Sounds very cool, I want one  

when i won James Wallis's personal copy a few years ago he wrote me a letter delineating how there came to be (according to him) 2 unnumbered copies, one of which he took for his personal copy. he did point out that they had slightly more than 100 made, such that if there were damaged copies etc. that they would be able to fill their orders; after that was done they had exactly two left.

When james closed his company down he did sell a couple on ebay I remember (he actually sold quite a few rare things).. pretty sure there was one cream on then, I vaguly remember his saying only a test run done.. it was quite a while ago and my memory may be rusty.. I remember it went for an insane price (more than I could afford back then)

Brette:)

In April 2010, I wrote this email to James Wallis:

I'm hoping to pick your brain about a topic from the good 'ole Hogshead days; I'm wondering about the limited edition release of Realms Of Sorcery.


Here's what I've been able to dig up:

1.  I acquired an unsigned red leather bound copy from one of the creators last year.
2.  A few signed leather bound copies (2 black, 1 red) from the edition of 100 have come up for sale in the last few weeks (ebay, dragonsfoot).
3.  There are a couple notes in Warpstone 18 about a signed edition of 100 and a presentation copy edition of 20.

Do you recall what was printed?   I'm trying to understand if the total was 100 or 120, if the leather colors meant anything, etc.

And he replied thus:

Aha, the leatherbound Realms of Sorcery... the problems we had with that book. Here's a potted version of the history.

We planned to produce 120: 100 signed and numbered, and 20 unsigned and unnumbered--the former for sale, the latter as complimentary copies to creatives and business partners (e.g. Games Workshop Licensing). What actually happened was that we printed and shipped all 120, and then discovered that about 25% of them had the pages in the wrong order. Massive recall, reprint, loss of face, etc. etc. and there went our profit margin. I believe that all bar one of the screwed-up copies were destroyed.

Signed-limiteds have an A5-size cream bookplate on the inside front cover, stating their authenticity and signed by the authors and (I think) me. The unlimiteds don't, though some do have a personal dedication from me thanking the recipient for their work. Though now I reactivate that part of the cortex, I recall a couple were put aside for charity auctions, and may have an inscription saying so. But the bottom line is that 120 copies is all.

The colour of the leather doesn't mean anything. When people ordered a copy we gave them a choice of red, cream or black (I think--it's been ten years. There were only three colours anyway). The unnumbereds were, I think, evenly split between the three.

Anyway, you're one up on me because I never got a leatherbound for myself. I remember they smelled wonderful, and I really hope that's still the case.

So his memory seems to have altered a bit over a few years.  Doesn't change the base point much, though.  The book is still quite tough to find and sells for a lot when it turns up.

Now that we've said all that, I want to know if Brett is a buyer or a seller!

Sorry to bump the topic but I was researching the price of my copies of this book and had something to add that may be of value.

10 years ago I was very much into collecting Wfrp stuff and I remember this book well. I have 4 copies of it.

I have numbed copies 2, 3 and 4, each in one of the different colours. They were originally advertised as red, black and 'flesh' coloured. Those three copies I have all have the original wax sealed letters and all the trimmings. I originally was sent one of the faulty copies with a section of pages repeated (there was a section missing and replaced by a section that was a repeat of previous pages around pages 125). I sent my faulty copy back to be replaced and got a proper one later. I assume my faulty numbered copy was destroyed but don't know for sure.

Later, I was contacted by a friend when Hogsheads was closing down telling me that he had an unnumbered copy of the leather bound limited edition and he would sell it to me. I forget his name but I still have the note sent with the copy I bought from him and his first name was Carl. I might have an email from him but can't be bothered to trawl through my records to that degree to find it. When it arrived I was stunned. Not only was the copy unnumbered, which was rare enough, but it also had the misprinted pages. The unnumbered misprints were reportedly all destroyed. All but one of the misprints was destroyed and that one copy should be numbered - the owner probably kept it and never opened it and to this day owns a numbered copy that they don't know is a misprint. The unnumbered misprints were all destroyed, until I was sold this one.

There is a rarer Wfrp leather bound book and it was the original rule book sold in online auction for the 9/11 charity. It was signed by all the Wfrp original rule book authors and sold for around $1,500. I bid around $900 and lost. That is one book that I suspect will not resurface for a very long time.

TheHistorian wrote in price check.. limited rpg stuff:Could you share a picture?  I believe you, but I've never seen the "flesh" colored one.

No problem. I'll dig them out of storage tomorrow and sort out the photos. Look for another post tomorrow either with inline photos or links to a photo sharing web site, depending upon what I can get to work.

OK, first one - this is red leather bound RoS numbered edition #2.

And this is 'flesh' leather bound #4