Every book is sacred

Well maybe not Every Book but I thought it might get your attention. Cue in this Ebay Seller's twisted version of "Every sperm is sacred" (Monty Python's, The Meaning of Life.) This Blog could just have easily been entitled "Thou Shall Not Write on Books..." but seemed it too subtle and might have been easily misinterpreted. So I thought Maybe John Cleese would do a better job since Moses wasn't available for comment and God was last seen committing arson on a shrubbery. So there went my idea of having this written in stone. In absence of a solid granite block for which I could use to hit you over the head with I used strong words of admonishment instead.

We've all at least been in an antique shop, to an auction, visited a flea market, or even shopped online for collectibles at one time or another in our life. We've found that perfect something to fill our collections only to have gotten it home and realized that on the item is an ugly penciled notation or a sticker that doesn't belong and cannot be removed (at least not without damaging your treasure) These are the price markings dealers who are too lazy or cheap to properly label their product.

To the casual collector it may merely be annoying but to me, the collector & reseller its infuriating. Writing and stickers applied directly to these items does not increase the value of it one iota!! It can in fact can decrease the value depending on the extent of damage done. For paper items where the dealer merely wrote in pencil on back "discretly" in the corner of the document,postcard or other item it is possible to erase the offending marks but not without disturbing the finish or leaving the indents of the pencil still on the item. Sometimes the paper is too fragile or brittle to attempt removal so the buyer is stuck with an ugly price on their item forever. For the ones that use stickers, grease pencil, or god forbid the hole punch on the front covers of paperbacks they will meet Phil, The Prince of Insufficient Light in their next life.

Which brings me to my next topic. Paperback books. I can't think of an easier way to bring down the value of a paperback book than to deface it in some way. Most the value of a paperback is directly tied into the attractiveness of the covers!! Any disturbances to the over all eye appeal count against its market value. "Oh but those stickers I use are easily removable..." That is simply the cry of an uneducated dealer (or one too lazy or cheap to change their ways) Those so called easily removable stickers at the very least leave a sticker outline on the book forever, but also can cause permanent residue and worse, paper loss. For example an otherwise perfect copy has now been downgraded at least one whole grade and sometimes two depending on extent of the damage. The Difference in Value between a Perfect Book and a middle/average book is at least half and sometimes more!! "Yea but that book is only worth $10 in Near Fine(an almost perfect copy in paperback grading) so its not a big deal." Yes actually it is. Say we have a collection of 10 books that are all catalogue at about $10 in Near Fine. The collection may appear to be valued at $100. These defacements I mentioned may reduce the value of that collection $50 or even $25 dollars depending on the damage. The amount someone may be willing to pay to buy such a collection is further reduced to about $5-$10. Your $100 collection has been wittled down to $10 by virtue of scribbling. Are we starting to see why this is so important, here?

On to Hardcovers Books. Those pencil markings in the front are completely unacceptable. Depending on the age and rarity of the book there is large class of collectors that will not purchase books that have been penciled in. I have seen plenty of negatives on Ebay given to sellers by buyers for failure to mention this little detail. Unlike a small or rare bookshop plate on the endpaper which can add value to the book(depending on the notoriety of the shop) pencil actually detracts from the value. A near fine book is now merely a Very Good plus or very good. Depending on the penalty any given dealer assigns to said defacement. Its not chic, Its not collectible and it doesn't look good. All the dealer has to do it Get a slip of paper and write down the pertinents and put it in the front of the book. I personally know someone who owns a book shop with an extensive collection of rare volumes that does not write in the books. This dealer is as rare as some of the books on their shelves. Sadly Most seem to think that their initials and price markings will add something to the book. Wrong! Shops of disctinction are few and far between. For the ones that aren't their owner's egos exceed the value of the their entire inventories ten-fold.

Paper items such as postcards, billheads, menus, documents and correspondance should never be written on. This is history and writing on it in any way is graffiti. Dealers who do are no better than street vandals. I realize Not everything is of such high value, For instance a 1950's Curt Teich linen postcard with a print run in the millions is only worth about twenty five cents to a dollar but writing on it makes it worth even less. Sounds ridiculous on the face of it,right? You could argue that its a post card and they were supposed to be written on. That is actually partially correct. They were supposed to written on but by the original purchaser to be sent off to their designated recipient. The original message lends possible value along with the stamp and postmark. All those things have a relative value either subjective or objective depending on the needs of the collector. However, I have yet to see a price guide on the value of dealer markings for Postcards or other paper goods. As far as I know it simply doesn't exist! Where as you may not be able to see to connection on a practically worthless postcard, There is a world of difference on specialized, older & rare documents, correspondance, etc. The extra penciling automatically removes the item in the mind of the buyers as being an authentic estate "find". Items that have those sorts of labels are relegated as having been through the dealer mill and are not as desirable as items that appear to be from an "estate" collection. Putting the finicky collectors aside I personally think just simply from an aesthetical aspect that penciling, stickers,and inking on old paper goods is just irresponsible and it looks like crap. (The stronger word is implied) In most cases it doesn't represent the value of the item since the world of paper depends so greatly on current demand and prior sale precedent. Some paper relies heavily on topical demand meaning some topics are in higher demand than others. And on the other hand Some paper has no actual value until it is assigned one or someone tells them its worth something. But by defacing the item will be one way to guarantee that it won't be worth as much as it could have if had been left it its "as found" state. Putting a permanent recorded price on it an item of that nature is just ill advised, disrespectful and frankly, meaningless. I could go on but I really think if you haven't get the general idea by now that you never will.

In conclusion I urge all Dealers of such merchandise to forego the penciled notations and find a plastic moisture barrier to put your paper or book into, or use a slip of paper to notate the price and edition for your buyers, a hanging tag, a sleave, an anything but scrawling on the item.
Stop being lazy and cheap!! You are defacing your merchandise and devaluing it. If not for that then consider it a matter of respect. Writing on things shows a basic lack of respect for stuff and ruins someone's future enjoyment. Collectors hate those markings. We hate those markings. We as seller's don't write on our items. Please Don't write on yours.