If Book Collecting were easy to figure out, there would be prosperous Booksellers and contented Book Collectors. So because of that impossibility, you really should deal only with reliable and professional Booksellers. They know their stuff.

Here's some reasons why:

• On a copyright page, if a series of letters begins with an "A" or a Number Line begins with a "1" - this means the book is from the First Printing of the First Edition! (NOT NECESSARILY TRUE!) (This gets very complicated, so as not to bog you down right now, some of my other eBay Guides go into more detail as to why this is fact. Some less complex idiosyncrasies [HA!] - should be spelled idiosynCRAZIES - continue below.)
• If differing copyright dates appear on a copyright page, this means the text was published earlier elsewhere - often in magazines. (NOT NECESSARILY TRUE!) (If a Publisher's First Edition identification method procedure states that the SAME date on the Title Page and Copyright Page must Match, the Title Page Date must Match the Latest Date on the Copyright Page for the book to be a True First Printing!)
• To a Book Collector, the word Issue means something changed during the First Printing of the First Edition. That is, in book lingo, a synonym for "Issue" is "State." (You read this in one of my other Guides perhaps? Let's say you didn't. Or let's say you DID, but to a logical mind it made no sense. If so, please read the next bullet below.)
• Are you sitting down? Okay, here goes: A Point of Issue (or simply Point) is an inconsistency among copies of the First Printing of the First Edition, thereby resulting in two or more identifiable versions of the First Printing of the First Edition.
• Now take a deep breath because it gets worse. In some books, MULTIPLE POINTS (errors) occur because three or more Point Issues might exist because although SOME errors are corrected, others are not. (Now then, if your Book Collecting anxieties need to be reduced due to a weak heart or thinning hair, aim for the collecting niche of, say, Modern Collectibles. Why? Because multiple points - states - occurred much more frequently in the 1800s. According to a recent count, if you niche into only Modern Collectibes, you'll avoid about 1410 19th-Century books containing Multiple Points! Doesn't that sound more relaxing?)
• Okay. You've made it this far, so allow me to introduce one more book collecting headache: the term "FIRST THUS." Strictly speaking, First Thus means that a book's material is appearing THIS way for the first time. (Also meaning that is has appeared in a SIMILAR way at an earlier time.) That is, the book has been previously published elsewhere, but something new or different has been changed, deleted, or added. (Think of this as similar to Jimi Hendrix's original rendition of Purple Haze being orchestrated into something you embarassingly realize you're humming along with in an elevator's Muzak speaker. Or perhaps you're listening to your kid's iPod and you hear Mick Jagger's tune "Rolling Stone" being sung in Hip Hop. Yep, those are FIRSTS, but they have THUS been changed -- for better or worse. MUCH WORSE TO A PURIST! The point is - they aren't worth much.

This guide was assembled by booksuncommon.  Any errors are mine. For those I apologize.

IF YOU FOUND THIS GUIDE TO BE HELPFUL, PLEASE VOTE "YES" (Thank you!)