I received today a copy of issue 16 (february 1993) of Collectible Toys and Values. I'm not at all interested in toys, but I was attracted to the 'TSR interview' quoted by the seller. I thought it was an interview about TSR's toys, instead it was a (very interesting) interview with Harold Johnson about TSR in general and some 'collectible' products. The interviews has many interesting bits of info. For example, regarding the Orange B3, Johnson states that the vast majority of the copies printed were shipped directly from the printers to distributors and shops ("outer shipping"). When shops and distributors informed TSR about 'questionable' artwork and concepts, the modules were recalled. Nonetheless, Johnson believed there were 2,000 copies in existence after the module's recall ("10% of the initial order"). The fact that after so many years 10% of that 10% (200 copies) survives seem realistic to me.
Other interesting things are initial print runs for books such as MM, DMG (two print runs of 40,000 copies EACH in TWO WEEKS!) and PH, for the 'giant sized' modules (I 3-5, GDQ 1-7, T 1-4, etc.), for collectible trading cards and so on. There are clarifications about the TSR product codes for retailers too and why some codes were never used.
One of the most curious things I read was the rarity (at the time, it seems) of Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, the DragonLance sourcebook. Is it true even today?

I'm thinking of scanning and publishing the interview on my magazine, in original form. But what about creating on The Acaeum a section for such materials for all to see and use? It could be an useful repository of knowledge, especially for the 'corporate' part of TSR's history.

Yes, this magazne was one of the most satisfying purchases of mine  

I'm sure there are far more orange B3's out there. God, how many does Aaron alone have? It's rare, no doubt, but not as rare as tourney mods by a long shot.
Speaking of which, when is he going to drop his annual shrinked B3 on eBay?

dathon wrote:I'd agree there are far more B3's out there than many collectors think.  The shredder seemed to miss a few boxes full.  

Well, perhaps an estimate of 10% of the copies not returned by distributors and shops was low. 20-30% might be a better guess, I suppose. Anyway, this explains why according to Official    history just a box of 75 copies plus some scattered employee's copies survived and, nonetheless, they don't reach the prices of ST1. Now I think we know that not every copy was stopped cold at TSR Hobbies   and we know something more about TSR's distribution system.

This of course will not lessen for me the satisfaction of owning one copy of Orange B3, much higher I must say than owning the ST1 (albeit it0's far rarer and British produced...).

Thanks a lot, Adrian, for taking the time and transcribing this interesting article for us collectors.