Babamarusia Reading to Grandchildren

Quality Music and Books is located on the main street of Osseo, Minnesota just north of Minneapolis, MN, and west of the Mississippi River.  A convenient location, QMB may be reached from Highways 169 and 81, or Highways 169 and 610 from just about anywhere in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area.

Quality Music and Books
208 Central Avenue
Osseo, MN  55369
(763) 424-2425
mary.may@QualityMusicandBooks.com

Please check out the following Quality Music and Books links.

babamarusia's christian book review: CLICK_HERE

babamarusia's blog: CLICK_HERE

QMB's Vision Statement: Recognizing that our Christian faith grows by God's grace through the Holy Spirit, our desire is to provide materials and opportunities that equip believers to fully participate in the Body of Christ through Worship, Word and Witness.

Did You Know that if you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota you can buy on eBay and pick it up at our retail store with no shipping charges?

Next:  Find Babamarusia's Used & Vintage Sheet Music Grading Guide and Basic Book Description Vocabulary

 Babamarusia's Used & Vintage
Sheet Music Grading Guide

• Sheet music covers are graded A = suitable for framing, B = suitable for framing with conditions, C = probably not suitable for framing, buy for music content.
• Music is graded on 1-10 Scale.  This is a guide.  Number is assigned upon most prevailing visual conditions.  All conditions within a grade may not be present.

• GRADE 1 : Mint, as new condition but paper may be light-moderately age-toned/yellowed
• GRADE 2 : Minor soil, age-toned/yellowed paper, may have nicks at top and bottom of spine fold, unmarked.
• GRADE 3 : Minor soil, age-toned/yellowed paper, may have nicks at top and bottom of spine fold, unmarked, may have store stamp on front cover
• GRADE 4 : Minor soil, age-toned/yellowed paper, spine-fold end tears to 1/2 inch, unmarked, may have store stamp and owner name on front cover.
• GRADE 5 : Light to moderate soil, age-toned/yellowed paper, may have spine-fold end tears to 1.5 inches, store stamp and owner name on front cover, moderate amount of edge chips and corner creases.
• GRADE 6 : Light to moderate soil, moderate to heavy age-toned/yellowed paper, may have spine-fold end tears to 3 inches, store stamp and owner name on front cover, moderate amount of edge chips and corner creases, pencil marks on score that do not cover staves or notation, edge tears to 1/4 inch.
• GRADE 7 : Moderate to heavy soil, moderate to heavy age-toned/yellowed paper, may have spine-fold end tears to 3 inches, store stamp and owner name on front cover, moderate amount of edge chips and paper creases, pencil marks on score, edge tears to 1/2 inch.
• GRADE 8 : Moderate to heavy soil, moderate to heavy age-toned/yellowed paper, spine-fold is intact somewhere, store stamp and owner name on front cover, moderate to heavy amount of edge chips and paper creases, pencil marks on score, edge tears to 1/2 inch.
• GRADE 9 : Must be able to read the music in a performance.
• GRADE 10 : Can improvise upon the music still present.

Basic Book Grading Vocabulary

Unmarked:  This indicates that there are absolutely no added markings to the book made with a stamp, pencil, ink pen, highlighter, marker, or color crayon, inside or outside, neatly or messily.  For example, if a book is unmarked except for an owner name stamped on the title page—this needs to be written clearly in the description.
Scratches:  Little scratches that can be seen on a book’s cover when held close at an angle.

Rubbing:  On a shiny finish cover or dustjacket rubbing appears as dull spots.  On a dull surface rubbing may appear as color loss or dull spots.

Edgewear:  Description of cover edges that may include tears, chips - chipped (spots of color missing, often appears white), or pieces missing.

Spine Edgewear:  Includes bottom and top of book spine edges as well as vertical edges that run along side front and back covers.

Tipwear:  Cover corner tips are not perfect.

Sticker damage:  This often indicates the top color layer of paper on a book’s cover is missing.

Sticker stain:  A spot on the cover in the shape of the removed sticker.

Sunned spine:  A spine that is faded.

Crease:  From a light, not-sharp paper crease to full crease in paper on cover or in book.

Bookmark Crease:  A creased page corner normally made by the reader to mark a page.

Soil:  Dirt, ink, or other accumulation to book’s wear and tear from normal use and storage, ranging from minimal to heavy.

Finger Soil:  Soil left on pages from holding a book open and also from page turning.

Shelfwear:  The wear from storage on a hardcover book’s top and bottom edges.  There may be soil.  Cloth-covered books in the area of shelfwear might look fuzzy-not like brand new cloth.

Ruffled:  Pages may be ruffled from constant turning, clear or colored liquid contact—which should be indicated along with the word “ruffled.”

Spine Shift, Spine Rolled:  When a book’s open edges front and back don’t line up with each other, it usually begins at the spine which will appear angled.  This results from manufacturer error or improper storage.

Dog-earred:  When corners of book, top or bottom roll away from book—sometimes from “thumbing” through pages.

Bumped:  Refers to a hardcover or hardback book’s corners that have been bent or bent and creased.  A spine end may also be bumped.

Hinge Splits:  When the paper is broken apart between pages of a book in the crease it is called a hinge split.  Paper may be split but not the whole hinge, making the book broken into parts, or a hinge may be split but intact.

Tight Binding:  In a new book or well-cared for book a binding will be “tight” or as if it had been opened very little or not at all.  This does not necessarily apply to large books that from weight will have the pages lie flat even when new.

No Spine Crease:  In soft cover books will again often indicate a tight binding, newer book, or well-cared for book.

Boards:  That of which a hard cover of a hardcover book is made. “Cloth Boards” are hard “boards” covered with glued-on fabric.

Age Toned, Age Toning, Yellowing:   Depending upon the quality of paper used and/or the age of the paper, it will begin to discolor by deepening the tan tone or yellowing over time.  This is a normal process.

Foxing:  Brown or gold spots that appear on paper over time due to its chemical reaction in environment.  Paper of certain qualities will show foxing soon that other papers.

Brittle Paper:  For various reason, one being a lack of proper humidity, paper may become brittle over time, cause it to break easily, or disintegrate during use.

Pastedown, Free Endpaper (FFE : front free endpaper):  The pastedown is the paper glued down inside the front and back covers.  The free endpapers are the blank pages that may or may not be at the front and back of a book opposite the pastedown.

Half-Title Page:  At the beginning of the book, it is the page with only the book title on it.

Title Page:  The page with full title, author and publisher printing on it.  In older books there is often a year of printing.

Copyright Page:  The opposite side of the title page with copyright date, printing information, and other indications about a books publishing.

Reading Copy:  Reading copy books are normally not collectible, may or may not be intact (look for further description), may have added marks and/or notations, and are meant to be read by the owner for content, not for looks.

Ex-lib, Ex-library:  Books formerly owned by a public or private library that may include library-type stamp markings, card pockets, and various library-type stickers inside and outside of a book.  Ex-lib books are generally meant for reading copies.

Remainder Books:  Books that are publisher’s overstock, overruns, sometimes “hurt” or damaged books are included in this category, and also books formerly in retail stores that have been returned to the publisher.  These books are most often but not always marked on the outside page edges with a marker line or dot to indicate that they are not to be sold for full retail price, but at a discount.  Remainder books, with or without the remainder line, are a great way to own new books at a steep discount.

Antiquarian, Collectible and Vintage Books:  There are various reasons a book may be described as one of these types—for the collectibility, an autograph, famous author/person, or rarity.  Book collecting is a wonderful hobby and pastime, and also a very usable one. 

However, all old books do not fall into this category and neither do all bestselling books.  Caution should be exercised when spending any larger amount of money on this type of book without consulting a person with experience in this field and/or researching the seller.  Book pricing and demand fluctuate just as with any collectible object.