Rumors I have read:
The First Printing of the Premier issue sold out soon after publishing as the print run was very small.
After a lot of complaining from subscirbers and other fans, several years later they re-printed that issue in a larger print run.

I would not be able to tell an original from the re-print as I do not own either, but at a guess, I would bet the inside cover of each copy (publishers page) will have a printing date.

It would be good if we could get someone from over on the TLG website, or persoanl experience from inside to comment. I notice that all the images online appear to be the one without the price tag. I also note that when TLG published the PDF, it had no price tag and the words SECOND PRINTING at the bottom of the copyright page beneath the shaded box column.

Does either copy have the words SECOND PRINTING in them?

The second printing does not have a price on the cover.  It has the words "SECOND PRINTING 2009" on the bottom of the inside front cover to the right of the words "The Crusader Journal".

[Edit:  This may not be a second printing but a third printing.  The mystery deepens . . . ]

On mine, the one without the price does not have the second edition identifier on the inside page... I have sent an inquiry to the person I bought it from... hopefully there's more light yet to be shined  Crusader #1 would have to be one of the more significant periodicals of the D20 age, no?

Meanwhile, does anyone recall when in 2009 the second prints were available?

And, any thoughts as to print run size?

davidc wrote:On mine, the one without the price does not have the second edition identifier on the inside page... I have sent an inquiry to the person I bought it from... hopefully there's more light yet to be shined  Crusader #1 would have to be one of the more significant periodicals of the D20 age, no?

Meanwhile, does anyone recall when in 2009 the second prints were available?

And, any thoughts as to print run size?

I picked up that Crusader #1 in an auction lot at the end of 2009. The guy was selling his collection through one of those stores that puts the items up on ebay and takes a big percentage. Seems unlikely that it was a 2nd print if they were only being offered for sale in Dec 2009

Mars wrote:
I think from what has been said already is that there are most likely 3 different prints.

The two posted in the initial message and a 3rd print done in Dec 2009 that states "SECOND PRINTING 2009".

I would suggest that maybe the first print was considered a pre-pub run for GenCon or something similar that has been done for a number of the Castle Zagyg modules.

This is my thinking. It appears as though there are two first printings, one with the price and one without the price, unless of course one is a fake. But, if one were a fake (let's say a lazer colour copy Kinko job), it would seem odd that the price were added/removed from the image when the fake were being created, or that the words 'Second Printing' were removed also. That's a helluva specific way to go about creating a fake.

So my thinking is we have a 1st printing, a 2nd printing in 2009, and an unknown printing that either predates the two, or sits between the 1st and 2nd printings.

The only way to answer this definitively would be to ask one of the TLG crew. They have been quite approachable in the past.

FWIW, I know I got mine before they had a second printing and it has the price on the cover.