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11 Jun, 2011
2011-6-11 8:31:37 PM UTC
£500 for both yes - quite a decent price I think :)
12 Jun, 2011
2011-6-12 12:33:53 AM UTC
I hope you are able to sell them (given that it sounds like you could do with the money). From what I understand HC will discount to GBP 245 for these books, even when they are not officially on one of their regular sales (I'm pretty sure you posted either here or on your blog that you had gotten such an out-of-sale-period discount when you purchased CoH in the first place?).

S&G seems to sell second-hand for sub-GBP200. I would suggest that 400 pounds for the pair would probably be a more realistic asking price (and would most likely be what I would be asking for initially if I needed to get rid of my spares). Even that might be on the high-side for an international sale when you take into account the low cost shipping provided by HC.

On the plus side, you can count yourself lucky that the exchange rate hasn't impacted you. My average cost for the super-deluxes was GBP240 (2x350 CoH, 1x250 CoH, 1x250 S&G, 1xFree S&G), but the AUD/GBP exchange rate means that they are only worth about two-thirds of what I paid for them, even if I sold them for cost !

Truth be told, whenever I buy a book, I write off the value to zero, as that is all I can guarantee to get back for it (and so far I have never sold a book, anyway)...

Rgds
Stu
12 Jun, 2011
2011-6-12 9:25:21 AM UTC
Hi Stu,
Yeah I did get CoH in that manner, although that was nearly a year ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they refused now as I imagine stock is a lot lower at this point. Also, my S&G is a pretty low number which I think has some appeal.

Personally, for £400 I would just keep them and sell some of my other books. Still, might pop them on ebay and see what happens.
12 Jun, 2011
2011-6-12 10:19:29 AM UTC
I'm not convinced that stock would be that much lower, to be honest. After the initial rush subsided, I just can't see them selling more than a handful a year - Too many people are doing it tough financially at the moment. I could definitely see CoH running out at some point through the normal trickle of sales, but I think S&G will be remaindered in the end (assuming all 500 were actually bound). I would honestly be very surprised if more than 100 copies of S&G have been sold to date, as the response to that particular edition wasn't very positive.

I agree with you that eBay might be your best bet (as I suspect most of the lurkers around TG probably already obtained these books if they were interested) - Take really appealing photos (IMHO these books look best when flash is not used) and you might just get one of those odd "bidding frenzies" that happens from time to time that pushes the price up beyond the "rational price". If you can afford to wait until the first Hobbit movie comes out, the price of CoH might conceivably rise (although you will be competing with another several million items of horrible "Tolkien Landfill", I suppose!).

By the way, if you decide to sell your nice 3 Volume SD LOTR, I'd be interested!

Cheers
Stu
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 10:13:42 AM UTC
Sorry, not following --"3 Volume SD LOTR"?

As for prices: under £200 doesn't sound very common. Let's see what current prices I've noted...

CoH
£325 (#48) April
£217 (#140) April
£258 (#490) January

S&G
£225 (#147) December
£170 (#?) August

Hmmm... clearly I haven't been note taking too regularly there then! There's been a lot up at Buy-It-Now, but I tend not to watch those if they're too pricey --as I just don't think they sell. O/w I normally note any open auctions and auctions with Best-Offer options. But this is all I've noted over the last year.

I agree with you Stu: I can't imagine they sold very many S&G after the initial crew who wanted a copy had got theirs. But CoH is probably pretty close to sold out I'd guess. I can't imagine HarperCollins have too many left.

BH
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 10:30:44 AM UTC
BruffyBoy, any nice copies of The Silmarillion? --I don't recall if you bought any real gems, or not.

BH
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 10:55:08 AM UTC
As for prices: under £200 doesn't sound very common.

I agree that under £200 would be uncommon for CoH (although anyone paying over £250 would have to be a bit eager).

The average price just on your sample of two for S&G is £197.50. My point was really that once you add on postage costs to these prices, you pretty much hit £500 anyway, in which case the buyer is likely to buy new and unopened from HC (assuming they will still sell at the discounted price), especially if they are looking to purchase internationally.

All that said, eBay sales are all about luck. One day something fetches a high price, the next day it goes for peanuts.

>Sorry, not following --"3 Volume SD LOTR"?

3 Volume Super-Deluxe Illustrated Lord of the Rings - BruffyBoy purchased a set from David Miller and wrote about it on his blog.

Stu
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 11:09:14 AM UTC
Yes, I see it on his blog now --the Alan Lee set. Yes, very nice. Purely from a personal point of view, this is the sort of set which I really don't think is worth the £600 Bruffyboy paid for it; never mind the higher prices he suggests it's 'worth'. But, everyone to their own --if one wants to pay hundreds (or into the thousands) for books produced by HarperCollins in the 90's, fair enough. Just seems too much...

BH
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 11:53:36 AM UTC
>Yes, I see it on his blog now --the Alan Lee set. Yes, very nice. Purely from a personal point of view, this is the sort of set which I really don't think is worth the £600 Bruffyboy paid for it; never mind the higher prices he suggests it's 'worth'. But, everyone to their own --if one wants to pay hundreds (or into the thousands) for books produced by HarperCollins in the 90's, fair enough. Just seems too much...

£600 would be right at the top-end price-wise for any of the HC Super-Deluxes, I think. Realistically, no Tolkien book should be "worth" that kind of price, old or new. Tolkien Book prices make absolutely no sense, and long-term I can only see prices going down across the board.
14 Jun, 2011
2011-6-14 12:17:03 PM UTC
I'm actually starting to find it a bit depressing; anything even slightly appealing to collectors is going for hundreds --mostly, I guess, to bookdealers. And some books, that you just want to read (like Rayner's Remembrancer), are going for more money than I'm likely to spend on any book ever! Other more desirable editions are just totally unaffordable, & I don't think I'll ever be able to acquire these books. Which, purely from a research point of view (if that's not too grand a term for examining these books), is really annoying.

BH
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