Please forgive me if this is posted in the wrong section. A friends next door neighbor has a lot of repair manuals fr sale. But, most of them would probably not qualify for this site. That being said I hope someone here might be able to give me an idea of value on them? I would think they would sell better individually.
When I moved earlier this year, I left most of mine for the auction...didn't get much for them, as I expected. I kept half a dozen, that cover most of the interesting years 1935-late 70s. The early Motors if in good condition might fetch $10 or so each, if you're real patient, on ebay.
I sold 15ea Motors Auto Repair Manuals at a swap meet this last year for $5.00 ea. They were mid 1960-1970 editions. May have been low, but I had them for awhile.
I had about 75 different manuals I had picked up recently...thought I could sell them for $15-$20 at the swaps. After selling just a couple and bringing most of them to several swaps...dropped the price to $5 and got rid of most of them. The remaining 20 or so I'll give away.
I agree with the suggested pricing above, but as a bit of advice for the new-to-old-cars guys.... These books, especially the Motor's Manuals are a wealth of knowledge and super helpful when working on our old junk. The gals and guys on here are great at answering questions and giving advice, but thumbing through these old manuals will really help fill in the blanks for you. Search 'em out where you can.
Faxon's Auto Literature in Riverside, CA buys some manuals. My guess is that they won't be worth much and that's before you figure shipping costs even with USPS book rate. https://www.faxonautoliterature.com/
Yes Sir! Too much false second-hand information on the Internet. Some things have become 'urban legend' by being passed on as factual information for over a decade. In this hobby, Google is not your friend. Joe
Google can be good, still I prefer a book, always there and doesn’t cost you in data( I’m in a rural area with a small plan so kiss my ass) google your at the mercy of whoever is supplying the info, books are not 100% correct but the odds are far better.
The information in those old manuals explains how to not only diagnose problems ,but how to fix things , unlike today where nothing is repaired & techs have been dealt the role of parts changer.....sad times ..
Those older Motors auto repair manuals are so cool, even though this one I have is marked at $20.00 on the page, I think I gave $5.00 for it at a swap meet. Great information and great illustrations on every page. Good luck on getting those sold for your friend.
Both are great to have although the Motor manual goes into a bit more detail some times. It may be that there are so many around and that most cover about five years that they reason they don't bring much when put up for sale. I don't think many manuals bring much money unless they are certain specialty manuals. I had to pay a pretty good chunk for the manuals for my E39 BMW a couple of years ago but a few years back sold a stack of about 40 old Mopar manuals for what amounted to about a buck each to a guy who specializes in Mopar manuals at a swapmeet. I keep a 1946 Motor manual on top of my computer tower next to me to refer to. I saved it years ago when the auto mechanics program that I was teaching got canceled and I figured that something that old (that I kept in a book case in my office) would go in the dumpster when the district sent workers to clean the shop out. It's one of my references to answer questions here with.
I have a couple from the 70's, used to reference them a lot. Each version used to go back about 6 or 8 model years, so you didn't have to have every subsequent year, to have a good reference library. They're worth a lot for the information, for cash value, not so much.
Be very handling those older ones. The paper they printed them on becomes super brittle over the years. I have a 55-64 Motors that the pages will crumble just looking at them. But it is sill worth hanging on to because of the info it contains. I also have a Motors auto trans manual that covers most of the older trans prior to O/D coming into play.
Agree with most - if you can get $10 for them that's great. I usually buy them anyway at $5 when I can - because I have most of the years all ready - and try to pedal them at the swap meets. More of the younger guys are into computers and the searches you can do on them. Not to many old school guys left that don't have then already. Most manuals cover 8 to 10 yrs. Good luck !
Those old Motor's manuals are worth their weight in gold, when and if you need the info in them. I refer to them for specs quite a lot and sometimes for repair information if I'm working on something I'm not familiar with. The Chiltons are good too but sometimes a bit lacking by comparison. A factory service manual is often a bit more detailed and usually demands a higher price. When I was running a full service shop the new Motor's manuals were priced at 80 - 120 $ each, but buying vintage manuals (some of the ones I bought new are now vintage) they come pretty cheap, 5 - 15 $. When I see some for sale I don't often pass them up if I don't already have them in my collection.
The original Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler Service manuals are 10 times the manuals that any of these are. Once you use an original service manual, you won't use one of these again!
I agree the shop manuals are specific, no substitute for that, but the Motors Repair Tune-Up chapter is excellent and should be required reading.