Olllllllllddddddddd topic.....

IIRC, the 25,000 figure was a quote from Gygax, who's memory on such minutae has been suspect in the past.  It wouldn't surprise me if 25,000 was the total print run of 4th & 5th print, or even the (first?) run of 6th print.

Unfortunately, the sales data from TSR in those days has either been lost or (more likely) destroyed, so we're left to the recollections of various industry figures, many of which disagree!

Foul

FoulFoot wrote:IIRC, the 25,000 figure was a quote from Gygax, who's memory on such minutae has been suspect in the past.  It wouldn't surprise me if 25,000 was the total print run of 4th & 5th print, or even the (first?) run of 6th print.

Unfortunately, the sales data from TSR in those days has either been lost or (more likely) destroyed, so we're left to the recollections of various industry figures, many of which disagree!

Foul

Thanks for replying, Scott.

red_bus wrote:aahh, you old guys - you have discussed everything already

Per last post on viewtopic.php?t=2025 and elsewhere.

Extrapolating sales figures and comparing rarity both internally (4th vs. 5th) and externally (with woodies and 6ths), it's just about possible to shoe-horn 25,000 copies into 4th & 5th combined, although that doesn't leave much space for upturn at the end of the period.
A split somewhere around 6,000/19,000 - 7,500/17,500 would be borderline workable, though.

Which is why you ain't seeing 4ths all over the place (save amongst the dozen or so people who went out of their way to pick up a copy, it would seem).