I stopped by Five Below the other day. It’s a youth-targeted store chain where most of the items are $5. I was surprised to find a big pile of It’s a Big World, Charlie Brown on their books table. It’s a full-color collection of strips from 1997 (about when the Rerun material was really getting good.)
Opening it up, I checked what printing they were up to… and oh my goodness, first printings? This book was published almost a quarter century ago!
But that number line (the list of numbers ten through one — the lowest number on the line is supposed to indicate the printing) is misleading. No, this is not a copy from 2001. A quick check of the back cover verified for me what I thought I’d find…
See what’s missing? The price! This is a reprint aimed directly at the discount rack. That explains the line on the indica page with a “propietary ISBN”. When a publisher sells discounted copies like this, it’s a flat sale — unlike normal book sales to bookstores, the store cannot returned this book to the publisher. By having a different ISBN, they can tell if the book was one that they sold at the full returnable price or if someone is trying to get credit for a non-returable book.
So, not a first print… but still a good deal at five bucks! (Doesn’t seem to be available through their website, though.
