az rancher-migration

The stars you see on the cover of Playboy are for distribution coding to prevent distributors from spraying pallets with ink like they did on comics.

Huh? Yes in later years there were rumors about what the stars really meant, it went the gambit from distribution areas of the country so they could include different advertising, to how many times Hef had slept with the playmate. Playboy Advisor finally fessed up to it meant advertising areas. HOWEVER there was no advertising in Vol 1 Issue #1, so that blows that theory.

 

Now tell us what the spraying the pallets with ink was for?

 

Rancher

Nobody's really sure about the significance of the red star - one of the theories is that when the first issue of Playboy was printed, it was relatively common to print a star on the cover to signify a reprint (similar to what they do on US currency). So, possibly, the red star edition is a reprint that was produced right after the first print run sold out.

Thanks, that's what I wrote on the playboy1953 page (I'm the owner, need to fix the link), I just thought somone might have put together more information than I have in the past 50 years...

 

rancher

It was a funny response. Also, I never knew about the different versions of Playboy #1. As a collector, how easy/difficult is it to obtain a copy of this without paying through the teeth?

If you want a re-print, they go for $20-$30 on Ebay, if you want an original in poor condition, it will be 10 times that.

 

Rancher

There are three versions of the original Playboy #1 from 1953 - a newsstand edition, an edition known as the "page 3 copy" (where page 3 is numbered) and an edition known as the "red star copy" (which has a red star next to the P in "Playboy").

What are you calling the newsstand edition, was the page 3 copy not a newsstand edition, and what was the purpose of the red star?