One of the strangest ebay auctions I've seen. I am really baffled at this one. High bids too! I read the entire listing out of pure bewilderment, then, to my horror, looked at the item location - it's the town I grew-up in!

Just curious how people feel about the second set here, with laminated dust wrappers. Preserved, yes, but...... ?

I think I see a Blue Meanie at the bottom of the page!

That's a great story, and in my opinion, this is a nostalgia piece I probably wouldn't touch. There's nothing wrong with a well used book, unless you were ever trying to present it for sale, which doesn't sound like your intention.

However, as far as restoration is concerned, everything is possible, but could be costly. Any repairs to sheets can be time consuming and require building up layers of rice paper. The staining to the buckram cover also would be pretty tough to repair. If it is grime, it could be professionally cleaned, but fading or staining would require someone to fill in the faded regions, which again is very time consuming.

The most cost effective approach would be to leave the book as it is, and maybe have the slipcase restored or replaced. If you really wanted a nice clean copy for display, you could easily track down a different copy in better condition, and for cheaper than restoration of your current copy, especially if you were willing to compromise on publication year. This edition was printed (albeit with a tray type box instead of slipcase) for many years after 1969, and later copies can be found in mint condition for pretty cheap. If you wanted a slipcase instead of the box, just talk to David Miller from the Tolkien Bookshelf. He's real good with these. Here's a link to the nice felt lined version he makes for this particular book:

http://www.tolkienbookshelf.com/pages ... -paper-edition-black-faux

Hope this is helpful, and thanks for sharing your story!

-Steve