Just making a complete guess, but I think in the $400-500 range in the 70s would be in the ballpark. I don’t think people buy encyclopedias like they once did (and aren’t sold by pushy door-to-door salesmen like they once were), so they probably haven’t kept up with the rate of inflation.

Are they worth anything?” Determining the value of a set of encyclopedias or even a single volume isn’t exceedingly difficult, but there is market variation. As one bookseller puts it, the value of a book is whatever someone will pay for it. And the fact is, most encyclopedia sets aren’t worth much at all.

Is the Encyclopedia Britannica worth anything? Encyclopedias that are +100 years old are valuable to collectors as long as they are in good condition. Depending on the year of the book, condition of the cover and pages will determine the price. However, encyclopedia that only date back to 1974 have no value whatsoever.

• Encyclopedia Britannica Online. The online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica is a trusted source used by more than 4,755 universities worldwide, including Yale, Harvard and Oxford.
• Encyclopedia.com.
• Bartleby.
• Infoplease.
• Questia.
• dkonline.
• Encyclopedia of Life.
• Scholarpedia.

Fortunately, several options exist for disposing of the entire set without throwing them in the trash. Donate your old encyclopedias to a local school or library. This option depends on the age of the books and whether or not schools and libraries accept older sets of encyclopedias.

Saint Isidore of Seville

As an investment or an antique, a collectible Collier Encyclopedia is really not very collectible. Generally you can find a set for less than ten dollars, or even free.

And now, you can get access to the online version for free through a new program called Britannica Webshare – provided that you are a “web publisher.” The definition of a web publisher is rather squishy: “This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters.

120,000 articles

Why can’t I access Encyclopaedia Britannica Online? Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is a subscription site, so only paid subscribers and Free Trial participants are able to access the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica Online database and complete line of special features.