How does a person tell if books are first editions?
Fortunately there is no clear-cut answer to this question (we say fortunately because that’s what keeps us in business). Every publisher is different in the methods that they employ to identify first editions, most publishers changed their methods of identifying first editions over time, and even when dealing with publishers who have historically been fairly consistent, exceptions exist to the rules. And publishers occasionally make outright mistakes. Unfortunately for the novice, even some books that seem helpful by stating “First Edition” on the copyright page are not always first editions. We are able to determine edition for our books because we have a large reference library and decades of experience. If you would like to learn more about this subject, our Glossary section also lists several reference titles with very good basic guides to edition identification. We also offer almost 200 very affordable guides to collecting specific authors – these guides contain all the informatio
