Appraisals

STOP: Please do NOT call us or email us until you READ THIS PAGE.

 

If you HAVE an ancient Bible and you want…

To sell it to us: Click Here To Sell Us Your Bible

Help to identify or date it: Click Here For Help

Help to determine its value or significance, or to get a Printed Appraisal of your Bible: Read Below…

We receive DOZENS of phone calls and emails every week from people with questions about a Bible they own. Over 90% of these inquiries could have been avoided by taking only ten seconds to JUST DO STEP ONE below:

STEP ONE Please click on one of the five options below which indicates your Bible’s age, to see if it is even worth inquiring about an appraisal:

STEP TWO Answer the ten questions below. You may “cut-and-paste” the questions into an email window, and then answer them… or you may just email us the answers. For your convenience, our current email address is located on the CONTACT US page. Please do NOT email us any “attached file” containing answers or photos of your Bible. We do not need photos and we cannot open email attachments. Our fee for doing appraisals is outlined below.

Ready to get started? (Hint: Answers to the first three questions are usually found on the Title Page of the Bible). Here we go…

1. DATE and PLACE of Printing?
2. Name of PRINTER?
3. TITLE and TYPE of Bible? (King James Version, or Geneva, or German, etc?)
4. HEIGHT and WIDTH and THICKNESS measurements?
5. TYPESET in ordinary "ROMAN" type (like in a modern book) or in "GOTHIC BLACK LETTER" type (a very fancy calligraphy-like type style)?
6. TYPE and CONDITION of BINDING (Leather? Cloth? Clasps? Covers loose or detached?)
7. CONDITION of pages and mention of any missing pages
8. Whether it contains an APOCRYPHA, CONCORDANCE,BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, GENEOLOGY, PSALTER, or other extra features
9. Did you follow “STEP ONE” above before answering these questions?
10. What is your TELEPHONE NUMBER… in case we have other questions?
    

HOW MUCH DOES AN APPRAISAL COST? If you are seeking an appraisal, please be aware that just like real estate professionals we do charge for our appraisals, as the research takes time and we get MANY such requests each week. Our APPRAISAL FEE is $175 for the first item appraised, and $145 per additional item appraised. This is less than one-third of what any other truly QUALIFIED company would charge you. If we review your email answers to the ten questions above, and determine that your Bible is worth more than one thousand dollars; we will call you back on the phone number you gave us in the answer to question 10, and let you know that we are willing to do the appraisal for $175. If we review your answers and determine that your Bible is worth less than one thousand dollars, we will simply email you back, and let you know that the Bible is not valuable enough to justify an appraisal, and there is of course no charge to you.

WHY WOULD I WANT AN APPRAISAL? There are essentially two reasons you might NEED and appraisal, and two reasons you might simply WANT and appraisal:

• You will NEED an appraisal if you wish to have your Bible insured. We are recognized by all major insurance providers as a qualified rare Bible appraiser.
• You will NEED an appraisal if you wish to donate your Bible to any church or charitable organization, and take the tax deduction for the full retail value of the Bible off your taxes. We are recognized by the government as a qualified rare Bible appraiser.
• You might WANT an appraisal if you wish to try to sell your Bible to a third-party, and you wish to get “top-dollar” for it by showing a copy of the appraisal on our letterhead.
• You might WANT an appraisal if your Bible is a treasured family heirloom, out of curiosity, or to establish its present (and increasing) value for your children.

WHAT EXACTLY WILL I RECEIVE? Within less than one week, you will receive via First Class Mail, a large manila envelope containing the following:

• A one-page Professional Appraisal, in a protective plastic sleeve, laser-printed on our company letterhead, which says, "The World's Largest Dealer of Rare and Antique Bibles" at the top. Click Here To See A Sample One-Page Appraisal.
• A Business Card
• A beautiful full-color 16-page company brochure, establishing who we are.

ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW? Yes! Please read this carefully and understand that we are offering only a basic one-page appraisal of the wholesale and retail value of your Bible, with a brief paragraph of discussion concerning its historical significance, and whether it is listed in any reference catalogue, and a repeat of the description you gave us.

• We are NOT offering an extremely detailed, multi-page analysis including supporting documentation of the sale of similar Bibles (“comps”), or auction records, etc. Such appraisals can take several hours and can cost nearly a thousand dollars or more! Those type of expensive and exhaustive appraisals, which have been offered by rare book dealers for years, are simply much more than most people want or need. That is why our slimmed-down, one-page-only, “economy” appraisal at $175 is in such high demand. It gives you all you need for insurance purposes, or tax deduction purposes, or resale purposes… without the needless expense of a detailed “market-documentation and verification” type of appraisal.
• Once an appraisal is done, the $175 fee is NOT refundable for any reason.
• An appraisal is NOT a “offer to buy” your Bible.
• We are NOT offering "identification confirmation" or "authenticity verification" of your Bible (which is known as a “Form 8283 Appraisal”), as that can only be done in-person. Your Bible has to BE what you SAY it is in the answers to our questions, in order for our simple one-page appraisal to be accurate. If you are unsure of the answers to the questions, you should take your Bible to your nearest Major University Library and ask for assistance answering the questions from the head librarian... then, come back to us for the appraisal.

We do not wish to seem insensitive, but this structured protocol for appraisals is the only way we can efficiently handle the very large volume of appraisal requests we receive every week. We DO value you as a customer, and THANK YOU for your understanding and your cooperation.

Click Here for a brief discussion of the difference between “rare” and “valuable”.

Click Here if you THINK you have a “1611 King James Bible First Edition”.