2018 Grab Bag Book Club:

[Martin]

You may remember back in mid December the good folks at Cemetery Dance offered something new.

A single purchase of four grabs for 2018. One per quarter. Each would contain 3 books and a 4th item that would be signed. They also stated that the total retail value of all four grab bags would exceed $500.

Well they shipped the first two as a single shipment and I got mine today. As is often the case with grab bags this was a total crap shoot. Would the three books be Cemetery Dance publications or form other publishers? Would any of them be signed editions? Would they all be hardbound? Would the bonus item be a book?

As I have no willpower and purchase many of the items Cemetery Dance offers I expected duplicates. I actually did really good.

Bag One:
* Widow's Point by Richard and Billy Chizmar (Trade Hardbound Signed by Richard Chizmar)($25.00)
* Gwendy's Button Box (Trade Hardbound Third Printing Signed by Richard Chizmar)($25.00)
* Headhunter by Michael Slade (Signed Limited #236 of 750)($40.00)
* The Ones Who Are Waving by Glen Hirschberg (Signed Limited #161 of 600)($40.00)
I already have Widow's Point and Gwendy's Button Box but not the editions I received. And to be honest I am happy to add these to my shelves. Headhunter and The Ones Who Are Waving are both book I have come close to purchasing in the past and am thrilled to add them.

Bag Two:
* Whispered Echoes by F. Paul Wilson (Signed Limited #70 of 600)($40.00)
* I'll Bring You The Birds From Out of The Sky by Brian Hodge (Signed Limited)($35.00)
* The Influence by Bentley Little (Trade Hardbound)($25.00)
* The Slave Tree by Alan Peter Ryan (Trade Hardbound)($25.00)
I'll Bring You The Birds From Out of the Sky and The Influence are straight up duplicates and will go for trade on my next trip to Powell's. The Slave Tree is a book I have the ARC of but am happy to add this edition. Whispered Echoes is another I have come close to ordering and am thrilled to have.

So at the halfway point all are Cemetery Dance books, All are hardbound with a mix of Trade and Signed Limited editions. SOme of the trade editions are signed and the bonus items are books.

Very happy with the first two bags and am looking forward to the next two!

[Sock Monkey]

That’s a pretty nice haul! I was so close to jumping on this offer, but held off because I buy so much from CD that I knew duplicates were inevitable. I’m glad the gamble paid off for you!

[jeffingoff]

Sounds like it totally paid off! Great haul.

[Dan Hocker]

For what it's worth the bubble bags don't actually indicate which grab bag was which. I believe the break down was Influence, I'll Bring You The Birds, Whispered Echos, and Gwendy. Then #2 was Headhunter, The Ones Who Are Waving, Slave Tree, and Widow's Point.

Technically there's a bunch of "signed stuff" in there, but the signed "bonus" items for these two where Gwendy and Widow's Point.


Edit: Also the bonus items where supposed to be signed, so that pretty much means they have to be books as we don't have much else that I can think of that would be signed.

[Martin]

Sounds like it totally paid off! Great haul.

I considered it paid in full and I have two more grab bags to go!

[RJHubbard53]

i totally forgot that I ordered the 2018 Grab Bag - I have notl receiving anything ... thanks for posting this!

[Dan Hocker]

i totally forgot that I ordered the 2018 Grab Bag - I have notl receiving anything ... thanks for posting this!

You should have gotten the first two. They were shipped together months ago. Shoot me an email with your account info and I can look into it. I've had the 3rd grab bag prepped and ready to be shipped for a little while, but haven't really had a whole in the shipping schedule to fit it into yet.

[RJHubbard53]

thanks, Dan. I sent you an email

RJ

[RJHubbard53]

Has the 3rd and 4th grab bag yet been shipped?

[Dan Hocker]

Has the 3rd and 4th grab bag yet been shipped?

Nope. Here's my post from elsewhere about it.

3 has been ready since the end of November, I just hadn't had a good place to work it into the schedule. At this point it's going to ship with 4 which I currently have roughly 3/4ths of the items for. I believe the last item should be here this month. So 3 and 4 should ship together either late this month or super early next month. The 2 signed bonus items will be signed by Brian and Norman Prettiness.

These have been pretty difficult to put together, it's been really difficult to anticipate what we'll have in stock a year in advance. Especially considering our "sell out" rate pre-publication has been pretty high this year (for limited editions). I don't think we'll be doing a grab bag club again. It was an interesting idea, just in practice a little too difficult to pull off.

[RJHubbard53]

Nope. Here's my post from elsewhere about it.

Ah, didnt see that. Thanks for the prompt response.

[Dan Hocker]

Ah, didnt see that. Thanks for the prompt response.

No problem. It was on a different message board.

[ClydeUmney]

I received grab bag 3 and 4 yesterday as a combined order. Overall, I was happy about everything, and kind of liked getting the two together in one bundle as it amounted to more items at once. Here's what I received. I know Dan said CD likely wouldn't offer this again, but if it was offered again, a different way of doing it would be to offer people different items at random, so not everyone received the exact same items, which could be problematic with certain titles selling out more quickly than others! I also tend to like the ARC proof grab bags, because often you can pick up something that's not out yet and get an early read!

The Dark Man, sealed/slipcase with bookmark, Stephen King $50
The Fleshless Man, Prentiss $15 pb (additionally signed)
The Day of the Pig, Malerman S/L $40
The Zombie Who Cried Human, signed by Brian Freeman $15 (softcover)
A Game in the Sun, John Coyne, S/L $40
Lost and Lonely, Freeman, S/L $35
The People Next Door, S/L $40
Flight or Fright $28. (2nd printing) Stephen King and others!

In any event, some were duplicates and some were not, but it was a great range of different books for the price, and amounted to over $250 in books which is a great deal!

[pumpheel]

I received grab bag 3 and 4 yesterday as a combined order. Overall, I was happy about everything, and kind of liked getting the two together in one bundle as it amounted to more items at once. Here's what I received. I know Dan said CD likely wouldn't offer this again, but if it was offered again, a different way of doing it would be to offer people different items at random, so not everyone received the exact same items, which could be problematic with certain titles selling out more quickly than others! I also tend to like the ARC proof grab bags, because often you can pick up something that's not out yet and get an early read!

The Dark Man, sealed/slipcase with bookmark, Stephen King $50
The Fleshless Man, Prentiss $15 pb (additionally signed)
The Day of the Pig, Malerman S/L $40
The Zombie Who Cried Human, signed by Brian Freeman $15 (softcover)
A Game in the Sun, John Coyne, S/L $40
Lost and Lonely, Freeman, S/L $35
The People Next Door, S/L $40
Flight or Fright $28. (2nd printing) Stephen King and others!

In any event, some were duplicates and some were not, but it was a great range of different books for the price, and amounted to over $250 in books which is a great deal!

Received mine on Saturday. Same as the above with three exceptions. 1.) "Cheeseboy" by Graham Masterton S/L for "Lost and Lonely" 2.) "The Consultant" by Bentley Little S/L for "The People Next Door". 3.) "Flight or Fright" was a first printing, not a second. Very happy with what I received and hope for more grab bags!

[Dan Hocker]

Received mine on Saturday. Same as the above with three exceptions. 1.) "Cheeseboy" by Graham Masterton S/L for "Lost and Lonely" 2.) "The Consultant" by Bentley Little S/L for "The People Next Door". 3.) "Flight or Fright" was a first printing, not a second. Very happy with what I received and hope for more grab bags!

Yea we didn't have quite enough People Next Door or Lost and Lonely to fill everything out. I'm surprised your Flight or Fright was a first printing, I didn't think we had any of those left. As far as more grab bags go, I'm positive we'll do more grab bags, but I think it's pretty unlikely we'll be doing any more "grab bag clubs". Logistically it was kinda a nightmare to work this one out. With the 2nd to grab bags being very late because I just didn't have the stock to fill them out.