Yeah, it looks like the black ink is later.  For some reason I wouldn't have thought that was the case.

First edition/print seems to be what I now have then - brown box side text, no white oval on box front, no "Second Edition" on box back, contents sheet, two player's guides.

I have never seen a copy with paper covers on the booklets; that might be earlier if someone actually has it.

As stated, I think that paper covers are in the last prints that were published, and only in 2nd ed. boxed set. Anyone has a first ed. with them?

On ThievesWorld website, they picture the 2nd ed with these books
http://www.thievesworld.info/roleplay/rp2.htm
So, last print?

It seems that during the change from 1st to 2nd ed., the contents in the box was set randomly, one or two guides, one or two sets of maps, grey or brown, independantly of print series, but depending on material availability.

I will look to the actual color of the booklets tomorrow and let you know if they are more reddish or more in the orange tone. IIRC, it is "pink". Do you think that it could exist several prints of these booklets too?


PS: everyone has one now the last one sold for less than $30. Do you know how many were made? I tried to find information about this, but didn't get nothing.

Mars wrote:2nd Print
* Cover lacks Winner Best Role-Playing Adventure H.G. Wells ...
* The left long side of box has thieves' world in big letters down the side, Chaosium logo and stock number 2007-X at the bottom.
* The right long side of box has thieves' world stepped like the TSR logo in a 2 inch box, and a description
* Maze maps inside have a brownish filler
* Text inside books is also brown
* Cover of Personalities of Sanctuary has a blue/purple picture
* States Second Edition on back top left corner

I have only one copy and the notes posted by Mars above describes my set exactly.
Adding only this:
There is a Mail in card and a single loose sheet listing the box sets contents (See picture below).
All three books have card stock covers and they all have brown text and brown sketches inside.

davidc wrote:
Such a maddening hobby   I've never collected Sanctuary and so I've missed this fun...

Actually, I kept the black text one because the booklets were different from my brown one. Didn't see before few years (that sounds amazing) that the text on box is in black instead of brown  

As for my black text 2nd ed. copy (with paper covers), there is a catalog inside, summer 1986. So this box, with paper covers appears to be a "recent" print (3rd, 4th?)