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Revised: 23 August 2007
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Bibliographic terminologyBook Condition:Mint, As New - A book that looks as if it has just been bought new from a bookshop shelf. The book must be in the same immaculate condition in which it was published. There can be no defects, no missing pages, no library stamps, etc., and the dustjacket (if it was issued with one) must be perfect, without any tears. Fine - A book which closer examination reveals to be secondhand, but which on first sight looks new. Approaches the condition of Mint, but without quite the same crispness. A Fine book must have no defects, etc., and if the jacket has a small tear, or other defect, or looks worn, this should be noted. Very Good, vg - A clean book with a tight binding with clean pages, but which may show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or paper. Any other flaws or defects, such as inscriptions, damage to endpapers, bookplates, foxing or corner nudging must be listed separately. The main criteria for this are cleanness and integrity of binding. Good, g - This is the average used worn book that has all pages or leaves present - an integral book with a binding that may be (though is not necessarily) slightly loose. The binding may be marked or dirty and the corners bumped. It may have cracking on hinges, marked page edges, foxing, or other flaws. Details should be noted in the description. Fair, f - Worn book that has complete text pages (including any maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half title page, etc. Binding, dust jacket (if any), etc., may also be damaged or worn, but all defects must be noted. Poor - losing integrity, with severe blemishes, possibly a dirty binding and pages that may be marked, heavily foxed or untidy. Reading copy - integrity lost, loose pages, missing boards - however, all the text must be present, and any missing elements other than the text must be noted. NB: If a slash "/" is used as in Good/Fair, the first term applies to the book, the second to the dustjacket. Intermediate terms may be used, as in: "good to very good", which denotes a book somewhere between these two definitions, or as in "Fair+, f+" denoting a book that is better than "fair" but does not quite meet our standards for "good". Important: we tend to understimate our surplus books so that an eventual buyer will not be disappointed. Abbreviations and other terms:ads, advts, adverts - advertisements placed in the binding of the book Sizes of books:64mo - up to 3 inches tall
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