What GarageBooks is, what it costs and how it works.
GarageBooks is a web app for collectors of automotive and motorsport books. It lets you catalogue your collection, estimate what each book is worth with research on real market prices, and buy or sell books between collectors on a marketplace with protected payments. Think of it as Discogs for car books.
Collectors of car and motorcycle books, fans of marques such as Ferrari, Porsche, Lancia, Alfa Romeo or Maserati, specialist bookshops and dealers who want to keep their catalogue in order, know what it is worth and sell to an audience of enthusiasts.
GarageBooks is available in Italian and English and runs in the browser on desktop and mobile at www.garagebooks.ai. It can also be installed on your phone's home screen as an app.
Take a photo of the cover: the AI recognises title, author, publisher and year and fills in the record. You can also scan the barcode, type the ISBN, or enter the details by hand.
With the "What is it worth?" feature: GarageBooks looks up listings and completed sales of the same book on eBay, Catawiki, AbeBooks, Subito and other sites, takes edition and condition into account, and returns a low, average and high estimate with links to the sources. A full research costs 25 AI credits.
Yes. With "Value a book" you can photograph any book, for example at a fair or a flea market, get the estimate, and then decide whether to save it to your collection.
No, by default only the owner can see it. In the privacy settings you can choose to have a public profile and to show your collection, with or without its value.
The Free plan costs nothing, holds up to 30 books and includes 5 AI credits a month. The Collector plan is €4.99 a month and includes unlimited books, 150 AI credits a month and collection analytics. The Dealer plan is €14.99 a month and includes 500 AI credits a month, unlimited listings and seller analytics. You can cancel at any time.
The books already in your collection all stay where they are and keep working normally. To add more you move to Collector or Dealer, which have no limit, or remove a book. No credit card is needed to use the Free plan.
AI credits power the AI features: recognising a cover or an ISBN from a photo costs 1 credit, a full price research costs 25 credits. Plan credits renew every month; credits bought separately never expire.
Yes, with one-off packs: 100 credits for €4.99, 250 credits for €9.99, 600 credits for €19.99. Purchased credits are permanent.
Every user has a personal invite link. When a friend signs up from that link and adds their first book, both receive 25 AI credits that never expire, which is one full price research each.
From the book's page you put it up for sale with a price and a shipping cost. Buyers can make an offer and negotiate in the chat. Once an offer is accepted the buyer pays within 48 hours, the seller ships within 5 days adding the tracking number, and is paid when the buyer confirms receipt.
Yes. Payments go through Stripe and the money is held until the buyer confirms they received the book; if nothing is reported within 14 days of shipping, the order completes automatically. If the seller doesn't ship in time, or there is a problem with the book, the buyer can ask for a refund.
Not today: the seller receives the book price plus shipping. To be paid they set up their payouts once with Stripe.
Italy, the other European Union countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway.
Every Friday evening a new challenge of 10 timed questions of increasing difficulty about cars, motorsport and books goes live. There are weekly, monthly and yearly leaderboards, and the champions of the month and of the year enter the hall of fame.
Ready to catalogue your first book?