Bookseller - Terms / Attributes Used in Book Descriptions
 

abebooks.com searches through various fields of information that our booksellers send to us. In these fields abebooks.com looks for specific attributes. These attributes and their various abbreviations are listed below:

The Keywords, Description and Publisher fields are concatenated for the following checks.

FIRST EDITIONS

  • a book's description contains the words: 1st Ed and none of: Reprint, Not 1st, Not a 1st, or 1st Thus
  • a book's description contains the words: First Ed and none of: Reprint, Not First, or Not a First
  • a book's keywords contains the words: 1stEd, 1Ed, or 1st Ed

DUST JACKETED

  • a book's description contains the words: JACKET and not the term NO DUST or NO JACKET or WITHOUT DUST or WITHOUT JACKET
  • a book's description contains the words: DJ and not the term NO DJ or W/O DJ or NDJ 
  • a book's description contains the words: D/J and not the term NO D/J or W/O D/J
  • a book's description contains the words: D-J and not the term NO D-J or W/O D-J
  • a book's description contains the words: D.J. and not the term NO D.J. or W/O D.J.
  • a book's description contains the words: D.W. and not the term NO D.W. 
  • a book's description contains the words: DW and not the term NO DW 
  • a book's description contains the words: D/W and not the term NO D/W 
  • a book's description contains the words: DUST WRAPPER and not the term NO DUST WRAPPER 
  • a book's description contains the words: DUSTWRAPPER and not the term NO DUSTWRAPPER  
  • a book's description contains the character: / and the / is followed by the letters F, G, P, V, NF or AN 

HARD COVER

If the book description contains one of the following terms:

  • HB 
  • HC 
  • HBK 
  • HARDCOVER 
  • HARD COVER 
  • HARDBOUND 
  • CLOTH 
  • LEATHER 
  • EMBOSSED 
  • HINGE 
  • HARDBACK 
  • BOARDS 
  • GILT 
  • EX-LIB or EX LIB 
  • BRODART 
  • MYLAR 
  • BUCKRAM

A final check is made on the year of publication. If it is prior to 1940, then is it deemed a hardback.

SOFT COVER

If the book description or publisher information contains one of the following terms:

  • PAPERBACK 
  • PAPER BACK 
  • PAPERBOUND
  • PAPER BOUND
  • SOFTCOVER 
  • SOFT COVER 
  • PBK 
  • PB 
  • WRAPS 
  • WRAPPERS
  • PROOF

SIGNED

If the book description or publisher information contains one of the following terms:

  • SIGNED 
  • INSCRIBED 
  • INSCRIPTION 
  • AUTOGRAPHED
  • PRESENTATION COPY

Any of the following phrases INSCRIPTION IN INK, NAME IN INK, NOT SIGNED, UNSIGNED, DESIGNED, ASSIGNED, GIFT or OWNER will not be considered signed copies