The Collector
(The best site for info on limited edition Stephen King)
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F.A.Q    

I have a misbound copy of a book, what is it worth? - Misbound copies do happen and can take many forms. Upsidedown binding, missing pages, repeated pages & pages out of order are the most common types of misbindings. Although some people do collect these misbound copies, in general they do not add to the value of the book. At best an upside down binding could add 5-10% if you found the right collector. Issues where pages are just missing though, make the book less readable and would lower the value up to 10-20%

I have a regular copy of "insert title here" signed by SK, how much is it worth? - A genuine Stephen King signature usually adds between $200-$250 to the value of any book. So add that amount to the value of your regular book.

I have a copy of "insert title here" and it's missing the dustjacket, how much is it worth? - Up to 90% of a book's value is in the Dustjacket, especially with early Stephen King works.  The reason for this is that the early Doubleday books were made very poorly and the dust jackets were especially prone to ripping, so finding copies with good dust jackets is difficult. If your copy is missing a dustjacket it's almost never worth very much, if it's also not a first edition (and you can check whether it it or not by going to the appropriate section on the site), then it's only worth a couple dollars.

I have a copy of "Insert title here" and there's no price on the dustjacket, is this a 1st edition? - Any book without a price on the dustjacket is a book club (BC) edition. BC editions are not the same a 1st trade editions and are generally not collectable. Their value is only a few dollars. Often these BC editions will look very similar to an actual 1st edition except for the missing price on the DJ. This is why the DJ is such an important piece of the books value.

I have a limited edition book with "PC" instead of a number, how much is it worth? - Books labeled PC (Publisher's Copy) are currently selling for 10-30% less than their numbered counterparts. Personally I believe this represents great value for collectors with a great upside potential in resale value if more collectors start seeking out PC copies. The only exception to this would be the Dark Tower series from Donald M. Grant, where low numbers are preferred.

What do the gutter codes on early Doubleday books mean? - The accepted theory is that the letter in the Doubleday gutter code indicates the year the book was printed. The number is the week of the year the printing was done. Keep in mind a book could be printed during the last several weeks of a calendar year but not be released until several weeks later and thus be released in a different year than the printing occurred....So as an example a 1st edition of The Stand has code T39 as the gutter code, that means it was printed the 39th week of 1978. If your copy has V22 that means you have a later printing that was printed the 22nd week of 1980. Here is a wiki page that expands on the codes

P = 1974 U = 1979
Q = 1975 V = 1980
R = 1976 W = 1981
S = 1977 X = 1982
T = 1978 Y = 1983

How do you come up with your prices? - I check internet auctions, used and rare bookstores, receive e-mails from book owners, and check price guides. From all these sources I can get a good idea of what the price range of a book is. The biggest problem is finding correct pricing between ebay prices and bookstore prices. Ebay can be significantly cheaper but you're not guaranteed to to find, or even win the book you want. People buy from both sources even though the prices can be quite different. My pricing tries to get a range between the two.

Are the price ranges based on a specific condition of a book? - Price range is based on the most common condition for a specific book. For newer books that would be F/NF condition. For an older doubleday book that would be good/very good condition. This site uses the grading scale used by the IOBA (Independent Online Booksellers Association).

How often are prices updated? - Lowest price "where to buy" listings are updated every month, All eBay listings are in real-time. The value of the books on the information pages is revised at least once per year, sometimes twice per year. This is to even out the weekly fluctuations that occur with collectibles, giving you an accurate range of what a book has sold for over the last six months. The US and UK limited pages have a line showing when the prices were last revised.

Why do so many ABE links say click to check on the buying page? - Even though ABE listings will take you to a real-time search for the book, I only update the text field once per month. If a listing says "may have copies available click to check" that means there were no books available on the day that I checked. However as the link takes you to the ABE search in real time, new listings can come up any time so if you're interested in a book, click the link to see if any new listings have cropped up since the last time I manually checked.

 

I see you're missing some things, where can I send you some info? - As my collection is not world class by any means I depend on my viewers for information, so if you have a rare book and know the number of pages or you have some info on any of the limited editions that you think should be included please please e-mail me and I will put it on the site.

I'm looking to sell my collection, what the best way to do this? -It all depends on what "best" means to you. If you want the absolute most money then you'll want to sell each book one-at-a-time yourself on eBay or classified sections of King sites (like this one). The downside is that it will likely take a while to see everything and there will be a lot of work packing, communicating with buyers, collecting payments, etc. If you want the fastest sale, then you should sell the entire collection in bulk to one of the specialty King stores, like Betts Books, VeryFineBooks, or this site. The downside here is that you will get the least money, somewhere in the 50-60% of retail range. Other middle of the road options include putting your collection up for consignment, selling only part of it individually, etc. For more detailed info, please check out this page on selling your collection.

How can I post my books on your site?- If you are a reputable book dealer, please e-mail me and I can give you further details. If you are an individual bookseller you can post your book in the buy/sell section of the forums (You must register to see this section). Please make sure to include your asking price in the form post.

Do you personally buy Stephen King books?- Yes, stephenkingcollector.com is interested certain rare Stephen King books and will offer prices competitive to any bookstore. Please e-mail me and I can give you further details. If you already have a written offer from another bookstore, include it and I will beat it by 10% If you have an asking price in mind please include it with your e-mail

 

How do I get a book Signed by Stephen King? - You used to be able to send a maximum of two books to his office, and get your books signed. However according to the Official Stephen King website, they are no longer doing this. So the only other way I know of is to head to a Stephen King book signing. These are infrequent but usually happen around the time of a new book release.

What is Stephen King's e-mail address? - SK does not have a public e-mail address. He does have an official web presence at www.stephenking.com complete with a forum. While SK does not typically answer questions on the forum there is an active moderator on the site that does.


What is Stephen King's Mailing Address? - His official address for correspondence is below. Please be aware his assistant Marsha is most likely to read any letters and, any reply would most likely be from her - not SK himself.
Stephen King
49 Florida Ave.
Bangor, ME 04401-3005
USA

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