Stormonu
NeoGrognard
The hardcover 2E revised MM was the only one of value to me, but my cousins first foray into D&D was with the revised 2E covers.The alt 2E covers are my favorite of any edition.
May have just been my neck of the woods but 3.5E did well here. It was the "cleaned up and much needed revised" edition. I see 5.5 as the same thing. A much needed fresh coat of paint and structure updating. Wasn't to long ago people were complaining about the basic core Ranger in the 5E book.
3.5E didn't do so well down here, at least for the core books - our FLGS at the time got no preorders for the books and at the local Cons I went to that year no one was playing D&D at all. I think it was about 6-8 months down the road before I picked up my own copies. Only to pick up the leatherbound 3.5E PHB w/ errata some time later...
As for 5E, I'm pretty happy with the books I have as is, though this new DMG has really got my interest.