Questions about Usagi Yojimbo Saga 1, Hardcover

[OnitsukaTiger]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new Usagi reader. I started last fall and I'm currently up to book 23 (getting there!)

I've been reading my brother's books and I want to get the Saga series in hardcover but that first one is proving nearly impossible to locate. Is that the general experience everyone has had? It wasn't printed that long ago and all of the other ones can be had for between $35-70 on Amazon or elsewhere.

Can someone that knows a bit more about the Usagi books comment on this? Does anyone know where I can find one? I really want to get the hardcovers but it's going to drive me nuts if I can't get this one.

It just seems strange that Saga Book 1 is $400 on amazon and Saga Book 2 is $45.

If anyone has one for sale let me know.

[jabba359]

The first Saga hardcover was a smaller print run than the subsequent Saga volumes and sold out fairly quickly. Unfortunately, $400+ has been the going price for more than a year. I think you'll have a hard time finding that one for a reasonable price.

[Steve Hubbell]

I think the big differences between Saga #1 and the rest is a combination of it being the "first" book of the new Omnibus series and a lot of copies were bought by speculators who are now selling them off at $300 - 400 apiece, and the fact that there were only 900 s/n copies released, as opposed to 1500 s/n copies for the rest of the series.

Also, the release date for Saga #1 was in mid October, which would have been a great time for it to have been a holiday gift purchase for some people.

It does not seem like 600 copies would make that much of a difference, but that is double the print run for a lot of the original hardcover releases.

[OnitsukaTiger]

Well, that definitely would explain it. I really appreciate the info. Looks like I'll need to get that content in some other format. I wish they'd just do another run so fans can get it. Swap out the cover image so it's clear it's a second run.

I contacted Stan and he indicated he has Artist Proof copies for sale but they are more than I'm able to afford - though I'd love to have some original art.

[Steve Hubbell]

Well, that definitely would explain it. I really appreciate the info. Looks like I'll need to get that content in some other format. I wish they'd just do another run so fans can get it. Swap out the cover image so it's clear it's a second run.

I contacted Stan and he indicated he has Artist Proof copies for sale but they are more than I'm able to afford - though I'd love to have some original art.

Try looking into the costs of having a custom hard-cover binding made for one of the tpbs, it might actually be pretty reasonably priced, but I would read it first because it might take a few weeks to have done....

[OnitsukaTiger]

Do you have any experience with that yourself? Any suggested companies for this sort of thing?

[Steve Hubbell]

Do you have any experience with that yourself? Any suggested companies for this sort of thing?

Not yet, but I was considering having a project done.

Somebody else posted a link to this page a while back, after a custom bound copy of Saga #1 appeared on ebay....

http://www.herringandrobinsonbookbinder ... books.html

[Steve Hubbell]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-Bound-US ... 7675.l2557

That custom bound book likely only cost around $30 to have bound. People are overbidding on something I don't think they realize is easy to get made. It was probably done by Herring and Robinson. They have those two dies on the spine ready to go as well.

http://www.herringandrobinsonbookbinders.com/

http://www.herringandrobinsonbookbinder ... _dies.html


Back to the Saga discussion, I too am happy they are all coming out at once, getting us all caught up to the current stories fairly quickly (and like you said, not getting cancelled after two or three volumes).

[OnitsukaTiger]

This is awesome. I just sent them an email to find out more. I see they already have an Usagi die symbol too.

I mostly just want something that will match the rest and be durable. This may be a perfect solution!