Sunday, March 2, 2008

Anatomy of a book entry.

Today, I thought we'd take a closer look at how I am laying out an individual entry in the book. The example I've chosen is one I've just finished and will be in the chapter where I am grouping the snowglobes based on the animated shorts together.


Cartoons
Sea Scouts

Picture from The Disney Catalog.
Based on the 1939 cartoon. Admiral Donald gives the orders as a shark waits in the water.
Fabric flag.
Music: “Donald Duck theme “
Size: 6 ¼”H.
Snow Type: Glitter.
Source: Disney Catalog, Online.
ORP: 58.00 (2004)
Value 2007: 71.95-92.43
Value 2008: 87.50

  1. The first line identifies what section of the book the entry is in. In this case it is cartoons.
  2. The second line identifies the title of the globe. In this case it is the name of the cartoon. Some globes are identified by a name in the Disney Catalogs, others have no name and will not have a title line but will simply be identified by the category it is in like Toy Story or Walt Disney World.
  3. The picture in this example comes from The Disney Catalog. I prefer to use pictures of this type with no background to better showcase the globe itself, but that wont always be possible.
  4. The line directly under the picture will be the picture credit. In this case the picture came from a scan of a Disney Catalog. Some will be from DisneyShopping.com. Pictures I have personally taken of globes in my possession will read picture from the author's collection. When a picture is provided by another it will read picture from the "person's name" collection.
  5. The description is simply a brief description of the globe itself. In some cases it will be very close to the description from an actual Disney catalog or website.
  6. The lines below the description are where the facts will be listed. Blower, Lights, Movement, Music, Size, Snow Type, Source, ORP, Value.
  7. Blower will simply list if the globe in question has a blower or not. Because this entry does not have one the blower line is eliminated.
  8. Lights will list what if anything lights up on the globe. Again this entry has no lights so the line is eliminated.
  9. Movement will list what movement if any a globe has including bobble springs. If the globe has no movement the line will not appear.
  10. Music will list the song the globe plays. In some cases more then 1 song will be listed when it is discovered that the same globe has different music installed. If the globe does not play any music there will be no music line in the entry.
  11. Size will list the height of the globe in inches.
  12. Snow Type will list what kind of snow the globe has inside. White, glitter,bats, blue liquid and so on will be noted here. If this line does not appear in an entry it is because I have not determined what kind of snow it has.
  13. Source will be either where the globe could be originally purchased or the manufacturer. An enesco globe can be purchased at various gift stores for example so I would opt to list the source as Enesco instead of Hallmark stores.
  14. ORP is the original retail price followed in parenthesis by the years the globe was available.
  15. Value will be the prices I've seen the globe sell for on ebay in the year listed.

All clear? Any questions or suggestions?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very clear and very nice.
I'd include not only height, but width and depth, in case you have them all. So people can have clearer picture of the dimensions.
Well, the topics of blower and movement will be separated, right? Some snowglobes have movement in the globe or outside the globe, which in my opinion are not the same as a blower feature. Then, they should be discriminated separately. It's always good to know any other special features and they can explain the price of the product.
Thanks for your hard work!

zapjones said...

I went with only the height because in many cases thats all the information I have. Even the Catalogs sometimes list the measurements but then dont tell you which measurement is which. Height in conjunction with a picture, I think will give a good feel for the size of the globe.
Blower and movement are indeed two different features. I would not consider a globe to have movement just because it has a blower in it.