The Importance of Dust Covers
About 100 years ago, when books were published and sold, dust jackets were there to simply protect the book during shipping; sort of like wrapping paper if you will. Today, the dust jacket is just as important to the book than the actual book itself! Any folds, tears, or creasing must be documented in all sales because that can seriously lessen the value of the book total.For instance, in 1925 when Scribner’s published “The Great Gatsby,” it had a royal blue dust jacket that was easily damaged. When customers received the book, it was customary to just rip the jacket off and throw it away; its main purpose was served. However, today, a first edition of The Great Gatsby with its first printing dustcover is literally priceless. So much so that I haven’t seen one for sale in years. If you look online at many book sellers, a first edition of The Great Gatsby can sell for $500 - $1800 depending on the condition. If the book has the original dustcover, the value can multiply more than 20 times. There are probably less than 20 dustcovers, and less than 5 are in good condition. “The Great Gatsby” with its first edition dust jacket is one of the rarest books in American Literature.
With Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind,” a good copy without a dust jacket, unsigned, can sell for $1200 - $3500 depending on the buyer. There is a seller in North Carolina who has an unsigned copy with its dustcover in excellent condition selling for $15,000.
But the most famous dust jacket story of them all is a book that is only about 30 years old. In 1975, Stephen King published Salem’s Lot. When the book was printed, the sales department had originally priced the book at $8.95, however last minute, they felt that the book was over priced and should be lowered to $7.95. So all dust jackets that were printed with the $8.95 price were clipped and sold at $7.95. Another flaw in the dust jacket is one of the characters has the wrong name. In the book, one of the main characters is Father Callahan, yet on the dust jacket, it read “Father Cody.” A major error which today leads to an expensive error.At any rate, for years, the first printing dustcover was the $7.95 price clipped Father Cody dust jacket. In 1983, there were 3 dust jackets found at Doubleday with the original price of $8.95 with the Father Cody error. These dust jackets represent one of the most elusive item known to Stephen King collectors. To have Salem’s Lot in its first edition, first printing state with a first state dust jacket (unclipped $8.95 price with Father Cody error) is logistically and financially out of the realm of the majority of not only Stephen King collectors, but also book collectors in general.
A well-known collector in the King world has his copy of the first state dust jacket for sale. It’s yours for $60,000.
The error with the Salem’s Lot dust jacket can be a very common occurrence which later leads to a high interest with collectors. The Great Gatsby first state dust jacket had an error. On the front flap, the name Jay is missing a capital J, so it reads, “jay.” Things like this add to the over all value of a book because after the error has been detected, later printings will have the corrected version. In another topic, I will discuss errors in the actual book; there are errors in first printings than you think…
There are many ways to protect your dust jackets from damage. Many collectors have Brodart or mylar covers on their books. This is a clear protective wrap that you can buy and all you have to do is insert your dust jacket, and fold. You not only have a great (inexpensive) protector for your dust jacket, but its also very neat and presentable when its on your shelf. Below are a few links to brodart covers that you can buy online.
http://www.shopbrodart.com/site_pages/bjc/default.htm
http://stores.ebay.com/CraftHall-Books - one of my favorite eBay sellers
Hopefully this information has been useful because if you are honestly looking to collect books, please be sure that you know the full extent of the condition of the dust jacket. I think it is fair to say that the dust jacket represents 50% or more of the overall total of the book…signed or not. Just think for yourself: if you had the chance to buy Salem’s Lot without a dust jacket, would you? Or would you rather it with its dust jacket?
To close with a helpful hint – many times people will stray away from buying ex-library books. They are marred with black marker and stamps and the condition of the book might be downright poor. However, libraries protect their dust jackets from the day they get it. So if you see a book that you really want and it's an ex-library copy, ask about the condition of the dust jacket. If it’s in good – great condition…buy it. You have a great dust jacket which means you are halfway there. All you need is a first edition with a good or poor dust jacket. Put the good condition dust jacket from the ex-library book on the good condition first edition and you have a valuable book for 1/3 of the price.
posted by Book Collectors at 3:55 AM
9 Comments:
I agree with dustcovers being important. The question becomes how much importance to WE want to put into them?
Knowing that someone like Grant Publishers ends up printing more COVERS than BOOKS, are we better off buying say, "Gunslinger: Revised S/L" with 3 or 4 extra covers? Not only to protect our investment but also to be able to have those additional covers as collector's items?
Is any of this making sense?
Totally...but not all publishers are as good as Grant. For instance, with most first edition books - people dont know how valuable a book is until its too late.
For instance, with King, no one knew how popular he would be 30+ years later. Im sure if the man who found those 3 dustcovers knew their worth in 20 years, would he have sold them?
The problem also is that "rare" books that are being made now like Di Vinci Code and The Historian; people are expecting those books to be worth a lot of money in the near future...but if everyone takes care of the book and keeps it in mint condition - how rare is the book going to be?
I did a search on eBay for The Historian, and there are more signed copies than unsigned.
Collecting books is like the stock market really...
Time will tell about current bestsellers. The historian from what I can see benefitted greatly from a strong marketing effort.
There is also a S/L on that book.
If she writes another bestseller, then her book/books might be worth as a collectable. A 1 time bestseller might be forgotten in the next few years.
I think with The Historian, the book that will retain value is the signed/limited edition.
Just like Jonathan Strange/Mr. Norrelle. I went to her book signing and there were about 500 people there getting 3 books signed each. That book is not going to be a huge rarity. Sure its great to market a book and get the author to sign, but it doesn't keep the value up.
I will say this though about the Jonathan Strange book... when she did her world wide tour, there were the 2 dust covers out; the black and the creme. Everyone who was buying the signed book wanted the cream colored cover.
The 3rd printing of the book, they came out with a red dustcover - and that, to me, is more rare because there are fewer signed copies with the red dustcover.
That is an instance where the later printing (3rd printing only had red dustcover) can quite possibly be more of a rarity than the 1st printing dustcover.
The danger to me with stuff like the red dustcover is what happened to the comics industry after the early 90s.
In the early 90s there were LOTS of alternate covers, foils and chormiums and what not. People were coming into comic book stores and buying one hunderd copies of a number one because they thought that if they sat on the comics for ten years they would eventually turn into their kids college tutition. It didn't happen. Instead all of the alternate covers went ahead and DESTROYED the comic book industry.
The comic book industry is just NOW getting back on track after years of being on the verge of being destroyed. Is the publishing industry setting itself up to do the same thing?
Well with the Strange/Norrell book that is exactly what happend. As a collectible I dont think the book has any long term value - signed or not. The only reason the book has multiple covers is for marketing and the fact that the Publishing House knew that collectors would BUY multiple copies.
And collectors did because the autor went on a worldwide signing. So unlike normal publishers who send their authors on tours to sign books - with Strange/Norrell the publisher was selling 2 or more books at one time.
Here's a question for you Dolan.
As collectors we are the ones that control the buying/selling and value of a book.
How come you haven't seen a book become a collector's item simply by the way that it's been treated by collecting insiders instread of because of a writer, speciality gimmick?
If we decided today, right now that a book coming out will be worth something to us and we treat it as such, will we force the market to think like we do?
The only way a book will become a collectible is through demand.
If you take that book and hold onto it for 30 years; you better hope that there are a few people who want that book really bad.
The problem with The Historian and Strange/Norrell is that there are a lot of signed first printings so, im my opinion, the demand will never reach a point where we 'run out' of excellently kept books.
Very nice article covering dust jackets. Within a past few years, I also cover topic of dust jackets on my website and it is matching your observations. Link is below for anyone interested in dust jacket topic.
Wizard of Oz books with dust jackets
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