I asked the vendor why it was so expensive, given the easy availability of similar books for a "tenner" (I certainly didn't have any trouble finding a 'perfect' copy for twice that). For posterity, here is his response....

Stu

Dear metapraxis02,

Thanks for your email. We should rephotograph this as I think the flash photography has made it look as if the spine is faded when it is not at all. It's easy to overlook this when you can see the book in front of you.
Condition is everything with the Sil. A good copy is not worth much as all collectors have one, a perfect copy (and most books in Waterstones are not in this condition) is a different matter. I saw a similar copy make £350 plus premium at auction to a well known and respected dealer who sold it on for considerably more. There are a lot of very picky colectors who want a perfect copy. There are virtually no perfect copies though. I know you must be thinking this is all a bit silly, and to be honest, I have some sympathy with that view. Still it is not our job to argue with the collectors who are our customers. So if you do find a copy in this condition - and I mean perfect- please be sure to buy it if it is a tenner or you will be really missing out.
All the best,

Mark
For the-mad-librarian

It could be a Clowes copy as the first variant of the Clowes Edition is stained, but I expect it to be the much more common Billings, and I am also sure that he would have charged £700 for a perfect Clowes

The book that I just bought is the 1992 Unfinished Tales discussed in this post http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... php?topic_id=1043&forum=9

Trotter - yes, you're right; according to Hammond, the Clowes variant does come with either a stained or unstained top edge. I have many copies of Sil - and all the Clowes ones are unstained. 9I also have one printed by Unwin Brothers, Woking; but the jacket on that copy is very sunned) .

I agree that £10.00 is a fair price for any 1st ed. copy of the A&U Silm. Anything in the hundreds ridiculous. Wonder if that ebay vendor would like to give me a couple of hundred each for some of mine?

Indeed Trotter: It could well be either of the 1rst states (domestic or export); altho' the Billing copy DJs always seem to hold up that little bit better than the Clowes Export copies I think. The cloth is also quite dark in the picture; so I'd guess its a Billing copy too.

The nonsense about the spine (incidently the auction has been pulled) is just that: nonsense. It is clearly not red; altho' nobody is saying the jacket doesn't look otherwise Fine. But £400+!!? You could go on ABE now and buy a Metheun copy for that price. Mad is the word...

BH

How about this one.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tolkien-Trilogy ... |65%3A3|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Not even the flimsy slipcase.