I buy and sell used and rare books.  I am also a collector, and my personal collection spans two five-shelf bookcases at the time I write this.  I do most of my buying online, although I do frequent some local bookstores.  Ebay is one of my main platforms for my hobby, but I have been running into the same problems more and more with buying books on Ebay.  Even though we all make mistakes sometimes,  it seems many sellers do not give enough information when selling books, and while I have never had too much of a problem returning items which were not described correctly, it can get annoying.

I run across sellers everyday who have left importatnt information out of their descriptions.  Unless you are selling reading copies (and this should be noted), many collectors need certain information to know what book they are buying.  Recently I purchased a book which I returned because the seller either did not know or was mis-informed that it was a Book Club Edition, commonly abbreviated as BCE.  BCE's are worhtless to collectors, except for the rare person who may collect only BCE's, or if a BCE is the only printing or only obtainable copy of a certain work.  A book that is a BCE should be noted in descriptions.  You can tell if a book is a BCE by checking a few things:

If the book is smaller than normal trade size, you MAY have a BCE.  (I say MAY because there are books that are trade editions that are printed smaller than normal, and there are BCE's that are printed at regular trade size).

If there is no price on the inside flap of the dust jacket, you most likely have a BCE.  (This is a dead give-away).

Look on the bottom of the inside front flap of the dust jacket, BCE's are usually stated here.

Sometimes publishers will put a small imprint of a leaf or other small symbol on the book itself, in the bottom corner of the back cover.  This indicates a BCE.

Beware of books that look identical to trade editions but are actually BCE's.  If the edition is unstated in the description, email the seller and have them check it out for you.  Most collectors are looking for a first edition/first printing of a particular work (I will be writing a guide on first editions with info about how to check for this).  In any case, emailing the seller for additional information in any potential purchase is always a good idea.

I hope this guide is helpful for my fellow collectors.  I plan to write a whole series on book collecting so check back often!