Describing used books

I think it's extremely rude for people to return books at all! If someone is buying a rare book (or one whose condition they care about for some other reason) they should take the time to call the seller before ordering. If you're not prepared to research your purchase yourself, you should not blame the seller if you're not happy with what you receive. Plus, it is good to form a good rapport with someone who is sending you (or your library) such valuable material.

As for the F/F nomenclature, I don't think it matters which specific terms a seller uses as long as they are consistent. There are several sites I trust whose cataloguers are not trained in standard rare books cataloguing, and use their own terms. They are so good that I don't even need to call them. Several of my acquaintence who run shops selling a mixture of rare and second-hand make it clear which books they regard as which - one is up-front and starts rare book descriptions with “rare” or “collectors' copy.” The others tell the picky (professional rare books) people like me off-record that above a certain price the cataloguing is always done by a trained dealer / cataloguer.

I could not agree more about the inappropriate nature of detailed descriptions of everyday, modern non-rare material. I can't see the point of wasting time describing it at all, other than, maybe, stating if something was in poor condition. Often 'non-book people' expect too much of sellers, and that should be there problem (although that's easy for me to say from the depths of my library world).

On a related point, I think it's appalling how little respect is offered to what I call 'good secondhand' dealers. When I attend rare books conferences, I am appalled by the attitudes of certain rare books librarians towards the bulk of the 'good secondhand' dealers. It's as if they think no-one outside Quaritch knows the value of a decent copy. When I was younger it was a tough decision whether to become a special collections librarian or a 'good secondhand' dealer. I chose special collections because I got an easy entry and because the risks of dealership didn't appeal to me. I suspect a lot of others made the same decision for the same reason. Yet I have seen some of my acquaintence from good shops being treated as if they are second-class citizens as opposed to secondhand dealers. I wish that more dealers in the 'good secondhand' side would speak up. I don't know if you are 'good secondhand' or 'good secondhand' and rare, but I think your blog is a good voice for the dealer-end, witty and pragmatic but erudite. I've recommended it to friends and in some of the papers I give in rare books, and will continue to do so.

A brief description doesn't necessarily make an incomplete description, but I wouldn't expect a book that's described as “in good condition, with faint spine creases” to have a split in the binding between two registers (regardless of whether the book was common or rare). I'd feel I had the right to return the book and expect a full refund.

A few weeks ago I ordered a common paperback with that description from an Amazon Marketplace dealer. The spine was split and I would've returned the book with little hesitation, except that I wanted to start reading it. This copy will be in pieces before I'm through with it. I'll have to pick up another, but I think I'll make that one a new copy.

Our own policy has always been that a customer can return anything for any reason.

Amazon's Marketplace has lots of incompetent sellers. I don't know if the person who sold you that book was dishonest or simply stupid. Even though I sell there I normally won't buy books there.

You can leave negative feedback for the seller. Not that I'm fond of Amazon's feedback system. We got negative feedback from one person who simply didn't enjoy the book.

My partner and I have ordered a few hundred used books via bookselling sites like TomFolio and ABE and have only bought two unsatisfactory books between us.

So far, I've only had this problem on eBay. One quickly learns that “in good condition for its age” means “on the verge of collapse.” (And somebody needs to ban IGCFIA from the lexicon, anyway.)

We sell on eBay but don't buy. Gordon doesn't look and I looked once and saw a vast abyss I could pour all my money into.

I associate in good condition for its age with customers who are convinced I'm trying to rob them buy not paying them more for something that is beat all to Hell.

I've heard horror stories of eBay sellers who assume any book that doesn't say otherwise and don't know that a book club edition is (almost) never a first edition. Plenty of those folks are on Amazon. Or they say things like “Gift condition! Ex-library, tears in dust jacket otherwise like new.”

Annie,

Really we prefer for people to email us if they have questions. Some days there?s only one of us in the shop and be trying to balance face-to-face selling and buying. Or the book may be out of place. In the latter case if the person emails we actually put more effort in trying to find it than if they are on the phone. Mostly because there?s a sense of pressure if they called. I?ll take their phone number but won?t look for more than a half-hour before calling them back to say I can?t find it. For email orders and inquiries we usually won?t consider it lost until all three of us have looked. Just because there?s no sense of urgency.

In the merely retail side of online bookselling you rarely sell the same person more than one book. They are just looking for the best price or you have only that one rare book in their specialty. And lots of inexperienced and naïve buyers are using a service or some third-party mechanism that blocks direct access. As much as I?d prefer that all orders be direct the reality that keeps the shop?s lights turned on dictate otherwise.

And I think they deserve the same implicit warranty that they are dealing with someone honest and competent. You wouldn?t want to test all the meat you buy for bacteria or double-check to insure that the new spark plugs put in your car are a good brand and not recycled junk.

I don?t really give the antiquarian dealers any thought. There?s an inevitable hierarchy of snobbishness if what you sell is costly or uncommon. And it doesn?t have anything to do with the ostensible cultural value of what is being sold. It is the same social mechanism that makes boutique orders on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills look down on people who buy their clothes from a cheaper, mainstream retailer. Elitists like the poor will be with us always.

The only books I buy secondhand are rare for the organisations for which I have worked (as rare books librarian / cataloguer). The dealers I use prefer a phone call to an e-mail (because they are usually swamped out with speculative mails and because, in any case, we are friendly acquaintences).

Snobbery of any kind saddens me, and I would hate to think it inevitable. I trained in historical bibliography because I love the beauty of rare books, and I find the snobbery that persists in the profession (librarianship) a real blight. Everyone has always been lovely to me, but I have seen some of my friends, especially those in the book trade, treated really badly.

Where can I find a good site that tells how to describe and catalogue books? I'd like to get into collecting rare books but don't know shit about it.
I sell a lot of books on ebay and amazon but it's mostly remnants and used books in that deal with wicca and the occult.

Most used bookdealers have probably started with John Carter's The ABC of Book Collecting.

What really gets me going is what some online sellers consider to be acceptable packaging for books. My least favorite have been: book placed in envelope- no protection beyond what a measly envelope can do and the worst was wrapping a collectable paperback in wax-paper, in summer to my West Texas home, to sit all day in my metal mailbox- trasferring a waxy sheen to the book!