See for example the small number of copies historically printed on vellum by many private presses, or with extra fancy bindings.

Vertical differentiation is certainly nothing new in the book trade or private presses. (The printing and paper looks to be the same based on the web site.) I don’t personally have any interest in the more expensive Suntup offerings, but I think it is worth noting that the higher end options are hand crafted objects that require specialist manual labor, and that there are differences between lettered and Roman numeral editions in terms of the binding and case details. I thought it would be good to have a discussion, and again, if you think I'm being old and cynical feel free to let me know :) What are your thoughts? Am I just being crusty and cynical in my old age.? However, Thornwillow always meets demand and makes sure their books are affordable at varying levels. The upper end for those are also thousands of dollars. Now, every company has the right to do what they want, and heck Thornwillow also produces numerous 'limited' editions when they publish a book. Well, that's how it looks like to me anyway. Rather than producing 325 numbered edition, you only add 10 books and take in the same revenue while keeping commodities artificially low. There is obviously demand for more, but if you keep the numbers down then don't you get more attention? Pretty clever marketing in my opinion - adding this 'Roman Numeral Edition' so you can add 10 books that way, which is the same as adding some 75 numbered editions. I won't deny that I feel Suntup is as usual underproducing their books, particularly the numbered edition.

Why is this book worth $6500? Did anyone purchase it? Will it appreciate in value? for 10 books which are not even signed by the author! They are signed by the illustrator. That said, if people are going to snatch it up, I don't blame Suntup for milking them! Heck, that's $65,000. Not a 'lettered edition' - we have those, but a 'Roman Numeral Edition' - limited to 10, for $6500 each.

So, I will admit, I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw Suntup's newest limited limited edition :)

Suntup hannibal