Rarest of the Rare

[Sir_Boomme]

rarest of the rare... i know... because i designed it and had it custom built fewer than the salem's lot even! ha ha ha! so there! ... well... it's one of my favs anyways.(because i know how much work i put into it)

traycase- imported kidskin leather:


size comparison:


traycase spine:


custom cd and case wth pdf file:


traycase opened to book:


traycase with silk ribbon pullout for cd... custom hand made endpapers.




custom endpapers comparison book's vs. traycase's:


only the best materials used for this one.


book presentation:

book in same leather with raised-ribbed/ lettered spine:

[at_one]

Holy Crap, Sir Boomme. That Is Sweet!!!

[Chooch]

WOW...very nice sir boomme...thanks for shareing

[wizardsrainbow]

Ah, yes, I was waiting for Terry to trot out his "specials." They are INDEED impressive.

[jhanic]

Very, very nice, Terry!

John

[jhanic]

John
I have a signed manuscript of the Green Mile #1 and an unsigned manuscript copy. Got both from Chris Cavalier's collection. Tough to get however-I got lucky with mine!

Yeah, I agree. You have one; I'm sure Bob has one and Hutch has one, so that makes four of the possible six. Scarce indeed!

John

[carlosdetweiller]

John
I have a signed manuscript of the Green Mile #1 and an unsigned manuscript copy. Got both from Chris Cavalier's collection. Tough to get however-I got lucky with mine!

Yeah, I agree. You have one; I'm sure Bob has one and Hutch has one, so that makes four of the possible six. Scarce indeed!

John

I do have one, but I got mine from Chris Cavalier's collection. I didn't think he had two, but I guess he did.

Edit:My mistake. I got mine from Charlie Fried's collection.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

John
I have a signed manuscript of the Green Mile #1 and an unsigned manuscript copy. Got both from Chris Cavalier's collection. Tough to get however-I got lucky with mine!

Yeah, I agree. You have one; I'm sure Bob has one and Hutch has one, so that makes four of the possible six. Scarce indeed!

John

I do have one, but I got mine from Chris Cavalier's collection. I didn't think he had two, but I guess he did.

Edit:My mistake. I got mine from Charlie Fried's collection.

I don't believe there are only six. The reason I say this is because I have one also.

[jhanic]

That would be five of the six. I tend to agree--it looks like there may be more than six.

John

[carlosdetweiller]

That would be five of the six. I tend to agree--it looks like there may be more than six.

John

My notes (and I think I got this from Stu Tinker but maybe Charlie Fried) say that "there were 100 copies given out as prizes. Of that number a very few (perhaps as few as six) were signed."

Of course I can't verify the accuracy of the statement but that is what I was told when I bought it.

[herbertwest]

Merlin, my sincere condoleances

rarest of the rare... i know... because i designed it and had it custom built fewer than the salem's lot even! ha ha ha! so there! ... well... it's one of my favs anyways.(because i know how much work i put into it)

traycase- imported kidskin leather:

Kidskin???

[Cloysterpete]

Tis a Goat herbert, thankfully not a human kid lmao.

[Pasiuk57]

Bob
I think only 6 were signed but for some weird reason I believe I heard only 13 were made??

[jhanic]

Interesting. There were supposed to be six winners for each of the six volumes of The Green Mile, which means there were supposed to be a total of 36 prizes. I've never even heard of contest proofs of the other five books, just #1. I wonder how they handled the winners of the other five contests.

John

[carlosdetweiller]

Bob
I think only 6 were signed but for some weird reason I believe I heard only 13 were made??

You could certainly be right on that, Mike. Your information is as likely to be correct as mine is.

[NeedfulKings]

This is a great thread! It would be helpful if the 1st post could be updated periodically with the rare item, number in existance (guess) and how many are owned by us Calvins. Maybe limit that to things that are VERY rare--50 or less. 100 or less?

[Sam]

Interesting. There were supposed to be six winners for each of the six volumes of The Green Mile, which means there were supposed to be a total of 36 prizes. I've never even heard of contest proofs of the other five books, just #1. I wonder how they handled the winners of the other five contests.

John

Well, I was one of the winners of the internet contest and didn't get anything like that. All I got was a few pins, some bookmarks (long since lost due to water damage) and a few other little promo items, nothing even close to a copy of the book.

Does anyone remember if there was there more than one level to the contest?

[Brice]

Internet contest? The only contest I remember was the one mentioned in the back of the original books as they were released.

[Sam]

Nevermind guys. I just found out that I was thinking of a different contest that you were talking about.

The one I was talking about was a trivia contest on the internet sponsered by the publisher. Sorry.

[carlosdetweiller]

From an archive of the (at this time) defunct website for Hill House :

There's a side story to this book's publication of interest to collectors. The first edition of 'Salem's Lot was priced at $7.95. One of the points of a true first edition 'Salem's Lot dust jacket is the inclusion of an error in the flap copy—the character "Father Cody" is misprinted as "Father Callahan." For many years this was considered the absolute first issue—until 1983, that is. I was working at Doubleday at the time as a publicist and had just finished doing the publicity on Pet Sematary. One day I was walking by the art department and noticed that the designers were cleaning out their flat files, throwing out the thousands of old dust jackets that had accumulated over the years. I saw a few King jackets lying in the discard file and asked if I could take them. Once I returned to my office, I started leafing through the dust jackets and saw three covers for 'Salem's Lot. I noticed, however, that the retail price was wrong—$8.95 instead of $7.95. However, the "Father Cody" error was present. I called my friend Bill Thompson and asked how this could be. Bill replied that the book had been originally priced at $8.95; however, at the last minute the sales department had decided that it was priced too high and should be reduced by $1. The dust jackets had just been printed with the original price, but they were still at the printer, so Doubleday made the call to have the printer price-clip the $8.95 and run the jackets through the press with the new price of $7.95. I realized that I was holding the three dust jackets that had been sent to the art department before the repricing. Today these three dust jackets, mated with first edition books, reside in the collections of the three top Stephen King collectors in the world. A dealer sold the third one about two years ago for over $10,000.

I'm pretty sure that I know the whereabouts of five copies of the first state dj of 'SALEM'S LOT ($8.95, Father "Cody"). I think that Peter's memory is faulty in the above description about how many he found. I have heard him say that he found "four or five" on other occasions. It's too bad that he has not communicated to anyone that I know of in the King collecting community in years. It would be nice to be able to talk about things like this with him as we used to do in years past.

Since the dust jackets were stored in the art department at Doubleday and were folded to fit in files all of the known copies have a vertical crease on them from folding. On some copies the crease runs down the center of the spine of the dj. On others (like mine) the crease is near the rear edge of the spine where the black color of the spine changes to the white color of the rear panel.

To my knowledge an uncreased copy has not been described. And I have never heard of a copy found that has ever been in circulation, i.e. wear and tear. All of the known copies are in uncirculated pristine condition.

[lophophoras]

rarest of the rare... i know... because i designed it and had it custom built fewer than the salem's lot even! ha ha ha! so there! ... well... it's one of my favs anyways.(because i know how much work i put into it)

traycase- imported kidskin leather:


size comparison:


traycase spine:


custom cd and case wth pdf file:


traycase opened to book:


traycase with silk ribbon pullout for cd... custom hand made endpapers.




custom endpapers comparison book's vs. traycase's:


only the best materials used for this one.


book presentation:

book in same leather with raised-ribbed/ lettered spine:

Wow! Very nicccce!

Sir Boomme are you looking to adopt any kids? I'm not a kid anymore but can act like one if I knew I'd be inheriting that.

[Sir_Boomme]

From an archive of the (at this time) defunct website for Hill House :

I'm pretty sure that I know the whereabouts of five copies of the first state dj of 'SALEM'S LOT ($8.95, Father "Cody"). I think that Peter's memory is faulty in the above description about how many he found. I have heard him say that he found "four or five" on other occasions. It's too bad that he has not communicated to anyone that I know of in the King collecting community in years. It would be nice to be able to talk about things like this with him as we used to do in years past.

Since the dust jackets were stored in the art department at Doubleday and were folded to fit in files all of the known copies have a vertical crease on them from folding. On some copies the crease runs down the center of the spine of the dj. On others (like mine) the crease is near the rear edge of the spine where the black color of the spine changes to the white color of the rear panel.

To my knowledge an uncreased copy has not been described. And I have never heard of a copy found that has ever been in circulation, i.e. wear and tear. All of the known copies are in uncirculated pristine condition.

with the background on salem's lot... i discern that basically the 1st state jacket was never released on a 1st edition book... but was in reality, it was a misprint... or could even be discribed as a proto-type jacket (since it never actually hit the market) .... that was discovered in the publisher's files....and much later, matched up with first edition books (which probably were already issued with "2nd or 3rd state" jackets that were removed).
and these turned those books into books that are now valued at 35 -40 grand or more.

bob, hutch, etc- would agree with the above?

if not.... please explain your conflicting opinion.

if so..... my question is...
other than the time period and title of the book... how would that differ from me matching with first editions the below rare prototype jackets, that i have accumilated in varioius ways (including stored in the doubleday files i have... which is exactly the same place the salem's lot jackets were found)

if the 1st state salem's lot books command the prices they do... it would seem that using these jackets i could fetch enough to lower my mortgage payments a bit at least.... it would seem huh...

i don't know if they are as rare...or rarer than the salem's lot 1st jacket.... but i sure don't see to many of them around...(and some i've never seen other than mine)
you salem's lot 1st owners (and others)... love your thoughts/opinions as to the differences.... if any.

regular published on top... promo type on bottom...
anyone have or seen another of these?


1st state promos of rose ( i've seen a few of these... i know bob at least has one or more...
and a promo "mockup" for the limited edition stand (which i know isn't anything like a 1st state jacket)


i know several of these were sold on ebay a while back... definitely many more than the salem's lot.... but how many i don't know.

[e_taylor]

Terry, this is far out of my realm, so disregard my thoughts if you wish. But I think the difference between the 'Salem's Lot and the Four Past Midnight and Rose Madder is their intended use. The ones you have are 100% "mock-ups" from what I can tell - no printed price, nothing on the flaps. Whereas the 1st state jacket for Salem's Lot was ready to go. In essence all 2nd state jackets ARE 1st state jackets, just clipped and re-priced. So to find one that escaped the clipping makes it more rare. (EDIT - not that the mock-ups you have aren't rare, just rare for different reasons... reasons which would command lower values?)

I think when paired with a 1st edition book, although they would have never been sold that way the factor commanding the high price is the jacket. The book seems kind of a bonus, and just a better way to present the jacket.

Just my two cents!

[Ben Mears]

From an archive of the (at this time) defunct website for Hill House :

I'm pretty sure that I know the whereabouts of five copies of the first state dj of 'SALEM'S LOT ($8.95, Father "Cody"). I think that Peter's memory is faulty in the above description about how many he found. I have heard him say that he found "four or five" on other occasions. It's too bad that he has not communicated to anyone that I know of in the King collecting community in years. It would be nice to be able to talk about things like this with him as we used to do in years past.

Since the dust jackets were stored in the art department at Doubleday and were folded to fit in files all of the known copies have a vertical crease on them from folding. On some copies the crease runs down the center of the spine of the dj. On others (like mine) the crease is near the rear edge of the spine where the black color of the spine changes to the white color of the rear panel.

To my knowledge an uncreased copy has not been described. And I have never heard of a copy found that has ever been in circulation, i.e. wear and tear. All of the known copies are in uncirculated pristine condition.

with the background on salem's lot... i discern that basically the 1st state jacket was never released on a 1st edition book... but was in reality, it was a misprint... or could even be discribed as a proto-type jacket (since it never actually hit the market) .... that was discovered in the publisher's files....and much later, matched up with first edition books (which probably were already issued with "2nd or 3rd state" jackets that were removed).
and these turned those books into books that are now valued at 35 -40 grand or more.

bob, hutch, etc- would agree with the above?

if not.... please explain your conflicting opinion.

if so..... my question is...
other than the time period and title of the book... how would that differ from me matching with first editions the below rare prototype jackets, that i have accumilated in varioius ways (including stored in the doubleday files i have... which is exactly the same place the salem's lot jackets were found)

if the 1st state salem's lot books command the prices they do... it would seem that using these jackets i could fetch enough to lower my mortgage payments a bit at least.... it would seem huh...

i don't know if they are as rare...or rarer than the salem's lot 1st jacket.... but i sure don't see to many of them around...(and some i've never seen other than mine)
you salem's lot 1st owners (and others)... love your thoughts/opinions as to the differences.... if any.

regular published on top... promo type on bottom...
anyone have or seen another of these?


1st state promos of rose ( i've seen a few of these... i know bob at least has one or more...
and a promo "mockup" for the limited edition stand (which i know isn't anything like a 1st state jacket)


i know several of these were sold on ebay a while back... definitely many more than the salem's lot.... but how many i don't know.

Good conversation points. I will be interested to read Bob & Hutch's comments. I find it intriguing that an unclipped price on a dust jacket can generate so much additional value especially since they weren't released with the first edition. Had these 5-6 been dust jackets been accidently included among the the first state of the edition and subsequently discovered by owners or collectors the additional would make more sense. Wouldn't the fact that they were discovered 8 years after the fact and then mated to exisiting first editions tend to make make them less authentic and more artificial?

[carlosdetweiller]

bob, hutch, etc- would agree with the above?

As they like to say on the west coast "It is what it is."