Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4693701-20180731013353/@comment-27666463-20180731085405

In general, the covers with the splats are going to be first printings, or very early printings. Check the number line on the copyright page - if it goes 5 4 3 2 1 it's the first printing, 5 4 3 2 the second printing, etc. Because trading cards make the book more expensive to produce, if the cover advertises trading cards it's almost always the first printing (occasionally second). I would guess of the two books shown in the picture, the trading cards one is a first printing, and the other 2nd-4th or close. If the book got up to like 10+ printings most likely it didn't have ads on the cover at that point. However, for some later-published books that only got a couple of printings, it might be harder to find them without cover ads.