Spine Curvature on Vintage Sears JCPenneys Montgomery Ward Catalogs can seriously affect the quality of the Catalogs, but Sellers Rarely Show or Mention this in Their Auction Listings. A catalog may have a VERY Curved Spine, Yet take an Excellent Cover Shot! Then You will only see one cropped cover shot and maybe one interior page.
The Spine Curvature should be RATED from 1 to 10. One Being Perfect, Flat and in Mint Pristine Unread Condition. 10 Being Completely Rounded to form a definite Letter "C" as shown in the Image Below.
The Top Catalog would be a 1-1.5, The Next a 2-2.5, The Next a 6-7.5, The Last being a 10 for complete "C".

Extreme Spine Curvature will usually have two other forms of Damage on Big Book Soft Cover Catalogs. A Broken Spine in the form of a definite line appearing on the spine, sometimes several.

A Broken Binding Crease is Shown in the top catalog in the image JUST ABOVE, above about 80% of the way up. A Broken Binding on Big Book Catalogs Causes them to weaken and Fall Apart in that spot. The other Damage Caused by Extreme Spine Curvature is a Left side cover crease seen on the lower catalog. A Catalog could look GREAT in the cover shot. But you know it will have A LOT of spine roll if you see the tell-tale crease about 1/4 in inward.
You should ALWAYS REQUEST A CLOSE UP PICTURE of the spine as I have Shown Above for ANY Big Book Catalog that you buy that you expect to pay more than $20.00 to win the auction.
Always Store them upright in a bookcase shelf. To avoid damaging the spines. If Stored Flat and Stacked on a shelf, the spines begin to lean in one direction or the other. NEVER browse through them in Humid Conditions! EVER!!
That's what causes the spines to roll! As you thumb through them on Humid Days, The pages absorb the moisture.
Then when you close the book, the outer portions of the pages will be 5 to 10% thicker. The More you do it the worse it gets! YOU CANNOT FIX THIS PROBLEM!
That's why the Spring Summer Issues have the Problem FAR MORE Spine Curvature that the Drier months of the Fall Winter Issues. The older Pre-1967 Issues have the problem FAR MORE than Later post Air Conditioning issues.
I have a Collection of over 750,000 catalogs, Probably the World's Largest. I have nearly every issue of Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, EVERY J.C. Penney, Most All the Spiegel , and over 1,200 more titles.
Have Fun and BUYER BEWARE!
Mike Mozart of JeepersMedia
Jeepersmedia At Aol Dot Com
.
The Spine Curvature should be RATED from 1 to 10. One Being Perfect, Flat and in Mint Pristine Unread Condition. 10 Being Completely Rounded to form a definite Letter "C" as shown in the Image Below.
The Top Catalog would be a 1-1.5, The Next a 2-2.5, The Next a 6-7.5, The Last being a 10 for complete "C".
Extreme Spine Curvature will usually have two other forms of Damage on Big Book Soft Cover Catalogs. A Broken Spine in the form of a definite line appearing on the spine, sometimes several.
A Broken Binding Crease is Shown in the top catalog in the image JUST ABOVE, above about 80% of the way up. A Broken Binding on Big Book Catalogs Causes them to weaken and Fall Apart in that spot. The other Damage Caused by Extreme Spine Curvature is a Left side cover crease seen on the lower catalog. A Catalog could look GREAT in the cover shot. But you know it will have A LOT of spine roll if you see the tell-tale crease about 1/4 in inward.
You should ALWAYS REQUEST A CLOSE UP PICTURE of the spine as I have Shown Above for ANY Big Book Catalog that you buy that you expect to pay more than $20.00 to win the auction.
Always Store them upright in a bookcase shelf. To avoid damaging the spines. If Stored Flat and Stacked on a shelf, the spines begin to lean in one direction or the other. NEVER browse through them in Humid Conditions! EVER!!
That's what causes the spines to roll! As you thumb through them on Humid Days, The pages absorb the moisture.
Then when you close the book, the outer portions of the pages will be 5 to 10% thicker. The More you do it the worse it gets! YOU CANNOT FIX THIS PROBLEM!
That's why the Spring Summer Issues have the Problem FAR MORE Spine Curvature that the Drier months of the Fall Winter Issues. The older Pre-1967 Issues have the problem FAR MORE than Later post Air Conditioning issues.
I have a Collection of over 750,000 catalogs, Probably the World's Largest. I have nearly every issue of Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, EVERY J.C. Penney, Most All the Spiegel , and over 1,200 more titles.
Have Fun and BUYER BEWARE!
Mike Mozart of JeepersMedia
Jeepersmedia At Aol Dot Com
.
Guide created: 01/13/08 (updated 01/21/08)
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