How to Grade the Cover of a Rare Book

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Molly Mackey with Expert Village. Now, we're going to talk about some of the assets to a book from the outer, the outside of the book. One of which, one of the best, is guilt. That's the gold lettering that you'll see typically on older books. Guilt lettering many times rubs away and get very faded. This one happens to be very bright. So, it's definitely something that you would want to mention in your description. Another terminology that you will want to notice on the outside of a book is when you have two different layers. This is called a spine cloth overlay. Sometimes it will be over leather. Sometimes it will be over a different colored cloth. But, it's something that you definitely want to mention. And, it's called a spine overlay whether it be cloth or leather. Mention it in your description. It's important for decorative value. Also, outer guilt on the outer edges is also an important asset to mention. If you have a particular book that maybe isn't really worth that much in terms of value, but it has a really spectacular looking DJ, dust jacket, then you're going to want to mention that too. Because that's going to attract someone's attention. So, if it has a really special dust jacket, really bright, nice condition, you definitely want to mention that."