Condition Grading Guide
A plain-language glossary of how used-book condition is described — and how Ældern Tomes grades every listing.
How we grade
Every book in our inventory is inspected by hand, photographed from multiple angles, and graded against the four levels below. Photos are the source of truth — if a flaw is visible in the listing photos, it’s baked into the grade and the price.
Nothing below Good condition is offered on this website. We describe the wear on each copy in plain language so the grade never has to stand alone.
The four condition grades
Brand New
An unread, unused copy with no wear, damage, writing, or missing components. Any publisher-applied marks or sealed packaging details will be stated in the listing.
Like New
A copy that presents almost as new, with at most negligible signs of handling. It is complete, clean, and structurally sound; any tiny imperfection is described and photographed.
Very Good
A clean, attractive copy with light signs of prior handling or reading. Minor jacket, board, or page-edge wear may be present, but the book remains complete and firmly bound.
Good
A complete, readable copy with noticeable wear from use. It may show rubbing, scuffs, small tears, creasing, an owner mark, or a missing dust jacket. Every material flaw is called out in the listing.
Glossary of terms you’ll see in listings
- Bumped corners
- The corners of the hardcover boards are slightly dented from being dropped, shelved tightly, or handled. Cosmetic only.
- Cocked (or leaning) spine
- The book no longer stands flush when closed — the text block has shifted so the spine leans left or right. Common in thicker paperbacks and heavily-read hardcovers.
- Dust jacket (DJ)
- The removable paper cover on a hardcover book. Its condition is often graded separately from the book itself (e.g. "Very Good book in Good DJ").
- Ex libris
- Latin for “from the books of” or “from the library of.” It usually appears on a personal bookplate, stamp, or ownership mark and does not mean the book is ex-library.
- Ex-library
- Previously owned by a library. Usually carries stamps, pocket sleeves, a call number on the spine, and a plastic protective cover. Never priced as a first-edition collectible.
- Flyleaf
- The blank page at the very front of the book (attached to the inside cover). Where you’ll often find previous-owner inscriptions or bookstore stamps.
- Foxing
- The rusty-brown age spots that appear on older paper, especially on the edges of the text block. Caused by oxidation, usually from humidity. Doesn’t affect readability.
- Hinge
- The inside joint where the cover meets the text block. A "starting hinge" is beginning to crack; a "cracked hinge" is broken but the book is still held together by the binding threads.
- Price-clipped
- The corner of the dust jacket flap where the original retail price was printed has been cut off. Usually indicates the book was once given as a gift.
- Remainder mark
- A permanent marker stripe or stamp on the bottom page edges, indicating the book was sold as a publisher’s overstock. Common on 1990s–2010s hardcovers.
- Shelf wear / wear and tear
- General wear a dust jacket and/or boards can collect through ordinary handling, shelving, and reading. It can include small nicks, scratches, rubbing, edge wear, softened corners, or light surface marks; the listing will identify what is present on the specific copy.
- Sunning
- Fading of the spine or cover from prolonged exposure to light. A book with a pristine front and a faded spine has been sitting face-out on a sunny shelf.
- Text block
- The pages of the book, as a unit. "Tight text block" means the pages are still firmly bound together.
Photos beat words
Every listing carries at minimum:
- A display photo (the book as it would sit on your shelf)
- Full jacket photo (front, spine, back — laid flat where possible)
- Boards (the cover under the jacket)
- Text block and spine
- Title page
- Copyright page (so you can verify edition and printing)
Notable flaws get their own photos on top of the standard set. If you want additional angles before buying — a specific page, the gutter margin, the dust jacket flaps — email contact@elderntomes.com and we’ll send more.
A note on first editions
Strictly speaking, a “first edition” is the first published version of a work — and any printing of that edition is technically still a first edition. What collectors usually mean (and what we mean in our listings unless stated otherwise) is the first printing of the first edition.
On most modern hardcovers you can identify a first printing by the number line on the copyright page — if the sequence ends in a 1 (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1), it’s a first printing. Publisher conventions vary, so we also check the copyright page and edition history as a whole.
Book club editions and SFBC
Book clubs sold editions directly to members, often using smaller formats or different materials than the bookstore trade edition. The Science Fiction Book Club, launched by Doubleday in 1953, also produced its own hardcovers and omnibus editions for science-fiction and fantasy readers.
Most book club editions are more common and less valuable than their trade counterparts—but that rule has important exceptions. In Star Wars collecting, SFBC sometimes produced the only hardcover version of a title that was otherwise released in paperback. Those hardcover-exclusive editions can be scarcer, more desirable, and worth more than the ordinary paperback. We identify book club editions clearly and price each one according to the edition itself, not a blanket rule.
Questions on a specific listing?
If anything in a listing’s condition description isn’t clear, email contact@elderntomes.com before buying. We’d rather answer five questions than process one return.