Gawain- how on earth did you get number 3 on that list? Out of interest (and Im not making an offer) what would you do if someone offered you £500 for the set?
It was just sheer blind luck about 2 years ago. I happened to be loooking on ebay just as someone listed it as a buy-it-now for £75. I spent at least 10 minutes double checking the listing to make sure it was what I thought it was before buying it.
I joined Folio Society a few months later and discovered they still had a few of the limited numbered Silmarillion left for £100 (now sold out) so I bought one but am still looking for a Hobbit to complete the set. They won't be a matching set of numbers but that doesn't bother me.
As for selling it, I think (paradoxically) if i had paid £200+ for it I might consider selling but, as it is one of my best lucky finds, it has a certain sentimental value as well so will be staying on my bookshelf.
I joined Folio Society a few months later and discovered they still had a few of the limited numbered Silmarillion left for £100 (now sold out) so I bought one but am still looking for a Hobbit to complete the set. They won't be a matching set of numbers but that doesn't bother me.
As for selling it, I think (paradoxically) if i had paid £200+ for it I might consider selling but, as it is one of my best lucky finds, it has a certain sentimental value as well so will be staying on my bookshelf.
This is one of my best finds.
1st, 1st American edition of Farmer Giles of Ham very good + to near fine condition with dust jacket (same condition) for $15 buy it now on eBay.
The seller obviously didn't know what he was selling.
1st, 1st American edition of Farmer Giles of Ham very good + to near fine condition with dust jacket (same condition) for $15 buy it now on eBay.
The seller obviously didn't know what he was selling.
Well here's another one to list as a lucky find. I stumbled upon a 1972 unwin allen hard copy of The Hobbit in quite good shape (no dj however), and picked it up for $2. Made my morning!
Bit slow in posting here, but previous to a few days ago I hadn't really had any remarkable finds. But, I just bought (another) GA&U (staff copy) CT signed Silmarillion last week for £5! Seller, upon questioning, stated...
" The signature " Christopher Tolkein " appears on the first free end paper. The signature is clearly and neatly written. I can not guarentee, but I think it is likely, that the signature is actually an authentic signature of Christopher Tolkein, who is the editor of this first edition of the book which was published four years after the death of the author. Christopher Tolkein is, as far as I can deduce from the foreword, the son of the author.
Yes, I think he is J. R. R. Tolkien's son; & needless to say, Christopher didn't spell his surname incorrectly...
BH
" The signature " Christopher Tolkein " appears on the first free end paper. The signature is clearly and neatly written. I can not guarentee, but I think it is likely, that the signature is actually an authentic signature of Christopher Tolkein, who is the editor of this first edition of the book which was published four years after the death of the author. Christopher Tolkein is, as far as I can deduce from the foreword, the son of the author.
Yes, I think he is J. R. R. Tolkien's son; & needless to say, Christopher didn't spell his surname incorrectly...
BH
Someone got Peoples of Middle Earth 1/1 for £50 at the weekend:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Peoples-Middle- ... ction&hash=item1e5fde1133
The seller meant to put it on for £150 but a slip of the finger had it sold in minutes!
My own best buy in the short time I've been buying would have to be the 1996 ALan Lee illustrated LOTR box-set PB http://tolkienbooks.net/html/lotr-sc-hc_6.htm which I picked up for £3 plus P&P. It really is a lovely set!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Peoples-Middle- ... ction&hash=item1e5fde1133
The seller meant to put it on for £150 but a slip of the finger had it sold in minutes!
My own best buy in the short time I've been buying would have to be the 1996 ALan Lee illustrated LOTR box-set PB http://tolkienbooks.net/html/lotr-sc-hc_6.htm which I picked up for £3 plus P&P. It really is a lovely set!
bruffyboy: Someone got Peoples of Middle Earth 1/1 for £50 at the weekend
I got my own copy of Peoples for about £30 (Buy It Now). I was quite lucky (and happy afterwards)! It was an auction on eBay, but without a picture, so one would've thought it was the paperback edition, unless you read the description.
Christina and I have had a number of lucky finds over the years. A few that come to mind (with prices as best I can remember): a first American Hobbit, with the bowing hobbit on the title-page, but without dust-jacket, for $45; two copies of the Puffin Hobbit, in mint condition, for $1 and $6; the issue of Redbook magazine with Smith of Wootton Major for $2.50 on eBay, not long after another copy went for $75; Oxford Poetry 1915 (wrappers issue) for $25, half the original asking price after I pointed out to the seller that the pencil signature "J.R.R. Tolkein", so spelled, was hardly genuine; a first edition Adventures of Tom Bombadil, in jacket, autographed by Tolkien, for £27; a first edition of the Clark Hall Beowulf, in jacket, for £3.
Then there was the time, long ago, that a large lot of Tolkien books failed to sell in an auction at Sotheby's London, and the bookseller Anthony Rota arranged for me to buy it privately for £100 and shipping: this included a run of Tree and Leaf in different printings, the Reader's Union Lord of the Rings, and much else that arrived in an enormous box - Christmas in July.
Even better was my first set of the Allen & Unwin Lord of the Rings, 2nd/1st/1st printings, in the jackets, which was given to me by a local British expatriate who knew of my interest.
Of course, the longer one collects, the greater the chances of good luck. Part of this, for Christina and me, has come from the fact that in many cases we've bought things as they've been published, many of them before Tolkien became quite so collectible. Now that our collection is so large, we're at a point of diminishing opportunities for lucky finds - though we did recently pick up a long run of Medium Aevum, including one part of Sigelwara Land, for a very low sum indeed (if not as low as that garm achieved - good luck being relative).
Wayne
Then there was the time, long ago, that a large lot of Tolkien books failed to sell in an auction at Sotheby's London, and the bookseller Anthony Rota arranged for me to buy it privately for £100 and shipping: this included a run of Tree and Leaf in different printings, the Reader's Union Lord of the Rings, and much else that arrived in an enormous box - Christmas in July.
Even better was my first set of the Allen & Unwin Lord of the Rings, 2nd/1st/1st printings, in the jackets, which was given to me by a local British expatriate who knew of my interest.
Of course, the longer one collects, the greater the chances of good luck. Part of this, for Christina and me, has come from the fact that in many cases we've bought things as they've been published, many of them before Tolkien became quite so collectible. Now that our collection is so large, we're at a point of diminishing opportunities for lucky finds - though we did recently pick up a long run of Medium Aevum, including one part of Sigelwara Land, for a very low sum indeed (if not as low as that garm achieved - good luck being relative).
Wayne
Gawain
I was trying my best to beat your best deal on:
'3 (ebay) Folio Numbered Limited Edition 3-vol LOTR slipcased £75'
Have to admit I have failed as just picked up a set for £90! Was gutted - Not. What a lovely set.
It just goes to show if you hunt hard enough you can still find bargains even on ebay!
Anyhow got the matching Hobbit & Silmarillion for £50 each?
:) :)
I was trying my best to beat your best deal on:
'3 (ebay) Folio Numbered Limited Edition 3-vol LOTR slipcased £75'
Have to admit I have failed as just picked up a set for £90! Was gutted - Not. What a lovely set.
It just goes to show if you hunt hard enough you can still find bargains even on ebay!
Anyhow got the matching Hobbit & Silmarillion for £50 each?
:) :)
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