Books Online - From the CBO Radio Archives - The Naked IM Professional When She Was CBC Radio's Internet Maven

Books, Glorious, Used, Dirty (and Possibly Valuable) Books

May 22, 2001
Lindsay Fraser

Introduction
With the garage sale season looming, many of you may already be making plans for treasure hunting. My particular favourite is going through all those dusty, dirty boxes of old books and finding gems, particularly children's books, from the past. How do you know, when you find one of these classics, if it has any value? Use the Internet of course.

 

Background
Recently, at a garage sale, a friend in California bought a big, old volume of Shakespeare's works for her husband for 99 cents. She got home and checked the value of the book on the Internet and discovered it was worth $800. How about that?

 

Well it so happens that when I was in California I went to an event called a "swap meet". Like an outdoor flea market this "swap meet" featured many stalls selling everything from hair pieces, to socks, to art painted on glass to Harley Davidson kid's clothes. At the only book stall, I bought a children's picture book for me, not my daughter (this book has real paper pages and not the cardboard and vinyl pages she is accustomed to). This book, which looked rather interesting to me, is called "The Bunny Book", was published in 1955 and was written by a woman called Patsy Scarry (recognize that last name). Well it was also illustrated by a much more famous Scarry, Richard. Richard Scarry almost all of us know from the endless series of "small animals at work" books that he has published under the heading "The Busy World Of Richard Scarry". In this particular book you can see the very beginnings of his so totally recognizable style. I wondered, from the moment of picking it up, if I had found a "special" book.

I have decided, for the purpose of this radio show, to use the Internet to find out more about his book, and its author, to see whether I had found myself a .99 cent "treasure". I am not as shallow and avaricious as you all might think. I am planning on getting full enjoyment out of this pursuit of knowledge so have deliberately chosen not to go straight to a site to value the book. Instead I will wend my way around the Internet looking for all sorts of information that will help me understand the potential of my purchase.

Because I'd like to know a little about Richard Scarry - for example how old he was when he illustrated this book - I started by going to Yahoo and performed a search on his name. My search brought back links to many sites along with a category link at Yahoo for children's authors - this immediately told me his age as his category is called Richard Scarry (1919 to 1994). How about that then? He was 36 when he illustrated my book.

Visiting his category I elected to visit a biographical page about Scarry that was called Richard Scarry Fundamentals. Here I discovered that he married in 1949 and illustrated his first book in 1951 (not too soon before my book - oh, the excitement mounts). The biographer points out that Scarry underwent a lot of criticism for his gender stereotyping - animals in dresses always doing women's jobs, animals in pants always doing male jobs. Well, I have read "The Bunny Book" and I can tell you right now that it is definitely charmingly dated.

Visiting another Scarry bio at The Lowly Worm Zone, I was disappointed to note that in 1953 (two years before my book) he had his first major success with "Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever".

My third biographical site on the Books and Writers Web site (which looks very professional) proves to be quite illuminating. Furthermore, the information here completely contradicts that which I have read so far. Here I am told that his first book was published in 1949 and that his breakthrough book "Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever" was released in 1963 not 1953. Oh, I'm still in with an outside chance I think. It says that in the 1950s he illustrated and wrote for Little Golden Books (that's what mine is) and that several of his books were written by either Kathryn Jackson or Patsy Scarry. According to the biographer "Gradually his animal characters started to behave more like real people, and the drawing became much looser in style." Which certainly makes sense if you can see the illustrations in my book. In a Selected Works list I am disappointed to find that 17 books preceded "The Bunny Book".

In the final biography I visited I discovered another fascinating fact which confirms in my mind the significance of this illustrator. In 1955 Scarry illustrated a book called Smokey the Bear and his illustration determined the appearance of what would go on to become a huge national icon for fire safety. Who knew?

Moving away from biographical information, and wanting to know more about old books in general, I found an excellent FAQ file (Frequently Asked Questions) called Your Old Books . This file, which is hosted by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association, is full of excellent information such as what makes a book rare or important. I notice they have a question "what is the difference between a rare book and a second-hand book?" Unfortunately the answer is "a second-hand book is a used book that is not distinguished by its edition, provenance, binding, or overall condition; its retail price generally is quite modest. " Also "books found in attics, basements, and yard sales often appear to be old, interesting, or valuable to people unfamiliar with the vast numbers of books that survive from earlier centuries." Hmmm, this could easily be me.

I thought the following, from the FAQ, was an interesting set of dates to be kept in mind while book sale shopping for rare books - look for books printed before 1501, English books printed before 1641, books printed in the Americas before 1801 and books printed west of the Mississippi before 1850.

More good news for my book was discovered in the FAQ as condition is a determining factor in a book's value. Condition refers to external appearance and internal completeness. A book in "fine" condition is complete in all respects, has no tears, or other signs of misuse or overuse and is in an original, appropriate and intact binding. Phew, good thing I have been keeping this book away from my daughter the marauder because the book is in excellent condition, even at the edges that typically get quite frayed on a Golden Book.

The FAQ also provided a very interesting list of old books that are typically not rare, they include: bibles, collected editions of author's works, encyclopedias, and textbooks. Also I discovered that though many people fuss about first editions, most books only appear in one edition so that is no great indicator of value. In fact I looked at The Bunny Book and it looks to me like it is a first edition.

Excited, I was now ready to try to get a price on my book. I visited a site called the Bookmine which specializes in old books. Here I looked up their index of available children's books and found a Richard Scarry worth $50. Upon reading the description I found that this book, which dates from 1967, was a first edition (which we know may mean nothing) and that it is a "near fine copy" that has suffered "very light wear".

I then visited a site called Abooksearch.com which specializes in out of print, old and rare books. Their search engine searches the databases and Web sites of thousands of booksellers. Here I entered into their search engine the author's name and the title of my book. Much to my surprise they actually had a copy of "The Bunny Book" for sale. The copy they have is a first edition, like mine, is from a private collection and is "tight, crisp and clean" and has never been read. They claim it comes from a Whitman employee estate (whatever that means) and that it is "unfaded, like it was printed yesterday" (so is mine). The asking price for this book is, are you ready for it, $43.75 US. Yippee, I only paid .99 cents US - talk about a good return on investment!

Further scrolling down the page, at abooksearch.com, proved rather disheartening as they in fact have about 50 listings for "The Bunny Book" ranging in price from $43.75 to $15.00. I soon realized that this book had actually been produced in numerous editions and that I didn't understand what "A" printing meant or what 8vo meant so that in order to properly understand what I had, I would have to do more research. One of the descriptions indicated a source called "The Little Golden Books Guide".

A quick trip to Yahoo and a search on "Golden Books" brought me a link to the Golden Books Web site at. This site is primarily designed for kids (the readers of Golden Books). To get background information on the company you have to go into the "Parents and Teachers" section and then select from across the top of that page, in very small text "About Golden". I found out that in 1907 two brothers bought a company called West Side Printing for $2,504. In 1910 the firm changed their name to Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Well, my copy of "The Bunny Book" was in fact printed by this firm. As a result of a business deal that went wrong Western acquired a publishing company and created a division called Whitman Publishing. Even more interesting, as that copy of the book that I found at $43 US, was described as being "Old Whitman stock from an employee estate" - which would explain why it was never read. Turns out that Whitman and Western struck a deal in the 30s to create books around Disney characters (the first one being Bambi). These were sufficiently successful that the Golden Book line was introduced in 1942 - 42 page hardcover books for children that sold for 25 cents each.

All of this information from Golden Books was great but it still hadn't answered my questions about what 8vo and "A" printing meant. I decided to visit my friend Norm's recommended site called The Advanced Book Exchange (http://www.abe.com). At this site I went into the "Help" section and was presented with a glossary of terms that covered such subjects as book sizes and book condition.

Browsing through the alphabetical listings in the glossary I found out that 8vo (also known as octavo) refers to a book of about 5 inches wide and 8 inches tall to about 6 by 9 inches. So I now know that the book in my possession is also an 8vo (like the $43 book).

In the section about book condition I found that condition of a book is usually expressed in the form of VG/VG, Fine/Good, VG/--, etc. The first part is the condition of the book, the second is the condition of the dust jacket. If a "/--" is present, it usually means that the dustjacket is not present. The $43 book is expressed as Fine/None as Issued. My book also does not have a dust jacket and I would be surprised if one was ever issued. The expression "Fine" means that the book approaches the condition of "As New", but without being crisp. For the use of the term "Fine", there must also be no defects, etc., and if the jacket has a small tear, or other defect, or looks worn, this should be noted. "As New" can only be used if the book is in the same immaculate condition to which it was published. There can be no defects, no missing pages, no library stamps, etc., and the dustjacket (if it was issued with one) must be perfect, without any tears. My book appears to my untrained eye to be "Fine" as the cover is just the tiniest bit dirty (fingerprints really, sadly I suspect they are my own).

I also found reference in this glossary to grading but I note that the grading is for paperbacks though the book I have in my possession is a hard cover book. The $43 book is described as "A" or First Edition. The glossary says that "A" grade is basically an unread book. "No book store stamps on the edges, inside the front cover, etc. The book is as close to perfect as possible. These are typically very difficult to find for older books written in the 1980s and near impossible for those in the 1970s and earlier." My book certainly has no stamps anywhere and has hardly ever been read but it has been read - if not by the previous owner then certainly by me and my daughter.

So where am I now after all this effort? I know I have a book worth more than 99 cents. I may have a book worth as much as $43 US (if of course I could privately find a buyer willing to pay that much). I know a little bit more about books and a little bit more about what to look for in a "used" book. I sure did have a lot of fun though.

My friend Norm has been a big fan of online used book services for a number of years now. In university he discovered a book by A. N. Wilson called "Gentlemen in England". In 1986 he loaned the book to someone and it never came back to him. In the 90s he went to England twice and kept going to used book stores expecting he would be able to find this book as it was fairly recent (1985) though it was out of print. In his search for the book he discovered that every year there is an annual used book show in the Congress Centre - he went to the show but couldn't find the book. He then saw an article in the Citizen about the number of used books dealers who were getting out of the bricks and mortar business and going online. They provided the URL for a site called the Advanced Book Exchange which he found very easy to use. He searched their database of thousands of booksellers for his book and was astonished to see 15 listings come up in the $30 to $40 price range. He ordered a copy for 22 pounds sterling (including the book and shipping costs). He was thrilled with the result. You know, this was the first e-commerce transaction he had ever performed.

My friend Norm is also a small-time collector of books. In fact he has over 2,000 hardcover books and he regularly surveys prices online and establishes the value of his own collection - he has found that he has some $20 books that are in fact worth more than $100, just as he has found that some books for which he paid $40 are actually worth about $5.

Norm points out that if you are going to buy books online you should remember the old adage "caveat emptor" - because you are at the mercy of the integrity of the seller. He points out that some used book sites, like the Advanced Book Exchange, do have generous return policies and that you should look for such guarantees before buying. On a more positive note, he has ordered 5 books online and all of them have been in better condition than described.

 

Conclusion
Norm really feels that the advent of services such as the Advanced Book Exchange changes the very nature of used book buying. Gone are the days of trailing into every used book store you see in search of that elusive title. Sites like the Advanced Book Exchange not only tell you of the world-wide availability of your desired book - they also allow you to comparison shop for price and condition. From my perspective (that of hunting for undervalued treasures) the advent of used book buying, selling and trading on the Internet really removes that likelihood that you are going to find a "treasure" in a used book store. The bookseller's themselves are now able to use the Internet to easily determine the price that they should place on a book so it is highly unlikely that you'll ever get a deal on a rare book at a used book store. It looks like it's going to have to be garage sales and flea markets where you'll find your book deals in the future.

Lindsay Fraser is a Senior e-Solutions Strategist for Burntsand Inc. and owns a copy of Patsy Scarry's "The Bunny Book" (first edition, Fine/--, 8vo). She can be reached at lfraser@burntsand.com or by telephone at 613-940-2172.

 

2103 - Lindsay Fraser is now the Naked IM Professional and can be reached through this blog.