Hi, this isn't a commercial advertisement or an attempt to sell. I'm just looking for some advice.

Following a recent decluttering exercise at home I've got a big pile of music that I'm trying to sell. I've put some of it on Amazon but with a lot of it there's no point as there are already multiple copies selling at what is these days a standard of 1p+?2.80p&p. I've emailed Travis & Emery and they aren't interested and I'm waiting to hear from Archive Bookshop but not hopeful as the man there said that he is looking for unusual material rather than the standard student stuff. Ideally I'm looking for a shop, dealer, etc who will give me a lump sum of, say, ?100 for the whole lot. The dozen items worth putting on Amazon are going for just under ?60 in all. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am based in London and assume hand delivery would be best to avoid postage but I could post elsewhere if it was worthwhile.

The kind of thing I'm trying to sell is a lot of ABRSM and Trinity old exam music, scales, theory, aural, etc, then a lot of stuff for children, e.g. Easy Concertos and Concertinos, Young Violinist's Repertoire, etc. For clarinet I have more serious material as I have completely given up playing it (Uhl 48 Studies, for example) and the same with the guitar (e.g. Dowland's Dozen). There's also a 1925 edition of the Smyth Mass in D.

I have read on here about a dealer in Oxford and a famous shop in Great Malvern. Not sure if postage would be worthwhile.

I stress I am not trying to sell or to use this site for commercial purposes. I am just wondering what one can do with a big pile of unwanted music of small enough value to be worth getting rid of easily but not so small value that I just want to take it to the local charity shop (which probably wouldn't know what to do with it anyway).

These are the sort of items that I have bought myself, second hand from Ebay. Is that worth considering?

W

You could try eBay, either individually or as a job lot; but from what you describe, you're looking at probably only pence per item. Things which are very popular and current do go on Amazon quite well, but buyers have to pay ?2.80 postage which is a lot (and often more expensive than Amazon charge for the original with free postage).

Thanks. Yes, I did think about eBay, either individually or as a job lot. I suppose I could try selling the good stuff (the dozen items that are actually worth something) individually and just stick the rest up as a job lot or as separate batches by instrument. As I say, it's just a pain that most of it's worth just enough that I don't want to just give it away but not enough that I want to give it storage space for months or years until someone eventually wants to buy it!

You could try asking at Oxfam - they sell sheet music online.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/results.aspx?...candInstruments

I think they probably sell what's been donated rather than buying to sell.

Good idea. Thanks. I don't mind giving it away if I can't benefit from it, and this looks like a better idea. My local charity shops have no idea about books. They either sell them for much more than they would cost online, which means nobody buys them, or they sell really good stuff (especially academic books, dictionaries, art books) for a fraction of its actual value.



Good idea. Thanks. I don't mind giving it away if I can't benefit from it, and this looks like a better idea. My local charity shops have no idea about books. They either sell them for much more than they would cost online, which means nobody buys them, or they sell really good stuff (especially academic books, dictionaries, art books) for a fraction of its actual value.

Sorry. Not sure what happened there. Something called flood control. It seems to have backfired as what I have actually done is flood the board with nonsense!

Perfectly happy to donate if I can't sell. I just want to get rid of it!

Yeah Oxfam won't give you any money for them but if you're going to take them to a charity shop then take them to Oxfam because most others don't sell music books. I used to volunteer in a BHF shop and we were told to immediately 'rag' all music books because it wasn't worth putting them on the shelves as nobody would buy them.

Ebay is probably better than Amazon, I sold quite a lot of music books on there a couple of years ago when I did a clear-out. You can offer collection in person as a delivery option which if you're in London is probably more likely to be successful than if you lived in the middle of nowhere, and even if it's just 99p for each book then it adds up if there's a lot. Selling job lots might get more interest than individual books.

I sold a good amount of music books on Ebay and made enough to have a lovely break in the Lake District last year Easter. I was ably assisted by suggestions from this Forum.

I put the most recent ABRSM books with any CDS at a reasonable price and posted them in plastic bag envelopes, as they are a little bigger than standard A4 and will cost more in postage if you get bigger hard back envelopes so be careful with that feature. I would say if they were marked, lightly marked or just tired from sitting unused on a shelf The not so recent music books I made into bundles of about 4 - the recorder books were very popular. I sold about two thirds of the pile. One person bought about 20 Viola books adn when I googled her address it was in the middle of nowhere, so clearly as well as being cheaper some people do not have easy access to music shops. Another 2 buyers were in Jersey Channel Islands!

The ones that didnt sell I gave to my local Oxfam shop which actually only sells books.

Piano, violin, viola and recorder were good sellers, the song sheets didnt sell. Do your research by looking at "completed listings" and list just after a Exam Session when students needs new books for sight reading and extending their repetoire etc.

Try to be careful. I did send the Clarinet book to the person who bought the violin book, well they did have the same yellow cover! I then had to wait for that to be returned and reimburse his postage while fobbing off the person wating for the Clarinet book. Make sure you dont undercharge your postage especially if its going up at the end of the month. People who buy on Ebay know they have to pay postage and will only moan if its utterly unreasonable.

I dont agree with collection unless you're selling a wardrobe or something heavy. It can become a hassle and then theres the parking nightmare of London! Just package up and take to your post office once or twice a week, and you can say that in your listing "I only post on Tuesdays and Thursdays"

Good Luck

From what I understand all books (and anything else I guess) donated to Oxfam go to a central depot and are then farmed out to the most appropriate branch (or selected to be sold online) - so what you donate does not necessarily go on sale in that shop. It also enables any particular valuable ones to be picked out and priced appropriately. If anything hasn't sold within a certain amount of time it goes back to the depot and is sent to another shop to keep a good turnover of stock.

Over the years I've picked up quite a bit of music from Oxfam -and just recently have found some great piano books at a bargain price including Schubert's Moments Musicales (AB edition) and a set of Schubert Impromptus (Urtext edition) - both in great condition, both on my list of "music I want to buy"! My local Oxfam book shop also had a full set of the Debussy Piano Preludes in, but I don't really get on with Debussy piano music so thought I'd leave that for someone else.

I also picked up a lovely hard back Groves Concise Dictionary of Music!


Sorry slightly Off topic.

I'd have thought ebay would be best if you want to get some money for them - or maybe see if you can locate a local teacher who would be interested in some of it for lending out to students.

I too would recommend donating to Oxfam. They do seem to know what they're selling, and it's all in a good cause.

The comments about what happened to sheet music at the BHF are enough to make me avoid giving them anything. I was reliably informed that the one near me bins all donated LPs too, after wrecking them so that the other nearby charity shops can't make use of them. This may not be company policy, of course.

eBay is great, but only if you have a lot of time and are very organised.

Good luck with it,

Nick.