Collectors Should Not Ignore Remaindered Books

If you are a book collector, you should not ignore remaindered books. Remaindered books are those books you often see piled high on tables in front of Borders or Barnes & Noble, selling at a fraction of their original price. Books are remaindered when they are no longer selling well, and publishers want to get rid of them. While the publishing company takes a loss when it remainders books, it gains valuable warehouse space.

Generally only hardcover and trade paperbacks (larger paperbacks) are remaindered. Pocket or mass market paperbacks that don’t sell usually have their front covers ripped off and the books are pulped. Buying and selling paperbacks with their front covers removed is illegal. Most paperbacks today carry a warning that says:

“If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

The remainder market has grown ever since 1979, when the United States Supreme Court in Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, essentially made it unprofitable for companies to maintain large inventories. The ruling which had nothing to do with the book trade, indirectly affected publishers backlists. Publishers could no longer maintain warehouses filled with slow selling books.

Current technology may adversely affect the remainder market. Print on Demand technology makes it possible for publishers to print smaller runs of titles. Should the book sell well, the publisher can still fill orders through Print on Demand technology. Should the book not sell well, it can still be remaindered, but there will be fewer remaindered copies available. For now, however, remainders are a thriving part of the book trade.

The Positives and Negatives of Remaindered Books.

For the collector, the bargain price of remainders is a positive thing. However, there is a down side to remainders. Many of them are marked with a remainder mark, often just the slash of a marker, sometimes the ink stamp of a star or some other emblem, on the bottom edges of the book.

Not all publishers mark their remaindered books. So if you are perusing remaindered books at your local book store, look the book over carefully for remainder marks. If there are none, and you want the book, you have found yourself a bargain.

By the way, sometimes you can get rid of the remainder mark, particularly if it was not done with a marker. Here is how you do it. Pull the front and back covers slightly open and grab the rest of the book and hold it closed tightly. Then hand sand the remainder mark off. Start with a fine grade of sandpaper. If that doesn’t work, try a coarser grade. Work slowly and carefully. If you see that sanding is not working or you start damaging the book, stop immediately.

Remaindered First Edition Books Provide an Opportunity for Speculation

Fiction, especially by new authors, is remaindered by the ton. Some collectors speculate by buying first edition remainders of novels by new authors. An unknown author’s first book is worthless, however, if he or she becomes famous, then his or her first book will generally be the most valuable book of all his or her works.

For example, when Albany, New York author William Kennedy wrote his first book The Ink Truck, it was worth very little. When he won the Pulitzer Prize for Ironweed and it was made into a movie, his first book became very valuable. I located a copy, without its dust jacket, in a thrift store and was still able to sell it for a decent price. The problem is guessing who is going to become famous and who isn’t. That takes a lot of skill and luck.

Remainders Can Fill a Hole in Your Collection

If you are a collector, you should also consider remainders if you have a hole in your collection. If you are collecting books by hippie leaders and don’t have a copy of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book, a remaindered reprint can fill the bill until you find an original copy. I came across remaindered reprints of Steal This Book for five dollars each at a WaldenBooks discount store.

If you are not really interested in the monetary value of your book collection, but are simply interested in collecting interesting books on a particular subject, either for reading or research, then seriously consider remainders. They will enable you to get more book for the buck. If you don’t care about remainder marks, you can even order from catalogs or websites of remainder retailers like Daedalus Books, The Texas Bookman, Powell’s and Book Depot. I order from all of these remainder houses and have been pleased by the books I have purchased.

Remaindered books are an important part of the book trade. Whether you are a bookseller, a collector, or a reader, you cannot afford to ignore them.