Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

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pentium_guy
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Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by pentium_guy »

I've got a question that I cannot find an answer to anywhere. Let's say someone has a 1st/1st of Night Shift and all the proof is there that it is indeed a first edition. The problem is is that it does not have a dustjacket. The 1st edition of the book and the BCE of the book are the same size in this case. If that person were to put a BCE dustjacket (which is seemingly identical except for the jacket price and maybe a barcode) would that book be even close to as valuable as a first edition with the first edition dustjacket? I guess that to some degree it is silly to place so much of the value of the book on the DJ. If someone had a classic car with a pristine interior and innerworkings that were in perfect working order, but the car was not painted, the value would not be affected even nearly as much. Anyway, does anyone know what replacing the DJ with the BCE DJ does for the value?
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TheCollector
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by TheCollector »

Howdy,

BCE books are not collectible, as such you would drop the value of the book 95+%.

There are two main reasons that there's so much value placed on the DJ's of early SK books.

#1) In many cases you need to have the DJ to prove it's an actual 1st edition. If it's priceclipped or missing you may not be able to tell the difference between a 1st edition and something else. You can thank viking for not putting a nice numberline on the books like later SK editions :)

#2) Early SK's were of poor quality AND weren't collectible at the time, since SK wasn't a well known author. As such very few (as a % of the print run) have survived in good condition or better. Thus driving up the value.

I hope that helps,
SkippyD023
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by SkippyD023 »

I have always wondered this as well.

I agree that the DJ has a lot to do with the value of the book especially when it is needed to verify a true 1st edition. But in the instance that "pentiumguy" is talking about which is Night Shift you can tell it is a first edition without the DJ, this is the case with the first five books from Doubleday. They all say "First Edition" on the copyright page and have a code in the gutter of the last page to identify it as a first edition. So if a first edition Night Shift is worth $500 to $700 dollars with a DJ, what would it be worth without a DJ or if you put a BCE DJ on it $25 to $35? More? I would be curious to know as well.
e_taylor
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by e_taylor »

SkippyD023 wrote:I have always wondered this as well.

I agree that the DJ has a lot to do with the value of the book especially when it is needed to verify a true 1st edition. But in the instance that "pentiumguy" is talking about which is Night Shift you can tell it is a first edition without the DJ, this is the case with the first five books from Doubleday. They all say "First Edition" on the copyright page and have a code in the gutter of the last page to identify it as a first edition. So if a first edition Night Shift is worth $500 to $700 dollars with a DJ, what would it be worth without a DJ or if you put a BCE DJ on it $25 to $35? More? I would be curious to know as well.
Well lets put it this way:

If you were going to drop $700 on a 1st edition Night Shift, would you not rather a true first edition jacket as opposed to a BCE jacket?
SkippyD023
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by SkippyD023 »

e_taylor wrote:
SkippyD023 wrote:I have always wondered this as well.

I agree that the DJ has a lot to do with the value of the book especially when it is needed to verify a true 1st edition. But in the instance that "pentiumguy" is talking about which is Night Shift you can tell it is a first edition without the DJ, this is the case with the first five books from Doubleday. They all say "First Edition" on the copyright page and have a code in the gutter of the last page to identify it as a first edition. So if a first edition Night Shift is worth $500 to $700 dollars with a DJ, what would it be worth without a DJ or if you put a BCE DJ on it $25 to $35? More? I would be curious to know as well.
Well lets put it this way:

If you were going to drop $700 on a 1st edition Night Shift, would you not rather a true first edition jacket as opposed to a BCE jacket?


Definetely, without question. But the question being asked is what would a first edition of night shift without a jacket be worth? Is there no value to it at all without a 1st edition DJ to go with it?
e_taylor
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by e_taylor »

SkippyD023 wrote:
e_taylor wrote:
SkippyD023 wrote:I have always wondered this as well.

I agree that the DJ has a lot to do with the value of the book especially when it is needed to verify a true 1st edition. But in the instance that "pentiumguy" is talking about which is Night Shift you can tell it is a first edition without the DJ, this is the case with the first five books from Doubleday. They all say "First Edition" on the copyright page and have a code in the gutter of the last page to identify it as a first edition. So if a first edition Night Shift is worth $500 to $700 dollars with a DJ, what would it be worth without a DJ or if you put a BCE DJ on it $25 to $35? More? I would be curious to know as well.
Well lets put it this way:

If you were going to drop $700 on a 1st edition Night Shift, would you not rather a true first edition jacket as opposed to a BCE jacket?


Definetely, without question. But the question being asked is what would a first edition of night shift without a jacket be worth? Is there no value to it at all without a 1st edition DJ to go with it?
Considerably less simply because the market for it evaporates as no one wants to spend big bucks on it.
pentium_guy
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by pentium_guy »

You're right about one thing...the value will go down if the person knows that it is a BCE jacket. I understand that if you put a 12th HC printrun dustjacket on a 1st that should definitely bring the value down to almost zero....but in a case like night shift, the artwork, the design, what have you, is 99.9% identical. The physical book is still the first edition. Maybe its the whole economic and psychological factors that go into what makes a rare book truely rare, but in any case, I'm sure there are thousands and thousands of first edition stephen king books that arent worth a dime because they no longer have a piece of paper (crappy paper depending on the publisher).
e_taylor
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by e_taylor »

pentium_guy wrote: I understand that if you put a 12th HC printrun dustjacket on a 1st that should definitely bring the value down to almost zero....but in a case like night shift, the artwork, the design, what have you, is 99.9% identical. The physical book is still the first edition. Maybe its the whole economic and psychological factors that go into what makes a rare book truely rare
You have to keep in mind that a collectible book such as this has two parts - the 1st edition book and the 1st edition jacket. Due to how fragile the jackets are in comparison to the books, they are considerably more rare to find in good condition than the book itself. Hence the breakdown in value.

If you have a mint HC but no jacket, its much harder to find a mint jacket to match it. But if you have a mint jacket, you'll run into cases like this where theres a good condition book with no jacket. I think its more supply/demand and keeping a true collectible "pure" than psychological factors.
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Re: Dustjackets 100% determinate of value?

Post by jhanic »

This is one of the few times that I really don't have an idea of what a 1st/1st of Night Shift without a dust jacket would be worth. Normally, the dust jacket can be worth up to 90-95% of the value of the book, but given that Night Shift only had about 12,000 copies printed in the first printing makes it more rare than other books. If I had a good condition Night Shift 1st/1st and wanted to upgrade it and keep the good condition dust jacket that I already had, what would that be worth to me? I just don't know.

John
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