David Stone

Again, I can only speculate. I know Bob Overstreet and his family actually glued the covers on the softcover number 2s themselves, so he would only have to pay the bindery for one binding operation to get the softcovers bound in for that edition. For the number 3s, he would have paid to get them bound in softcover first, then have those covers bound in the hard bound version. He probably decided to just skip the soft cover to save on cost. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he could lower the price for the number 3 hardbound, from $10 to $8.50. Don't know if that's what happened, but it makes sense.

I don't have any inside knowledge about Bob's decision, but his ad in the RBCC, where he first talked about the hardbound issue, said the hardcovers were for people who wanted a more durable version of the Guide. The first edition was heavily used and the saddle stitched binding did not hold up very well. A lot of those books just fell apart, so producing a more durable edition makes sense. I also think it's natural for any creator to want to see his work preserved for posterity. The Guide was a real labor of love for Bob, so it would be important to him to have it produced in a form that would stand up to the rigors of time. I don't think anyone was thinking about the Guide as a collectible in itself back then, but Bob was ahead of his time on a lot of issues, so who knows? Of course, there may have been a simple financial motive as well. The number 2 hardbound was priced at $10, which probably represented a steep markup over production cost. The number 3 hardcover was similar to the number 2 in every way, but Bob lowered the price on it to $8.50.

Sorry, this should work https://comics.ha.com/c/newsletter.zx?frame=no&id=5604#collector-c .

I was half afraid the book might have been privately bound with the black cover. It sold for more than $400, so the risk was not negligible.The consignor insisted it was black, even after I asked questions and pointed out the hardbound #3 had a blue cover. But the fabric of the cover looked right in the picture and the gilt lettering was a match for other copies I had seen, so I took a chance on it. I asked around the comics department at Heritage and posted a question on the Message Boards, but no one believed in a black cover variant, so I was pretty nervous until the book arrived.

Wish I had seen this post earlier! I am writing an ongoing series of articles on the Overstreet Guide for the Heritage Auctions Comics Newsletter. The #2 HC is discussed here https://comics.ha.com/heritage-auctions-newsletter/comics-and-animation-news-family-guy-lou-fine-and-a-pedigree-collection.s?id=5604 . I traced six copies of the #2 HC, but I did not know about this one. I presume the same owner has had it since 1972? Gary Carter did a lot of research on the Guide in the Comic Book Marketplace in the 1990s, conducting surveys, etc. He also found six copies, but whether they are the same six I found is unknown. The book in this thread does not appear to be one of the six I found, but it may have been reported in Gary's surveys. On the other hand, it might be a previously unknown copy. It's possible there are 13 known survivors, if these citations all represent different books. I found three different varieties of the #2 HC, with different dates on the binding stamps and different arrangement of the text on the cover. This book is the same variety as the one from Bob Overstreet's collection. I thought this variety might be some kind of prototype, since I could only find one example and it belonged to Bob, but this second example sort of works against that theory. Every time a new copy surfaces we expand the knowledge base for this very rare and important issue. About the color, they are all navy blue, but they look black in certain lighting conditions. The number 3 hardbound has the same navy blue cover and I bought one on eBay that the consignor described as black and looked black in the picture. When it arrived, I was relieved to see it was the standard navy blue color. Congratulations on finding this rare and valuable issue! I know of one private sale of a NM copy that brought $3,500, but that is a high record price. Check out the Heritage article for more information on varieties, prices, and pictures of some other copies.

Thanks so much!

Does CGC grade hardbound Overstreet Price Guides?

Are there any online forums devoted to collecting Overstreet Price Guides?