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Pristine. Well-thumbed. Fine. As Described. Near Mint. Second hand bookselling (and indeed selling any second hand item) comes with a plethora of terms to describe the condition of the item in question.

Booksellers are particularly pernickety when it comes to differentiating these terms into different classes, and can spend hours discussing the various pointers of ‘good’ versus ‘very good’, ‘fine’ or ‘near fine’. The types of damage books can sustain come under intense scrutiny, with discussions over the relative merits of Mylar sheet (plastic) to protect older volumes, tears to dust jackets, bent pages, creaky spines…we could go on!

Many big booksellers use a system with 8-10 established groups to describe the condition of a volume. But at Amblongus, we have found trying to navigate this system to be confusing because most of our customers either do not understand the terms, or are not interested in the technical differences between them. Furthermore, all rare or antiquarian books should be sold with a clear description anyway, covering any damage, marks, tears or other factors affecting the book’s quality.

For that reason, we always describe the book in as much detail as we can first, and then use a three-tiered ‘traffic light’ system to give an indication of the book’s overall condition. The three terms we use are simple and easy to understand:

Good – a book with no or very few defects, that may show signs of light use or age but is otherwise very well-preserved

Fair – a book with some defects, such as small chips or foxing (see our quick glossary of terms below)

Poor – a book with significant and obvious defects, like damp or water marks, missing or damaged pages

Quick Glossary

We try not to use too many technical terms to describe our books, but it is useful to know a few common ones.

Bowed: the condition of the cover or boards on a hardback, when damp or humidity change causes them to curve

Chipped or Chips: small indents or missing pieces on the cover or dust jacket

Foxing: brown spots on the pages, common in older books, caused by a chemical reaction

Loose / Tight: this refers to the condition of the spine – the more a book is opened and used, the looser it will be

One of the most common questions we get asked is ‘do you buy books?’

The answer is slightly more complicated than a simple yes or no, so we’ve written this hopefully fairly simple blog post to help. Before contacting us regarding selling your book or books, please do have a read through and if you are still unsure, you can contact us using the form at the bottom of this page.

In general, Amblongus is not short of books! In addition to a well-stocked shop floor, we have an entire storage room packed to the rafters with books we do not have space to display. This means that we will only consider taking, displaying, or buying books under one or more of the circumstances below.

Interesting Volumes: we want our collection to be vibrant, diverse, and thought-provoking. Whilst many classic titles and authors are perennially popular and absolutely have a place on our shelves, we are always on the lookout for things that are different, uncommon, and hard to find.

Resale value: second hand book-selling is a complex and often challenging world, and whilst we think there is value in almost any book, it can be very difficult to find the right customer for every single volume. For this reason, we are usually not interested in buying or receiving cheap, poor quality, aged, or obviously damaged books.

Rare or high-value books: if you believe you have a title worth a significant sum, we are unlikely to make a deal with you for it. You should consider eBay or another peer-to-peer sales platform, or contact an antiquarian book specialist that offers a valuation service (such as Peter Harrington). If you have a rare volume that you would like us to display on your behalf, we are happy to discuss this with you.

Larger collections: we will consider offering small sums for job lots or larger collections of books (such as from house clearances), ideally where we have had an opportunity to consider a representative sample of the titles available. If you think you have a group or collection of books we would be interested in, please contact us using the form below with a short list of titles and someone will be in touch.

Donations: we often receive extremely generous donations for which we are always grateful, but we ask that if you are considering giving us books they are in keeping with the points made above. This is simply because we are running out of space and will soon have nowhere to put them!

If you still think we might be interested in receiving or buying a book from you, or if you have any other questions about book selling, please do not hesitate to contact using the form below.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to seeing you in the shop very soon.

Sally.