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I missed a line in that Wikipedia entry: the first edition sold 75 copies (one of whom was presumably Martin)...I posted about this in Facebook. Half of me was thinking "You shouldn't be attracting attention with something this rare." The other half was laughing at that half: "Haven't you learned yet--no one cares about this stuff. Criminals are busy stealing cars--they're not combing Facebook looking for Baseball Abstracts."
― clemenza, Saturday, 23 March 2024 23:05 (one month ago) link
On the induction, thanks. On the other...Jesus, this is embarrassing...it's a reprint. When Martin gave me the book, I took a quick look and put it right in a bag. Looked exactly like the '78/'79/'80 editions I already have: card-stock cover, a little faded, hand-stapled. I was posting yesterday from a coffee shop on my way home; found the image above online.
So how did I figure out that it's a reprint when I got home? It required a lot of detective work:
https://i.postimg.cc/jSN0FyPy/reprint.jpg
(Thought about posting this in the absent-minded thread--yes, I actually managed not to notice that. If I had bought it online, I'd be looking at the expensive-stupidity thread, created by me for me.)
I don't even have the heart to revisit the Facebook post, where I tagged Martin. Still excited to have it, but obviously not quite where I was yesterday.
― clemenza, Sunday, 24 March 2024 17:16 (one month ago) link
Sorry to go on about this...As I suspected, the reprints are pretty rare in and of themselves:
https://picclick.com/Vintage-Bill-James-Baseball-Abstract-Set-1977-1978-262998858206.html
If that's accurate, this person sold the first five for $2,500, with the '77 and '78 editions reprints; I've got the '77 reprint and originals for '78-'81 (which Mike Saunders--Creem, Angry Samoans--gave to me years ago), so presumably the value would be comparable.
The story of the '77 reprint is pretty interesting according to that link: "reprints are just as rare as they were only produced (allegedly by Bill James' wife) upon written request." I don't know if that's how Martin got his or if he bought it second-hand.
― clemenza, Monday, 25 March 2024 13:35 (one month ago) link
two weeks pass...