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Frequently Asked Questions
Is my book valuable?
People run across old books everyday, and one of the first questions they ask us is - How much is it worth? The best way to determine
book value is to find out how much people are selling a comparable book for in the market on places such as eBay.com and AbeBooks.com. But the key
phrase here is "comparable book". So before you can say that your book has the same value as an expensive one you see listed, you first need to
evaluate your book to make sure it has all of the same points (or attributes).
The first step in evaluating a book is to identify whether it is a first edition. Generally speaking first editions are the most
desirable books. A signed first edition is even better, and some limited editions can have value, but as a rule of thumb your book should be a first
edition to have a shot at being something of value to collectors. There are exceptions to this rule in cases where a first edition is very scarce or
very expensive to the point where collectors turn to a second printing as an affordable alternative, but these instances are few and far between.
What is so special about first editions? Collectors are drawn to books that are as close as possible to the author's original work, so
they want the first book that was published for a particular novel. But they aren't just looking for any first edition. They want the first printing
of the first edition. Sometimes if the author is established, the very first printings are special signed and numbered books that are produced
before the books that show up in stores (those books are then called "first trade editions"). First printings of first editions are sometimes simply
called "first editions", while second printings of first editions are reffered to as "later printings".
So how do you know if you have a first edition? That's where FirstEditionPoints.com comes in handy. It will show you photos of true
first editions for a particular novel. You can use this information to decide whether you have a first edition, or something published later. You
can then click on pre-filled links to see the prices people are charging for comparable books on eBay.com and AbeBooks.com. To get started, use the
menu on top to browse lists for Classics, Science, Politics, History, Sports, and Crime; or search for a particular book with the Advanced Search or
Quick Search.
What is a First Edition?
When we say "First Edition" we are really referring to the first printing of the first edition. Publishers print books in large batches called "printings." The first batch is the first printing, the second batch is the second printing, the third batch is the third printing, and so on. The first printing is the most desirable for reasons dating back to metal typesetting days when first printings had the clearest type.
Today, there is no real quality difference between various printings of a particular edition, but the preference for a first printing over subsequent printings remains very strong, and this preference is reflected in the price. The price difference between a first and second printing is like the price difference between gold and silver in the sense that if a first printing sells for $600, a second printing in the same condition may only sell for $16.
Second printings can become valuable, but only in cases when the price of a first printing is astronomical. For example, a second printing of To Kill a Mockingbird can be worth $2,000, but a first printing in similar condition could be worth ten times that amount. In this case the price of a first edition is unaffordable to many people, so they settle for a second printing.
While the price difference between printings can be great, the physical difference between them is often subtle. Sometimes the first printing may have a typo that is fixed in later printings as is the case with Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men. But sometimes the only distinguishing feature is that one says it is the first printing, while the other says that it is a second printing - and each publisher has a different way of communicating that information. Some publishers will state "First Printing", "Second Printing", "Third Printing," etc. Other publisher may have a special numeric code to indicate printing information. These subtleties are referred to as "points of issue," and we tell you what these points are for each modern first edition.
Sometimes dust jackets remain identical from one printing to the next, but there are cases where "First Edition" or "First Printing" is stated on the dust jacket. There are other instances where the reviews will be different from one printing to the next. We point out these factors out, and we provide plenty of pictures so you can see what a first printing dust jacket should look like.
In addition to printings of a first edition, there are also other editions that are sometimes mistaken for first editions. The most notorious are know as Book Club Editions, which mislead many people into believing that they have a valuable first edition book when in fact they have a very common Book Club edition. Book Club editions in general are worth very little - usually far less than an early printing of the genuine first edition. However like a second printing, Book Club editions occasionally become valuable when the value of the true first edition/printing becomes astronomical. A great example of this is a Book Club edition of The Catcher in the Rye, which can be worth a couple hundred dollars in fine condition. We show you what to look for so you can determine if you have a true first edition or a book club edition. Check out our links for more information about book club editions and other reprint editions.
What are the best methods for buying first edition books?
The best method for purchasing first edition books in terms of lowest cost is to check your local thrift store or garage sale. You can
usually find a first edition book for a dollar or two. One major drawback is that you need plenty of patience to wait for the exact title you want
to show up on the shelves, and plenty of time to keep checking. But when the right book does come your way, FirstEditionPoints.com can help you
verify it by showing you specific identification points for many collectible first edition books.
The best method in terms of time-savings is to purchase online, but you have to be willing to spend a little more money - and in some
cases a lot more money. The best online sites in our opinion for buying first edition books are AbeBooks.com and eBay.com, and we have made
searching these sites very simple. If you go to any of the FirstEditionPoints.com book identification pages, and look on the right, you will see
pre-filled fields and associated buttons for eBay.com and for AbeBooks.com searches. We pre-fill these searches with the best keywords to bring up
the most amount of first editions for a particular book.
For example, if you are in the FirstEditionPoints.com window for The Grapes of Wrath, and you click on the "Find Book" button in the
AbeBooks.com box, you will get a new window that lists all of the copies of The Grapes of Wrath currently being offered by independent book sellers
world-wide. You will get the list in order of highest price to lowest price. We did this because the highest priced books tend to be first
editions. But be careful because this is not always the case. So always check the seller's description against the description at
FirstEditionPoints.com. In the case of The Grapes of Wrath, purchasing a book near the top of the list will require most of us to take out a loan.
But the top books usually have full descriptions and are great examples of how dealers communicate that the book meets all of the guidelines for a
first edition. Keep running down the list and see if you can find the least expensive book that meets all of the criteria on the
FirstEditionPoints.com page - you can put both the AbeBooks.com and FirstEditionPoints.com windows side-by-side for quick comparisons.
In a similar way, if you click on the "eBay Search" button, you will go to eBay.com under an equally optimized search. There you will find
a mixed bag of editions. Some will be firsts, others will not. Some will say they are firsts when they are not; while others will not say, but the
pictures indicate that they probably are. Be careful here because on eBay, highest price doesn't always mean it is a first edition. In fact there
are one or two sellers that often sell high priced items, and when you read the fine print they will disclose that the dust jacket is a facsimile or
that it is a second printing. Only buy something when you can see from the eBay pictures and descriptions that they match up with the first edition
points from FirstEditionPoints.com.
Also, try using the FirstEditionPoints.com Wish List. From any FirstEditionPoints.com book identification page on the site you can add books to the Wish List. Then you can go to the Wish List window (from the menu) and quickly go into the identification pages for books that you would like to buy. From each page you can in turn quickly search eBay and Abebooks. The Wish List is a great way to check the book market daily for particularly hard to find books.
How come a Second Printing Before Publication is not more valuable than a First Edition since it came before the First Edition?
We get this question quite a bit, and the short answer is a definitive "No". But what make the long answer so difficult is that the question itself is false. The question confuses two terms – Publication and First Edition. In this case, Publication refers to a date when a book is planned for release to the public. Edition refers the form in which the book is issued. So a printing before publication does not mean was printed before the first edition. It just means that it was printed before the date when it was released and distributed to the public. This makes sense because you have to print a book before you can release it to the public, and consequently all first printings of the first edition are printed before the publication date. Then after the publication date, publishers typically run second, third, fourth, etc. printings as people read the book, tell their friends, and demand increases. But in some cases the publisher may get a large amount of book orders up front, and run a second, third, or even forth printing before the publication date. Some publishers will simply call these the second, third, and forth printings. But other publishers might want to point out that these additional printings were made before the publication date as a way to impress us - it's like saying: look, this book is so great that we had to print more before the official publication date. So a Second Printing Before Publication is really just a plain old second printing, and it does not matter to collectors when it was printed because it was definitively printed after the first printing, and collectors are typically only interested in buying first printings.
Still not convinced? Here is an example of how a Second Printing Before Publication happens. When a publisher decides to publish a book for the first time, the book is called a first edition. The publisher picks a date when the first edition will be published. In the time leading up to that publication date, the publisher is busy working with the printing plants producing copies of the book, taking orders from book stores, and planning for distribution of the book. Let's say the publisher decides to release the book in two months, and it asks the printing press to produce 20,000 books. The printer produces all of the books and calls this the First Printing of the First Edition. At this point in time, the publisher has not yet published the books, meaning it has not yet delivered the books to the public because the publication date has not yet arrived. Then the publisher discovers that it is getting more orders than it planned for, and it needs more books. So it asks the printing plant to print another 20,000 books. Those additional books are called the second printing, and if those books were produced before the publication date, they can be considered the second printing before publication. If the publisher needs to print more books before the publication date, then they will have the third printing before publication. No matter how many printings are run before the publication date, the first printing was still the fist, and it is the most desirable.
Are you a book dealer?
No, we do not sell books. FirstEdtionPoints.com is owned and operated by book collectors to help other book collectors. We exist to provide a service - unbiased identification information about modern first edition books. We do provide links to websites that sell books, but we do not sell books on any of these sites, and we do not endorse any specific book for sale. We do accept identification photos from book dealers, but we select all photos that are posted after careful research.
Where do you purchase the clear plastic dust jacket covers that book dealer have on their rare books?
You can purchase mylar dust jacket covers from Amazon. They come in all kinds of sizes, but we like the Brodart 10 inch covers because they will fit most books. You can easily adjust them to fit dust jackets that are 8, 9 or 10 inches tall.
Do you recommend any other sites to learn about book collecting?
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