I've got the stickered Silmarillion copy Deagol may be referring to (unless, of course, Deagol has a copy also!).

Its just a big blue sticker (not dark; quite light) with 'A&U' at the top; leaving a space underneath.

No UK bookseller up to ~1995 could vary book prices though (as you state). GA&U was signed up to the Net Book Agreement (some publishers were not), therefore all books carried the 'Net UK Price' blurb regarding book prices.

To add to this oddity, is the information Deagol had passed on to him from a former employee at GA&U, regarding stickers generally. It seems that these were probably illegal too, as they were clearly able to be removed i.e. were not permanent.

All the same, the blank labels (as you have now confirmed a totally different book with one present) do seem a slight puzzle. The most likely explanation is that they were for a market that did not require a UK price i.e. Book Club, or for Export.

BH

That would be interesting to know indeed...

Discovered a new (previously unknown to me) Tolkien calendar: "Calendrier 2002 Tolkien". Issued in France (curiously, I think it is a Pocket issue as was the preceeding entry) and a unique format in my collection. Find it in the 2002 or French sections at:

www.angelfire.com/tn3/tolkiencalendars

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Deagol,

Thanks for that, extremely helpful as always.

Does anyone know the UK price that this impression (9th) was sold at?

I still have a few problems with the sticker.

Any UK bookshop at the time could not set the price, it was set by the publisher, so it should be on the book

Is this label and The Silmarillion labels you mentioned possibly for export or was another sticker also on the book?

The printed price was £1.75

I have seen similar blank A&U labels on copies of The Silmarillion.

I guess they are just blanking out the price to make copies similar to the unpriced History of Middle-earth books.