3 ms·

Third shift counterfeiting has been an endemic problem since the invention of the Gutenberg press. I collect old and rare books going back to the 1500s and prin

Third shift counterfeiting has been an endemic problem since the invention of the Gutenberg press. I collect old and rare books going back to the 1500s and printers have been doing it for half a millennia. Once the type is set up for a print run, there’s nothing preventing the printer from running a secret shift to print a bunch more copies just for themselves. They’ll usually use cheaper paper or binding so they’re just different enough from real first editions to be worthless but you won’t know it until it gets to appraisal unless you physically inspect the book yourself and know exactly what to look for.

moloch-hai 4y ago
They are also a sort of first edition, and equally old. It is odd that they are worthless. There probably is an opportunity awaiting the person who formalizes third-shift first editions.
- akiselev 4y ago
  I think it mostly has to do with provenance. The third shift prints usually don’t make it into contemporary bibliographies [1] and since the printer is untrustworthy, you can’t be sure if it’s a real third shift first edition or the tenth impression of some typesetting that the printer forgot to recycle. If we were talking about the Gutenberg Bible or say, Origin of Species, it might be worth doing original research and chemical analyses because even a third shift copy could be worth more than its weight in gold, but for >>99% of books it’d be a losing proposition since few books are worth tens of thousands of dollars. That said, if the paper and binding quality are the same between shifts and there’s no identifying mark like unique numbering on each copy, there’s no telling how many first editions in circulation are really third shift printings. So few of the books survive the centuries that I’ve never heard of more first editions showing up than the publisher admits to printing to bibliographers. Edit: They’re not really “worthless” but old and rare books might see one genuine first edition sold every few years to some rich person with a hobby. Many if not most of these books are bought and sold by knowledgeable collectors so if a client is going to drop thousands on a book, they're going to buy the copy that is most likely to be genuine, making any also rans effectively worthless because there’s not enough of a demand to force buyers to settle for riskier copies. [1] because they’re unauthorized and the publisher doesn’t talk about them to the bibliographers
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  To be fair, it’s already odd that first editions are worth something. Collectors are just weird persons who will pay extraordinary sum for things of marginal interest. From there, it’s not surprising that the way value is ascribed itself doesn’t make much sense.

moloch-hai 4y ago

They are also a sort of first edition, and equally old. It is odd that they are worthless. There probably is an opportunity awaiting the person who formalizes third-shift first editions.

akiselev 4y ago
I think it mostly has to do with provenance. The third shift prints usually don’t make it into contemporary bibliographies [1] and since the printer is untrustworthy, you can’t be sure if it’s a real third shift first edition or the tenth impression of some typesetting that the printer forgot to recycle. If we were talking about the Gutenberg Bible or say, Origin of Species, it might be worth doing original research and chemical analyses because even a third shift copy could be worth more than its weight in gold, but for >>99% of books it’d be a losing proposition since few books are worth tens of thousands of dollars. That said, if the paper and binding quality are the same between shifts and there’s no identifying mark like unique numbering on each copy, there’s no telling how many first editions in circulation are really third shift printings. So few of the books survive the centuries that I’ve never heard of more first editions showing up than the publisher admits to printing to bibliographers. Edit: They’re not really “worthless” but old and rare books might see one genuine first edition sold every few years to some rich person with a hobby. Many if not most of these books are bought and sold by knowledgeable collectors so if a client is going to drop thousands on a book, they're going to buy the copy that is most likely to be genuine, making any also rans effectively worthless because there’s not enough of a demand to force buyers to settle for riskier copies. [1] because they’re unauthorized and the publisher doesn’t talk about them to the bibliographers
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
To be fair, it’s already odd that first editions are worth something. Collectors are just weird persons who will pay extraordinary sum for things of marginal interest. From there, it’s not surprising that the way value is ascribed itself doesn’t make much sense.