eBay Hacks

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The tool on the cover of eBay Hacks is a corkscrew. The exact time origin of the corkscrew is not really known, but corkscrews descended from bulletscrews (also called gun worms)—a tool used for cleaning jammed bullets or unspent powder out of musket barrels, which shared a similar spiral tip. By the 17th century, the corkscrew was fairly common, as cork stoppers were now well-established throughout Europe, not only for wine, but for beer, medicine, and cosmetics.

Corkscrews come in a variety of styles, including direct-pull (the simplest), assisted-pull, single-lever, double- (or wing-) lever, and torsional. The corkscrew pictured on the cover is most likely an assisted-pull corkscrew; the most common ones in use today are single- or double-lever.

Emily Quill was the production editor and copyeditor for eBay Hacks. Sarah Sherman, Matt Hutchinson, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Jamie Peppard, Mary Agner, Phil Dangler, and James Quill provided production assistance. Julie Hawks wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a photograph taken from the Stockbyte Work Tools CD. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe’s ...