There are several little tricks that a seller can do to improve the quality of their books to sell on amazon.com. These are not a guarantee only recommendations.
For loose binding:
Binding is the part of the book that the pages are connected too. All to often, with older, but otherwise valuable books, the pages are beginning to come away from the binding. This is something a bit of rubber cement (clear color) can fix. Cut a piece of plastic of cardboard just a bit smaller than the binding. Coat one side with rubber cement and slid it between the chunk of pages and the binding itself. The pull it back out to coat the pages and binding. Make sure not to over due it on the amount used. Then give the binding a press down onto the table to make the glue stick to the pages. You will have to hold it this way for awhile. The glue should dry and the binding and pages should stick a bit better. Make sure you are honest in your description. Say something like “binding has been artfully repaired”.
Smoke smell:
Often used books that you happen to pick up come from homes where people have been smoking inside. Since cardboard cloth and paper are porous they often soak up this smell. Febreeze works wonders on the pages. Just get a bottle of febreeze and while flipping the pages spray the febreeze downward. Hold the can about a foot away. Continue to flip the pages carefully and quickly to dry them. For the cover of books. Take some 409 orange scented cleaner and lightly spray a washcloth or paper towel with it. Wipe this over both covers of the book.
For price stickers:
It is always a wise idea to remove price stickers from books. If you’ve gotten a bargain you may want to sell your book for a higher price. If you send the book to the buyer with a price sticker on it that is cheaper than they paid get ready for some negative feedback. Goo Gone, (let me stress that this must be a very small amount, otherwise you risk staining the cover,) takes the stickers right off.
Books that look like an elephant sat on them:
To straighten, square and tighten a book there are a few methods you can use.
Method One: Libraries use a method called tightening to keep thier books looking good. All you do is place the book in a bookshelf with several other books. Make sure there is no give in books. They should all stand up straight and not move or tip over. The book there and let pressure do its job.
Method two:
Two old tennis rackets or snow shoes. Remove the handles with a hacksaw, then get eight square peices of wood. these will serve as clamps. Drill holes in all eight peices through thier center. Using a nut and bolt system (You need four nuts and four bolts) Place the bolts upright, slide one the first peices of wood, one over each bolt, slide the first tennis racket over the that , place your book (make sure you set it to be saquare and unlopsided) in the center of the racket and slide the next racket over that, then the four remain peices of wood go one, one peice on each bolt. Finally, slide the nuts onto the bolt and screw to tighten them so they place and adequate amount of pressure on the book. Let it sit and watch it reform. You now have a device that you can use over and over again.
Next time I will talk about pricing your books so they will sell.
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