Bramling....The actual selling price for most s/hand railway books is very low.
As a secondhand rail bookseller on line,the average IA type book will make £5-£7 tops,and that usually includes postage ...It can be said that the only books that hold or increase there value are books such as Colin Giffords,Dow Great Central etc ,books that are unique histories ,unable to better as with Dows Great Centr 3 parter,books that are again unique and have controlled print runs,Like Halfway to Heaven.
Take it fro me,that over the years IA,D&C and SLP as example have printed large runs,for book clubs,thus completly killing the market in terms of holding value.
It takes the WSP approach of top quality,writing,checking of facts and in case of Paul Karau's WSP a unique and quirky way of printing/publication..
No there is too much junk being published at present,Paul Atterbury is one of the worst for this.
With the shake out of publishers ,I feel/know will be reduction of printing/publication of rail books...The quality operaters like WSP and say Black Dwarf will do well based on quality
Oh and David Allen at Booklaw is a bit of a pain as although he has an RRP on his new books,never sells at that,and allied with his reminder activities in the past has again knocked prices downwards!