The story regarding how Jim obtained the copy which also explains what Gary wrote in the DMG is pretty epic.  It ties in quite well with Dragon Magazine 25, "As of this writing the manuscript for DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE has at long last been completed, save for a few pages of probable rewrites and transitional material which editing will uncover. This has been a long and lousy struggle for me, as there have been so many other things to do, and great numbers of interruptions in the work flow. It is fun to be … Now let's see what comes from my upcoming trip to CANGAMES in May [May 18-21, 1979]." (Gary Gygax, Dragon 25, May 1979)  

Jim Lamb was the Tournament Director for Cangames in Ottawa that was held May 18-21, 1979.  Gary Gygax attended Cangames and was a guest speaker.  At the beginning of Gary's lecture on Dungeons & Dragons, he talked about the local beer Brador (8% alcohol) that he had heard about but never tried.  As the Tournament Director, Jim thought that he should obtain this Brador for Gary.  He left the lecture, ran to the local grocery store, and returned with the Brador before Gary completed his speech.  Upon seeing the bottles of Brador, Gary invited Jim and other convention organizers to his room for beer and gaming.  Gary thanked Jim and promised that he would return the favor to the Gatherer of the Mighty Brador.  In early August 1979, Jim received a package containing the signed DMG from Gary as shown above.  

I am definitely honored to receive this DMG from Jim and it will be well cared for for many years to come.  Along with the DMG, I have the Cangames application and Cangames 79 program from the event listing James Lamb as the Tournament Director and Gary as a Guest of Honor and lecturer.  Unfortunately, some recent health issues necessitated that Jim sell the DMG.   Hopefully the D&D Gods are tipping a mug of the Mighty Brador to Jim and Gary somewhere.  

Cheers.

I have three first prints. All three are exactly the same. Angle banner is off.

I am thinking that it is possible the printer ran an initial set for review and then ran the bulk of the order. Most probably only minutes or a day apart. In that time, the off-set occurred. We are talking about a mechanical process and it could be something very simple that caused the alteration in what seems the bulk of the firsts.

bbarsh wrote in Dungeon Masters Guide First Alpha Print?:I have three first prints. All three are exactly the same. Angle banner is off.

I am thinking that it is possible the printer ran an initial set for review and then ran the bulk of the order. Most probably only minutes or a day apart. In that time, the off-set occurred. We are talking about a mechanical process and it could be something very simple that caused the alteration in what seems the bulk of the firsts.

Thank you for mentioning this. For my part, this is the conclusion that I am beginning to make also.  The reason I am trying to figure this out is because there is a potential conflict with what is written by Gary in this DMG.  There is a copy of the DMG out there which is Tim Kask's original copy.  Tim states that his copy is the very first production copy.  When I heard that, I was very confused.  Why would Gary write that the James Lamb copy is the second copy after his own?  In addition, why would Gary, the author of the DMG, not get the first copy?   As I thought about this, I came up with three possibilities for this:

1)  Tim Kask was correct and he did get the first production copy.  Gary must have been mistaken with his copies.  The James Lamb copy was a later copy that just happened to be significantly offset.
2)  There were multiple boxes in the first production run.  Tim opened one and grabbed a first copy from that one.  Gary opened another and grabbed the first 2 copies from that box. The James Lamb copy just happened to be significantly offset.  
3)  There was an initial print run produced prior to running the thousands of 1st print copies.  This print run was likely limited to a few prints to possibly up to a box.  Gary grabbed copies from this initial set to do a final review before they did the ok.  Everything looked ok on this set except that Gary did not like how the TSR address and product code was practically falling off the bottom of the front cover.  The printer was instructed to shift the cover so that the address and product code remained intact which pushed the D off the top.

As of now, I am tending towards #3.  There is a bit of a leap there but it preserves the Tim Kask story regarding his copy and Gary's version in the James Lamb DMG.  One might ask, why didn't Gary just ask the printer to adjust the cover so that the address in the bottom right corner, the product code in the bottom left corner, and the D in ADVANCED in the banner all had plenty of room on the page.  To that, I think that Paul Stromberg answers that in his "Essay on New DMG 1st Print":

"According to TSR artist and art director, Dave Sutherland III, the cover was made by creating a reflective plate with a reverse image of the DMG artwork and then "punching out" by hand the areas where text and images were to be placed. The text and images were then hand placed back into the "holes" and a new 4-color process film plate could be produced. Dave said this process was expensive for the amount of set up time, machines, processing, and labor, costing about $5,000 for the process. (Dave was very close to the whole printing process. He even remembered the type press they used to print the DMG, a Holdenburg, German press. Dave said, "Man that was a fast machine! Scary too! Very dangerous.")

It seems no small feat to change the font size of the banner text and reposition the colophon and TSR address. It is both time consuming and costly. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that the change was made for any print run other than one following the initial print run."  

I think Gary tried to preserve the TSR address and product code and the D in Advanced was sacrificed.

Melnibonean wrote in Dungeon Masters Guide First Alpha Print?:One final note.  I have also noticed that the cover material of this DMG appears to be different from my other 1st Print DMGs.  It is more fibrous.  It feels like and wears like 1st Print Monster Manual and not a 1st Print DMG.  You can see the grid pattern throughout the front and back cover like a 1st Print Monster Manual.  Does anyone else have that characteristic with their copy of a 1st Print DMG.  If so, is it a copy where the D in ADVANCED is off the top of the cover or is it a copy where the D in ADVANCED is not off the top of the cover.
Thanks in advance for the help.

I will look at mine tonight. I am putting one up on ebay tonight so I have it handy.

Thank you misterspock.  It does look like the offset on the front cover is more likely a misprint.  Although in my research, I am pretty sure that I may have identified Alpha, Beta, and Gamma prints of the First Print DMG which I will elaborate on in a different post.  Thanks!