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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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google is your friend...
Quote:
First Printing or Fifth Printing? How Can You Tell?
One of the most frequently asked questions I hear pertains to identifying first editions.
For example, a new collector recently wrote:
Hi there: I know virtually NOTHING about books and am trying to learn from your site. (Thanks for being there). I am collecting Harry Potter and on ebay.com I find a number of people referring to the "number line" being 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 in the book and therefore something special. Could you tell me what a number line is and what it means in terms of the value of the book?
A number line tells the reader to which print batch a copy belongs. If we determine that its a first edition, first printing copy, it will probably be worth more than a copy from a later edition and/or printing.
But, to really understand what this means, let's take a look at the big picture. What's an edition? What's a printing? Why does it matter?
An edition refers to all copies of a book printed at any time from one typeset and without significant changes. In the case of the Harry Potter series, the first edition of the first book was a hardcover book published by Bloomsbury in the UK. Many other editions have followed: an American edition by Scholastic, various paperback editions and even so-called collectors editions.
Impression or printing refers to all the copies printed at any one time within an edition.
So, for example, let's pretend that for the first printing of Harry Potter, the publishers produced 10,000 copies. That's the first printing. Then, after Harry became wildly popular, the publishers printed another batch of, say, 100,000 copies. The batch of 100,000 is the second printing.
Nearly all book collectors are only interested in purchasing a first edition, first printing copy of a book. In theory, this is because, the earliest copies are closest to the authors true intent, without changes, etc.
However, I think that most book collectors collect first edition, first printing copies because they're harder to come by and, thus, more valuable. In other words, it's just more fun that way. For many of us, being a book collector (as opposed to just a book reader) is as much about the thrill of the hunt as anything else.
This is why number lines are a very big deal to collectors of modern first editions. A number line is the easiest way to determine if the book is a true first or a later, less valuable printing.
So, how do you decipher the number line? Easy. The lowest number in the number line indicates which print batch the copy belongs to.
So, 123456789 shows the collector that yes, indeed, this is a first printing, as is 987654321 or even 13579864, whereas 23456789 normally indicates a second printing (Random House is an exception to this rule. On some volumes they state First Edition and start the number line with 2. Go figure.) Don't concern yourself with the order of the numbers, just look for the number 1! When publishers use letters, A=1, B=2, and so on.
That's all there is to it!
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http://collectbooks.about.com/librar.../aa061001a.htm
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