Learning about the authors and a few other things also helps.
One author I like signed a LOT. Some fans joke that the rarest of his books are unsigned first editions. (Terry Pratchett) Of course, with a rather rabid following, finding ones that people are letting go of is not as easy.
Then there are the odd things. Like I bought a couple boxes of books to resell and maybe keep a couple. (Nothing great, but pre-Amazon and the whole box was $5 for maybe 30 books. ) I thought I'd found a good one when I saw a Barbara Bush book that was signed.
Of course it was autopenned, and in enough quantity that the "Signed edition" had its own ISBN.
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