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Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales Collectible

2002 · Scribner (Charles Scribner's Sons / Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Stephen King gathers fourteen tales of dread, ranging from the supernatural to the quietly horrific: a hitchhiker who won't stay dead, a man trapped in an airport bathroom stall by a malign presence, a young drifter who discovers his strange gift is worth a corporate paycheck, and a gunslinger's detour into a haunted way station. Spanning ghosts, grief, addiction, and everyday cruelty, it showcases King across registers from pulp shocker to literary unease. A collection for readers who want the full range of his short-form imagination in one volume.

Significance Collects King's O. Henry Award-winning "The Man in the Black Suit" and the Dark Tower-linked "The Little Sisters of Eluria"; "1408" became the 2007 John Cusack film and "Riding the Bullet" was King's pioneering 2000 e-book release.

Is this the true first?Yes — the Scribner trade hardcover (March 19, 2002) is the true first edition, first printing. Not a paperback original; no small-press limited preceded it.
The Scribner US trade hardcover is the true first edition of the collection. No Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / Cemetery Dance signed-limited or lettered edition of this specific collection was issued to precede or accompany the trade first (unlike, e.g., the Dark Tower titles). Signed copies that circulate are the ordinary trade first edition autographed by King, not a separate limited edition. The UK first (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002) is a separate printing and not the true first; collect the US Scribner printing.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementScribner-era convention requires BOTH elements. The copyright page states the first-edition wording — reported as "First Scribner hardcover edition" (some sources render the standard Scribner formula "First Scribner Edition") — AND must carry the complete descending-to-2 number line. A true first shows both; a later printing drops low digits from the number line.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the full Scribner number line ending in "10 8 6 4 2" with the "1" present. A first printing shows the complete line beginning with 1; any later printing has the lowest number(s) removed (e.g., a line beginning with "2" or higher = 2nd printing or later). The presence of "1" is the binding test.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Scribner identifies firsts by the copyright-page statement plus the number line, not by a Doubleday-style gutter code.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$28.00 (US); the jacket also carries the Canadian price $42.50. (Upper front (inside) dust-jacket flap; "$28.00" US with "$42.50" Canada. The rear panel carries the barcode with the "0302" date code beneath it.)
Board (panel) colorLight/pale blue (blue-gray) paper-covered boards. (A minority of listings loosely say "gray boards"; one outlier description says "black," which conflicts with the consensus and should be treated skeptically.)
Spine / center bindingDarker blue cloth spine with bright silver titling — i.e., a two-tone quarter-bound look (darker blue spine over pale blue boards).
Binding styleQuarter-bound / two-tone: darker blue cloth (or cloth-effect) spine over light blue paper-covered boards, silver spine lettering. Octavo (8vo), sewn trade binding, ~459-464 pp. White endpapers.
Topstain / endpapersPlain white (unstained) endpapers; no decorative topstain reported.

Dust jacket

Pictorial jacket: a stark, predominantly white field with a shadowy/uneasy figural image and subtle red accents; bold title typography. Rear panel carries the barcode (with "0302" first-state code) and review/blurb matter. Title-page colophon is where signed copies are typically autographed.

Art / design: Jacket illustration by Mark Stutzman; jacket/book design by Erich Hobbing.

reference photohttps://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/eventual.htmlreference photohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything's_Eventual
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyBook-of-the-Month / Scribner book-club printings of this title are identified by: NO price on the front jacket flap (or a clipped-look flap with no $28.00); a small blind-stamp (indented square/dot) on the lower-right of the REAR board; frequently "Book Club Edition" noted on the lower jacket flap; the copyright-page number line is absent or does not begin with "1"; smaller/lighter trim, thinner/cheaper paper, often glued rather than sewn; the jacket usually lacks the rear-panel "0302" date code. Any copy missing the $28.00 price AND the full "...1..." number line should be presumed a club edition or later printing.

Also watch for: Watch for: (1) price-clipped jackets hiding the $28.00 — lowers value and removes a verification point; (2) married jackets — a later-printing or club book wearing a first-printing jacket (or vice-versa); cross-check the jacket "0302" code against the copyright-page number line; (3) book-club bodies sold as "first edition" — confirm the full number line and rear-flap price; (4) ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels); (5) remainder marks on the bottom text-block edge; (6) "signed" copies without PSA/DNA or reputable provenance — King is heavily forged, demand authentication; (7) restored/facsimile jackets — common on lower-value Scribner-era titles, inspect for reprographic flatness and wrong gloss.

Print run & scarcity

Format: hardcover trade first edition, published by Scribner on 19 March 2002 (a #1 NYT bestseller). First printing is identified by the full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" and the "First Scribner hardcover edition" statement on the copyright page. Two targeted web searches (collector sites stephenkingcollector.com, AbeBooks listings, Stephen King Wiki/Wikipedia, official stephenking.com) surface NO announced or stated first-printing quantity. Scribner does not publicly disclose print-run figures, and major King first printings of this era ran into the hundreds of thousands, but no exact number is documented in accessible sources — declining to invent one. No small-press/Grant signed-limited or lettered edition exists for the U.S. trade Scribner hardcover (this was a mass trade release, not a Grant limited). A separate UK first edition (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002) also exists; same lack of published print-run figure.

First-state points & errata

First-state jacket carries "0302" beneath the rear barcode and the unclipped "$28.00 / $42.50" price; first-printing text block carries the full number line beginning with 1. No separate textual first-state/second-state correction is documented as a value driver for this title.

Limited & signed editions

No separate signed/numbered/lettered/traycased limited edition of the COLLECTION was published. Signed copies on the market are the standard trade first edition autographed by King (signature on the title-page/colophon); PSA/DNA-authenticated examples exist. (The Dark Tower prequel story "The Little Sisters of Eluria" inside the book had earlier appeared in the 1998 "Legends" anthology — that is a separate book, not a limited of this title.)

Market value estimate

~$20–$400

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $20–60 (unsigned true first, fine/fine, unclipped); $150–400 (signed true first, fine/fine)

Book-club edition (the trap): $3–10. No true Scribner first ever had a book-club twin from Scribner, but BOMC/SFBC-style club printings and remainder/ex-library trade copies are the trap; they are worth only a few dollars and are routinely mislisted as "1st edition." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Unsigned 2002 King trade first in fine/fine, unclipped is only a $20–60 book — it was printed in huge quantity and is not scarce; condition barely moves the needle. The real money is a VERIFIED King signature (signed-on-title-page firsts ~$150–400; dated/inscribed or PSA/JSA copies at the top). Price-clipping removes 30–50% of an already-low unsigned value. THE key first-printing tell vs. the mislisted traps: copyright page must show the FULL number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (numeral 1 present) plus the stated "First Scribner edition" line AND an unclipped $28.00 on the front jacket flap. Book-club copies drop the stated-edition line, often show a blank upper-right number block above the rear-panel barcode, use slightly smaller/lighter boards, and carry no price — plus watch for ex-library and married/facsimile jackets passed off as firsts.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price $28.00 confirmed by AbeBooks dealer listings + multiple searches; Canadian $42.50 from AbeBooks binding-description fetch. Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" confirmed by AbeBooks listings + stephenkingcollector.com. "First Scribner hardcover edition" statement from two independent search syntheses. Jacket artist Mark Stutzman confirmed by Wikipedia + search; designer Erich Hobbing from AbeBooks fetch. "0302" rear-barcode first-state point from two searches. Binding color reconciled across three dealer-description quotes ("light blue with a darker blue cloth spine"); single "black boards" mention treated as outlier/low-weight.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points (number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2", first-edition statement, $28.00/$42.50 jacket price, Mark Stutzman jacket, Erich Hobbing design, BCE tells), each cross-confirmed across AbeBooks dealer listings, stephenkingcollector.com, and the Wikipedia/collector consensus. Medium on the exact board color (consensus = light blue boards / darker blue spine, but one outlier says black boards) and on the precise rendering of the copyright statement ("First Scribner hardcover edition" vs the generic "First Scribner Edition" formula). Lower certainty noted where flagged.← Back to all titles