Inquiry courtesy of Sally Cat: Why are “first printed” books so expensive and popular?
I am looking at “The Hunger Games, first printing” on Ebay. It is $ 325. Why is it so expensive. What is so significant about a first printing compared to the other printings? What am I failing to understand?
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Answer by Twainy Bob
First printings are usually rare or were released on a limited run. For the sake of argument lets say “The Hunger Games” first run was 5,000 copies, which for a book that has no press, and an unknown author is fairly reasonable. That means that there are only 5,000 of those in the existence of the world. And that number is only going to drop. So, first runs are more so for collectors. They are meant to sit on shelves and should be handled with care, because they are an investment that someday the book will be worth more. Think of it like a car.
Let’s say you buy a top of the line Ferrari, it will cost you $ 500,000. Why did you not buy a Honda civic for $ 30,000. It’s cheaper and more or less does the same thing. Because thirty years down the road that Ferrari is going to be worth $ 7 mil and the Civic is going to worth $ 500. Short answer, it is more of an investment.
Now the question is, is “The Hunger Games” a Ferrari or a Honda Civic with a body Kit made to look like a Ferrari. Is it a great work of literature that will stand the test of time. Is it going to be taught in schools 500 years from now like Shakespeare is. No, in 30 years people will vaguely remember it, and in 100 years no one will. Does that mean it’s a bad book, No. It just hit at the right time for a niche market.
In other words, save your money.
Answer by skokiesam
First printing of any book is usually more rare than, say, a second printing or a third printing. When publishers release the first printing of a book, the book is, well, as it is. If there are any typos or mistakes, they’re going to be in there. When the book goes into the second printing (also called reprints), if the publisher is alerted to the typos (and for the most they are), those mistakes will be fixed. So the first printing becomes more valuable because it’s the printing with the mistakes in it. And because the series is so popular, to have a first printing of the book with the typos in makes it a commodity.
The number of copies printed does come into play at some point, but that’s the basic explanation.
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Why are books so expensive popular “first print”?