How to Rate Book Condition When You Sell a Book

To sell a book online or in a catalog, you'll need to tell your customers the condition it's in. Part of describing the book's conditon is rating it according to a standard scale. Here are tips to help you rate the book condition of a book you're selling.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Book

1. Familiarize yourself with book condition vocabulary and terminology. The book condition terms most commonly used are New (Mint), As New, Fine, Very Good (or Very Fine), Good, Fair (or Reading Copy), Poor, and Ex-Library. Each type has distinct characteristics. (See more below in later steps.)

2. Look at the book for flaws first. Assess all the flaws before rating the book's condition. Exactly how to find the flaws in the book is outlined in my eHow article, How to Identify a Book's Flaws (see the Resources section below).

3. No matter what condition the book is in, note whether it says "Withdrawn" on any part of the book - spine, pages, pastedowns, page edges. Also note if there are any library stamps or checkout pockets. Any indication that the book once belonged to a library automatically makes the book's condition "Ex-Library." If you want, you can also add another book rating that gives a sense of how badly the book has been mangled - or not.

4. Assign a New or Mint condition only to a book that has no flaws. The book must have its dust jacket, no scrapes, tears, not one single mark - except for the author's signature or inscription. Also, it must have the same glossy, fresh appearance and unopened feel a new book in a bookstore would have.

5. Assign an As New book condition for books that are just like New or Mint books, except for having been read - but they must show no sign of it. The spine must still feel crisp and have no creases.

6. Assign a book Fine condition if it's very like As New, but has lost its polished appearance. If it's otherwise perfect but seems a bit duller in the cloth covers, the condition is Fine.

7. Assign a Very Fine or Very Good condition to books that look used, but are still fairly sharp and crisp. No rips on the covers allowed. A slight amount of spine creasing is fine. Remainder marks should be noted, but will not detract from a rating of Very Fine or Very Good. A single bit of writing or stamp might be allowable if other flaws are not present.

8. Rate the book as in Good condition if it shows moderate wear. No pages can be missing and the binding has to be intact, but the spine can be well-creased, the covers and pages bent and maybe torn a little, writing and stamps may be found inside the book, and a little writing can be found in the pages or on the covers.

9. Assign a Fair or Reading Copy rating if the book has multiple flaws and you'd only give a copy to your best friend. But you WOULD give the book to your best friend, because whatever condition the covers and pages are in, the binding is still MOSTLY intact and none of the text pages (as opposed to front matter or end matter) are missing. The book isn't pretty, but every word can be read in its entirety.

10. Assign a Poor rating (and, some say, Reading Copy rating) to any book that has numerous pages missing, is very soiled, and/or has the spine half torn apart. Text must still be all present and accounted for.

11. Note the condition of the book that you have rated in the description of the book when you list it for sale. To learn how to describe a book's condition and what to include in the listings, see my article in the Resources section below.

Tips & Warnings

• Just because a book is new, it doesn't mean the book is in new condition.
• No matter how great a condition the book is in, it can't be New, As New, or Fine if it comes without its original dust jacket / wraps / dust wrapper.
• If slipcovers came with the original book when it was sold, they also need to be considered as important as dust jackets as far as rating the book's condition goes.
• Assigning book conditions is a judgment call, and a very subjective process. For the sake of your customers, try to be consistent.
• Anytime you sell books online, it's important to look at the book thoroughly for flaws. You want to find them BEFORE the customer sees the book, starts reading it, and finds that a page has been torn from the spine or that there's underlining in one chapter. Then you'll have a customer who won't come back and who'll rate you as badly as you rated the book.
• If you sell a book and do mess up, forgetting to include a flaw, you'll be expected to provide a refund. Fess up and offer the refund as good small business practice.

Resources

• more info on book sizes
• my article, How to Identify a Book's Flaws
• my article, How to Describe Book Condition
• Alibris connects people who love books, movies and music to thousands of independent sellers around the world

[bevsue]

on 3/4/2009 Thank you for this useful summary.