STRANGENESS, The Backbone of a Good Collection

Where do you start collecting Stephen King?  I think the best advice has always been to start with first editions.  The earlier the better.  My earliest is a copy of The Shining.

A couple years ago, I stopped collecting first editions.  I only have so much shelf space, and it seemed that newer books had such a huge first run that the first editions would never be worth much.  I chose instead to buy special editions of these books.  For instance, Cemetery dance released a beautiful copy of Full Dark No Stars.  I chose to invest in that instead of a first edition.  Besides, someone usually gives me a copy of the latest Stephen King book!  (Hint, hint family – still no 11/22/63)

So what makes a good collection of Stephen King books?  Depends on what you like.  If you want to line all the books up in chronological order, Carrie to 11/22/63, then first editions are the way to go.  Of course, that system leaves nerd questions, like, “What do I do with the Dark Tower books?  Put them on their own shelf (yes!) or mix them in (no!)?”

I think the backbone of a good collection is strange stuff.  Yep, a little bit of everything makes the collection a lot of fun.  If everyone has the same set of first editions – that’s not really so cool, ya know?

Here are some strange things I’ve enjoyed hunting:

1. Magazines.  These are cheap, and a thrill to read through.  Magazines with Stephen King interviews, magazines that contain his original stories, or magazines about King are all easy to find.

2. Cemetery Dance editions.  I like books published by CD.  In particular, Blockade Billy, Full Dark No tars and the recent 20th anniversary of IT were all pretty cool.

3. Red leather editions.  I’m not crazy about these, because they come out looking pretty uniform – but a few a fun.

4. Trinkets.  The world is full of strange things from the world of Stephen King.  A matchbox Christine (mine is blue?),

5. Booklets.  Sometimes longer short stories were published as separate booklets.  I have The Raft as a booklet originally published in Gallery and a small Penguin paperback of Umney’s Last Case.  Sometimes the booklets are giveaway’s – just a few chapters of larger novels.  I have a copy of a Wizard and Glass booklet – just the first few pages.

6. British editions can also be cool.  I have the unabridged version of The Stand.  Strangely, the British edition looks a lot thinner!  Also a British edition of Skeleton Crew.  Actually, this is something I don’t do a lot of hunting for.  After all, the only thing really different is the cover, and again – I need the space.

7. Some cassettes are worth looking for.  I hunted The Stand and The Mist on cassette.  (Once upon a time The Stand was only available in the original abridged format and even that was out of print.)  Copies of King reading The Dark Tower are also pretty cool, in my opinion.

If you can get your hands on the original recording of The Mist read by Frank Muller, I think it's worth  it. I'm not sure what the copyright deal is on this book is, but it seems to be out of print.

By the way, there is an abridgment of Thinner that King really didn't like!  It was so bad, he decided not to allow future books be be abridged.  But then, Desperation was later abridged!

8. Newspapers and periodicals.  In particular, the Castle Rock was a neat publication.  I only own one.  It was very well done and a great way of keeping news out there in an age pre-interent.  There were several other unauthorized publications that are fun to dig up.

Phantasmayoria was a unofficial magazine published four times a year.  I think this was the work of George Beahm. I have a Summer 1997 edition.

The Red Letter by Greg Hotchkiss was another King news booklet about 10 pages per issue.

Also SKIN: Stephen King Information Network was the work of editior Lori Zucearo.  This publication is about 10 full sized sheets of paper – always green.  It seems the 90's were really the era for these publications. (See blog post, The History Of Skin)

9. The Dark Tower in its first publication in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine.  I had a lot of fun hunting those down, it became a quest.

10. Original copies of the Richard Bachman books.  The only one really hard to find it Rage.  The copy I have is pretty tattered.  Actually, all my Bachman paperbacks are well worn!

11. Comic books.  I don’t purposefully collect these, but have somehow ended up with quite a few.  Anyway, comic books can easily make a collection unique.  There are some that are more fun to hunt down than others.  I  think the Batman #400 is pretty awesome.  King reveals if he is a Batman or a Superman.

12. Some books about King are invaluable.  For instance  The Shape Under The Sheets is out of print, and a very unique book!  Lilja’s Library is also a lot of fun to just sit and thumb through.  (When it comes to books about King, I like books you don’t have to read beginning to end, but can hope around in.)

13. Movies.  One Summer I tried to collect all the SK movies.  I’m not sure it’s possible!  And some I just refuse to invest in, making it impossible to collect them all.  Sorry, Sleepwalkers and Langoliers!  I don’t really think movies do much in terms of collecting.  I don’t even keep the cases, but put them all in one folder of SK movies.

14. Desk Calendar.  I have just recently become a big fan of the Stephen King desk Calendar.

15. Books with introductions by Stephen King.  King’s introduction to any book is a lot of fun.  I don’t collect these, but would gladly sit and read every introduction if given the stack of books.

What is it?
Some stuff I have I’m actually unsure. . . why I have it!  I keep it in this big plastic tub, and my wife probably thinks it’s full of old books or something.  I just toss srange things in there that I’m unsure what to do with.  A lot of it are things that came in grab bags or – stuff I don’t know I got it!

Examples:

• A big red sticker that says: “Buy Desperation and The Regulators and get a gift from STEPHEN KING... an excerpt from The Dark Tower IV.  
• A TV Guide from May, 1997 with the Shining miniseries on the front.  I’m not sure why I bought this (for something like $2).  But now that I bought it, I can’t part with it!
• A VHS box for The Lawn Mower Man, unrrated directors cut.  This is only the fox, still flat, never had a VHS tape in it.  I’m not sure why I have this – or why I keep it.  Hopeful it may for some reason be valuable.
• Stickers with this instruction from New Line Cinema: June 30, 1993, “Dear new Line Home Video Customer: Enclosed are corrected credit block stickers for the new Line Home Video title The Lawnmower Man.  Pursuant to a court order, please place this approved sticker on all available copies of The Lawnmower Man in your inventory.  The Lawnmower Man is available for sell-through at $19.95 suggested retail price.  Thank you for making The lawnmower Man a huge success.”  RIGHT!
• Papers.  Yep, papers from a court proceeding regarding Lawnmower Man.  Nothing interesting – just court docs.  
• Charlie Fried’s original draft’s of his articles for SKIN.  Including: Stephen King on Audio, Stephen King’s World of Horror, The Lawnmower Man meets the Rock Bottom Remainders Stephen King Plaintiff or Defendant, and more.

The really fun stuff are things that you think no one else has.  My favorite is Charlie Fried’s notebook.  It’s nothing that incredible – just a scrapbook by a fan.  But I like it a lot.

There's so much stuff you could collect!  Movie posters, event tickets, signed items, signed baseballs, bobbleheads, action figures, toys, bookcovers. . .

So, tell me – what odd things make your collection fun and unique?

Also see my 2011 article, Building A Unique Collection

Building A Unique S.K. Collection, Part 1

The advice for anyone getting into Stephen King collecting is to start with first editions. That is a great place to start. I'm still hunting my first edition Carrie, Salem's Lot and Gunslinger!

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As you get a little deeper into collecting, you'll discover it is not hard to develop a collection that is absolutely unique. Why? Because there is so much Stephen King stuff out there! No two collections, even the super duper collections, are not the same. No one has everything Stephen King! In fact, I found myself wondering if Stephen King really has a complete Stephen King collection.

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If you look, you can find stuff that's special.
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Some suggestions:
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Here's some things I think are great for collecting and make your collection a little more unique.
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1. Some first editions really are worth their weight in gold. Carrie is one of those, and it doesn't seem to be THAT hard to find. I see a lot of ex-library copies out there. However, I am not a fan of the ex-library stuff. There is a Salem's Lot first edition with a famous mistake on the dust jacket regarding Father C. That's worth a blog post of its own, though. The price of first editions starts dropping with The Shining.
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2. Obviously, anything signed is desirable! His signature seems to increase the value of a book at least 100%. Under The Dome went for $75 special edition -- but a hefty $200 for the signed edition.
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3. Books signed by others. Anything signed by the author is a little more special. No, I don't know why! I like it, but I have yet to figure out why I think it's so cool. I have a signed Michael Collins book. Also a special edition of Talisman, signed by Peter Straub. The artist editions of the Dark Tower books are also pretty cool, and come signed by the author. I have a Dark Tower 7 signed by Whelan.
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4. I like to collect old magazines with King's stories in them. Of course, some the really early stuff I don't collect because. . . uh. . . they're in nudie mags! However, there is still a lot out there. King has written so many short stories and articles that have been published all over the place!
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I like to hunt down the original Dark Tower stories in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I was also excited to find a copy of X-Men Hero's Of Hope which included a contribution by King.
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5. Any special edition books are great. They're not all that hard to find, but they are far more valuable than mass produced first editions. So, the Talisman/Black House double edition in slip case is obviously a good find (and not that expensive). Some stuff is just impossible. Try finding a Cemetery Dance edition of From a Buick 8! I can't. Or how about the zipper edition of Skeleton Crew? What I'm saying is that when you have a chance to get a special book, snatch it up if the price is right.
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Lately Cemetery Dance has offered King books in special edition. Blockade Billy came with its own baseball card, which is neat. And they also have a great edition of Full Dark No Stars, which came with a slip case. So far, everything from Cemetery Dance has been very nice. I still wish Cemetery Dance would put out a special two volume edition of The Stand / Swan Song. Hehe.
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You can also hunt those red leather books. I have about five of them. Honestly, once I had a few, I decided not to continue hunting them. Other than the binding, there's nothing really all that awesome about them. I did spot an entire set -- the whole thing! -- on ebay. I meant to go back and bid, but I forgot. When I showed up 5 minutes too late, the huge lot had gone for $30. OUCH! I wept.
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6. Promotional stuff. Things like the Dark Tower Wizard And Glass booklet that was released with the Desperation/Regulators. Posters and all kinds of things the publisher sends book stores to hype a book.
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7. Introductions. I don't collect introductions by King, because there are so many out there! I don't have enough book shelves to do that. His introductions are always a lot of fun! I love his chatty style of talking right to the reader.
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8. Audio books. Earlier advice was that the audio books would have no value. That's still pretty true! There is little point in collecting the audio books. However, that's not universally true. The Stand and The Mist are both worth the hunt. Ebay often has The Stand on tape going for around $100-200.
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9. Odds and ends. You know, Magnets, book bags, book covers, documents, letters (letters by King can be very expensive). I have a bunch of court documents from King's lawsuit in the Lawnmower Man case. I got it in a huge grab bag of stuff from Betts bookstore. That thing was loaded with strange stuff! You can find a toy metal Christine, or a Christmas tree ordainment of King's House (that's a little strange, if you ask me!)
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10. Old publications about King. By that, I mean all those publications that were out before the Internet became our primary means of information. Stephen King had a pretty neat newspaper, called Castle Rock.
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Fan publications are always cool to find, though they may not have much actual "value" in terms of dollars. I enjoy them! There was a publication called The Red Letter. I don't know much about Red Letter, except that it was small and pretty interesting.
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There was also a publication called SKIN. It stands for Stephen King Information Network. It was in publicationf rom 1994 to 1995 and produced eighteen newsletters. Read more here: http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2009/09/history-of-skin.html
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11. Books about Stephen King. These are just all out fun. He may not like how many books have been written about him, but some of them are awesome! Try Bev Vincent's "Stephen King Companion" which has tons of reporductions fo original manuscripts. Also, Lilja's Library is a great print version of the website, including his reviews and interviews.
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I like just about anything by Stephen Spignesi, Michael Collins, Douglas Winter, and George Beahm. Beahm's biography "Stephen King, America's Best Loved Bogeyman" was very good. In fact, I wish he'd update it.
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Are Stephen King books a good investment?
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I think you should not buy Stephen King books as an investment. Of course, I don't buy gold, either!
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Here's the deal: Collect what makes you happy! If you're collecting only to resell, I don't know that the market is big enough for that. I suspect the super collectors end up selling their collections for a loss (but I don't know that!).
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Because I don't collect to resell, I open everything! That means, when something comes to me shrink wrapped, I open it up! Hey, I bought it to enjoy, not to sit wrapped up like it belongs in a store. I never feel bad cutting that shrink wrap off! Well, with the exception of Desperation/Regulators with the book light attached to it. So maybe the best way to say it is that collecting for profit is not a good route for me.
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So tell me, what do you like to collect? What pieces where you most excited to find?

The History Of SKIN

SKIN: Stephen King Information Network
The following is by Lori Zuccaro. I'm reprinting it from a 2 page typed document -- I found it very interesting.
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They say that there's a time and place for everything. well, if that's true, it's obviously the time for Stephen King newsletter. The last King newsletter was publishedbetween 1985 and 1989. It was called Castle Rock. In one of the last issues of this newletter, Ray Rexer wrote a poem titled, "I don't care what people say, Castle Rock is here to stay." It has been said many times that SKIN is the next Castle Rock. Maybe it is. . . I don't know, but what I do know is that it's an honest attempt to simply combine the knowledge of many people who admire and study King's works and share them with others.
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I don't like people to call it a "Fan Club" or a "Fanzine" beause I think there's much more to King than stardom. In fact, his stardom is the least interesting to me personally. What I like about King is his love of writing and his honest attempt (and success) of putting thoughts onto paper and making them come alive. It's his literary abilities that I try to incoperate in SKIN and try to avoid being too fanish. OF course, you can't avoid all of this, and not all of that is necessarily bad. It's okay for us to idolize someone who is extremely talented. But it's not okay to distort the true talent someone has and create a Hollywood image of them. Anyway, let's move on to the heart of what SKIN is and where it's come from.
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SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) began in April, 1994 on a computer online system called America online. One night I sat down and typed a message on one of the bulletin boards dedicated to King. I wrote and asked people who wanted to participate to email me any news or comments they have regarding King. I then promised to summerize the responses on a monthly basis.
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That was the beginning of what I didn't know at the time, a Stephen King newsletter. I had many many responses. People wrote and asked me questions and asked to be included on my mailing list. I got so much mail that I decided the best way to summerize this news would be in a newsletter format. So I did it. I sent the first issue in May and had loads of wonderful letters asking for more SKIN. Once July came around, I had people asking for subscriptions to the newsletter, especially those who didn't have access to America Online. Things moved very quickly. . . and still are I might add! I established a subscription fee that would simply cover the cost of producing the newsletter, mailing it, etc. During the following month I also made business cards, letterheads, registered the name of the newsletter, consulted the copywright office, etc. I guess you could say things were pretty official and busy once July started.
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I had the fortune of meeting many wonderful people who helped me more than I can say. This newsletter would not exist if weren't for the many devoted members and friends of SKIN. One of my first members, Charlie Fried has become an indisposable friend and contributor. He's helped me decide on subscription fees, how distribute SKIN, contributes monthly articles, plus hundres of other things.
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In September, Louise Dragon created the logo of SKIN. It made its appearance in the October issue and is now a sort of trademark you could say. Then I began to have the pleasure of corrospondance of Steve Spignesi, George Behm, Michael Collings, Dave Hinchberger, Stu Tinker and too many other to mention. My point is that I didn't create SKIN by myself. It was created by many people who wrote to me often with ideas, news, comments, etc., and contributed time and love to the newsletter. SKIN has become more than an internet of people who enjoy King and his works. It has become an internet of friends which will last a lifetime. I have had many compliments on the newsletter and hope that all will continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoy producing it.

http://www.librarything.com/author/zuccarolori

Stephen King From A to Z article: (this is a good book)
http://books.google.com/books?id=2BcECkYB7uoC&lpg=PA195&ots=XaI3xq7qdj&dq=Lori%20zuccaro%22&pg=PA195#v=onepage&q=Lori%20zuccaro%22&f=false

The overlook says: "From 1994 to 1995, SKIN (Stephen King Information Network) produced eighteen newsletters. SKIN began as a newsletter on the internet, but soon discovered that people with no access to computers, also wanted to receive current King information. With news, illustrations, and articles by authors Stephen Spignesi, George Beahm and others. Each newsletter is stamped Certified Skin Original' as issued.'"
http://overlookconnection.com/product_info.php?products_id=1312