wrote:

Basically, a book club edition isn't collectible in the way a first
edition is simply because it /isn't/ the true first edition, even
though
it may look very similar to the first. Also, there may have been a
lot
more copies of the book club edn. printed.

For reading copies (ie non-collectibles) I don't see any reason why a
book
club copy should be less desirable than a mainstream publisher's
reprint,
although for some reason a lot of booksellers are still prejudiced
against
them.

i generally agree, but a couple of thoughts:

book sellers are prejudiced for or against a particular attribute
of edition or condition or whatever almost solely because they believe,
rightly or wrongly but usually rightly, that many of their customers
have that prejudice. in other words, they think that this factor will
affect what they can get for the book; they don't have prejudices of
their own. if booksellers decided that the 17th printing were the most
desireable, it wouldn't affect their prices but if collectors wanted
that printing the sellers would be all over it.

while it may not affect "pure" reading copies, for completist
collectors and for those with non-first-edition budgets, other early
editions may have some semi-collectible value, and any copy from the
original publisher may have some perceived value over reading copy
price. in this context the usual points against book club editions may
still count against them. with the 2d or later printing from the
publisher we still know when it was printed and have some idea of the
quantity, and can find out how many later printings there were. thus
its place in the history of the book is knowable. this may still be
preferable to the huge printings and frequent unmarked reprintings
often characteristic of book clubs.

the prejudice against book club editions does certainly lead to
anomolies, though. i don't know much about the early science fiction
books from gnome press, but several which later became big sellers from
doubleday, such as asimov's foundation series, were released as book
club editions with the gnome imprint. i would presume that any edition
with the gnome press name was released earlier than any doubleday
identified edition, and probably in much lower quantities. thus the
book cover itself refutes the usual presumptions about book club
editions, and i would certainly find a gnome press book club copy more
desireable, for all the usual collectors' reasons, than a doubleday
trade [even if there is a good chance that the gnome book club editions
were actually published through doubleday, which ran the science
fiction book club]. bookstores, however, don't always know enough or
think through the implications enough, or expect their customers know
and think enough, to price accordingly.

chiwito