listing a book with a name and address

[deanailicec]

I have a book I would like to list. My problem is it has a full name and address on the inside of the cover.  What is the best way to avoid problems, should I cover it over with a label, or use a black pen to obscure the details, or something else?

[m25jet · Accepted solution]

Personally what I would suggest would be that you cover the inside of the cover with a sticky label so as to completely obscure the address.  You can get sticky labels quite easily from various eBay sellers - make sure that you purchase labels that are bigger than the overall size of the cover of the book.  So, for example, if the book in question is a paperback book of normal dimensions then the size of the cover would be approximately 130mm wide by 210mm tall.  Therefore, I'd avoid buying an A5 label, as this would leave you with very little room for error - A5 size measures 148mm by 210mm.  If you stuck the label on with a bit poking off the top or the bottom you'd end up with the cover only partially covered up and would only serve to make the cover look worse.

In light of the above I'd suggest purchasing a set of A4 labels.  A4 size measures 210mm by 297mm.  Therefore, even if the width and height of the cover was slightly greater than the example I gave above, this would enable you to stick the label over the inside of the front cover in its entirety.  Ask somebody to help you to hold the book steady whilst you stick the label to the inside of the front cover.  You do not want the pages of the book to fall on the label whilst you're in the process of sticking it down.  Take your time whilst you're doing this so as to avoid creasing the label when you're affixing it to the inside of the cover.

Once you've got the label in position and it completely covers the inside of the cover take a Stanley knife and cut the excess label away, but not right up to the edges.  Take your time whilst doing this and make sure that the book doesn't move about whilst you're doing the cutting.  After you've cut the excess label off remove it and put it out of range of the book.  Taking each piece one at a time, turn the remaining parts of the label in half so that you're sticking glue to glue, therefore avoiding the risk of the sticky surface remaining face up.  You don't want it getting stuck on the book later when you're performing the next step.

The next step involves trimming the remainder of the label away from the cover so that there's nothing at all poking over the edges of the cover of the book.  Make sure that the book remains still whilst you're doing this - you don't want the book to wobble about whilst you're cutting close to the edges.  Using the Stanley knife run the blade along the edges of the book, taking your time and making sure that you don't end up slicing the blade into the cover of the book.  If you rush this step then you risk ruining the book.

As advised earlier, make sure that the remainder of the label is turned in before you start cutting along the edges of the cover.  If, however, you forget this step and part of the sticky side ends up getting stuck to the front of the book try to peel the label away, very, very slowly.  If you do this too fast then you could tear the cover and end up ruining it; however, if you take your time then you may end up getting away with it.  However, prevention is better than cure so you really ought to have made sure that the sticky side was turned back over and stuck back on itself so as to avoid the risk of this happening.

If you've got a really steady hand and have done the job right then once you've finished cutting away the excess you should end up with a label stuck to the inside of the book with no evidence of it showing when viewed from the outside.  Depending upon how dark the ink was the address in question should either be harder to make out than it was prior to starting the job, or better still, impossible to make out altogether.  However, I would still advise you to include details of this in the item description, as a potential customer would want to know of any defects or alterations made to the book.

[tobiasd4]

I wouldn't sell it with names & addresses.

You need to cover them up without causing damage to book, make sure you put in description what you did & show photos as well.

[tsmgmd]

I have had the same problem in the past and found the best way was to include the writing inside in the item description.

The owner of the book has disposed of it without obliterating it so  I can't see it been too much of a problem.