DLE - Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George H W Bush

143 -- 3208 -- Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush: /250, 4@$74 ($296.00)
Announced: 3/28/2018 --- Sold Out: 4/23/2018
Photo Album: Bush
**Signed by President George H. W. Bush and Jon Meacham**

I’m not sure why EP calls this one a DLE. All signed editions are inherently limited. The hardcover trade edition is available on Amazon for $10.98 (unsigned), and EP probably just put a leather cover on Random House’s pages.

Perhaps, but I do believe it will sell out quick with a 250 print run. Not something I'm interested in, but I imagine plenty of people will be.

>3 Wootle: agreed, it will sell out in days. Yes some people cannot even get enough of Bush jr, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, etc. some people actually miss these people.

Haven’t seen a smaller print run like that in a while

>5 GOBOGIE:
The only one that small that I can remember was “A Midsummer Nights Dream.” Bush might not be able to sign a large number. He wasn’t the author of the book, but it will probably sell quickly anyway.

This looks great. Thanks for the heads up. There should be a $100 free book promotion coming within the next few weeks. I will wait until then to buy it.

Seems to be selling well, #2 on the New release list. I wouldn't wait to long to buy if you are really interested. I'd imagine a lot of re-sellers are buying this.

RIP Barbara Bush. Is this going to go on a sales run?

I heard on the news last night that she was comfort care basically. Sad!

She truly loved her husband from what I’ve read

Appears to be sold out.

And so it begins: $1700

11: SIGH, I know. It's sad...

>12 astropi: do not feel bad. Few of us have the cash or knowledge to buy books for investment.

>13 HugoDumas:
It won’t be a good investment. Bush didn’t even author the book. “All the Best” and “Speaking of Freedom” are better deals.

>14 jroger1: like I said “knowledge”, knowing which ones would sell for a decent profit.

>14 jroger1:

I disagree. Biographies are generally more readable/interesting than collected speeches or letters.

I grabbed one of these as soon as he was hospitalized. I had a feeling this would be popular.

I did say up above that re-sellers would be snatching this up. It won't value much higher right now, but when he dies, it will skyrocket. It is a little pricey at original retail for most people to speculate on however.

>17 Wootle: yes, monetizing death.

>18 HugoDumas: I thought that was the point of signed copies. I feel like the more popular ones are those written by older writers.

You can still buy Gerald Ford’s signed memoir, “A Time to Heal,” for $129.00 from EP. He died in 2006. Granted that he signed more than 250 copies - probably a lot more - but at least he is credited as the author.

Presidentially signed memoirs aren’t worth as much as you might think - take it from someone who has a collection of them going back to Coolidge (excluding Roosevelt and Kennedy, of course). Collectors are more interested in important literary figures.

The only “safe” way to collect presidential signatures is through signed limited editions such as these. Anything else was most likely signed by a secretary or by autopen if not outright forged. Even if you stood in front of him and watched him sign it, you would never be able to prove it later.

Twenty copies of "A Time to Heal" on ebay for sale right now, 27 sold in the last 90 days. Still available from EP for a while longer. Hard to tell how many were printed, 2000 copies maybe, probably more as they have done at least two printings. Meacham is a good author himself, not $296 per autograph good, but a decent writer. He won the Pulitzer for American Lion. I think this will jump at Bush's death, then settle back down and have a slow rise over the years. Probably a $600+ book five years from now.

My copy is suppose to ship today 🤞

Well that sold out faster than I thought it would

Will anyone that has opened this verify that it is not actually numbered? If that is true, should it come off the DLE list?

>24 Wootle: It does not look like it is numbered:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Destiny-And-Power-SIGNED-by-GEORGE-HW-BUSH-Sealed-Easto...

On a side note, both signatures can easily be forged by a 5-year old. GHW should have been given a pen to sign...

>25 EPsonNY: That picture is what caused me to write the above post. Just wanting some other posters eye witness accounts. If it is true, then the EP listing was definitely misleading.

>26 Wootle:
It isn’t unusual for EP to specify a limitation without actually numbering them. I have a Michener and a Kissinger in that category. In my opinion, the Bush book is not a DLE.

Correction: I have 4 Kissinger’s that are both signed and numbered. The Michener is neither signed nor numbered, but specified a limitation.

>27 jroger1: Of course. I was trying to determine for sure that it wasn't so it could be pulled from the DLE thread. No limitation number = not officially limited. This is nothing new for EP, as they still have a few sets on the DLE page that aren't numbered. It's not that I don't trust EP to only produce 250 copies, but there isn't much stopping them from printing more other than their word.

>28 Wootle:
I agree that a DLE should be numbered, and there should be something special about it too. The Kissingers I mentioned are nothing but copies of the trade editions with a signature page tipped in. Not DLE material. A foldout replica of Kruschchev’s shoe might have qualified it. (Our younger members won’t understand this.)

>29 jroger1: I would be interested in a DLE leather facsimile of Kruschev’s old shoe, maybe signed by his grandchildren.

>29 jroger1: There are a lot of Deluxe Editions if we want to make a page for them. That's where this one should go. Books that are a little nice than the ordinary, includes a slipcase or box. Another one on the DLE thread also qualifies here and will be removed shortly.

I think a pop-up of the shoe would qualify, but not just a fold out.

>30 HugoDumas:
It would have to be a left-wingtip.

In the context of books from EP, I agree with you all that a book without a number can't be a DLE and at best, only a DE.

As a side note, in the greater picture of things, I find stuff that happens to be limited but not numbered to be far more intriguing. There's more of a mystery to it, less marketing. The limitation is real, not artificial. For example, in the realm of of books: How many Gutenberg bibles are there? The all-knowing Wikipedia claims 49 have been preserved to some degree or another. How many were there ever? Now Wikipedia isn't sure. Obviously, these things are basically unobtainable but so what - the mysteries of how many were actually made, or made by Johannes himself, or how each varied from the other are the exciting parts.

Now it's certainly possible GHWB's book actually is limited. It might be limited only by how many title blocks he can sign. That would certainly be a more natural limitation but wouldn't be a very intriguing one.

^^^ WELL SAID ^^^

RIP President Bush.