Book Condition If 1900 or Earlier
If 1900 or before, modest rubbing of extremities is anticipated, no chipping (absent material) at top or bottom of spine, no signs of major chafing of cloth, no cracked hinges or cracked joints, possibly minor spots of soil or stain and occasional foxing is expected – nothing should be missing, no missing endpaper or half-title. Generally books in very good condition are collectible and sell well. Your description should be accurate, revealing all the flaws of the copy and the price should reflect the severity of the flaws.
Fine (F)– If a book published after 1900, the condition should be almost “like new” with only very, very minor signs of use, no noticeable wear or rubbing, no fading of the spine, no dog-eared pages, possibly lacking the fresh or crisp look of a brand new book and intact, with nothing missing – no missing endpapers and if issued with a dust jacket, the jacket must be separately described with any flaws noted.
If an older book, published before 1900 slightly more signs of usage are tolerated, but the books should be still a well-cared-for, fresh looking book: very minor rubbing; very minor fading of cloth or color of boards; but no cracked hinges, a few specks of foxing, nothing missing – no missing endpaper, half-title or spine labels.
On both the twentieth century and older books, there shouldn’t be any library marks (public or institutional), nevertheless there can be a bookplate from a personal collector.
Fine books are clean, bright with no or very little spots, stains, noticeable wear, cuts, foxing (rust stains) or missing part or whole pages. When a book is better than very good but not quite fine (in the case of a 19th century book perhaps a little too much rubbing on the cloth) use the “VG to Fine” designation.
In most cases books are returnable for a refund, if purchased from a dealer, when they are not as described, and you should use that policy as well if you expect to stay in business in the long term. Most refund not only the purchase price but postage as well.
As a beginning book dealer you should strive to deal in books of very good to fine condition. There may be some bargains to be had among the very worn books, but you should probably avoid them unless you know the book is very scarce or rare as mentioned earlier. The reason should be obvious by now: they just won’t sell.
Most dealers grade books with two abbreviations as in F/VG. The first half of the designation would indicate the condition of the boards and the second half of the designation would indicate the condition of the dust jacket In this case the book would be in Fine condition while the dust jacket would be Very Good.
My expectations for this book is to not have any missing pages, owner inscriptions, book plates, library markings, or open tears. This book must be structurally complete and attractive to the eye. The jacket and book had better be brilliant and clean.
“VG” differs to a “Fine” in that rips in the jacket or pages are bigger and the book exhibits more wear. Its binding can be somewhat loose but this book would however be free of absent pages and major flaws.
A book in “VG-” (very good minus) condition: this book is free of major defects such as missing pages but has evidence of substantial wear. There could be small tears in the fabric of the book. These books may have evidence of slight foxing or be lightly browned on the edges.
Books that have obviously been in a public library should additionally be described as “ex-library” or “X-LIB” or “ex-lib”. But as I have already mentioned these books have little collectible value and should not be purchased for inventory unless its content is valuable to a specific market you’ve identified. The only exception to this rule is if the dust jacket was VG or better condition and is easily removed from the book and could be sold as a “clean dust jacket”.
About Dust Jackets
take caution of that dust jacket! in the instance of current books, which is to say nearly anything in the late nineteenth or twentieth century, the value of the dust jacket to a collector can actually be several times the value of the same book without a jacket. although 3 times the price isn’t extraordinary, for many books the ratio may go as high as 10 times or more. equally with the first editions themselves, condition is the great factor.
© 2009, Work At Home Covert Opps!. All rights reserved.
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