Fan Kwan Hon Luen provided data regarding the rise (and rare falls) of the original costs of the hardcover editions of the Bellairs Corpus. He notes the price slowly increases as time passes:
...except in 1992 (Mansion), when it increases from $13.95 to $15.00, and decreases back to $14.99 in year 1993 (Vengeance). I figure the initial figure ($15) was an accident, as publishers always prefer the psychological advantage of the "$...99" makes prices seem lower than they really are, since (I think) studies have shown that consumers tend to ignore the cents column of a price.
Here they are, compiled for your easy reading and analysis. And for the wish some of these books in their original hardcover editions were still this much. How many hundreds of dollars do some of these go for nowadays? I know I didn't pay $13.95 for the copy of Chessmen, pictured above.
- $2.95 - 1968 - Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies
- $2.95 - 1968 - The Pedant and the Shuffly
- $4.95 - 1969 - The Face in the Frost
- $4.95 - 1973 - The House with a Clock in its Walls
- $5.95 - 1975 - The Figure in the Shadows
- $6.95 - 1976 - The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
- $6.95 - 1978 - The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn
- $11.95 - 1983 - The Curse of the Blue Figurine
- $11.95 - 1983 - The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
- $11.95 - 1984 - The Dark Secret of Weatherend
- $11.95 - 1984 - The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
- $11.95 - 1985 - The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost
- $11.95 - 1986 - The Eyes of the Killer Robot
- $12.95 - 1988 - The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb
- $12.95 - 1989 - The Trolley to Yesterday
- $13.95 - 1989 - The Chessmen of Doom
- $13.95 - 1990 - The Secret of the Underground Room
- $15.00 - 1992 - The Mansion in the Mist
- $14.99 - 1993 - The Ghost in the Mirror
- $14.99 - 1993 - The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder
- $14.99 - 1994 - The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
- $14.99 - 1995 - The Doom of the Haunted Opera
- $14.99 - 1996 - The Hand of the Necromancer
- $14.99 - 1997 - The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder
- $15.99 - 1998 - The Specter from the Magician's Museum
- $16.99 - 1999 - The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost
- $16.99 - 2000 - The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge
- $16.99 - 2001 - The Tower at the End of the World
- $16.99 - 2003 - The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost
- $16.99 - 2006 - The House Where Nobody Lived
- $16.99 - 2008 - The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer
Yes the trend in American book prices is a slow but steady rise. But you do see the occasional drop in price. At times (usually in many years past) publishers would decide that they would lower the price of a book in the hopes of selling more copies of a popular book. Often this would be accompanied by some cuts in the quality of the book. Maybe cheaper cloth was used or cheaper paper. With fancy children's books it might be removal of pictorial end pages or less color illustrations in the book. And you do see the price drop from an even number live $15 to $14.99 or even $14.95 for the psychological advantage of the price seeming to be much lower. One famous example of this was the First Edition of "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss. The book was originally priced at $2.00 but not long after the price was dropped to $1.95. Copies with a $2.00 price are hard to find, although a facsimile edition was done in later years that could be mistaken for the real First.
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