LBB Cover Variations

[plazman30]

As you can see from my other thread, I'm getting PODs made of the LBB PDFs from my copy of the Classic Traveller CD-ROM. The quality of the scans on that SC-ROM varies from book to book.

I was not really happy with the quality of the Book 4 - Mercenary scan, so I borrowed my friend's copy of Book 4 to scan it in.

And I immediately noticed differences in the cover:

1. The Word Traveller on the cover and the line are orange in the PDF, but are the same color red as the main 3 books in the physical copy.
2. The upper right corner of the cover has the number 304 in the PDF, but the physical book has a price on it ($5.98) instead of 304.
3. The back cover of the PDF has some flavor text describing the book and an orange line to match the orange line on the front. The printed copy I have has no text on the back and only a red line to match the red line on the front.

Are there cover variations between different printings of these books?

 

[Grav_Moped]

My copy:
- Has the 304.
- Orange stripe
- (c) 1978 GDW
- 13th printing of that edition out of a planned 19 (Printer's Key -- Wikipedia)

 

[Ildefonse]

My copy:

• Has the 304
• Orange stripe front and back
• Explanatory text on back
• 8th printing of 9 planned (same as the FFE CDROM)

 

[plazman30]

Here is what mine looks like:

 

[Spinward Flow]

Here is what mine looks like:

That stripe looks orange-ish to my eyes (by proxy through the camera used).

 

[kilemall]

It always looked brown to me.

 

[Rupert]

I have a 9th printing.

Number, text on back, 'orange' stripe that I assumed had simply faded.

So, somewhere after the 4th printing, but no later than the 8th, GDW changed it's cover design a bit, and went with variations in the colour of the stripes. Looking at other books at some later date (no later than 1983), they changed the stock number text from "No.xxx" to just "xxx" on a larger size.

Flipping through my other LBB's, my Double Adventure 2 is early enough to have a price, but all the rest have a stock number in one format or another.

 

[plazman30]

Looking at it now, they are orange. The cover text looked red at my friend's house, when I picked it up.

 

[aramis]

It always looked brown to me.

Brown is literally dark orange.