I made an account just to respond to you(I'm a 100% lurker). I collect old (pre-1900) books not because I look for financial profit or an increase in value, but to preserve literature- especially older books that are less likely to have been scanned.

What I usually do is I look for books that are on their last threads or are so old they likely won't survive much more abuse of time and tear- and scan/upload them so that they can survive as digital copies long after they turn into dust and mulch on my low-income bookshelves I made myself.

I don't expect these works to survive much longer- much like the memories those older than me will disappear forever after they die soon(most people don't record their lives). So I do what I can to preserve the memories of the past by cloning them into shareable media.

To me, once it's been uploaded- their antique value still remains the same, other people just get to have python-translated pdf/txt formats of the genuine physical copy.