First Edition Hunt: The Princess Bride

      Much more rare than the hard cover (FACT), The Princess Bride is a book that you see at it's lowest, around $400.00 for the hardcover with dust jacket. I found my copy in Englewood Florida at a thrift store that sells the contents of bought storage units. He had about 5 boxes of books for .10 cents each.. so I bought everything he had. Later I saw this book, and knowing about the hardcover and never owning one personally, I did some research.

     The original print run of the first edition paperback is less than a thousand copies. The cover was considered controversial, had nothing to do with the book at all, and was used without knowing what the actual book was about. The run was stopped early, and reprinted in a second edition with a bland cover and no red writing inside like the hard cover. This is known as the "Two Week Edition", and is the rarest of all Princess Bride Books. I sold my paper back on eBay about a year ago (the pictures you see are ones I took) for just over $200.00, which was very low, but the information about the print run is not really knowledge you can get from a 10 second google search, so there ya go.

Edit and Price Guide 1/12/16

1) Princes Bride first edition hard covers are extremely valuable. Perfect condition with perfect dust jacket, $650-800. Signed, $1000-1500 depending on current market. Used conditions hover right around $300-450. Don't be fooled by crazy high ebay prices.

2) Several special editions of The Princess Bride have been offered over the years. Leather bound green type editions from the 90's can go as high as $500 in sealed/new condition, and were available at B&N and Booksamillion as limited editions, five copies per location. Eaton press can go anywhere from $700-$1000. There are several other examples and variations of leather editions printed, signed and so forth, and to be honest, I don't have time to go through them all and list them.

3) There is no use arguing with me, the first edition paperback had a MUCH lower print run, were easily damaged and faded, and very few exist today. This makes me them more rare, maybe not as sought after, but definitely more rare. If you are a hard core collector, knock this one off your list. Current value is right around $200 for a used copy and $500 for mint/near mint. You will not find a copy of this book in mint/near mint. If you are selling this book on eBay and you are using this page a guide, bear in mind that mint means new.

**Small Update** 7/6/19

Over the years I've answered some questions on Reddit, written quite a bit on the subject for other blogs and publications about this edition. If you have any questions or concerns on your copy, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll see if I can help you, or provide what you need to get your copy validated and sold. The "2 week" copy story I wrote about on several websites has finally taken off, and the information I obtained from my mother's publisher all those years ago is being taken seriously; this book treated as the very rare and collectible specimen that it is.. well, it's quite refreshing.