"price clipped" book

[tim hyde]

I collect photography books, rare older books and new ones I either

want to read or think might become collector's editions. In

addition to the usual places, I also buy at auction and from

dealers. I quit buying on ebay because I was too-freqently getting

remaindered books or "second printings" that are not noted in the

descriptions.

 

Recently I found a copy of a Caponigro volume on Abebooks that I

have been looking for. I ordered it, putting $250 on my credit

card, but when it arrived yesterday (from a Canadian rare book

dealer) the price was clipped off on the dust jacket. My life-long

understanding is that this means the book has been remaindered and

is worthless as a rare-book item, though of course the book itself

is still wonderful. I am right about this, no? Price clipping

destroys the value of a book as a collectors item? Thanks.

[noreen]

If a book has been remaindered, there will be some evidence of it on the book itself,

usually a mark or stamp on the bottom edges of the pages (visible when the book is shut).

The price is more usually clipped off by someone who gave the book as a gift.

 

What this might have done to the value of this particular volume, I can't say. But any

bookseller, especially a rare-book dealer, should have indicated that the jacket was price

clipped.

[peter_evans4]

<p><em>Price clipping destroys the value of a book as a collectors item?</em></p><p>If collectors are really, really stupid, yes it does.</p><p>Publishers have been known to clip their own prices off (in order to increase them).</p><p>The used-photo-book racket is a laugh: ABE informs me that some outfit called "Dashwood Books" (NY, NY) is selling the 2005 edition of Kikai's <cite>Persona</cite> for $82.50; amazon.co.jp has <a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/books/4794214502/">new copies</a> at the list price, rather under one quarter of that, and even lets the Japanese-challenged order in English. (An <a href="http://www.soshisha.com/book_wadai/09persona/">excellent book</a>, by the way, with captions in English as well as Japanese.)</p>

[bruce levy]

Noreen is correct. The clipped price has no connection to whether it was remaindered. But you are correct in that a price clipped jacket does reduce it's collectable value. Looking at the books available on Abebooks you can see that some of the Caponigros are "signed", with unclipped jackets and are around $450.00-$500.00. Interpolating... your price seems about right. It's not worthless, but it's not pristine either.

[alvin_wong]

<p>Sorry to hear about your experience. I buy plenty of used books online and I have only bought one or two price-clipped books. I'm not a fan of price-clipping either, but if the book is really cheap, I don't object. I do agree with the other posters though; the bookseller should have noted that issue, especially for a $250 dollar book.</p><p>In the future, you might want to stick to highly-rated book dealers on places such as Amazon Marketplace. There are many good places that clearly spell out the condition of the books they sell (i.e. remainder marks, price-clipping, missing dust jackets etc.) Hamilton Books and Symposium Books are two good places to deal with, and there are plenty of other excellent booksellers.</p>

[anthony_cicero]

Peter - Amazon informed me that we can order from the amazon.co.jp site IF we can read japanese. The display in english option is only for the help section, apparently. Nice that they have the book for sale, but it's not getting to any of us from that co.jp site, unfortunately, unless we can read japanese.

 

$82.50 is far out. It's ~$20 on the amazon.co.jp site.

[roger_kallet]

Tim,

 

*In addition to the usual places*

 

 

You may know this and take advantage of buying books there, but do you ever go to the public library book sales? These sales are primarily books donated to the library and the money raised is given to the library. Most of the books typically sell for $1 for hardbacks and 50-cents for softbacks. On one table, though, there will be the large *art* books. These will cost more, $10 to $20, or so.

 

I don't collect books, per se, just accumulate to many! I know this is off-thread, but I thought this info might be useful to someone.

 

Roger

[lee_shively]

Clipping the price from a book is sometimes done when the book is given as a gift. It's the same thing as removing the price tag from anything else you buy to give.

 

Photography books have become big items for collectors. One of the reasons is that they are printed in a small number of copies in the edition. While remaindering, clipping the price, marking as a lending library book or actually reading the book might lessen the value slightly, a relatively rare book is relatively rare anyway.