I agree Gawain but then again i dont think I would pay a fortune for a misprint. You are right the seller did in fairness point out faults but i didnt really buy it for its value just out of interest.

Trotter is just jealous ;)

I think this touches on a wider issue of collectable condition, & in particular, in Tolkien book collecting.

Trotter, people like them (& buy them) because they tell something (or at least they might suggest this, to some buyers) about the process of book production. I don't suppose they say much to those familiar with the processes involved i.e. someone who has worked in the printing industry. But they reveal, in part, something of the marvel (mostly imagined, no doubt, in the eyes of the collector) of the process of printing.

Of course, by definition, most of these are unique; but I wouldn't like them to start attracting great interest, as I personally like being able to pick them up for cheap --best keeping it that way, for my sake, & for others who like such things.

Either way, in Tolkien book collecting (& I guess collecting of modern first editions generally) flawed books (misprints, binding faults, pages folded in printing process, previous ownership marks, bookplates, inscriptions, marginalia etc) are fairly looked down upon; unfairly I think. Come a certain age, books with inscriptions & the like can be (should be!) of great interest.

BH

"Either way, in Tolkien book collecting (& I guess collecting of modern first editions generally) flawed books (misprints, binding faults, pages folded in printing process, previous ownership marks, bookplates, inscriptions, marginalia etc) are fairly looked down upon; unfairly I think. Come a certain age, books with inscriptions & the like can be (should be!) of great interest.
"
I wouldn't put books with production faults in the same category as books with marginalia. Books with deformed or missing pages are 'wrong', and ought to be returned to the vendor, IMO.

Whereas, with marginalia - it depends on whoever made the notes, I think; and their relationship (if any) with JRR. I have a cracking example, once owned by Tolkien's colleague G.V. Smithers.

You're clearly in the Trotter-thinking group garm! Some people actually buy these items for the very reason(s) discussed; they don't want to return them.

Okay, with marginalia --agreed. What about a bookplate? Would you buy any new (let's say post 2000 deluxe edition) Tolkien book with a previous owner's bookplate pasted in? Not just, would you pay less --would you consider purchasing at all?

BH

Well, each book has to be considered on its merits. But in the case you mentioned - a post-2000 Tolkien book with a bookplate - no. In general, I prefer tohave books as they come from the publishers.

On the other hand - and following on what I was saying about taking each book on its merits - I do take some things into consideration. For example, availability. Take Tolkien's 'Old English Exodus'. Many years ago I bought a copy without a dust-wrapper, because I couldn't be sure of when another might come along. This copy has a label - 'Ex libris Peter Clemoes'. Clemoes was an English scholar, with a slight link to Tolkien.

When a jacketed copy came up several years later (again for not a lot of money) I jumped at it. It has a bookplate fromChrist Church, Oxford; with a printed note that this book had been purchased for the personal use of Richard Hamer. I like that; Hamer's edition of Anglo-Saxon poems (with A-S on one page and a modern translation on the other) is a favourite of mine.

And then there's the books with Michael Tolkien's bookplates; but they're not uncommon...