What King Item lit your collecting fire?

[Sir_Boomme]

So... I have been a big King fan since the early 70's.
In the 80's, I had a goal of reading every title ... only bought the paperbacks back then.

Then, around 1989, I bought my first King hardback, and my goal changed to owning a hardback copy of every title - it really didn't matter what edition....since I didn't know the differences back then anyways.

In 1996, I was in a mall in Austin, looking for music for a wedding I was DJing the next day.

I was really poor back then and couldn't afford to do much for entertainment, so I was spending my day browsing through shops looking at things I wished I could buy. One of the shops was a book/collector baseball cards/ memorabilia specialty shop.
In the window was a UK gift edition of Insomnia with a slipcase and facsimile signature. I had never seen such a book... and it was my favorite author. The price was $90.00. I had to have the book, and told the shop owner I couldn't afford the $90.00 - he dropped the price to $75.00. I put $10.00 down on the book, and it took me 3 months of giving plasma at the local blood bank to raise the money for the book... but by god I got it.

And that what lit my collector fire and has now cost me so many teens of thousands of dollars... it's scary.

What spurred this thread was.... I ran across the receipt for that book just now. I knew I still had and always will have the book, but thought the receipt was long gone decades ago.

So... let's hear what started your trip to collecting insanity.

[Sir_Boomme]

yeah... when I say I was poor... I was really poor... I ate beans and rice for years and have a dent in my arm from selling blood so many times, just so I could add the beans to my rice and buy books for school.
I bought that book in 1996... and I didn't make a heck of lot of money in 96.
I was working as a DJ/bouncer and 100% paying my own way through electrical engineering school . It took me years to make it... but as you can see it did pay off in the end.

[Shannon]

Legacies S/L. Not sure what had first led me to Bett's Books and that specific book, but David was selling it for $200 (if I remember correctly) and I remember thinking ... no way this is real. $200 for REAL signatures from King, Koontz, Barker, AND Straub!?

And that led me to you guys, and the rest is history.

[Lookwhoitis]

My sister was working at a Borders and gave me a birthday gift of a copy of the Grant Trade 1st of Wizard & GLass when it was published. I then bought the Wolves of the Calla Artist edition direct from Grant when it was published. (I couldnt get a S/N LE because A. it was too expensive and B. I didnt own a prior S/N LE) Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon for subsequent books (literally... i havent even read them yet, lol)

I bought a S/N LE copy of Little Sisters of Eluria off of Ebay (which enabled me to order TWTtK S/N LE) and not soon after a gift edition of Full Dark No Stars.

I consider both those books as opening the floodgates. LSoE was my first S/N LE and i had such a great experience reading the FDNS, both from being reintroduced to my passionate appreciation of Sai King's mad writing skills AND the joy and pleasure of owning and reading a nicely produced book.

[Lookwhoitis]

So... I have been a big King fan since the early 70's.
In the 80's, I had a goal of reading every title ... only bought the paperbacks back then.

Then, around 1989, I bought my first King hardback, and my goal changed to owning a hardback copy of every title - it really didn't matter what edition....since I didn't know the differences back then anyways.

In 1996, I was in a mall in Austin, looking for music for a wedding I was DJing the next day.

I was really poor back then and couldn't afford to do much for entertainment, so I was spending my day browsing through shops looking at things I wished I could buy. One of the shops was a book/collector baseball cards/ memorabilia specialty shop.
In the window was a UK gift edition of Insomnia with a slipcase and facsimile signature. I had never seen such a book... and it was my favorite author. The price was $90.00. I had to have the book, and told the shop owner I couldn't afford the $90.00 - he dropped the price to $75.00. I put $10.00 down on the book, and it took me 3 months of giving plasma at the local blood bank to raise the money for the book... but by god I got it.

And that what lit my collector fire and has now cost me so many teens of thousands of dollars... it's scary.

What spurred this thread was.... I ran across the receipt for that book just now. I knew I still had and always will have the book, but thought the receipt was long gone decades ago.

So... let's hear what started your trip to collecting insanity.

I dont know what is cooler. The photocopy of that recipt or the fact you gave plasma to get yer first collectible book!

[Sir_Boomme]

Legacies S/L.
And that led me to you guys, and the rest is history.

yeah... if I remember right... that was one limited that took a long long time to get published... but definitely has a lot of cool sigs in it.

[Brian861]

I blame my discovery of CD. Saw the beautiful editions on there and it's been balls to wall every since. Then being lead to forums like this just enables a person so there's no since even trying to fight it .

[Tommy]

I had been collecting the trade hardcovers since the early 90's but it wasn't until I discovered Cemetery Dance and their very awesome edition of Full Dark, No Stars that I got the collecting bug.

[stroppygoblin]

I was already reading King and had a few hard covers, but the 'collecting' really started with a couple of books prior to the book you bought Terry. I saw Dolores Claiborne 'Gift' Edition in the shops leading up to Christmas and convinced my wife to buy it me. I'd never owned a 'limited' edition book before in my life (and at that time was naive enough to think a facsimile signature was cool) . I have many superior quality books now, but this one still holds a place in my heart.

[Tommy]

I had been collecting the trade hardcovers since the early 90's but it wasn't until I discovered Cemetery Dance and their very awesome edition of Full Dark, No Stars that I got the collecting bug.

I did get the gift edition of The Waste Lands as a birthday present the year it was released but still didn't really start collecting until after FDNS. I forgot about that.

[biomieg]

I was randomly collecting what I thought were 'cool' King books (various paperback and hardcover editions, both Dutch and US/UK, but with no clue about first editions and not really caring about the condition of the books). Then I found this forum and I discovered the concepts of first editions, magazine appearances, limited editions and proofs.

There was no single book that lit the collecting fire in my case but obtaining my first nice 1st/1sts and especially some of the rarer proofs was a big eye-opener for me! Those are still my priority, even though I owned a number of rare college-era magazine appearances and a small number of S/Ls at one time.

[dnemec]

What a fantastic thread idea!

I started reading King when I was pretty young, as my mother liked the weird stuff. But I decided to start collecting 1st edition books by King because of The Shining. I was out of a law school for a couple months and essentially unemployable until I received my bar exam results. I got caught up watching Stephen King's The Shining miniseries on tv. I remember thinking: "What the hell?" I was very familiar with Kubrick's version, and wanted to know why there was such a difference between the 2. (Mom must not have had the book, because I read most of her Kings.) I went on ebay and bought a BCE of The Shining. It was my only Christmas present that year from my boyfriend as we were so poor. But while I was on ebay, it occurred to me that I could buy first editions of his newer books for fairly reasonable prices. And so it began.

I went to NYC a couple years later when money was finally coming in and we went to The Strand. I spent around $650 there, and it's been downhill ever since. The Strand was also the first place I ever got a proof. I have since gone back and they had little King collectible books, but I struck gold that first time. Awhile later, one of my clients asked me: "Do you know Cemetery Dance?" and the downward spiral continued.

[divemaster]

For me, it was when I read Winter's The Art of Darkness. This would have been around 1988 or so. Prior to that I had started reading King and had become a big fan. But I was totally unaware of the hobby of book collecting and that there were even such things as "limited editions." Winter's book mentioned these intriguing sounding editions with names such as "Land of Enchantment" and "The Mysterious Press" and "Phantasia" etc. and I was like "Wow! To be able to come across such a rare and wonderful edition--I've got to look around for those!"

Remember, in those days there was no internet and the best I could do is hit up antiquarian bookstores whenever I got the chance. I spent hours and hours in A. Amitin's in downtown St. Louis, and wherever else I got the chance. Winter had also tuned me into the story behind the "secret" publication of The Gunslinger, so I was always on the lookout for that one as well. I was lucky to buy a copy of The Drawing of the Three from a Waldenbooks at a mall in San Antonio. I was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston at the time and when we got our first leave after a month of training, everyone else used it to go to bars and whatever. I hopped a bus and went to the mall specifically to check out bookstores. And there it was! A Donald Grant first edition! My first "special book."

Once I got internet in 1999, I bought my first S/L book--a copy of Six Stories off eBay. From then on it was pretty easy. All those mysterious 750-copy limited editions that were so hard to come by shopping antiquarian bookstores? Now just a click click away. Hell, I could buy a new limited edition every day of the week and twice on Sundays. I guess that was a change for the better, but I sure do miss the antiquarian bookstores and the thrill of the hunt.

[jhanic]

I had been a collector of SF and fantasy (and horror) books since I was in high school. I bought every paperback I could back then (couldn't afford the hardcovers), including all of King's works. What really turned me on to collecting King proofs/ARCs was back in the late '90s, when I ordered a copy of the proof of Rose Madder from Michael Autrey. He ripped me off by not sending the book. I filed a claim with my credit card company (no Paypal back then) for the $350 and got my money back after his fighting it, but the flame had been lit. I finally got a copy (at a much more reasonable price) from someone else. From then, the rest was history.

John

[AstroDad]

I started reading King in middle school, this would have been around 85 or 86. Picked The Gunslinger off the shelf and never looked back. It's funny I re-read the Gunslinger again not too long ago and laughed that there is no public middle school in the country that would have that book on their shelves today. Sad.

I read King pretty much exclusively through High School, but when college came around I had little to no free time for reading, outside of required reading for courses. Like Sir Boomme, I was paying 100% of everything myself and waited tables about 50-60 hours a week while taking a full load of classes. I DO NOT miss those days. I somehow became aware of Grant Books selling a limited edition of From a Buick 8. I owned a handful of King books at the time, but it was hodgepodge, not really a "collection" by any means. So money was very tight, but I decided I really wanted to own the Gift Edition (which if I recall was $75) and splurged to get it. If I recall, I believe I picked up a double shift from another waiter to pay for it.

Got it, loved it. Decided I wanted to start collecting first editions with a goal of owning every King book in a 1st edition. Bought a couple of cheap ones over the next few months, but quickly realized how much some of them would cost and didn't think I would ever be able to afford them, so I pretty much gave up that goal. Even once I graduated I didn't see myself spending that much on a book and I didn't want to start collecting if I wasn't going to go all the way.

Fast forward to a little over a year ago. One day I was going through old boxes and came across that FAB8 edition. It dawned on me that now I COULD collect the books I wanted to. Started researching, found this site, totally addicted.

[zelig]

Here's the short version. I could write half a book on the long version.

The fire started for me from the very first King book I bought which was The Eyes of the Dragon in 1987. After I read it, I went nuts trying to find his other first editions. It was near impossible to find any as I wasn't here in the USA at the time and this sort of collectible was in short supply. And of course, this was pre-internet days. I hunted down specialty book dealers in the USA like Time Tunnel and started buying there.

I dropped out of collecting for a good number of years, then I don't know what started it up again, but it started with a vengeance. Maybe I just reached a stage in my life where I felt okay opening all those boxes I'd accumulated, and seeing my old 1st editions got me going again. Also the forum added fuel to the fire. I spent more, and bought more books in the past three years than I ever did in all the years prior to that.

Luckily, there were two books I managed to get dirt cheap around the late 80s/early 90s that I managed to hang onto. Those were 1st UK and 1st US of Carrie. At least I saved myself some money there!

Good times...

[HONKYTONKSMASH]

First book I ever read was the Gunslinger. Was pretty well hooked on King after that. I started out just wanting copies of all his books...then I wanted all hardback..then haha. My wife got me the Gift Edition of IT and that was pretty much all she wrote..

[Rahfa]

The collecting thread was lit when I got a DT II "Author's Edition" expecting it to be a normal first edition.

Up until that point, I'd been reasonably interested in maybe, sort of, eventually getting all the hardcovers...but having a confirmed, actual signed book motivated me to go all in with everything else.

I think it was 2002? Or maybe even 2000? Hard to believe it was so long ago?

[wizardsrainbow]

First King book I ever read was a paperback copy of Salem's Lot (in fact I just finished re-reading it for about the 10th time), oh gosh, this was well before I got married so am guessing 1985. My girlfriend/now wife and I did a week's camping trip (tent, sleeping bags, the works) in Prince Edward Island, picking remote places to camp. Man, I read that book before going to bed all week and it gave me nightmares of Danny Glick and the "soft sucking sounds." That book solidified King in my heart and brain and after reading a pb copy of The Stand following Salem's, I found Stu Tinker at Betts Books and made my first King collectible purchase of a 1st edition The Stand (1978 version) minty fresh for $250....it was all downhill (uphill?) from there.

[Merlin1958]

For me it wasn't one particular book, per se. I got hooked on, King after viewing "Carrie" and just started reading everything he wrote. I recall being extremely impressed with "The Shining" and from there on there was no going back. I didn't start collecting HC's until the early '90's when my economic status changed substantially, much like, Terry I suppose. I've been reading him since the '70's though and loving every moment for the most part (Lisey's Story )


I guess my favorite King item is the S/L of "Black House". One of my favorite books and a really beautiful production. IMHO I think it was my first S/L edition as well.

[surly]

cool idea for a thread.

long story is here for anyone interested: my collection.
short story: IT totally floored me and started me searching for anything by King that I could find. During that time of searching, I found a book called THE STEPHEN KING COMPANION which had a section on collectibles; what I discovered in that section is what got me hooked on collecting.

Around that same time, I found a copy of the Spring 89 issue of MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI which happened to be a Stephen King focused issue. In it was a two page ad for a bookseller named Michael Autrey, (I believe some members may have some stories to share about him). Among other things, there was a listing for handwritten manuscript pages. That, more than anything I had read about before, really captured my attention and made me realize the possibilities of what could be collected.

[Phalucha]

Fun to reading ths stories above. I discovered King when I was about 12 on the top shelf of my Dad's bookcase (I knew that if it was out of reach...it must be good!) He had paperbacks of Firestarter, The Dead Zone and Salem's Lot at least. I read them all that summer and purchased the hardcover of Pet Semetary the year it came out in hardover when I was 13. I remember I had no idea it was coming out and just saw it in the bookstore one day. What turned me into a collector was reading The Art of Darkness and then subscribing to Castle Rock and reading the classifieds. When I was 16 (1986) i worked at A&W and then a moving company and plowed my earnings into SK collecting. Taken a few breaks over the years, but never stopped reading/collecting King. One cool thing, I have met King ar least once every decade since the 80s - can't put that on a shelf, but in some ways those experiences are more valuable then the books.

[herbertwest]

Wonder what that "holographic" looks like...

[carlosdetweiller]

Wonder what that "holographic" looks like...

Doesn't it just mean handwritten?

[carlosdetweiller]

Around that same time, I found a copy of the Spring 89 issue of MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI which happened to be a Stephen King focused issue. In it was a two page ad for a bookseller named Michael Autrey, (I believe some members may have some stories to share about him).

Also, IIRC, in that same two page listing by Autrey there is a first state 'Salem's dust jacket for $3,000 (!).