Stickers with Crazy Letters

The Eye of Piccaso

Mentor MQ (MY) 771

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New American Library, which published Mentor Books, used letter prefixes to designate prices. "M" indicated 35¢ books, "Ms" and later "MD" indicated 50¢ books, "MP" books were 60¢, "MT" were 75¢, "MQ" were 95¢, and "MY" books were $1.25. These two scans were contributed by Richard Cohen, of Miami, FL. They depict Mentor MQ771, which obviously was suppose to be sold for 95¢, but a foil sticker was applied to the front of the book changing the designation to MY771, with a corresponding price of $1.25. The spine was left unchanged, so there are now two different book numbers on the same volume.

 

HOWEVER: Here's an email from bookseller Ron Webber that might explain this:

 

On your oddities page, Stickers with Crazy Letters - the reason for the sticker with the MY $1.25 price is that many books imported and sold in Canada had a publisher's sticker with a higher price covering the US cover price because of the difference of the value in the currencies, the Canadian dollar valued at various times as much as 25% lower than the US dollar.   Also, alternatively and most often, the part of the print run destined for sale in Canada had the higher Canadian price printed right on  the cover (no US price at all). I would guess that the sticker was used for titles when only a few copies were exported to Canada so not warranting the extra expense of a different cover printing. In more recent years it has become common for the cover to be printed with both prices (which continues today even those both currencies are about equal).   In the 50 years I have been selling books I have seen these variations thousands of times including the Mentor Picasso title which I believe I have somewhere in my personal collection.  I guess that the Picasso book scans from Richard Cohen are from a well traveled book which found its way from Canada to Florida!  Hope this information is at least a little bit helpful. 

Thank you very much for your website with I find very informative and entertaining.

- Ron Webber