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Though flashpoints are invaluable for spotting the books you should buy, anti-flashpoints may be even more valuable. Not only do they prevent you from buying individual books you shouldn't buy, but some of them can eliminate entire classes of books from your consideration. For example, anyone who has ever stood in front of a bookcase filled with Book-of-the-Month Club editions can appreciate the potential time- and money-saving application of our first anti-flashpoint:
Book club editions. An entire book could be written on the identification of BCE's but most are readily spotted - and wisely avoided. Exceptions exist, but until you learn them, staying away from all BCE's will make you right 99.9% of the time.
Naked novels. A naked novel (fiction without a dust jacket) is like most blind dates: potentially interesting interior but problematic on the street side. Collector's don't want them and won't call for a second date. Why should you?
Conspicuous author. A counter-point to flashpoint #15 in the Bookologist's starter list of flashpoints. If the first thing you notice when looking at the dust jacket of a book is the author's name, either because of font size, contrasting color or other graphic device, pass.
Mildew. Deadly stuff here. Devilishly difficult to get rid of and endlessly offensive to the nose. Worse, it gets on your hands. Collectors ring it up as a fatal flaw.
Reprint. It's a good idea to learn the names of the more common reprint publishers. (A partial list appears at the end of this article.) Much of this stuff will defy your attempts to sell at a good profit unless an unusually appealing dust jacket is also present on a vintage title by a collectible author. Note that this can be a confusing area of the book biz. Some reprint publishers, especially in the first half of the 20th century, made a practice of purchasing original remaindered sheets from publishers, leaving the title page and copyright page intact and simply binding in a variant material. Sometimes the original title/copyright page was replaced with a new one. Sometimes the reprint publisher was indicated; sometimes not. Also, some reprint publishers occasionally publish first editions. Be alert.
Microwave cookbook. If your culinary taste runs to meat that looks and tastes like the business end of a plunger, you'll have a keen interest here. The untold billions who have refined alternative palates, however, will pass by these books with cheerful if not reckless abandon. Placing the words "microwave" and "cookbook" on the cover of the same book stands as perhaps THE colossal blunder in the history of 20th century publishing.
Encyclopedia. The Bookologist knew an artist once who cut up encyclopedia illustrations and photographs and made stunning collages from them. This was definitely a productive use for them, but unless your set is either new or nearly so (retaining some content value) or very old and/or externally decorative (preferably leather bound, suitable for use by retro interior decorators), it's the only good use we can think of at the moment. NOTE: this is not a power anti-flashpoint. A number of exceptions exist here, chief among them Encyclopedia Britannica's in excellent condition, even in the no-man's land of the 1950's to 1980's.
National Geographic. It's widely believed that it was this venerable and well-respected magazine that gave rise to BBT (Bookologist Bookselling Truth) #18: if everybody already owns one, who are you going to sell yours to? You'll need to dig deep, deep into the past for exceptions here and/or think "leather."
Remainder Mark. The presence of a remainder mark indicates that a publisher has missed the mark - that is, printed more books than the reading public was willing to consume. Often these are sold at deep discounts to dealers or wholesalers for redistribution at greatly reduced retail prices. In order to prevent unscrupulous dealers from returning them to publishers for full credit, they are typically marked with a permanent dot, stripe, light spray, or stamp either on the covers or the edges of the text block. Some remainders may have content value and modest potential for resale as long as your cost of acquisition is close to, as the Brits would say, a duck's egg.
Rush Limbaugh. Unless you've just scored an extensive collection of Limbaugh's "No Boundaries" silk ties or signed Cuban cigar wrappers, you won't be getting rich with anything here, least of all Limbaugh's books. You won't even be buying cheap cigars after selling them, assuming you can sell them. All Limbaugh titles have sold briskly at the outset - i.e., all register bell-high on the resale dudmeter.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks goes to Tim Doyle of Bayside Books for his assistance in suggesting candidates for this list of anti-flashpoints.
The Bookologist's List of Common Reprint Publishers
A.L. Burt
Altermus
Avenel
Blakiston
Blue Ribbon Books
Blue Star
Bracken Books
Cassel
Collier
Dial
Dover
Greenwich House
Cupples & Leon
Fiction Library
Goldsmith
Grosset & Dunlap
Hurst
Little Blue Books
Modern Library
Reader's Digest
Saalfield
Sears
Street and Smith
Sun Dial
Tower
Triangle
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