One of my reps gave me a list of the top selling study Bible brands for 2009*. Here are the top 20
1 - Life Application Study Bible
2 - NIV Study Bible
3 - ESV Study Bible
4 - Chronological Study Bible
5 - NLT Study Bible
6 - MacArthur Study Bible
7 - NKJV Study Bible
8 - Archaeological Study Bible
9 - Thompson Chain Reference
10 - Scofield (Old and New)
11 - Ryrie Study Bible
12 - New Spirit-Filled Life Study Bible
13 - Charles Stanley Life Principles Study Bible
14 - Key Word Study Bible
15 - American Patriot's Study Bible
16 - Wesley Study Bible
17 - Dake Annotated Study Bible
18 - Apologetics Study Bible
19 - New Believer's Study Bible
20 - New Inductive Study Bible
Where did your favorite end up?
The top four didn't surprise me. The Chronological Study Bible has made an impressive showing. It is a beautiful Bible and the notes are very helpful. But it has also been on sale for 50% off for a good part of the year which made it a great buy as well. I had a pastor buy a couple of cases. He gives them away to members in his congregation to encourage them to read through the Bible chronologically.
If I had to have guessed I would have switched numbers 8 and 5 based on my own store sales. I was surprised to see the Ryrie Study Bible and the MacArthur Study Bible as high as they were. I would have put them in the bottom five. The MacArthur Study will probably jump up a couple spots since it is coming out in the ESV. Coming in at number 17 was the Dake Annotated Study Bible. This was a surprise but I won't be shocked if it goes up a couple of notches in the 2010 list. My own sales have spiked ever since Benny Hinn started raving about it at the end of his shows. I would normally order them about three times a year. I've made about four orders already this year. I did notice the top eight are dominated by four publishers: Zondervan, Tyndale, Crossway and Thomas Nelson.
What stunned me the most? The complete absence of the Quest Study Bible? My list covers the top 27 and the Quest didn't even make an appearance. Something is fishy about that. Either something is wrong in the tabulations or my own store sales are a really poor gage of national sales which could certainly be the case as we've seen already (or the list I have simply omitted it by mistake). But not to place at all seems rather odd.
*These are ranked by unit sales through Christian retail, based on Bowker PubTrack POS statistics.
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