The most obvious thing that affects the value of a book is damage. There are many types of damage that are considered in the value of a book. Water damage, highlighting, missing pages, and loose binding are the most common.
Water damage tends to be the most common. How many times have you seen a student use their textbook as an umbrella or as a coaster for their drink? So many books that come from schools have sticky rings on the covers from leaky cokes. Everyone knows what happens to paper when it gets wet. When a textbook gets wet the pages stick together, the cover warps and changes shape and the book basically becomes unusable. If the damage is not too bad, sometimes the book can still be used but lets face it, who wants to read a book with smudged wrinkly pages?
Highlighting is another common problem with books. A college textbook losses little value when it is highlighted, but a k-12 textbook losses most of it's value when highlighted. Public schools frown on students writing in their books and do no like buying books that have been highlighted or written in. Missing pages is also a large issue. If a book is missing a page it automatically losses all of it's value.
After several years of being shoved into lockers and bookbags, the binding on hardback books loosens. The pages pull away from the cover and sometimes the cover comes off completely. If the pages start to pull away a book can often be fixed with a some hot glue to hold the spine in place. If the cover has come off completely, the book can be rebound with a new cover.
To summarize:
Damage to the cover can often be fixed with a little glue or some cleaner and a paper towel. Damage to the pages can not be fixed. A little highlighting can take a book down from a Like New quality to a Very Good Quality. Always make sure to watch for missing pages.
www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com
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