Except there's no prize.

Here's the deal. I have run two completely random contests for ARCs. But this is big. Really big. Thanks to one of my best reader friends ever, I have pristine copies of Laura Lippman first editions. Granted, they are all inscribed to Bob "One O" Smith, which diminishes their value in the market at large, but increases their value tenfold in my estimation. Bob recently moved to a smaller place and had to downsize and asked me if I had any use for my own first editions. I would like to give them away to another reader, but that's a pretty nifty prize and I think this contest should be merit-based.

But what should it be? I open the floor.

Inevitably, while exchanging notes with Bob, I asked if he could remember when we first met because I wasn't sure. It was in 1998, at the Philadelphia Bouchercon. After our meeting, Bob went on to join the lively listserv known as DorothyL. Eventually, he and his Boston cohorts would start holding DL cocktail parties at Bouchercon.

Bob was always very honest about my work. He didn't love everything I did. But he had a way of not making me feel bad, which is pretty cool.

I repeat myself: How should I determine who should get Bob's collection of my first editions?