First Edition Points and Criteria for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.)

Year Published: 2005
Author Last Name: Rowling
Author First Name: J.K.
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Original Price: $29.99
Pages: 652

The copyright page has the full number line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1     05 06 07 08 09". Below the number line is "Printed in the U.S.A." with one of several possible printing plant codes including "58","23", "12", and probably others. Below that is "First American edition, July 2005." Boards are purple with an embossed diamond pattern, and a black cloth spine with metallic purple lettering. The dust jacket has $29.99 price on the upper corner of the front flap. The dust jacket back has an orange bar code field on the right side, and the small bar code within has the number "52999". The spine on both the book and dust jacket have the YEAR 6 badge.

More about the number to the right of "Printed in U.S.A": This is the printing plant number, and it signifies the printing press where the American editions were produced. The first three books in the series seem to have come out of a single printing plant. But the Goblet of Fire and the subsequent books in the series had such large first printings that the job was split up between several plants throughout the U.S. and even in Mexico. Also, printing in multiple plants all over the country allows the publisher to distribute the books faster. So far one number doesn't seem more valuable than another for these later series books. One school of thought is that the press runs were so large for Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows that they will never be scarce - so nobody is paying much attention to where it was printed. Another thought is the possibility that one printing press may have produced very few books, and that fact could make one printing plant number more collectible and more valuable than another. But so far we see no evidence that this happened.


Picture of the 2005 first edition dust jacket for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).


Picture of the first edition copyright page for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).


Picture of dust jacket where original $29.99 price is found for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).


Picture of the back dust jacket for the first edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).


Picture of the first edition Scholastic Press boards for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).


Picture of the back dust jacket flap for the first edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (U.S.).

Other first edition points for books by J.K. Rowling include: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (U.S.), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.