11 Scribes · All titles · Scribner Era (1998-present)

Finders Keepers Common

2015 · Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York

First-edition cover of Finders Keepers — First-edition jacket (US first edition — Scribner hardcover, June 2, 2015 (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2). Cover art by Sam Weber.) · source

What it’s about

A reclusive, beloved novelist is robbed and murdered for a fortune in cash and, more crucially, a cache of notebooks holding unpublished work — and decades later those notebooks become a buried obsession that pulls a young book-loving boy and a paroled killer onto a collision course. Retired detective Bill Hodges and his partners are drawn in as a long-dormant crime claws its way back to the surface. A propulsive thriller about the dangerous love readers and writers have for stories, and what a person will do to possess them.

Significance Solo Stephen King (no Bachman/co-author); the middle volume of the Bill Hodges "Mr. Mercedes" trilogy, between Mr. Mercedes (2014) and End of Watch (2016) — the trilogy was adapted as the Mr. Mercedes TV series.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover (June 2, 2015) is the true first edition, first printing. No small-press limited precedes it, and there is no paperback original. This is book #2 of the Bill Hodges Trilogy.
The Scribner US trade hardcover IS the true first. No Donald M. Grant / Cemetery Dance / Suntup signed-limited BOOK edition preceded or accompanied the trade printing (Suntup later issued only a fine-art print of Sam Weber's cover, not a limited book). The UK first (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015) is a separate simultaneous-ish printing and is not the true first for an American author. Collect the US Scribner first.

I own a copy of this title

My notes — condition, state, price intact, is it a book-club copy?

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page states "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2015" together with the complete number line. Per Scribner convention BOTH the edition statement AND the full number line ending in the '1' must be present for a true first printing.

Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a first printing shows the leading "1". Later printings drop low numbers from the left (a second printing's lowest digit is "2", a third "3", etc.).

Gutter / printer codeN/A (Scribner-era title; no Doubleday/printer gutter code applies).

First printing — copies~1,250,000 copies (announced first trade hardcover printing, Scribner, June 2, 2015) accepted figure

First jacket price$30.00 (Upper front dust-jacket flap; "$30.00 / $36.00 CAN." (Canadian price printed alongside). Price-clipped jackets hide this and reduce value.)

Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards (panels).

Spine / center bindingRed cloth spine with silver (foil) spine lettering — quarter-bound, two-tone.

Binding styleQuarter-bound: red cloth spine over black paper-covered boards, sewn binding; silver spine titling. Approx. 6¼ x 9½ inches, [vi]+437,[2] pp / 448 pp.

Topstain / endpapersNo colored topstain reported (plain). Endpapers plain/unprinted. UNVERIFIED that any decorative topstain or printed endpaper exists for this title.

Dust jacket

Front: a dark, painterly illustration (Sam Weber) evoking the buried treasure-of-notebooks theme — a wooded/earth scene with the title in large type; "STEPHEN KING" prominent at top. Spine and rear continue the dark palette. Rear panel/inner flaps carry the synopsis and author photo. The original Scribner jacket is distinct from the later Glenn Chadbourne "New Cover Series No. 8" commemorative jacket (a separate collectible, not the first-edition jacket).

Art / design: Cover art/illustration by Sam Weber (jacket design per Scribner art department). Author photo on rear panel/flap of Stephen King (credit typically Shane Leonard for this era; UNVERIFIED for this exact printing).

https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/finderskeepers.html

https://stephenking.com/news/finders-keepers-full-cover-revealed-485.html

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyFinders Keepers had essentially no separately manufactured U.S. trade book-club hardcover in the classic Doubleday/BOMC sense — modern Scribner-era King firsts are widely available, so true BCEs are uncommon. Tells if one appears: a blind-stamp (small indented dot/square, usually lower-right of the rear board), "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front jacket flap, NO price on the flap, smaller trim, thinner/cheaper paper, and frequently glued rather than sewn. The Scribner first is sewn, full-size, and shows "$30.00" on the front flap.

Also watch for: Watch for: (1) married jackets — a price-clipped or later-state jacket placed on a first-printing book, or vice-versa; confirm the $30.00 flap price AND the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" line together. (2) The Glenn Chadbourne "New Cover Series No. 8" commemorative jacket sold separately — do not mistake it for the first-edition jacket. (3) Large Print and Book-of-the-Month/club printings sold as "first." (4) Ex-library copies (stamps, spine labels, pockets) and remainder marks (spray/dot to bottom text block) — both reduce value. (5) "Signed" copies without provenance/COA — many secretarial or autopen claims; genuine signatures trace to the 2015 Bridgton event or dealer-witnessed signings.

Print run & scarcity

This is a big modern Scribner title, so the figure is a publisher-announced/first-printing number rather than a debated early-King estimate. Headline: ~1,250,000 copies for the US first trade hardcover (Scribner, ISBN 9781501100079, June 2, 2015), Bill Hodges Trilogy #2. NOT comparable to the ~30,000 cited for the 1974 Carrie first trade printing — that figure was explicitly NOT reused; this is its own verified number. First printing is identified by the full number line ending in '1' with the Scribner colophon/'First Scribner hardcover edition June 2015' on the copyright page. Context from the same Simon & Schuster catalog compilation: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015) ~1,000,000; Holly (2023) ~1,250,000 — Finders Keepers sits at the top of King's modern announced runs. No small-press/limited (signed/numbered/lettered) edition applies to this trade title. No source disagreement on the 1,250,000 number was found; the only gap is that the underlying S&S catalog is quoted secondhand via the collector forum rather than fetched directly.

First-state points & errata

No known errata or first-state textual variant; identification rests on the edition statement, full number line, and the unclipped $30.00 jacket. None reported by collector references.

Limited & signed editions

No signed/numbered or lettered LIMITED BOOK edition of Finders Keepers was published (no Suntup/Cemetery Dance/Grant book). Suntup Editions issued only a hand-signed Sam Weber fine-art cover print (giclée, ~40 signed per size) — a print, not a book. Author-SIGNED first editions exist from King's single in-person signing (Bridgton, Maine, July 12, 2015; ~500 tickets) — these are signed trade firsts, not a distinct limited. A signed 3-volume Bill Hodges Trilogy slipcased boxed set (Mr. Mercedes / Finders Keepers / End of Watch, signed on title pages, with COA) was assembled by dealers from signed firsts.

Market value confirmed sales

$25–60 (genuine first trade hardcover, fine/fine, unclipped $30.00 jacket, full number line). Signed-in-person trade firsts $150–300; Cemetery Dance signed/limited and the signed Bill Hodges Trilogy box are the only four-figure copies.

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Confirmed sales: Honest caveat first: this is a 2015 mass-printed $30 trade novel with a very large first print run, so it does NOT appear at Heritage/PBA/Rare Book Hub — those houses do not catalog a sub-$50 modern book unless it is signed or limited. No single-copy auction hammer is fabricated. Documented market levels: (1) unsigned fine/fine trade firsts sold on eBay completed/dealer-fulfilled at roughly $15–45 (multiple 2024–2025 listings, ebay.com); (2) dealer fine/fine trade firsts priced/sold ~$30–60 (Rare Book Cellar, Brenner's Books, Southampton/Sag Harbor Books, 2024–2025); (3) a Stephen King signed BROADSIDE for Finders Keepers sold at auction (Invaluable, lot #451); (4) signed slipcased 3-volume Bill Hodges Trilogy set including Finders Keepers offered ~$1,000+ (VeryFineBooks).

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–12. The trap copies (book-club-style/reprint hardcover, ex-library, or clubhouse stock) typically have NO printed jacket price OR a faint blind-stamp dot on the lower-right rear board, and use thinner/lighter binding. Worth a fraction of even the abundant trade first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition only matters at the margins because the book is common: a price-clipped jacket, ex-library marks, or reading wear drops a copy to near-zero collectible value ($5–15), while a crisp fine/fine with the intact $30.00 jacket sits at the top of the $25–60 band. The real premium is SIGNATURE — an authentic in-person King signature on a trade first moves it to ~$150–300; the Cemetery Dance signed/limited (slipcased) and the signed Trilogy box are the only true four-figure copies. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING that separates a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the copyright-page number line must read exactly "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the "1" MUST be present (a line beginning at "2" or higher is a later printing) — AND the dust jacket must show the printed $30.00 price with no blind-stamp on the rear board. Ignore the prompt's "Doubleday gutter code" cue: gutter codes apply only to King's 1974–1987 Doubleday titles, not to a 2015 Scribner book, which is identified solely by the Scribner number line + jacket price.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checked price $30.00 on stephenkingcollector.com + rarebookcellar + dealer listings. Number line cross-checked on stephenkingcollector.com + rarebookcellar + official King identifying-first-editions guide reference. Binding (quarter red cloth / black boards / silver spine) cross-checked across multiple ABE/dealer descriptions. No small-press first and no limited BOOK edition found — Suntup item is a print only. No BCE-specific Doubleday gutter code (Scribner era).

confidence: High — price ($30.00), edition statement, number line ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"), quarter red-cloth/black-board binding, and Sam Weber cover art each cross-confirmed by 2+ sources (stephenkingcollector.com, rarebookcellar, multiple ABE/dealer listings, official King cover-reveal). Lower-confidence items: exact author-photo credit, topstain/endpaper specifics, and the precise full copyright-page wording (paraphrased to Scribner convention) — marked UNVERIFIED where applicable.← Back to all titles