Help Identifying an unusual WoT book.

[KenLaLone]

I purchased at a thrift store today a teaser book and I was wondering what exactly it was used for or what it was exactly and how rare, or common, it may be. It is the first 18 chapters of tEotW. On the copyright page it states that the "readers introductory edition of the first 18 chapters of The Eye Of The World: First printing 1994". The cover is the same as the full edition of tEotW however it has a blue starburst with the word free on it as well as having free printed on the spine. On the rear of the book is a white box that says "courtesy of:" and then is left for the information which mine has none. The book list on the back states that LoC is "coming this November" in hardcover.

 

Thanks for any help or ideas anyone has on what this is.

[Phelix]

If I recall correctly, those were offered up to bookstores to use as promotional items to give away at events for LoC. I do know that the first couple of books were broken into smaller sections to be given to youth readers, so it might also be one of those... but the "free" stars kind of say otherwise to me. ;)

[KenLaLone]

Yeah its not one of the ones that was broken up to try to get to young readers, it has the original prologue in it rather than the new one that was written for those volumes. Thanks though!

[Phelix]

Well, my two guesses failed... anyone else? :P

[Guest SarielleShannonStroman]

I used to do this kind of research for a living, so here's what I found:

 

It appears to be fairly rare but not terribly valuable. Searching on addall.com (which searches nearly every book sale site in North America and Europe) found 3 copies priced from $1.66 to $10. HOWEVER the cheaper ones are either in poor condition or have bookseller stamps which lower their value (the $10 has no description, so I'm not sure what its deal is). If yours is in exceptional condition, it could be worth slightly more, especially to a collector since I did only find the 3.

 

Hope that was helpful!

[KenLaLone]

thanks to everybody for their help!