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of the book. Generally, an ex-library book is rated good, even if its condition would be rated higher if it was not a library discard. Book club editions must always be noted as such also.

In some instances, you might find that a book seems better than good, but is not quite very good. In that case you can used good+ or very good-. Not all booksellers agree with the practice of using + or -, so I rarely use them. Instead of using very good-, you can also use near very good. They mean the same thing.

What about the dust jacket? If it is missing, it must be noted since a missing dust jacket devalues a book. A book without its jacket is only worth about 25% of one with its jacket. The dust jacket should be rated separately using the same grading that is used for books: as new, fine, very good, good, fair and poor.

Dust jackets often have another flaw that must be noted. Sometimes when a person buys a book as a gift, he or she will clip the price off of the jacket, so the recipient won't know how much the book cost. If you are describing a jacket like this, describe the jacket as price-clipped.

Here are two book descriptions, taken from my database, which will hopefully give you some idea as to how to rate a book's condition.

De Angeli, Marguerite. Butter at the Old Price. The Autobiography of Marguerite De Angeli. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1971. Very good hardcover with light cover wear in a very good dust jacket with light wear, a couple small tears and part of a price sticker on the front. Not a library discard. No underlining or other markings.

Ransome, Arthur. Edgar Allan Poe A Critical Study. The Folcroft Press, 1970. Very good hardcover with light cover wear. No dust jacket. Not a library discard. No underlining or other markings, except for former owner's name on end page. Reprint of the 1910 edition published by Martin Secker.

If you want to accurately judge a book's condition, there are three things you must have or do. First, you must learn the industry standards. Have a copy next to you, and refer to it often when you are grading books. Second, you must thoroughly examine a book. Some flaws are hard to detect. Finally, you must be absolutely honest. If you are selling a book, don't fudge on its condition. If you are hesitant about whether it is very good, then grade it as good. It's better for your customer to be pleasantly surprised by getting a book that is better than advertised than to be disappointed by book that is worse than advertised. Chances are he or she will return the latter.

This essay wouldn't be complete if I failed to mention that on occasion what we consider flaws actually make a book more valuable. There is an old joke about a guy who throws out an old Bible, because, as he said, "It was written in Latin and some guy named Martin Luther had written notes on every page." Obviously, what the guy had thrown out was a Gutenberg Bible which had been annotated by the great reformer, Martin Luther. A famous person's notes in the margins of a book make the book more valuable. My notes or yours make it worthless.

In any event, your success as a bookseller or collector will be based in part on your ability to properly rate the condition of books. So learn to rate well. And while rating your books, don't forget to read some of them. After all, that's the primary reason for their existence.

Learn more about this author, Dan Weaver.
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