the ebay market in "first editions" of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ..... Many book club and later editions of this much-loved book are being sold on ebay as "first editions" or, even more egregiously, as "true first editions." Please people ... do a little research before you pay out your hard-earned money for a "first edition" of this great book. A copy of this book has to meet several criteria before it can be called a first edition. To begin with, unless you are dealing with the advance review copy (which is an oversized paperback and will identify itself as an "advance review copy" and will have the "first edition" notation on the copyright page as shown below), it HAS TO BE bound in medium brown boards with a green cloth spine: . The back of the title page HAS TO SAY "First Edition": . If the copy under consideration is in a dust jacket, the front inside flap of the dust jacket HAS TO HAVE the price $3.95 at the bottom of the flap: . And the rear outside panel of the dust jacket has to feature a photo of Harper Lee with credit for the photo given to Truman Capote in small type: . DO NOT judge the copy under consideration only by the photo and photo credit as it also appears on non-first edition dust jackets. There is really NO SUCH THING as a "first book club edition" and even if there were, it would be impossible to identify it as such. A book club edition of this book, no matter how early it's purported to be, has little or no value. Signed, later editions of this book have some value but not a lot as during the last few years the author has been signing many, many of these books for a store in Monroeville. Earlier on she rarely signed copies but that HAS NOT been the case during the last few years. Not everyone who lists such books as "first edition" is a crook of course. Most folks who list common copies of TO KILL... thusly are just confused or misinformed. But, like in real life, there are a few folks on here who literally just want to take your money and thereby get something for nothing. GOVERN YOURSELVES ACCORDINGLY!

Want a true FIRST EDITION of the great STARS FELL ON ALABAMA???

STARS FELL ON ALABAMA by Carl Carmer - another Alabama book about which ebayers are often misled or misinformed:

I've watched and wrung my hands as many, many copies of this Alabama classic have been erroneously described on eBay and have, at least partially due to misleading and/or misinformed descriptions, sold for way more than this once popular and therefore relatively common book is usually worth. Don't get me wrong - true First editions are scarce and are worth money but the later printings and book club editions frequently sold as "first editions" are actually not worth very much at all. So please note:

Any edition of this book in original DARK BLUE or NAVY BLUE CLOTH is NOT a "first edition." Any copy of this book published by The Literary Guild or by Blue Ribbon Press is NOT a "first edition." The first edition was published by Farrar and Rinehart in 1934 but the book was so popular, it went through several printings that year and the LATER PRINTINGS have no appreciable collector value (although they ARE old and they do make for GREAT READING).

The only way to tell if a copy is the true first printing/first edition is to look at the copyright page (on the back of the title page). That page MUST SHOW (there are NO exceptions) a small, oval shaped Farrar & Rinehart icon (with the initials F R) immediately above the copyright notice, as shown here: . If that little oval FR emblem (about 1/3 inch high on the actual book page) is NOT present (and it's usually not), then the book being offered to you is NOT a true first printing/first edition but rather a later printing even if it has the 1934 publication date. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule. For it to be a "first," that little emblem shown above MUST BE PRESENT and PRINTED ON THE COPYRIGHT PAGE AS SHOWN.