How do I figure out the market value of used books?
Half of original MSRP at Amazon is a good option for books that are in good condition.  Another option would be to use eBay, specifically Half.com. Regarding the textbooks and technical books, it might be worth checking out sites like Chegg.com or other textbook rental websites. They might buy it from you directly versus trying to sell it on an ebay or amazon.  For fiction or nonfiction, amazon and ebay can be tough, but probably worth a look. See what comparables are for your books or similar titles, and if it works, try selling a few. The big problem is that so many sellers are on Amazon these days, that major discounts are commonplace. I've bought hardback 1st editions for less than the cost of economy shipping, so the profit margin is dwindling at best if it's an unpopular or low demand book. Text Book values drop rather rapidly and fluctuate quite a bit based on when you are selling (January and August-September when semesters generally start) them. I generally sell my old text books on Amazon for 10-15% less than the peak price over the last 6 months or a year if that much data is available (I use camelcamelcamel.com to get historical data). They generally sell pretty quick so I would say it is a fair price.
"For those on a budget, check if your local library has access to / or a copy of the ""Standard & Poor's Daily Stock Price Record"". Access to that or a similar service may be available as part of your library patronage. If not available it may be available at your metropolitan central library.  Comprehensive stock pricing data which provides adjustments for splits, mergers, capital distributions and other relevant events is still a premium product. External link to New York Public Library blog post on subject: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/04/09/finding-historical-stock-prices" "I'm not an economist, but I understand the idea of value or ""price"" is purely ""what people agree it to be"".  The quants and analysts I've worked with always talk about ""discovering the price"" - it's an unknown until someone says ""I will pay X"".  Are my 2nd hand Nikes worth $20?  Put em on ebay to find out.  If someone buys them, then yes, 2nd hand Nikes are worth $20.  If they don't sell then they're not worth $20.    Obviously ebay is not the most efficient market out there.  The exchanges attempt to be that with prices varying by fractions of cent in fractions of seconds (milliseconds).  EDIT*   Perhaps another way to look at it is ""What is the 'correct' value of a computer game, say 'Skyrim'?""  Your idea of the value of labour and production costs produces some figure.  But in the real world, what actually happens?  On release day the game is priced at, say, $60.  And lots of people say ""I will pay $60"".  Many people don't, but many people do.  Months later, Steam has a sale and they suggest Skyrim is now worth $30.  Lot's of people who didn't think it was worth $60 do think it is worth $30.  The amount of labour that went into is hasn't changed.  So what it the true or 'correct' value/price of the game?  What is the correct value/price of *amything*? It is *what people will pay for it*." "The textbook answer would be ""assets-liabilities+present discounted value of all future profit"".  A&L is usually simple (if a company has an extra $1m in cash, it's worth $1m more; if it has an extra $1m in debt, it's worth $1m less). If a company with ~0 assets and $50k in profit has a $1m valuation, then that implies that whoever makes that valuation (wants to buy at that price) really believes one of two things - either the future profit will be significantly larger than $50k (say, it's rapidly growing);  or the true worth of assets is much more - say, there's some IP/code/patents/people that have low book value but some other company would pay $1m just to get that. The point is that valuation is subjective since the key numbers in the calculations are not perfectly known by anyone who doesn't have a time machine, you can make estimates but the knowledge to make the estimates varies (some buyers/sellers have extra information), and they can be influenced by those buyers/sellers; e.g. for strategic acquisitions the value of company is significantly changed simply because someone claims they want to acquire it. And, $1m valuation for a company with $500m in profits isn't appropriate - it's appropriate only if the profits are expected to drop to zero within a couple years; a stagnant but stable company with $500m profits would be worth at least $5m and potentially much more." Conservative = erring on the side of ascribing a higher EV to the business. Because if you're someone looking to acquire the business, for example, and let's say we're talking about a business that has debt which trades at a discount, it's more conservative to assume that the debt can't necessarily be restructured.  To use an extreme example, as you're valuing the business, would it be conservative or aggressive to assume that the debt got magically wiped out altogether? So that's why I'm saying that it's more conservative to use the book value of the debt. What if Kirtsaeng were only acting as a foreign agent of the purchaser?  Seems like that would be an easy work around.  Instead of selling the book, he could charge a service fee for making the purchase for someone else. Have you looked at what is in that book value? Are the assets easily liquidated to get that value or could there be trouble getting the fair market value as some assets may not be as easy to sell as you may think. The Motley Fool a few weeks ago noted a book value of $10 per share. I could wonder what is behind that which could be mispriced as some things may have fallen in value that aren't in updated financials yet. Another point from that link: After suffering through the last few months of constant cries from   naysayers about the company’s impending bankruptcy, shareholders of   Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (TSX:PWT)(NYSE:PWE) can finally look toward   the future with a little optimism. Thus, I'd be inclined to double check what is on the company books. NAV is  how much is the stuff of the company worth divided by the number of shares. This total is also called book value. The market cap is share price times number of shares. For Amazon  today people are willing to pay 290 a share for a company with a NAV of 22 a share. If of nav and price were equal the P/B (price to book ratio) would be 1, but for Amazon it is 13.  Why? Because investors believe Amazon is worth a lot more than a money losing company with a NAV of 22. Book value = sell all assets and liquidate company . Then it's the value of company on book. Price = the value at which it's share gets bought or sold between investors.  If price to book value is less than one, it shows that an 100$ book value company is being traded at 99$ or below. At cheaper than actually theoretical price. Now say a company has a production plant . Situated at the most costliest real estate . Yet the company's valuation is based upon what it produces, how much orders it has etc while real estate value upon which plant is built stays in book while real investors don't take that into account (to an extend). A construction company might own a huge real estate inventory. However it might not be having enough cash flow to sustain monthly expense. In this scenario , for survival,i the company might have to sell its real estate at discount. And market investors are fox who  could smell trouble and bring price way below the book value  Hope it helps You're realizing the perils of using a DCF analysis.  At best, you can use them to get a range of possible values and use them as a heuristic, but you'll probably find it difficult to generate a realistic estimate that is significantly different than where the price is already. Certainly sounds worthwhile to get a CPA to help you with setting up the books properly and learning to maintain them, even if you do it yourself thereafter. What's your own time worth? "I'm not sure what the situation is in Canada, but in the US, the IRS does not look kindly on people overvaluing donations of used goods. The rule is obviously abused quite a bit, but that doesn't mean it's legal! Different used books have different values, usually depending on supply and demand, and there are online databases that make it easy to check the value of a book using a barcode scanner. If you took a book to a used bookstore and they didn't want to buy it, that's because supply greatly exceeds demand... it might be last year's bestseller, for example. In this situation, donating the book to charity and claiming that the book is ""worth"" more than it's actually worth is really nothing more than cheating on your taxes. You may or may not get caught, but it's certainly not the intent of any tax code to give people a break on their taxes for donating worthless books to a charity which will inevitably just have to recycle or shred them." I have sold a few items on ebay.  The biggest issue I have with ebay is all of the fees.  I am not sure how much has changed recently, but when I was selling stuff it felt like ebay and paypal took a large chunk of the money.  I could be wrong, but it seemed like they were getting around 35% or more of my 'profits'.  Of course, you then have the shipping fees on top of that, which will run a few bucks on common items.  For items that sell for around $20 on ebay, I felt like I was ending up with about $5 in my pocket.   I have used Amazon to sell used books, though I haven't done that for about a year or so.  They had no fees for listing items, and the item remains listed for about 90 days.  If it sells, they process the payment and can deposit it into your bank account or provide an Amazon gift certificate.  I forget Amazon's fees, but I remember that it didn't seem to be as frustrating as the ebay/paypal price structure. Discrepancies between what the book value is reported as and what they'd fetch if sold on the open market. Legal disputes in court. If you're willing to pay a fee, you can probably just get a commercial appraiser to give you a valuation.  In Australia I think it's around $100-200. To determine the value of one's life, instead of rating happiness from 1 to 10 every day in pink ink in a secret diary, use the concept of mercantile exchange to determine the value of your existence. First, offer your time for some initial price ($10) to some investors (Bob). Then, create an order book where anyone can make a bid or ask for your time. For example, Bob creates a sell order for 10 min of your time for $20. Mary creates a buy order for 10 min of your time for $20--Bob sells 10 min of your time to Mary for $20. Based on the supply and demand for your time, you could determine the value of your existence. Obviously, your time would no longer be yours, but it's interesting to consider nontheless and precisely equivalent to the process that determines stock price. (Ignoring the minutiae of order books and IPOs.)