Best way of preparing personal book for resale (name inside the book)

[beewallygee]

I have several hundred books I cleared off my shelves and decided to try and sell. Thanks to good information, I've been able to scan them, find out what similar copies are selling for (if at all), and determine my costs. But! For the books I decide to list - since these were for personal use, my wife and I have a habit of writing our name and the date of purchase inside the book on the first page. (what's that page called, anyway?)

What's the best way of removing our name? Remove the page? These aren't collector books and we would not remove the table of contents or any of the text - just the frontispiece (if that's what it's called). Or just cut our name out? Or leave it? Or give nail polish remover and a cotton swab a try?  

[a_c_green]

I think you're referring to the frontispiece, yes, but the most I would suggest doing is covering your name with white-out, and leave it at that. (Let it dry thoroughly before you close the book!) Ripping out or slicing out the page would be overkill, IMHO, and decrease the value of the book. I would leave the date of purchase visible; that might be a point of interest.

[slippinjimmy]

Personally I would not do anything, if the buyer wants to remove your name they can do it themselves. Covering it up with something isn't going to actually make it go away and would only make it harder for someone IF they actually wanted to try.

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[chrisl3486]

The first inside pages are called end pages or end sheets.  The one on the left glued down is the pastedown and the one on the right you can turn  over is the flyleaf or free front end page. 

You are probably better off not doing anything. I would definitely not cut it out or tear out the page as this could devalue the book.  Whiteout doesn't look too great either.  If you can erase without damage, you might try it, but otherwise I would probably leave it alone. 

[chapeau-noir]

I agree with leaving it unless there's some kind of personal information that you don't want in public (a very personal dedication or something). I both collect and used to sell books and have a number with writing on the fly leaf.  One small estate I cleared had a lot of books - one I was able to use to prove the provenance of a certain edition of a particular book. 

Personal information I would just snip off the corner of the page it was on, but that was rare.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Leave it for the new owners to deal with. Just be sure to photo it and mention it in the description.