I don’t care for spiral bound books, but maybe that’s just me. The “pages laying flat” argument might be the reason. When I was a dealer, I had a spiral bound book for the business and a regular one for my library. I have a complete year set of Red Books.
I'm assuming the Red Book is more popular and used than the Blue Book. It would be costly to make the Blue Book spiral.
I think they made the Blue in spiral for some years. I like the Red in spiral just because it will stay open to the page I need. Truth is I can do without the spiral.
I always buy the spiral version. Trying to work at my computer with a hardbound version would be VERY annoying.
Why is only the red book spiral? It isn't the only one, there are many others. I own 7 different standard reference books that have spiral binding. The ANA grading guide, Cherry Pickers guide, NGC grading guide, US Gold Counterfeit detection guide to name a few. And there are more beyond those I own. Spiral binding is typically used because it is the least expensive binding method so it allows the publisher to offer cheaper copies of the same book.
I have been a collector for over 60 years, and I have never seen the reasons why anyone would be drawn to the Blue Book. The price listings are limited, unless it's changed in recent years, and there is for more information in the Red Book. Like the Red Book, the price listings are all dated the minute it's published. I don't see the attraction.
don't get the spiral one . then you can have a harder problem of reading the stuff near the inner edge
I have no idea why the Red Book is spiral-bound but the Blue Book generally is not. My speculations mirror those already offered. I will say that for a book that is used all the time, such as the Red Book, a hardbound book will suffer in its bindings whereas a spiral-bound book will not. Additionally, a spiral-bound book can be folded back on itself so that it only occupies half the space of a similarly-sized hard-bound book. That can be convenient in many instances.
