eBay Guides - Is this Land of OZ is first edition

Many people, when begining to search for OZ books, have difficult time identifying publication years. This guide will hopefully help you in that quest, and perhaps, save you time and money as well. Since the ebay format only allows to place a maximum of 10 photos in each guide, I placed only the most common versions. Below is what is known as "textual points" that will hopefully answer most of your questions. You can then view the photos of the various editions of the same book you are interested in.

This guide is only for the Frank Baum title Wizard of OZ. Please check my other guides for other OZ titles.

Further information about this and any other OZ books, including additional photos and color illustrations, is available on my website www. RareOzBooks.com and through the My Profile link.

I am also working on the Wizard of OZ books Collectors Price Guide, that will be available in February 2008.

Please realize that a number of Oz books advertised as first editions aren't true first editions. Most of the Reilly & Lee editions only reflect the first copyright date and no further printing date is noted. Most of the 'white cover' books printed around 1964/1965 still have the original early 1900's copyright noted, and even the soft cover Rand McNally books printed 1971-1973 don't cite these printing dates.
Below are the tips to help you determine when an Oz book was printed:
· If Reilly & Britton (1904- approx 1919) are cited as the publisher (they released the first 12 Oz books) - this will be either a 1st edition or close to first edition printing, depending on variation (note: a Canadian Publisher, Copp/Clark may also be noted as a publisher of early printings)
· From 1919 on, Reilly & Lee published Oz books (note: a Canadian Publisher, Copp/Clark may also be noted as a publisher of early printings)
· If there are color plates in the book, the volume may be a first edition or a later printing up until 1935.
· No color plates were included in books printed after 1935
· Since Captain Salt was the first book in the series printed after 1935, it along with other Oz titles printed after this date, never had color plates. It's trickier to determine first editions with these subsequent books
· No pictorial label on the cover likely indicates a book that was printed between 1959 and 1960 - they were released in colorful dust jackets
· A white cloth cover with the color illustration imprinted directly on the cover would date the book to 1964 or 1965
· A soft white cover book published by Rand McNally would date the book between 1971 and 1973
· A hard cover book published by Books of Wonder would date the book between 1985 to current.

1. 1st edition, 2 states. 16 color plates. 2 different colors. Notice Marvelous Land of OZ title in the front cover. Reilly & Britton