengths and weakness of that collection, such as duplicates, gaps, items in poor condition and items which have increased substantially in value.

We help our clients by recommending suitable experts who specialise in our client’s chosen field.

An inventory can be a simple computer spreadsheet or paper record.  However, we believe there is much to enjoy in a good inventory and wherever possible we would recommend that a client commission a special hand-made inventory, which can be designed, made and bound to fit perfectly with the collection itself.

Valuation

The information we require for a valuation of individual items is identical to that which we require should you wish to sell your maps or books.  For convenience, we have set out in the section below the same details as you will find in the page on Selling.

However, if you wish to sell a significant number of items, or your whole collection, then please let us know and we can arrange for a valuer to see your collection in person, as this will be far more convenient for you.

Books

You are welcome to send us information about books that you wish to have valued.

For books, we need to know:

  • The author’s name
  • The title exactly as it appears on the printed title-page (inside the book, not on the front cover)
  • Edition number if stated
  • The place of publication, name of the publisher, and date if any
  • The binding (leather, boards, cloth, dust jacket, etc.)
  • Any major defects (torn leaves, stains, broken joints, etc.)
We also require photographs of the front, the back and the spine (see Photographs section below).

Photographs of your books

Please send us photographs (not scans!) of:

  • The front cover
  • The back cover
  • The spine
  • The whole dust jacket (please remove it with care)
  • Any repairs to the dust jacket
  • The title page AND the back of the title page
  • Any pages that have major defects
  • Any pages with writing or scribbles on them

You do not need to send photographs of any of the other internal pages.

The photographs should show the whole page, including all the edges. Please do not crop the photographs.

You can send up to 5MB by email.  Otherwise please use a service such as Dropbox.

Ask us about Inventory & Valuation