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If you’re moving or clearing an estate, skip this tool. Just text 505-250-3804 for free donation pickup — that’s the easier path for almost everyone. This tool is for collectors and researchers checking a list against a structured bibliography. NMLP doesn’t buy books.

Reference tool for collectors & researchers

Check my books

Paste a book list — author names, titles, anything. The tool scans your list against the public NMLP reference data and tells you which entries match an indexed author or title. The pillar guides, 52 closed-signature-pool authors, 50 top New Mexico first editions, 89 collecting terms. Useful if you’re a collector or a researcher checking your list against a structured bibliography.

Not a valuation tool. A match means the title appears in my reference data — not a price prediction. NMLP is a free donation-pickup operation; I don’t buy books. If you’re donating, you don’t need it — just call or text.

Loading reference data…

Methodology — what the tool sees and what it misses

This is a deliberately simple substring matcher running in your browser. Knowing what it does and doesn't do up front saves you from over-trusting a flag or under-trusting a non-match.

What it scans against

  • 67 pillar guides — Southwest authors, regional publishers, and book-history references with full authentication methodology and pricing data. Inventory at /pillars.
  • 52 closed-signature-pool authors — deceased authors whose signed inventory is fixed and tracked, with current auction comp ranges. Master table.
  • 50 top New Mexico first editions — curated ranked list of the most-collectible regional first editions. Ranked list.
  • 89-term collecting glossary — terminology used in book-condition grading, edition identification, and signature provenance. Glossary.

All four datasets are published as public JSON feeds at /api/ under CC-BY-4.0. The matcher pulls the feeds on page load, splits your pasted text on common delimiters (newlines, commas, semicolons, em-dashes), case-folds, and checks each token for a substring match against indexed names.

What a match means

A match means the name in your list appears somewhere in the indexed data — nothing more. Specifically, a match does not imply:

  • The specific copy you have is a first edition or first printing (most matches in the wild are reprints).
  • The book is signed (signature changes the value envelope by 5–100×).
  • The condition is collectible (cover wear, foxing, ex-library marks all matter).
  • A current dollar figure (real comps move with the market quarter to quarter).

A match is a flag to look further. The pillar guide for the matched author is the place to look — each pillar walks through edition identification, signature provenance, condition framework, and current pricing.

What a non-match means

A non-match means the name is not indexed. It does not mean the book is worthless. The reference data skews heavily toward:

  • Southwest and New Mexico authors
  • Closed-signature-pool authors regardless of region (deceased authors with fixed signed inventory)
  • Regional New Mexico publishers (UNM Press, SAR Press, Cinco Puntos, Sunstone, etc.)

Books that are valuable but won't match include: famous-living-author firsts (most pillars are deceased authors), East Coast literary firsts outside the Top 50, textbooks and STEM monographs (see Sell or Donate?), and trade-paperback editions of major works (rarely collectible regardless of author).

What to do based on what the tool returned

If 1–3 titles flagged

Click into each pillar guide to check the edition points (first printing? right number line? right dust jacket state?) — identification, not appraisal. Three flagged titles in a typical 200-book library is normal — that's the long tail of value distribution working as expected.

If 5+ titles flagged

You have a collection rather than a library. The flagged titles plus the pillar guides give you the identification framework. If the collection is leaving the house, you don’t need to sort it first — I take the whole shelf, in any condition, with free pickup across the Albuquerque metro, scheduled by route.

If a closed-signature-pool author flagged with multiple titles

High-attention zone. Closed pools mean the signed supply is finite and tracked, and the closed-signature-pool table documents the signature variants. These are the books I don't want lost in a recycling bin — donated, they're researched by hand before they're listed, and they come with the rest of the shelf on a free pickup across the Albuquerque metro, scheduled by route.

If zero titles flagged

A non-match only means the name isn't indexed. Number line, imprint, and printing statement live on the copyright page, and the tool can't see those — the free First Edition Checker reads them. That's identification, not appraisal.

If you're moving or clearing an estate, regardless of result

Text 505-250-3804 for free donation pickup across the Albuquerque metro, scheduled by route, or use the 24/7 drop box outside the gate at 5445 Edith Blvd NE. Any condition, no sorting needed — flagged titles and all. This is the path that almost everyone in a moving or estate situation should take — the tool exists for serious collectors and researchers, not for people just trying to get the books out of the house.

Worked examples

Estate library, North Valley

List pasted: 142 titles, mixed Southwest and general fiction.

Tool returned: 11 matches — Hillerman (4), Frank Waters (2), Edward Abbey (1), Erna Fergusson (1), N. Scott Momaday (1), John Nichols (1), Tony Hillerman essays (1).

What that meant: 11 flags in 142 titles is normal for a Southwest-heavy estate library. Nothing needed sorting before pickup — flagged titles and all, the whole library can come in on a free pickup, and flagged titles are researched by hand before they’re listed instead of disappearing into a recycling bin.

Downsizing senior, Nob Hill

List pasted: 68 titles — largely New York Times bestsellers from 1990s–2010s.

Tool returned: 0 matches.

What that meant: Not a collection — a reading library. None of the titles fell into a Southwest or closed-pool index. Free pickup made sense. Books routed: 18 children's books to community literacy partners, 12 to a Little Free Library, the rest into the resale pipeline at trade prices. The "zero matches" answer was the correct one.

Researcher building a Cormac McCarthy bibliography

List pasted: 47 McCarthy-related entries (works, criticism, secondary sources).

Tool returned: 23 matches against the McCarthy pillar.

How that helped: The pillar guide gave the researcher edition-identification details for the matches plus a pricing-tier framework. The 24 non-matches were criticism and secondary sources outside the indexed scope — no value implication, just outside what the tool indexes. The researcher didn't need a donation; she needed the structured bibliography this tool surfaces from the public JSON feeds.

FAQ

Will this tool tell me how much my books are worth?
Not directly. The tool tells you which titles match an indexed author or title. A match is a flag to look further, not a price prediction. Real value depends on edition, condition, signature, and current auction comps — none of which the tool sees.
What data does this tool actually scan against?
Four published JSON feeds: 67 author pillar guides, 52 closed-signature-pool authors, 50 top New Mexico first editions, and an 89-term collecting glossary. All live at /api/ under CC-BY-4.0.
Does my book list get sent anywhere?
No. The matching runs entirely in your browser. No book list is uploaded to any server, and no analytics event captures the contents. View source if you want to verify.
If a book matches, what should I actually do?
See the decision-tree section above. A match is a flag to open the pillar guide — identification, not appraisal. If the books are leaving the house, flagged titles and all can come with the rest of the shelf: free pickup across the Albuquerque metro, scheduled by route, or the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE.
Why doesn't NMLP just buy these books from me?
NMLP is a free donation-pickup operation and never buys books or pays donors. The separate sister business at sellbooksabq.com selectively buys rare first editions and signed copies at the same warehouse — same owner, two front doors.
What if my list has zero matches?
Doesn't mean your books are worthless — means the names aren't indexed. The reference data skews toward Southwest authors and closed-signature pools. For edition identification on a specific copy, the free First Edition Checker reads the number line and imprint on the copyright page — identification, not appraisal.
Is this an automated valuation model or AI tool?
No. It's a deliberately simple substring matcher — auditable, fast, client-side. There's no machine learning, no language model, no fuzzy matching beyond case folding. The simplicity is the point.
How current is the reference data?
JSON feeds at /api/ regenerate each site build (typically weekly). The Top 50 NM first editions list is reviewed quarterly. Closed-signature pools update as authors die or as new signed inventory enters the market.

How it works

Every entry on this site — the pillars, the closed signature pool table, the top 50 first editions, the 89-term collecting glossary — is also published as a public JSON feed. This tool fetches those feeds in your browser, runs your pasted text against them with simple substring matching, and tells you what came back.

The point of flagging books is to keep the trophies from getting pulped. A signed first edition of a deceased author behaves differently in the used-book ecosystem than an unsigned trade hardcover of a living one. If you have something covered by a pillar guide, there's specialty knowledge attached to that title that determines where it should end up. The tool tells you what those names are, and when they come in with a donation pickup, they go to the right specialist instead of a recycling bin.

The tool is intentionally rough. It catches obvious matches; it misses subtle ones. A non-match doesn't mean a book has no value — it means I don't have that name indexed.

NMLP is a free donation operation. I don't buy books; donated books are sorted by hand, and rare ones are researched before they're listed. No data leaves your browser. The page is statically hosted on Cloudflare; the JSON feeds are publicly cached; the matcher runs locally. View source if you want to verify.

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