Rare Book Monthly
Book Descriptions: The Key To Reselling
Americana Exchange Database Search Result Page
description dealing with such aspects as collation, references to illustrations and condition. The second part contains an explanation of the book’s place in the canon and may include an explanation of the significance of the edition; it also may, in the best descriptions, include some information about the book that may be elusive and often not otherwise apparent. The third section, when it is present, often seeks to place the book within a collecting field or category and deals with that particular book’s provenance, or history. All of this material is presented by the seller in order to justify his asking price. The dealer correctly perceives that, without this explanation, the book is worth less (not worthless). This is of course as true for the collectors when they in turn want to resell these very same books: the lack of a written description directly and negatively impacts the collector/seller’s position in the marketplace.
Dealers rightly demand a premium for their considerable expertise as embodied in the written book description. They and their cataloguers identify hard to locate materials, authenticate and explain them. A collector buys from an experienced dealer with the assurance that the material is as described. But until now there have been no clear rules as to how and when these written authentications and explanations can be reused by the collector. The emergence of the net as the future reselling venue for present day collectors of old and rare books now makes it crucial to clarify the relationship between the dealer, the book, the collector, the complete written description, and future book buyers. The book collector who paid for the written description when he or she bought the book becomes uncertain with the passage of time that he or she has the right to use the seller’s description. Other book sellers (who now become the book buyers when the collector and/or his or her heirs confront the reselling experience) rarely suggest that the library or collection is already wonderfully described for resale in the form of these written book descriptions.
At the end of the collecting experience it often seems – or is presented to the collector and/or his or her heirs as a given -- that the collected books will need to be re-described, perhaps even appraised Even the auction houses normally observe the general understanding that the selling dealer’s written descriptions will only, in rare circumstances, be appropriated by the owner to describe what years ago he or she purchased, no matter how famous the dealer or how respected his descriptions. At that moment, when it is accepted by the collector and/or his or her heirs that the descriptions will not or cannot be reused, the value of the books decline and the cost to prepare them for sale escalates. This is unfair and this practice should end.
To restate this situation and its implications more simply: often it is the dealer’s written explanation that ultimately sells the book. Book collectors rely upon this written descriptive material when buying and they will rely upon it again when they sell. They pay the dealer a premium for authentication and description and should in turn have the right to reuse this material when they resell. The dealer’s explanation will be as valuable and essential to them when they resell as it is to the dealer when he sold it initially. It is for this information that a collector willingly pays a premium for the book. The descriptive material is simply part of what the collector pays for.
