First Editions

[Ali]

 Richard wrote, about books bought on the day of publication:
 In theory, they should *all* be first editions, as it's unlikely 
 that  Bloomsbury would order up a reprint before the first one is 
sold out. :-) 
 
David replied:

 I wonder if at that time they ordered up reprints in response to 
pre-publication ordering - I don't know how much of that there was 
with POA, but obviously James knew when the publication date was.

Ali adds:

 I was trying to avoid buying PoA when it first came out. I was 
trying to prove to myself that I wasn't addicted, and could wait for 
the paperback edition. Anyway IIRC, it took me 3 weeks to succumb 
(maybe slightly less, but I did try very hard). The numbers in my 
book are 20 19 18. I think this means that it was the 18th print 
run. For a book which had been out for such a short time, I think 
that shows how they had under estimated demand.

In terms of whether we will all get first edition books for OoP, 
there are rumours of a huge print run. However, the fact that 
Bloomsbury said that if you pre-order OoP straight from their 
website, you would get a first edition, would seem to indicate that 
this is not a foregone conclusion.

Ali