I think the deal I got here was rather awesome. Was browsing ebay USA a week past on Saturday when I spotted the listing below.
I was pretty confident it was the book I thought it was when I saw it was autographed by the author and also shrinkwrapped, but I noticed the seller only shipped in the USA. I thought I'd take a chance and emailed the seller asking if he'd mind shipping to the UK. Luckily he was online and replied within a minute or two saying it was OK so I used the buy-it-now option and the book arrived this morning:
I removed it from the box, then the bubblewrap, and saw that it was indeed shrinkwrapped and that the all important gold sticker was on the cover:
I removed the shrinkwrap:
I opened the book itself and lo and behold:
It was, as I'd hoped, a copy of the edition of 100 copies that that Stephen King signed for The Science Fiction Book Club. I don't know exactly how much the book is worth now in the secondary market, but I'm pretty sure it's worth a bit more than the $29.99 I paid for it. A case of me being in the right place at the right time, the seller not really knowing what he was selling, and me keeping my fingers crossed for 10 ten days!!!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3308573530...84.m1497.l2648