Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sauron the White
It matters not to me if they are worth the issue price of under thirty dollars or if someone on ebay manages to get a thousand dollars for one. I merely want one signed copy to go with the rest of my collection. I imagine many others are in the same boat.
|
Of course - yet there will never be 2,500 signed copies. There will inevitably be a limit & because of that the ones there are should be made more widely available. Certainly it would be nice if every copy was signed. Yet rarity is special. To own something rare appeals to our natural egotism if nothing else - but I think there is more to it than that. I have books that were owned by Michael Tolkien, given him by his father. No-one else has them because they're unique & therefore 'special'. Its the chance discovery, the 'odd' coincidences that lead to such things, that make them special. The chase, the possibility of not obtaining them for oneself, & the holding of them when you eventually do get them, is part of what makes it special.
When I heard about the books I have I wanted them, & the whole process of contacting the seller, waiting with anticipation for a reply, sending off the cheque, even worrying whether they would get lost in the post(
) was all part of the excitement. Even the disappointment that I'd have felt if I hadn't got them added to the whole thing.
Having so many copies available to so few people which are innaccessible to the rest of us is unfair. I want all fans to have a fair & equal chance of getting the signed copies that there are. That way I'd mind less if I didn't get one myself - because I'd know I'd had as much chance as anyone else, & that the ones who did get them didn't get them just because of where they happened to live, or enough money to buy them on ebay.