Everything you need to know about book condition.

Most condition-related issues fall into one of two categories:

1. Books not arriving in the condition that you expected when you ordered them.
2. Understanding how to grade your books

Defining condition ‍

Let's look at each condition as its described by Amazon.

New condition: "Just like it sounds, a brand new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition. The dust cover and original protective wrapping, if any, are intact, all supplementary material are included and all access codes for electronic material, if applicable, are valid and/or in working condition."

Like new condition: "A dust cover that is intact with no nicks or tears. The spine has no signs of creasing, pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds of any kind, may contain remainder marks in the outside edges, which should be noted in the listing comments"

Very Good condition: "Pages and dust cover are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting, the spine is undamaged."

Good condition: "All pages and cover are intact, including the dust cover, if applicable, spine may show signs of wear, pages may include limited notes and highlighting and may include 'From the library of labels.'"

Acceptable condition: "All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing, pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text cannot be obscured or unreadable."

How should we interpret all this?

Since Amazon's descriptions are a little vague, we have to do some interpretation. Fortunately, I've sold a bazillion books and have arrived at my interpretation through a lot of trial and error.

New condition: First of all, when it comes to new condition books in online book arbitrage, it's worth mentioning that most new sellers are not approved by Amazon to sell new books. Probably the majority of Zen Arbitrage members, right off the top, are not even allowed to sell new books.

For the reason of low competition, there is a ton and ton of money to be made selling new books with Zen Arbitrage. It's "fish in a barrel" easy to find books you can buy cheap and resell in new condition as an FBA seller because the FBA competition is so thin.

So when it comes to a customer buys a new book, what are they looking for?

I have a very specific answer: "A cosmetically flawless book that then endured a long journey with the US Postal Service."

That last part is key.  

Let me explain what I mean by that. Amazon buyers understand that they're buying a book that also took a long trip in the mail. So they're not expecting something that is identical to a book pulled off the shelf at Barnes and Noble. They understand there will be a mild amount of wear.

Here's the test: Ask yourself the question, "Does this look like a new condition book that also spent a week in the mail?"  If the answer is yes, then by my definition, is a new condition book.

That means your new condition book should be very close to flawless, but that does not necessarily mean 100% unblemished.

• No evidence the book has been opened whatsoever
• no creases in spine
• a book that opens like it's been opened for the first time.
• That new book sheen.

Textbook buyers are a little different than average book buyers. Specifically, when a textbook buyer is paying for a new book, they're actually looking paying extra for two things.

1. They want the guaranteed absence of highlighting and writing. (Not all students care about this, but the ones that do are going to buy a new condition book because they want the guaranteed absence of that stuff.
2. They want the guaranteed presence of all those inserts. Even though most people don't care about inserts, a lot of them do. Or, I shouldn't even say a lot, a small percentage of people care about inserts and access codes and so forth.

So you can relax your grading standards ever so slightly with textbooks.

Like New: I recommend rarely if ever listing a book as Like New. Most customers hear "like new" and they interpret that as new. So it's begging for negative feedback.

Also, the same issue with New condition books apply: Most sellers are restricted from selling in Like New condition.

One important principle when grading books is to "under promise and over deliver." So if a book is used, you should list it as unambiguously used. If it's new, list it as new. "Like new" is just too vague.

When is it okay to list a book as Like New? When there are remainder marks or gift inscriptions on an otherwise brand new, unread book. A second example would be a new book that has merely lost its new book sheen. In other words, the book doesn't really have any damage so to speak, but it definitely doesn't look new.

Very Good condition: My definition of very good condition, as practiced for over 10 years now, is a used book that lacks anything that could be defined as "damage".
Meaning, anything specific you could point to as damage.

In other words, a book that is clearly used, but only because it has light wear, not because it is "damaged." Basically a book that just looks like it's been handled by the average reader.

By my definition, this applies to over half the books you'll encounter. Books that are clearly used but don't have any "damage" to speak of.

Good condition. My definitions of a Good book are either:

1. When you can clearly identify damage to a book versus merely the general appearance of light wear.
2. Or, general wear but heavy general wear.

Basically, a book that was thrown into a backpack and taken on a motorcycle trip across the country or something.

Examples are small tears to the cover, pen marks that are on less than 20 pages of the book, heavy creases to the cover, etc.

Acceptable condition. This is the bottom of the barrel. So I actually do sell quite a few books in acceptable condition. However, I do notice those books tend to sit around for longer. Many buyers will definitely pass on acceptable condition if there are other better condition copies that are around the same price. I don't wanna...It's not a death sentence. It doesn't mean your book is never gonna sell, but I do think it means you'll sit on your book for a little bit longer generally speaking.

Do Acceptable condition books sell? They do, and better than you'd think. So don't forgo selling a book just because its Acceptable. It's not idea, but not a book death-sentence.

Acceptable: Should you avoid them?‍

You're probably finding great deals on Acceptable condition books, and wondering: "Should I buy these?"

The deal with Acceptable condition books is this: They do sell, just not as fast.

My advice: buy them if they're a great deal (i.e. super cheap), but generally its worth spending a little more to get a Good condition book (or better).

The risks: You may find you have return as much as 25% of Acceptable books because there is some dealbreaking condition issue, so there is a risk there.  

It comes down to scrutinizing the condition description to determine the risk of getting a truly damaged or unsellable book.  

The upsides: One, you can get some great deals. Two, there are some sellers who list ALL their books in Acceptable - even ones in VG condition - to limit the risk of bad feedback, which can present incredible buying opportunities.  

The takeaway: Don't rule them out, just proceed with caution. ‍

What about library stamps and stickers?

You'll encounter many books that have used bookstore stickers, or are ex-library books. How do you grade these?

Here's where having lots of experience has taught me to override Amazon's condition standards. According to Amazon, all books with lots of stickers or that are ex-library should be listed as Acceptable.

In practice, I list tons of these books in Good with no issues.  

I'll list most books that have stamps and stickers in good condition. You know, it's really like heavy crease to the cover, like a big one. Not just a tiny one, but a big one. That's basically it. That's that's how I define good condition. Now, when it comes to good versus very good, it's a big debate that comes up, like, "Does it really matter?" Like in other words,

Good versus Very Good: Does anyone care?

Are people going to pass up your Good condition copy book to purchase a Very Good condition copy?

In my experience, buyers do not have a strong preference for books between very good and good condition. For most Amazon buyers, it just simply all translates to an average used copy.

The psychology the Amazon customer is that when they're buying a used book, they understand the book is used. They're not sweating the details. They just want to know, "Hey, can I actually read this book?" They're not trying to put it in a museum.  

To expand, I don't think people, a significant amount of time, will skip a Good condition book to buy Very Good. I think it's all kind of lumped into the same category for most Amazon buyers.

The only factor to consider is that, at least in theory, condition is a factor in getting the Buy Box. So Good condition gives you a  slight disadvantage over Very Good in that sense, but not much. ‍

What kind of books do you never sell?

Here's the test: If you ordered the book in Acceptable condition, would you still be disappointed? If the answer is yes, you should probably not sell that book.

Some examples are:

• Heavy water damage.
• Heavy pen markings that obscure the text for a significant percentage of the book.
• Broken binding.
• Many missing pages.

Those are the top four.

How often will sellers list a book inaccurately?

It will happen about 10% of 15% of the time.

Condition is subjective. One think I hear a lot is, "20-25 or 30% of my books or half the books I order I have to return because they were not graded accurately."

Anytime I hear that, I don't hear "bad sellers. I hear "A seller with condition standards that are too strict."

I hate to say this, but if you're returning books more than 10% or 15% of the time, your standards are too strict.

If you're one of those people returning books like 20 plus percent of the time, you really should examine if you're being too conservative and your grading standards. It's probably not the 20% of sellers are shady. It's probably that you're actually applying an unrealistic standards to your grading. ‍

So what do you do if a book was actually listed inaccurately?

You should do the same thing every time: Request a refund, and insist on not returning the book. In the case of seller error, most of the time you should refunded and allowed to keep the book.

If someone described a book in one way and you received a different book, it's not your burden to have to pay for shipping. B very firm about that.

If they don't comply, just file an A-to-Z claim with Amazon, which basically gets Amazon involved where they mediate the dispute.

The benefits of grading conservatively

There are benefits to grading conservatively.

If you're not sure if a book is Good or Very Good, it can pay to grade it as Good.

The vast majority of negative feedback you receive will come from customers who are disputing your choice of a Used condition.

I cannot think of an example of ever having received negative feedback for a New condition book. But when it comes to used condition, as far as I recall, all of my negative feedback has come from sellers disputing how I listed a book among used condition.

Sometimes, it's because I missed damage that I should have caught. But a lot of times, it's simply a buyer that just says, "Look, this book was listed in Very Good condition and I think it should have been Good,"

For that reason, I prefer to under-promise and over-deliver.

In this video, I go into even more detail on all things related to book condition and grading books:

- Peter Valley