A few years back, for a Christmas present, my lovely wife gave me one of those books that tells you all of the do's and don'ts about book collecting. One of the things that jumped out at me right away was the author saying that it is impossible to become an expert on all of the books ever published. So his solution was to just pick one area, one genre, or even one author and then become an expert on them. This made a lot of sense to me, so right then and there, with no reliable information or background I decided I wanted to learn as much as possible about Stephen King. Honestly I could not tell you why, I have never even read ANY of his novels. I just knew he was popular and figured I might be able to get my hands on a few of his books. Boy was I in for a big surprise!
It seems Mr. King is very prolific. He currently has well over 200 works of art in his name, everything from fiction, non-fiction, comics and movies - Yeah, I picked a good one, and NO I am not an expert on anything King related. But one thing I did learn was that a few of his First Editions are very valuable, and Carrie is a nice example. First published by Doubleday in 1974 the cost of the book was originally priced at $5.95. Signed copies can be priced anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 dollars and even unsigned they can still go for a cool $2,000.
One thing I did learn from one of my favorite websites; First Edition Points (http://www.fedpo.com/BookGuide.php?mode=search) is that on page 199 "P6" is printed in the gutter (the inside edge near the crease). So, if you happen to have this book sitting on your shelves, take a gander and see if you have this on pg. 199. If you do, feel free to give me the book, I would be happy to take the book and add it to my collection.
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