On Feb 15, 6:56*pm, "Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote:
oly wrote:
On Feb 15, 6:38 pm, "Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote:
RWF wrote:
"oly" wrote in message
....
There was a fellow who had scads of Hardy Boys (in tan-colored hard
covers) out at the flea market today. My guess is that they were
vintage 1946-1955. When I got around to reading the H.B. in the
late 1960s, the covers were illustrated in color.

I've never followed these things. Is there any thing in that
vintage of H.B. that one should look for? The seller wanted $2.50
each, probably could have bought the lot for less than that per
copy.

Tan covered books without dust jackets are practically worthless.

As a bibliophile, I share the phobia about antiquarian books that
lack dj. But why is this? Numismatists have their cleaning issues,
but why do book collectors often pay more for a dj than for the book
itself? There's gotta be some deep, philosophical, psychological
cause. 'Splain that one, if you can.

James

I had a similar thought about the dust jacket making or breaking the
book - there is very little in the DJ that makes it at all valuable.

Seems a lot like the emphasis on "MIB" for toys and such.

Could it all stem from the hardwired, particularly male, trait to desire
"virgin" goods, whether it be a mate, a coin, a book, or any other kind of
"toy"? *Removing and throwing away (gasp!) the dust jacket is sort of like a
deflowering, is it not? *I was thinking more, but realize I better stop
right there

James- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I really think that the lack of the dust jacket (or a box, or
certificates of authenticity) is a way to politely tell a potential
seller that their stuff is very common.

I don't get deep into this psychology stuff, being reasonably warped
myself.

oly