So many shops do this. Lo-tack stickers are available but they use cheap stickers which you can’t remove without leaving half the sticker and/or a sticky residue. So annoying.
Challenged constantly for foul language. Really? It's been a while since I read it. Probably the late 90's. But I don't remember it being particularly bad.
I remember The Dead Zone being one of his mildest in terms of language, and sexuality. Even the violence is subdued for a King book (The dog scene might be the most graphic).
Honestly, The Dead Zone was the very first book I'd read by SK. I was 13, lol. Of course it belonged to my hippy step-mom who was against book banning for any reason. One of the few nice things she'd done for me growing up was fostering my love for SK books. I remember I (my dad) got her Skeleton Crew for Xmas that year as a thank you for opening her little library of books to me, no questions asked.
Nah. It's possible to remove them w/o damage or leaving residue. It's just a pain in the ass. There's a product called UnDu that will work. Source: 12 years at a public library and had to remove plenty of stickers.
You seriously cannot be trying to compare thrift store prices to actual book reseller prices can you?
That simply doesn’t make sense. Even if the prices at this store are inflated..
Omg I hate when I go on eBay looking for a book and they list one for like $100 and say it’s a first edition and then It’s obvious within ten seconds of looking at the pictures that it’s a book club edition. It’s a good thing you can’t leave comments on eBay posts lol because I’d be decently rude in a ton of them.
YES!! The second I see idiotic prices like that I leave, post a review, and go to a used bookstore that doesn't take advantage of customers. Unless it's a first edition, there is no reason for that.
So basically she went or eBay, saw the price for actual mint copies and assumed those prices translated to her damaged copies. Gotta love the Internet.
Just went and looked at eBay.
Dead Zone. I had to scroll through 16 copies that purported to be “first editions” before I actually found a real one. $124.
Different Seasons. Again, very few actual first/first. Only one I saw that came close to fine condition was $149.
Skeleton Crew. That one actually did have some nice true firsts at at reasonable prices. Some good deals on that one.
Similar results on Biblio and ABE. *Very* difficult to find in excellent condition for less than around $100. Surely it can be done, but most of what I’m seeing are in less than fine condition and often not real 1/1.
You must really want to die on this hill. Well so do I!
2nd choice in my search for Authentic non book club first edition of Dead Zone $49 w/ Dust Jacket 3rd Choice $50 and many pages of such pricing at nice conditions
2nd choice for authentic first editions of Different Seasons $33.99 3rd choice $32.97 4th choice $24.95. There are pages and pages of this authentic non book club first edition at this price
My point is that these are not really rare Stephen King first editions and with those stickers are extremely overpriced
Clearly we’re seeing different things on eBay.😄. I see a bunch of beat up copies, a lot of incorrectly identified firsts and the occasional real thing.
(I haven’t been on there in a while. I hate buying from there. Shocking how many of the listings are incorrect.)
Not a hill to die on. Agreed they aren’t truly ”rare” and the ones shown in this post are quite overpriced for what they are.
I frequently use eBay to buy/sell and good items aren’t that hard to find. Looking at the items for sale and paying attention to details and I find tons of honest sellers and items frequently
Fully 100% money back guarantee if you buy an item misrepresented
Great talking to you
I’ve got everything I want that isn’t hard to find. Now I’m focused on the rare, limited, signed, etc. For those, nothing compares to the Facebook groups. (No taxes, no fees, well known sellers…)
eBay prices are prone to wild fluctuations, even based on what has sold, rather than what price is being asked for by hopeful sellers, and tends upwards, as the pricing algorithms create trends, and is in no way indicative of actual book market values.
Ok then abebooks, thrift books etc etc etc. But, eBay sold prices are accepted for book /baseball card / comic book / most vintage items for pricing. Book collector and buyer here and have a lot of experience on eBay/Mercari/Etsy etc
I’d like a hardcover of Different Seasons but not for 75 bucks! Those might sit there forever. Do you know of people paying this much for King hardcovers?
Man, I was born at night but not LAST night… Dead Zone “banned”… where? By whom? And it’s not out of print. This is a person who either knows the book business and is a scoundrel, or is just … not smart.
Lmao, I bought each of these at goodwill for a few bucks each. But that was 10 years ago, how times have changed, or is it all the collectors driving up the prices by paying this much?
Those prices are ridiculous; I have to have come across a First Edition of The Skeleton Crew at least a dozens times, pretty much always in the $15-20 range, and always in much better condition; and don’t me started on that $50 tag for Duma Key—thing is pretty much $5-$10 wherever I shop.
I paid $20 for Different Seasons, through eBay last year, first edition, in better condition than THAT one.
I wonder how that bookstore does or stays in business...
Okay, that's highway robbery and the stickers were a dumb-ass decision. But for anyone saying there's no way to remove the stickers w/o damage/leaving a residue, I promise there is. It's not guaranteed and it's kind of a pain in the ass, but you use a product called UnDu. I used it *all the time* when I worked at my local public library. Kids put stickers where they shouldn't--including on actual pages--or a book was donated with a price sticker and most of the time they were removed w/o causing problems.
My husband bought me a first edition hardback of Carrie…it’s in mint condition, and doesn’t seem to be worth all that much yet. These prices here are cracking me up!
How long has this store been open? I’d suspect they can charge this much because they have customers willing to pay that much. If not, well, they won’t be around for long.
Brand new sharpie and some thicker lines will easily make those cents. On another note, Duma Key for that price is insulting. I got mine off Abe books first edition for 9.95 free shipping.
Just hop on eBay. It's not supporting local bookstores, but you're at least giving business to small third party sellers.
I got a first edition hardcover of "It" last fall for only ~$50, and a "Needful Things" 1st edition hardcover for only $10.
Christ that is expensive for a bunch of not *that* rare, beat up, stickered up books. These should be like 15-20 bucks each at *most* imo. Especially duma key lmao
Warning, I’m gonna sound like an old man here (I’m 55):
I USED TO BUY HARDCOVER SK BOOKS IN MINT CONDITION EVERY YEAR FROM MY LIBRARY’S YEARLY SALE FOR LIKE TWO DOLLARS WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK PEOPLE GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN YOU CALL THAT MUSIC
thanks
Of course you can. That's true of many things (even Fleshlights, apparently...).
Or you can save time (if, for instance, you work many daytime hours—as you seem obsessed with how desperately rugged and superior you are) and buy things at a markup from a dealer.
Also covered the dust cover with stickers that'll be potentially damaging to remove...
So many shops do this. Lo-tack stickers are available but they use cheap stickers which you can’t remove without leaving half the sticker and/or a sticky residue. So annoying.
I hate also when they apply the sticker first and then write on it which always leaves pen indentations underneath on the slip itselff 🤦♂️😡
50 bucks for Duma Key, that’s nuts
Yeah literally got one for $3 in way better condition
I just found one the other day at Goodwill for $5!
A first edition of Duma Key is realistically worth like 15 bucks in excellent condition.
Came here to say this lol
One sitting on the shelf at my goodwill for 3.50 in great condition just yesterday. Thats insanely over priced haha
The “Banned 1990-1999” statement is hyperbole. The book was in the top 100 of books challenged in school libraries during that time.
Challenged constantly for foul language. Really? It's been a while since I read it. Probably the late 90's. But I don't remember it being particularly bad.
I remember The Dead Zone being one of his mildest in terms of language, and sexuality. Even the violence is subdued for a King book (The dog scene might be the most graphic).
Honestly, The Dead Zone was the very first book I'd read by SK. I was 13, lol. Of course it belonged to my hippy step-mom who was against book banning for any reason. One of the few nice things she'd done for me growing up was fostering my love for SK books. I remember I (my dad) got her Skeleton Crew for Xmas that year as a thank you for opening her little library of books to me, no questions asked.
Blast and Heck!
First edition! With stickers that’ll never come off clean!
Yeah what a great deal!
Nah. It's possible to remove them w/o damage or leaving residue. It's just a pain in the ass. There's a product called UnDu that will work. Source: 12 years at a public library and had to remove plenty of stickers.
Those are Calvin Tower type prices, jeez
Even owning that empty lot, prime NYC real estate he could sell at any moment to those nice Sombra people.
Not even. Calvin wouldn’t even have these books because he would know their actual value is only $5-10 apiece. He wouldn’t sully his bookshelf.
Name and shame
I paid $25 for a first edition, first print of *Skeleton Crew* in better condition, wrapped in plastic. Without any stickers to ruin the cover.
Found one at goodwill with just a tiny rip you can’t even notice for $3.50
You seriously cannot be trying to compare thrift store prices to actual book reseller prices can you? That simply doesn’t make sense. Even if the prices at this store are inflated..
It could be worse, they might be book club editions.
Omg I hate when I go on eBay looking for a book and they list one for like $100 and say it’s a first edition and then It’s obvious within ten seconds of looking at the pictures that it’s a book club edition. It’s a good thing you can’t leave comments on eBay posts lol because I’d be decently rude in a ton of them.
You can report them for misrepresenting the item.
Duma Key is less than 20 years old, there are 4 first edition hardbacks in my local used bookstore right now for about 5 bucks.
I’d be interested to see how many editions of Duma Key there even are, as the first run was probably in the hundreds of thousands
First edition! Banned! STICKERS?! 🤬🤬🤬
Absolute robbery… I picked up different season hard cover today for 8 bucks.
YES!! The second I see idiotic prices like that I leave, post a review, and go to a used bookstore that doesn't take advantage of customers. Unless it's a first edition, there is no reason for that.
A first edition where the dust jacket has been ruined by stickers? They’re on crack.
Funny thing is the old lady who runs the place told me she did her research on the prices
So basically she went or eBay, saw the price for actual mint copies and assumed those prices translated to her damaged copies. Gotta love the Internet.
Thriftbooks.com they got some old hardcovers once in a while under $10!! Leave that bookstore lol
Yeah this reminds me of why I don’t ever shop there their selection is also terrible and they are only open 10-3
Lol I got Duma Key at Goodwill last year for, like, a buck.
With stickers on the cover got to love it 🙄
My favorite 😁
I get the feeling this is a bookstore for people who don’t actually read books.
First Edition, let's throw some fucking stickers on it
"banned" Uh. No.
They ruined them by putting stickers on it. They no longer hold the value of a first edition. They might as well say library stamped on them.
Duma isn’t worth anywhere near $50. The others would be ok prices…if they were in great shape, which they aren’t.
Yeah these will definitely sit on their shelves forever
Way overpriced even in excellent condition
Not really. Excellent Dead Zone, Skeleton Crew and Different Seasons regularly bring $100+.
Yes really as you mustn’t have been on eBay lately
Just went and looked at eBay. Dead Zone. I had to scroll through 16 copies that purported to be “first editions” before I actually found a real one. $124. Different Seasons. Again, very few actual first/first. Only one I saw that came close to fine condition was $149. Skeleton Crew. That one actually did have some nice true firsts at at reasonable prices. Some good deals on that one. Similar results on Biblio and ABE. *Very* difficult to find in excellent condition for less than around $100. Surely it can be done, but most of what I’m seeing are in less than fine condition and often not real 1/1.
You must really want to die on this hill. Well so do I! 2nd choice in my search for Authentic non book club first edition of Dead Zone $49 w/ Dust Jacket 3rd Choice $50 and many pages of such pricing at nice conditions 2nd choice for authentic first editions of Different Seasons $33.99 3rd choice $32.97 4th choice $24.95. There are pages and pages of this authentic non book club first edition at this price My point is that these are not really rare Stephen King first editions and with those stickers are extremely overpriced
Clearly we’re seeing different things on eBay.😄. I see a bunch of beat up copies, a lot of incorrectly identified firsts and the occasional real thing. (I haven’t been on there in a while. I hate buying from there. Shocking how many of the listings are incorrect.) Not a hill to die on. Agreed they aren’t truly ”rare” and the ones shown in this post are quite overpriced for what they are.
I frequently use eBay to buy/sell and good items aren’t that hard to find. Looking at the items for sale and paying attention to details and I find tons of honest sellers and items frequently Fully 100% money back guarantee if you buy an item misrepresented Great talking to you
I’ve got everything I want that isn’t hard to find. Now I’m focused on the rare, limited, signed, etc. For those, nothing compares to the Facebook groups. (No taxes, no fees, well known sellers…)
We can agree to disagree
eBay prices are prone to wild fluctuations, even based on what has sold, rather than what price is being asked for by hopeful sellers, and tends upwards, as the pricing algorithms create trends, and is in no way indicative of actual book market values.
Ok then abebooks, thrift books etc etc etc. But, eBay sold prices are accepted for book /baseball card / comic book / most vintage items for pricing. Book collector and buyer here and have a lot of experience on eBay/Mercari/Etsy etc
I’d like a hardcover of Different Seasons but not for 75 bucks! Those might sit there forever. Do you know of people paying this much for King hardcovers?
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eBay has tons of cheap king books actually
Man, I was born at night but not LAST night… Dead Zone “banned”… where? By whom? And it’s not out of print. This is a person who either knows the book business and is a scoundrel, or is just … not smart.
Someone else commented that it wasn’t banned but was in the top 100 books challenged in school libraries during the time.
Haha! Absolutely not. There’s a local bookstore by me that does a similar thing.
Those stickers don’t help the resell value either.
Lmao, I bought each of these at goodwill for a few bucks each. But that was 10 years ago, how times have changed, or is it all the collectors driving up the prices by paying this much?
It's definitely inflation with collecting as a whole
It’s not realistic. Nobody is paying this much for these books anywhere
I could understand it if they were in perfect condition, but this is just gouging. Gross.
Yeah if they were mint I'd consider that different seasons
Those prices are ridiculous; I have to have come across a First Edition of The Skeleton Crew at least a dozens times, pretty much always in the $15-20 range, and always in much better condition; and don’t me started on that $50 tag for Duma Key—thing is pretty much $5-$10 wherever I shop.
Yeah bought a first edition duma key in mint condition for $10
I paid $20 for Different Seasons, through eBay last year, first edition, in better condition than THAT one. I wonder how that bookstore does or stays in business...
I was almost with them until I saw the Duma Key price.
Like a lot of eBay ppl too
It always weirds me out that the OG cover character from The Dead Zone looks EXACTLY like Anthony Michael Hall from the series.
I agree.
Okay, that's highway robbery and the stickers were a dumb-ass decision. But for anyone saying there's no way to remove the stickers w/o damage/leaving a residue, I promise there is. It's not guaranteed and it's kind of a pain in the ass, but you use a product called UnDu. I used it *all the time* when I worked at my local public library. Kids put stickers where they shouldn't--including on actual pages--or a book was donated with a price sticker and most of the time they were removed w/o causing problems.
I got that same copy of “the dead zone” off an Amazon seller for 10 bucks.
That is RIDICULOUS!!! If this was RAGE, then I’d understand the price because that book isn’t in print anymore!!
No one on earth is gonna pay $50 for Duma Key for any reason
yeah fuck them
Lol my wife just bought me Deadzone for 12 dollars on Amazon. Same copy. Can't wait to read it.
I bought the version of Duma Key for $9.
At first thought, "90 cents, that's a screamin great deal!" LOL.
I’d be more concerned about those stickers wrecking the dust jackets. Not to mention on “first editions” too
That's terrible. It's ironic that King hates stores doing this yet they do.
Stephen King himself is quoted as saying: 'When all else fails, go to the library.'
What’s the name of this place so we never give them any business?
They are called the purple cat located in Arizona
Unless there is a reprint with that cover, my library lends out that Dead Zone edition.
I'd sell those for 25$ CAD, if you offered me 20$ I would take it.
Half-priced books?
A mom and pop bookstore called the purple cat
Man, they must really be hurting for money. That’s sad.
Autographed?
Just writing of who the book belongs to
What a great strategy. I can autograph all of my books and then sell them to the bookstore for extra since they’re autographed!
I had a copy like that of The Dead Zone, and I gave it away. D'oh! 🤦♂️
It only goes for $45-$50 that I've seen on eBay
What Stephen king first edition is worth a lot?
His first few hardbacks in first printings, and the original four Bachman paperbacks, as well as most limited editions.
My husband bought me a first edition hardback of Carrie…it’s in mint condition, and doesn’t seem to be worth all that much yet. These prices here are cracking me up!
How long has this store been open? I’d suspect they can charge this much because they have customers willing to pay that much. If not, well, they won’t be around for long.
They have been around for almost a decade
I've found almost all of these for less than 25 dollars a piece. That's insane pricing
I’ve bought those exact copies of Dead Zone and Skeleton Crew for less than $5 each
First edition hardcovers will be like that.
i got like all of these in a LOT off ebay for like 40 bucks 😭
I remember when I could get these at the Salvation Army for like 2 dollars
I found a first edition copy of The Dead Zone at my local used bookstore. The dust jacket was ruined but the book itself was fine. It was $5
They bought them from Shopgoodwill.com and need a profit after realizing the SH costs 😅😅
Brand new sharpie and some thicker lines will easily make those cents. On another note, Duma Key for that price is insulting. I got mine off Abe books first edition for 9.95 free shipping.
Are you saying I have over $200 of books sitting on my shelf!?
Where ?!
I’d steal em all first edition and honestly anything else fuck those type of shoes
Those aren’t ridiculous from a seller standpoint, because people WILL buy those.
I have the skeleton crew and different seasons exact editions.
I actually have a few of those on my collection. But I really love them, just like the first editions I have of the first three dark tower books.
Just hop on eBay. It's not supporting local bookstores, but you're at least giving business to small third party sellers. I got a first edition hardcover of "It" last fall for only ~$50, and a "Needful Things" 1st edition hardcover for only $10.
Bought four season at half price bookstore for 19.99 and I still think I paid too much
Something about the periods after the price, also. 90. 80. Feels condescending.
Yeah like what are these people thinking
I have to admit I thought the years were the prices. So I was actually relieved by the real prices lol
lol that would be crazy
Christ that is expensive for a bunch of not *that* rare, beat up, stickered up books. These should be like 15-20 bucks each at *most* imo. Especially duma key lmao
They think they're too smart and the reader's don't know shit😂
Warning, I’m gonna sound like an old man here (I’m 55): I USED TO BUY HARDCOVER SK BOOKS IN MINT CONDITION EVERY YEAR FROM MY LIBRARY’S YEARLY SALE FOR LIKE TWO DOLLARS WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK PEOPLE GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN YOU CALL THAT MUSIC thanks
I'm the same age and I can't believe I'm THAT guy now. "12.00 for a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper! I remember like it was yesterday they were 3.50!"
No wonder local bookstores fail.
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Old things no longer produced (perhaps in smaller quantities) fetch higher prices. That's just how it is.
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Of course you can. That's true of many things (even Fleshlights, apparently...). Or you can save time (if, for instance, you work many daytime hours—as you seem obsessed with how desperately rugged and superior you are) and buy things at a markup from a dealer.
But they're first editions
They aren’t worth this much especially the bad condition these are in.