I have been looking for a site to buy Dust Jackets for books for a couple of months now, ever since I found first edition copies of “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “Slaughterhouse V” both sans jacket at a thrift store. I haven’t been able to find anything on the internets. Has anyone come across this niche market anywhere?
The original jackets would be great, but I’d settle for anything.
I throw my ignorance upon the sea of experience and knowledge that is the SDMB.
Thanks in advance! (and an ice cold beer for anyone who can help, the next time your in Denver!)
yancey
A dust jacket can easily increase the value of a first edition by 1000%. A rare dust jacket can increase the value by 10000%.
So why would anyone sell the dust jacket separately? Why not just get a comparatively cheap jacketless copy and make it instantly valuable?
And where would you get these orphan dust jackets from in the first place? From a book whose pages have been damaged? If so, see above. By replacing a poor quality dj with a better quality one? Even that one would make a jacketless copy more valuable.
There are a few rare instances of dealers being able to obtain publisher overruns of dust jackets, but the overwhelming majority of books have no extras in existence.
I suppose you could make a color xerox of a library’s first edition if that’s all you want (and could figure out a safe way of disentangling it from its protective wrapper), but I wouldn’t advise reselling it for copyright reasons. Or you could buy a cheaper later printing and use the dj off of that.
I don’t know a great deal about the topic, but I did play about with buying a certain series of old books on ebay a while back. What I noticed was that a copy of a book with a DJ was worth (literally) about 10 times a copy without. Presumably because they are much harder to find. I don’t think you are going to find a DJ for those books very easily. Any DJ’s for first editions are going to be with the books themselves, and the owner is not going to sell you the DJ on its own.
Use a long piece of paper and print out whatever you want on it. Or use a paper bag to make a book cover. Or buy book covers in the school supplies section of a store.
Since you seem to want “anything”, I have to ask why? I see originals for collection, but I never understood the “book cover” thing either, especially those that put them on school books they owned themselves!
My house has a tendancy to remove them, and they often get lost or damaged. It doesn’t really bother me though.
I, too, dislike dust jackets. They slip around while you’re reading the book, and crinkle annoyingly at the ends of the spine. I often tape* them in place. If the book is valuable, or one I intend to keep in as pristine condition as possible, I put the dust jacket aside, only putting it on the book when I store it on my shelves.
If the book yanceylebeef is intending to cover is valuable, I would suggest caution in making a new one. If you use paper which has acid content, it could damage the book over time. Buy acid-free paper.
*Which, of course, is a big no-no if the book is valuable. Never use tape in any valuable book, or one which you intend to keep in your family for generations. Tape breaks down over time, causing staining, and damaging the paper.
For the record, I’m not trying to increase the value of these books, just protect them. I have them in homeade dust jackets right now, but thought there might be some outlets somewhere that dealt in covers. I guess that will have to do.
Lissa, you’re not supposed to read a book with the dustjacket on. You put the dj aside when you read, then return it when the book goes on the shelf. That way the book looks pristine on the shelf and is insulated from the dust which accumulates over time while it sits there unopened for years and years.
I don’t have any books that I haven’t opened in years. I always re-read multiple times. Who am I kidding? They end up looking pretty battered whatever I do about the dust jacket.