Amazon.com will limit which sellers are allowed to list books in "Collectible" condition. Sellers who are not approved may change their collectible books to indicate "used" condition. Beginning in the next few weeks, non-approved sellers will be unable to list collectible books, and in early June, Amazon.com will remove collectible offers from non-approved sellers.

Some sellers wondered if the policy change was the result of Amazon.com's acquisition last year of Abe, an online marketplace of used, rare and out-of-print books. A formal request process will be available in coming weeks to sellers who would like to become approved to list collectible books on Amazon.com.

The company said approved sellers must meet several criteria, which it defined as: the quantity of collectible and rare books available for sale on Amazon.com (and other websites), the length of time a seller has been doing business on Amazon.com, the size of a seller's business, and the detail of the descriptions (including images) of the books listed for sale. In addition, only sellers with low order defect rates and high seller performance ratings will be considered.

Over the next several months, Amazon.com will be making additional refinements to the listing process aimed at providing buyers with helpful information about collectible books and said that accuracy of grading, product representation and seller trust will become more important. Specifically, it will collect and display information for "Signed," "First Edition" and "Dust Jacket Condition" for collectible books.

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