WorthPoint: A Resource for Amateur Historians
If you’re an amateur historian like me, you love to do research, but it can be challenging with limited access to traditional repositories, such as academic libraries and archives. That often means hunting for information in sources such as books and magazines, especially if you can find a reference citation in another work regarding the topic that you are interested in.
As older books and periodicals can be both pricey and difficult to find, it is imperative to know whether or not it’s worth investing your resources before you purchase a book. It’s often tricky to nail down what’s actually in a publication based on most online store item descriptions, which are often more focused on the condition and shipping options than the actual content.
The best listings, I’ve found, come from eBay, as there is more room for sellers to share better, lengthier descriptions and images. Fortunately, many of these listings contain photos of tables of contents, and sometimes chapter headings, which get you much closer to making an informed decision.
The challenge with these postings is that they typically vanish after sale, so if it’s a rarer item or current sellers haven’t put together a particularly comprehensive listing, this avenue is a limited.
Enter WorthPoint, (worthpoint.com) a website that is built to enable owners of various collectible items to assess the worth of their object or periodical by reviewing items previously sold at online auction (and keep a virtual catalogue of their collection). This site archives many listings that do have the additional information and photos required to make an informed research decision. Best of all, you don’t even need to create an account to view these, as long as you’re OK without seeing list prices for the item you’re interested in (you’ll no doubt be painfully aware of these already). It can also be a great resource for hunting for rarer items that might not be currently listed for sale online.
Best of luck on your research!
