[FAQ] rec.collecting.books FAQ
Mike Berro
rec.collecting.books FAQ
04-Dec-96
Location: http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/rcb/
Feedback to: mi...@massmedia.com
If you have written something you think belongs in the FAQ that you
don't see here and want included, please send it to me, as well as any
corrections or additions you think should be made.
Table of Contents
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0) What is REC.COLLECTING.BOOKS?
1) What Kind of Posts are Inappropriate?
2) What Kind of Posts are Appropriate?
3) How Do I Advertise My Cool Website?
4) How Do I Know If It's a First Edition?
5) Do Signatures Enhance Value?
6) Do Dust Jackets Enhance Value?
7) What is the Difference Between "First Edition" and "First
Printing"
8) What does "Second Printing Before Publication" mean?
9) What Are Some Useful Guides to Collecting?
10) What Are Some Useful Guides to Repair and Conservation?
11) What Are Some Useful Price Guides?
12) Where Can I Find Conservation and Repair Supplies?
13) How Do I Cancel a Usenet Article I Posted?
14) What Do All Those Book Terms Mean?
15) How Do I Get Rid of That "Musty Smell"?
16) How Do I Remove A Label From A Dust Jacket?
17) Who Is Responsible For Shipping Problems?
18) How Do I Recognize a Book Club Edition?
0) What is REC.COLLECTING.BOOKS?
* It is an unmoderated Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion and
questions related to all aspects of book collecting.
1) What Kind of Posts are Inappropriate?
* Want to buy ...
* For sale ...
* Visit my commercial website.
* A list of books for sale is available from ...
* Before participating in Usenet you should make sure that you have
read at least the articles on netiquette in news.announce.newusers.
* More information can be found at; "Usenet Info Center Launch Pad"
at the URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/Usenet-b/home.html ...
* and "The Beginner's Guide to the Internet" at the URL:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~syoggy/beguide.html.
2) What Kind of Posts are Appropriate?
* Who else collects ...?
* Where can I find information about ...?
* Event announcements: Fairs, shows, auctions, etc.
* What information about it can anyone tell me?
* About how much is it worth?
* What edition do I have?
* If nobody seems to be discussing what you want to talk about, post
a (polite) message opening the discussion. Don't just say, "Does
anyone want to talk about X" or "I really like X" however; try to have
something interesting to say about the topic to get discussion going.
Don't be angry or upset if no one responds. It may be that X is just
a personal taste of your own, or quite obscure. Or it may be that X
was discussed to death a few weeks ago, *just* before you came into
the group. [Evelyn Leeper]
3) How Do I Advertise My Cool Website?
* Add the information below your "signature". It is considered rude
to just blurt out an ad, but if you join in the discussions people
will see the information, and be more interested in visiting as well.
4) How Do I Know If It's a First Edition?
* Identifying a first edition is often the most difficult aspect of
collecting books. You are welcome to ask about specific books on the
newsgroup, but it can be beneficial to purchase a guide to
identification.
5) Do Signatures Enhance Value?
* The signatures of the author(s) and/or artist(s) generally enhance
the value of a book. If the book is inscribed to a (famous) friend or
acquaintaince of the author, it is called an "association copy", and
is usually even more desirable.
6) Do Dust Jackets Enhance Value?
* John Carter's 'ABC for Book Collectors' (1995 edition. p 82): "The
earliest recorded dust-jacket dates from 1832..." [Steve Trussel]
* For modern books, very much so; often a book without a DJ will be
worth 10-20% of one that has it. [Mike Berro]
7) What is the Difference Between "First Edition" and "First Printing"
* [Long explanation to com, pending approval]
8) What does "Second Printing Before Publication" mean?
* It means that the book received enough orders (from booksellers)
that additional copies were printed prior to the official publication
(release) date. So it's a second printing. [Seth Steingraph]
* In general, and especially for modern fiction books, the first
printing is the only "collectible" edition. [Mike Berro]
* However, in some cases, they are collectable in their own right to
completists. For example Steinbeck's 'The Forgotten Village' indicates
"Viking" at the bottom of the DJ spine on the first printing. But the
"Second Printing Before Publication" copies state "Book League" at the
bottom of the DJ spine. [Mike Henry]
9) What Are Some Useful Guides to Collecting?
* McBride's A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions
(860) 523-7707 or (860) 523-1622.
* Ahearn, Allen. Book Collecting: A Comprehensive Guide. New York:
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. [Gerard Gormley]
* Bradley, Van Allen. Gold In Your Attic. New York: Fleet
Publishing, 19--. [Gerard Gormley]
* Bradley, Van Allen. More Gold In Your Attic. New York: Fleet
Publishing, 1961. [Gerard Gormley]
* Carter, John. ABC For Book Collectors. New York: Knopf, 1966.
[Gerard Gormley]
* Tannen, Jack. How To Identify and Collect American First
Editions. New York: Arco Publishing, 1985. [Gerard Gormley]
* Wilson, Robert A. Modern Book Collecting. New York: Knopf, 1980
[Gerard Gormley]
* Zempel, Edward N. and Linda A. Verkler. First Editions: A Guide
To Identification, Second Edition. Peoria IL: Spoon River Press.
[Gerard Gormley]
10) What Are Some Useful Guides to Repair and Conservation?
* Johnson, Arthur W., Thames & Hudson Manual of Bookbinding
published by Thames and Hudson, 30 Bloomsbury Street, London England
WCIB 3QP
* Johnson, Arthur W., The Practical Guide to Book Repair and
Conservation ISBN 0-500-01454-X published by Thames and Hudson, 30
Bloomsbury Street, London England WCIB 3QP
11) What Are Some Useful Price Guides?
* Zempel and Verkley. A Guide To First Editions, published by Spoon
River Press, 2319-C West Rohmann, Peoria, Il 61604 phone (309)
672-2665, fax (309) 672-7853.
* Reviews of over 30 book price guides and a few other key reference
works are now online at my web site
"http://members.aol.com/bookxpress/". [Seth Steingraph]
12) Where Can I Find Conservation and Repair Supplies?
* University Products at "http://www.universityproducts.com",
800-762-1165
* Brodart at "http://www.brodart.com/", 800-233-8467
* Gaylord at "http://www.gaylord.com/".
13) How Do I Cancel a Usenet Article I Posted?
* Most newsreaders allow you cancel your own message. The exact
procedure varies depending on the software, but usually you simply
highlight the message and select "cancel article" from the menu. It
may take some time before the message is cancelled from every news
server.
* An article titled How To Cancel An Article That You've Posted is
located at "http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/". It covers many
(but not all) the various newsreaders currently in use.
14) What Do All Those Book Terms Mean?
* Bookplate: A sticker or label adhered to a book (usually inside
the front cover or on the front free end paper). Some book owners use
bookplates to identify themselves as the owner. [Craig Newtson]
* Chip: An edge tear (usually triangular shaped) which has resulted
in the loss of a small portion of the dust jacket. "Lightly chipped"
usually refers to a dust jacket with a few chips all smaller than 1/4
inch. "Chipped" usually refers to dust jacket with a couple of chips
as large as 3/4 inch and several smaller chips. [Craig Newtson]
* Closed Tear: A tear in the dust jacket that resulted in no loss
of material. When held closed, the presense of the tear should not be
obvious at a glance. [Craig Newtson]
* Foxing: Yellowing or browning of a book's pages caused by
chemical changes in the paper. Books printed on low quality paper are
often susceptible to foxing. [Craig Newtson]
* Frontispiece: An illustration presented before the beginning of a
book's text (usually before the title page). [Craig Newtson]
* Photo-play Edition: A book that is illustrated with still
photographs from a motion picture. These editions were most popular
during the 1920's. A photo-play edition may or may not be a first
edition. Photo-play editions that are not first editions often
command premiums over other reprints. [Craig Newtson]
* Price Clipped: Most books have the price printed on the dust
jacket, usually the top right corner of the inside flap. People often
clip this off (diagonal cut) when giving a book as a gift.
* Remainder Mark: A remainder mark is a line drawn by a magic
marker or some such thing across the top or bottom edge of a book to
identify the book as a remainder so that book doesn't come back to the
publisher from a bookseller as a return on a full price. Ian Ellis,
in BOOK FINDS (1996), states that such marks knock 20% or more off the
price of an otherwise "mint" book. [Ken MacIver]
* Soiled: A book or dust jacket that is discolored by the presence
of a foreign substance such as dust or dirt. If the contaminate has
actually damaged the integrity of the book this damage should be noted
seperately. Damage due to water/moisture should not be referred to as
soiling (generally speaking). [Craig Newtson]
15) How Do I Get Rid of That "Musty Smell"?
* Try enclosing in plastic bag after dusting with baking soda
liberally. [Jack Evans]
* Someone claimed that putting the book in an enclosed bag with
kitty litter helps. Make sure the stuff doesn't touch the book, and
also make sure it's not been used. I've tried pointing an electric
fan at the book(s) for about a week (this was for smoke smell), and it
worked fairly well. [Mike Berro]
* When you smell a "musty" or "mildewy" type odor, you are quite
often reacting to mold spores which have left the book and are
floating in the air. This is a situation where using a fan could
cause a problem. Blowing the mold spores around could cause them to
land on other items, such as books, and spread the
problem...especially if you were using the fan in a closed
environment. [Ken Kapson]
* The fan also wouldn't treat the mold problem on the infected book
itself. At best, it would dry up any moisture which is present and
stop the mold from producing futher spores. But desiccation alone
will not kill the mold. It will become inactive. However, once
moisture becomes present again, the mold will reactivate itself (hardy
little buggers, aren't they?). [Ken Kapson]
* One further comment, which may be of interest. The smell
receptors in your nose will become "fatigued" after being exposed to
an odor for a period of time. This means that you will stop noticing
the smell. So, this means that if you go to someone's musty basement
and start looking at their books, eventually you won't notice the
smell that could be present in some of the individual items. But
later on, after you've brought your new purchases home and your smell
receptors have returned to normal, you'll once again be able to smell
the mold on the books (which you didn't notice at the time you bought
them). [Ken Kapson]
16) How Do I Remove A Label From A Dust Jacket?
* Removing labels is often quite simple. I apply a hot iron for a
moment to heat the label. This loosens the glue and often, but not
always, the label can be removed very cleanly. To supplement the
iron, try using cigarette lighter fluid (naphta), which helps get rid
of any sticky residue. Once cleaned up, many up ex-lib books become
much easier to sell. It's amazing what a few minute touchup will do.
Yes, you must still declare the book ex-lib when selling. [Seth
Steingraph]
* I use mineral spirits. Less flammable and, to my knowledge,
equally effective. In cases where the heat of an iron might risk
damage, I dab mineral spirits onto the label until it loosens the
adhesive. [Gerard Gormley]
17) Who Is Responsible For Shipping Problems?
* West's Business Law, Second Edition, quotes the Universal
Commercial Code paragraph 2-509(1)(b) as follows: "Risk of loss can
be assigned through an agreement of the parties. Assuming that there
is no spcification in the agreement, if the seller is required or
authorized to ship goods by carrier, risk of loss passes to the buyer
when the goods are duly delivered to the carrier." The Universal
Commercial Code has been adopted in all states except Louisiana, as of
1983 when this edition was published. [Bill Fishman]
* Of course, there's not always a correlation between the law and
standard business practice, which in bookselling appears to put the
onus on the seller, until the item has reached the buyer's doorstep.
[Mark Wilden]
18) How Do I Recognize a Book Club Edition?
* There was a time when bookclub editions were easily identified.
They were smaller, looked cheap, were lighter in weight, and were
usually marked "Bookclub Edition" on the dust jacket. Now bookclubs
try hard to disguise their editions, and with original editions
getting junkier by the year, there's often little apparent difference
between the two. It's quite common for bookclub editions to use the
original publishers' first-edition negatives or printing plates.
According to Wilson (p. 111), many book club editions (bce's) are
supplied by the original publishers in identical format (I take it
this means with the same binding and paper?). Either way, book club
editions can bear "First Edition" on their copyright-pages. [Gerard
Gormley]
* Some bookclub editions even have prices on the dust jackets,
though this is uncommon. Increasingly common is the original edition
with no price on the dust jacket. This is said to enable bookstores
to do their own pricing. It also helps to hide bookclub editions, but
this is probably incidental. [Gerard Gormley]
* If you find a circle, square, maple leaf, dot, or star
blind-stamped on the bottom right of the outside back cover, it's a
Book of the Month Club (BOMC) edition. The great majority, but not
all, BOMC books are so stamped. BOMC has been doing this since 1948
or 1949. BOMC books published prior to that time are difficult to
distinguish from true first editions (as are their more recent books).
[Gerard Gormley]
* Literary Guild shows no identification on book, only on dust
jacket. [Ahearn states on p. 46 that Literary Guild is identified on
spine and title page. Such books must be uncommon, for I have yet to
find any Literary Guild identification on any book or dust jacket.]
Tanner says that no book club edition is considered a first, but
people are selling book club firsts, albeit at reduced prices. [Gerard
Gormley]