I recently bought four used books from an online seller, all of which were formerly library books. Only one was stamped “Approved for sale or disposal.” The rest still had their card pockets and markings.
In this case, the seller’s descriptions stated they were ex-library, but I once obtained a fairly rare book that turned out to be ex-library, with no notice in the sales description and no sign in the book of having been de-accessioned.
So I was wondering: how do booksellers get ex-library books legitimately? Is there any significant problem with dealers stealing library books and selling them? Do libraries often release books from their collections without marking them as de-accessioned? What should I do if I suspect a book’s provenance?
I know that I’ve been to library book sales and bought books that had no markings to say they were approved for sale. So I guess at least some libraries don’t mark the books.
Public library book sales are quite common in my area. Libraries cull their collections, getting rid of outdated or infrequently used books in order to make room for new books. I assume that a used bookseller could frequent these sales just as well as any other member of the public.
The barcodes are crossed out with black magic marker, and there’s a sticker with the price on it, but that’s the only thing that would indicate that it’s an ex-library book (OK, I did just find one that had a stamp that said “Removed from ____ County Library Collection”, so they must sometimes stamp them. Or, perhaps they once stamped them and now don’t bother anymore).
I’ve never seen a library that ever bothered to remove the pocket from a book, even after barcodes made them obsolete. Better to just leave it there rather than risk ruining the book by tearing it out.
You could call or visit the library in question, I suppose, if you think you’ve got a “hot” book. They’d know if it was still supposed to be part of their library collection or not.
Officially, where I work we stamp all books that are being taken out of the collection with a big stamp that says “WITHDRAWN” on it. The barcode number on the book is also deleted from the catalog.
That’s for any book that we think we can sell. Some just end up in the trash. (Don’t cry, it’s usually stuff like monthly issues of an index that has an annual cumulation.)
If the barcode is still on the book, you could call the library and read it off to someone on the staff. If the number is still in the system, then you’ve got something “hot”.
If they go to my library, the plunk down $1 for a used hardcover book, or get 3 used softcovers for their dollar. Most towns I’ve lived in had library books for sale within the library itself. Is this unusual?
Sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear in the OP. I know about library book sales, of course, but I was wondering if booksellers routinely scoop up large volumes of ex-library books from these sales, if they are selective, or if they may have another channel altogether, i.e. some sort of wholesale process.
I would have assumed that most libraries clearly mark de-accessioned books, but that seems not to be as universal as I expected.
I was also hoping that maybe someone in the used book business would reveal the seamy underside of the trade: widespread theft from libraries on commission or on spec. But maybe I’ve been reading too many crime novels.
“I would have assumed that most libraries clearly mark de-accessioned books, but that seems not to be as universal as I expected.”
If the books are donated from people for the sale, then no, they are not stamped. Our library has books for sale inside all the time, if its one of theirs, they stamp it. They have a table of books people gave for sale too.
Auctions should always state if the book is exlibrary, it’s not worth as much usually.
Nothing so melodramatic. It’s more likely that libraries contact or contract with used book dealers to haul away anything left over at the end of a library sale of culled books so that they don’t have to store books that they’ve made a deliberate decision not to store any more.
My brother-in-law makes a respectable amount of money reselling books on the internet (amazon, half.com, etc.). He visits 2-3 book sales a month (usually libraries and churches, sometimes publishers) and buys hundreds of titles, then lists them on the websites I mentioned. He normally checks each title before he buys to make sure the online price is already higher than what he’s paying.
Anyway, to answer the OP, he gets lots of (ex-)library books and and I don’t think they all get stamped as such.
commasense, you may be onto something, although only rarely. I collect first editions, and some of the pricier books go through an “ex-lib” period. What I mean is, the book goes up in value - once it gets past, say, $5,000 value as a “true first” then dealers begin to offer alternatives - these alternatives include
later editions - the Harry Potter books are regularly sold online with much later editions - unscrupulous dealers will say “first edition, later printing” or vice versa, when in fact, with very few exceptions, the only edition worth anything is the true first, and the distinction between printing and edition lost significance years ago, and different publishers use the terms interchangeably and/or in different ways…
foreign editions - most collectors “follow the flag” and want the first edition in the country where the author is from. But To Kill a Mockingbird goes for well over $10,000 in the U.S. edition, so the U.K. edition is now selling for $1,000 or more. There are exceptions to this rule (which is why collecting requires an investment of time)
Book Club editions - usually non-collectible, the BC editions of books like Catcher in the Ruy and TKAMockingbird are now selling for hundreds of dollars
And, most importantly for this thread - ex-lib copies. The book I see most often out there in ex-lib is Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - pretty much every copy available is an ex-lib. You see a few Catcher’s, too. Now, whether they were stolen or bought at a library sale, who can say, but a copy of Androids, true 1st, no ex-lib can easily sell for $10,000. An honestly offered ex-lib copy can sell for $2 - 3,000 or more. And now that restoration is much more common in the rare book trade, a lot of dealers will “acquire” ex-lib copies and have them restored, then sell them for much more than a traditional ex-lib book would sell for. And dealers like them also because typically the dust jackets are in pretty good shape because they have been mylar protected from the get go…
Slight hijack: I’ve also seen remainders with the cut covers for sale at used book stores and wondered if this was legal. Aren’t they supposed to send them back to the publisher?
I think it was a Tor book that I bought once which had a notice printed in it saying: If you bought this book without a cover, the book has been stolen and the publisher and author has not received any payment for it.
The best used bookstore chain in town (the Wee Book Inn) won’t buy books that have come from the library, probably to prevent pilfering like that you suspect.
Too bad for me, 'cause the library here sells magazines for 10c, soft-cover for 25c, hardcover for 1$, which would work great for trade-ins. I’m especially big on it anyway right now, as I’ve just found three 20$ bills inside a donated copy of Insider’s Canada Guide.
