What rebinding a book actually costs, doing it yourself and paying someone

Asked because the two numbers are very far apart and both are quoted without detail.

Paying a binder
A full rebind in cloth, with the text block resewn, is skilled hand work measured in hours. A simple recase, reusing the existing text block and putting it into new boards, is much less. The gap between them is large and most quotes are for the second thing while people imagine the first.

What drives the price: whether the sewing has to be redone, whether the paper needs repair, leather versus cloth, and any tooling or lettering on the spine. Lettering in gold is a separate craft and priced accordingly.

Doing it yourself

• Materials are cheap. Book cloth, board, thread, adhesive and headbands for a single volume are a modest cost, and buying enough for several brings it down sharply.
• Tools are where the money goes, and they are one-off. A bone folder and a needle cost almost nothing. A press, a plough or a guillotine, and a decent board shear are what turn this into an expensive hobby, and none are required to start.
• The press is the one worth improvising. Two boards and clamps, or a stack of heavy books, does the job for a long time.
• The real cost is time. A first rebind takes a weekend and looks like a first rebind.

When each makes sense
Paying makes sense for something valuable, structurally damaged, or where the result has to be right the first time. Doing it yourself makes sense for a book you care about but would not insure, which is most of the books people want to rebind.

Worth knowing: rebinding removes originality, and for anything that might be collectable that reduces value rather than restoring it. A protective enclosure is often the better answer.