Stephen King Collecting Questions

[Chooch]

OK Then -Everybody-run to your booksheleves and look at your copy's of The Shining. Is any of your boards "speckeled"?

[Room 217 Caretaker]

OK Then -Everybody-run to your booksheleves and look at your copy's of The Shining. Is any of your boards "speckeled"?

Yes

Mulleins
Cumberland VA

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Hi, all.

...but I'm wondering whether there may have been a variant (two different states) of the dust jacket for Eyes of the Dragon...?

I have two first editions of the book (neither are BCE's--book club editions). Both have red lettering on the front of the jacket, but on the spine of the jacket one has red lettering and one has gold lettering. (Well, kind of a goldish-silver, or a silvery-gold, but definitely not red).

A couple of people have suggested that perhaps my copy may have been faded by the sun, but I see no evidence of that. The dust jacket on this particular copy is in pristine condition, and the green background on the spine is an identical shade of the green on the front & back covers. It does not appear to have any fading whatsoever.

Just wondering if anyone else has run across a copy like this or if it has been documented anywhere...?

Thanks!
John
My Stephen King collection

When EYES came out I located a copy from all three publishing houses that did the 1st edition run. I found these at bookstores. The strange thing is, all 3 jackets are slightly different. The Haddon Craftsmen, Scranton Pennsylvania jacket has the red letters with just a hint of white around them on both cover and spine and the "scales" on the jacket are very shallow. The Arcata Graphics, Keene, New Hampshire jacket has deeper "scales" and white background on the cover letters but no white on the spine. The Arcata Graphics, Hawkins County, Tennessee has deep scales, with the white outlines on both the cover and the spine. These books have never been exposed to sunlight. Your different coloring on the spine may be an indication that they changed dies or some other factor when printing these jackets or, more likely, they were printed in three or possibly four different printing facilities. Whichever is the case, this is a quite fascinating discovery.

[DavidK44]

I'd be very interested in seeing pics of each of the variants - are they posted somewhere on the site and I've missed them? If not, please consider posting them, and then anyone who has a variant that differs can also post. Might be more versions out there than we're aware of...

DavidK

[biomieg]

Ur2ndbiggestfan has posted these (and some other great pics) over at SKcollector.com, but I encourage him to post them here as well

[Matt]

I sure hope he does too, I would love to see more of his collection.

[Spaceman Spiff]

When EYES came out I located a copy from all three publishing houses that did the 1st edition run. I found these at bookstores. The strange thing is, all 3 jackets are slightly different. The Haddon Craftsmen, Scranton Pennsylvania jacket has the red letters with just a hint of white around them on both cover and spine and the "scales" on the jacket are very shallow. The Arcata Graphics, Keene, New Hampshire jacket has deeper "scales" and white background on the cover letters but no white on the spine. The Arcata Graphics, Hawkins County, Tennessee has deep scales, with the white outlines on both the cover and the spine. These books have never been exposed to sunlight. Your different coloring on the spine may be an indication that they changed dies or some other factor when printing these jackets or, more likely, they were printed in three or possibly four different printing facilities. Whichever is the case, this is a quite fascinating discovery.

VERY interesting!
Thanks for passing that info along.
However, this begs two questions:

1) How on Earth did you know that there would be three different publishing/printing houses producing the first edition?
2) How do you identify which jacket came from where?

I'd be very interested in seeing pics of each of the variants - are they posted somewhere on the site and I've missed them? If not, please consider posting them, and then anyone who has a variant that differs can also post. Might be more versions out there than we're aware of...
DavidK

I was going to post a couple pics of my copy, but it appears I'm not allowed to post attachments yet. I searched the FAQ, and it gives instructions on how to post attachments, but the "Manage Attachments" button does not display for me (and the Posting Rules at the bottom-left of my screen states "You may not post attachments"). Not sure if this is determined by the number of posts I've made in the Message Board or what.

Thanks.

[Randall Flagg]

A recent change to the board discontinued the attachment option.
To post pictures either using our Gallery, or an image hosting service, read the tips in these threads:
How To : Member Photo Gallery
How To : Posting pictures, links, etc

[Spaceman Spiff]

I hope I've done this right.

Here are pictures of the dust jacket I've been describing:

http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/...36&ppuser=8282

http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/...37&ppuser=8282

(I tried to get them to display here as pictures, but couldn't seem to figure it out. I hope the links are fine).

Thanks!

[biomieg]

See Patrick's edit: normally you should be able to use the image tags but maybe features like these have been temporarily disabled due to Matt weeding out some technical difficulties on the website?

[turtlex]

I hope I've done this right.

Here are pictures of the dust jacket I've been describing:

http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/...36&ppuser=8282

http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/...37&ppuser=8282

(I tried to get them to display here as pictures, but couldn't seem to figure it out. I hope the links are fine).

Thanks!

Actually, SS, you wouldn't use the http link to the pictures, but the properties info. ( ie - find the picture, and then right click and select properties and then copy the address from there )

Here you go :

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks, biomieg and turtlex!

I appreciate the assistance!

John

[ChristineB]

Hello all,

I would really appreciate it if someone could post a picture of the end papers from both the 1st printing and the 2nd printing of The Gunslinger.

Thanks much.

[Randall Flagg]

Once this is resolved, this will be merged into the Collecting Questions thread.

[Brice]

Were the endpapers in the 2 editions not the same?

[ChristineB]

The preverbial They speaks of them as the 1st being 'in color' and the second not.

I would like to see the difference.

[gsvec]

The difference is actually more in the detail - as well as "in color" or not. Here's the first edition:



And the second:

[ChristineB]

Thanks much for those.

That is what had me confused, I had seen the end pages for the 2nd print and they looked to be in color to me, but now I see the difference.

When you move this would you send me a link to where you move it to. I guess I have missed the thread it should have been in, thanks.

[Randall Flagg]

Glad the answer came so quickly. This thread will merge into: Collecting Questions
A short redirect should also help.

[ChristineB]

What is this? I can't seem to find it in Brook's biblography, not that it would be easy to find there.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1978-Cinefantast...item3ca6f79683

[lophophoras]

What is this? I can't seem to find it in Brook's biblography, not that it would be easy to find there.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1978-Cinefantast...item3ca6f79683

A movie magazine with articles about some of King's movies.

[SkippyD023]

Just a general question regarding flatsigned versus inscribed. Is a book worth less if it is inscribes versus just flatsigned by the author. I am not talking about "personal" value but value on the open market when selling or buying a book.

My thought is that it is worth less if it has an inscription versus just signed but looking to hear what others have to say. I suppose if the inscription happens to be with your name when it comes to buying the book the value might not change.

[carlosdetweiller]

Just a general question regarding flatsigned versus inscribed. Is a book worth less if it is inscribes versus just flatsigned by the author. I am not talking about "personal" value but value on the open market when selling or buying a book.

My thought is that it is worth less if it has an inscription versus just signed but looking to hear what others have to say. I suppose if the inscription happens to be with your name when it comes to buying the book the value might not change.

Here is one bookseller's opinion:

http://www.raresf.com/bnews.html#signed

[e_taylor]

My preference is inscribed books. Especially if I can get the background on the inscription. First, they are easier to authenticate. Second, long inscriptions give some insight into the mind of the author, or sometimes the background to the story. And third, sometimes the people they are inscribed to are famous and they turn out to be cool association copies.

[Merlin1958]

Just a general question regarding flatsigned versus inscribed. Is a book worth less if it is inscribes versus just flatsigned by the author. I am not talking about "personal" value but value on the open market when selling or buying a book.

My thought is that it is worth less if it has an inscription versus just signed but looking to hear what others have to say. I suppose if the inscription happens to be with your name when it comes to buying the book the value might not change.

I collect Art (Roger Dean/Ron Wood) and in the art world the book equivilant of a flat sign is more valuable than a personalized one specifically for the resale value. I was in negotiations with Mr. Dean regarding the original "Yes" logo painting. When I bowed out of the bidding, I subsequently purchased a "Tales from Topographical Oceans" print and because we had met and negotiated on the phone, he agreed to sign it but, insisted it was more valuable (as well as the dealer) signed "Best Wishes, Roger Dean" than "best wishes Bill, Roger Dean).

However, in book collecting circles a personalized signature (especially in light of all the SK fakes permeated) from SK almost seems to have more value. I think a lot has to do with the known traits of the signor. People who validate SK signatures seem to know his habits and that of course plays a BIG factor in resale amounts. Flat signs seem to be "identified" in SK sales and the price appropriately affected.

Hope this helps