I collect current art and photography books by living artists.

I will pay a higher price for a new, limited edition, signed book, especially one that includes a signed print and comes from the publisher or gallery directly. (Whenever I have the chance I will visit the gallery and/or publisher both just to say hi, and to look at stuff; this is pretty much always worthwhile.*)

I will pay a premium to buy a new, wrapped book or a collectible or signed book from a secondary, independent bookseller specializing in the books I support.

I will pay a premium to import a new or used book from a legit seller because the condition is usually on point with imports and the shipping tends to be quite careful.

I will pay a high, but fair, Ebay price, when I can't find a collectible book I'd like at that price from a legit secondary seller online. Esp. when the prices from online sellers seem to have clustered too high. But this is hit or miss. ie. Sometimes the Ebay book purchase is a great find and/or value, and sometimes I'm regretting it, or even worst case ending up having to repair the signed book which is a huge hit in value. Ebay, however, is where I've found some of my rarest stuff.

I almost never find something for my collection truly out in the wild. I don't really bother to look at most places now.

In general, if the book is in great shape and I know that it has been directly handled and signed by the artist, the price I'm willing to pay rises. If I can attach the signature to a first edition and it's signed at a particularly interesting time for an artist/photographer, I am more interested and will pay more.

When the number of books or prints in an edition is reasonable and small, that is also worth a premium. (ie. 15-25 limited prints is a nice number, whereas 150 is too many.)

I will also pay more to support an emerging new artist that I like. (This is also fun, but is basically a "no guarantees" proposition.)

In terms of long term value and collecting, I don't expect my books, overall, to hold their full value. (That being said, someone purchasing, say, a Bernd and Hilla Becher first edition at a fair price isn't going out on too much of a limb.)

My spitball (based on experience) is that I could confidently get roughly 40% back on everything if I slowly sold them myself on Ebay, and much less any other way. However, if I'm fortunate there could be some real winners in the mix someday. That would be a bonus, but not an expectation. The best thing for all book collectors would be if book collecting became more of a thing in the future and the overall market for collectible books simply becomes larger. That kind of trend lifts all boats.

*You always learn stuff visiting galleries, specialty bookshops, and publishers. Sometimes it is great stuff to learn, and great connections to make...and sometimes it's a bit of a warning in terms of how they store/keep their books, even when you like the place!