The warning is no less true now, and perhaps more so than ever. Especially when buying on the Internet.
While researching a book I wanted to add to my inventory today (11 Jan) I found to my chagrin that some dealers are listing it as a "Corgi Childrens Softcover", it's actually a "Corgi Books" publication. The book in question is actually an adult swashbuckling romance. The cover says it all, "a magnificent saga of love and war in a dangerous and seductive land", a bodice-ripper in other words.
In addition, some are also listing it as "Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks." These are very likely the mega-listers who list whole warehouses of books they've never seen, looked at or are otherwise familiar with, as well as tens of thousands of books they don't even have in stock, but hope they can get if someone mistakenly orders it from them.
And, not surprisingly, these two misleading/false descriptions are attached to the two highest-priced copies of the book.
Ah well, as these shyster booksellers know all too well, there's a sucker born every minute, as P T Barnum said. My only advice is to beware of the overly generalised descriptions of books, descriptions which claim the book MAY be this or MAY have that in regard to defects or attributes that would be obvious to a five year old.
And let's not forget the large UK bookseller, who claims to have more than a million books in its inventory. This "dealer" lists two copies of a title I was researching today (13 Jan).
The first of these, while acknowledging it to be a book club edition, he also claims is a first edition (it is not a 1st edition). And he has this alleged first edition for sale at more than £50 (the next highest price for this title is £18), while admitting it's only "good in poor D/W (DJ)... a good working copy."
All of which is stranger yet in that he lists his second copy at only £14.75. And this one is described as having no DJ, "covers good, internally good... "neat owners inscription".
Now to me, that second copy sounds VERY little different to the first copy other than the second copy has no DJ (which makes it a few quid less "valuable", but £35 quid less?!?!??
As they used to say (maybe still do) on "Hill Street Blues", "Hey, let's be careful out there".
