Tolkien Collector's Guide
Sign In
Tolkien Collector's Guide
Important links:

Guide to Tolkien's Letters
-
Winner of the 2019 Tolkien Society award for Best Website

12
7 Oct, 2007
2007-10-7 1:15:55 PM UTC
Here's a "signed" Return of the King for $10! This is a ex-library copy! The seller says that he found the signature hidden on the inner cover. I messaged the seller that the signature was not even a good fake, but he brushed me off "thanking" me for my opinion. eBay has not taken any action. I sent them two complaints: one about forgery, the other about disclaimers. (You cannot list on eBay and then say you don't know if the item is authentic or not.) I hope people don't fall for this.
7 Oct, 2007
2007-10-7 3:43:39 PM UTC
Someone's bid on it, unfortunately. At least it is an open auction so they can be updated.

The seller couldn't even accurately mention where the "signature" is - it is clearly nowhere near on the inner cover.

Whomever did the fake signature at least did enough research to get the date in the realm of possibility, but I can't imagine when the Professor took a trip to a US library to sign a book.
23 Oct, 2007
2007-10-23 9:44:50 AM UTC
Has anyone else noticed this one on ebay;

Children of Hurin

The letter is especially interesting. Cant imagine Christopher writing a letter like that.

Dior
23 Oct, 2007
2007-10-23 8:09:29 PM UTC
Just saw this myself. Not exactly a scholar's vocabulary, eh? :o)

8 bids at this point. At least it's not even up to the value of the book!

25 Oct, 2007
2007-10-25 6:44:48 PM UTC
I blogged about this, but I just heard from Carl Hostetter, and the signature and letters are, in fact, authentic. I'm as surprised as anybody! Take a look at my post and the comments for more info. Just shows you never know. At least Carl was nice about it, when he had every right to complain loudly about my opening up my big yap. ;)

Jason
Lingwë - Musings of a Fish
26 Oct, 2007
2007-10-26 9:18:35 AM UTC
[Update - Just after posting this I found Jason's post here as well. Gotta fix those anonymous postings so they come through automatically...]

One never knows.... I was of the same opinion as those voiced here (looks convincing, but that letter couldn't be written by CJRT...)

As it turns out, the letter and signature are authentic (though the seller is not whom the letter was written to.) For the whole story, read this interesting blog post and comments here:

http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2007/10/cops-are-in-full-chase-of-villains.html

The note and signed bookplates were originally sent to Carl F. Hostetter. Wish I got nice letters like that from Christopher...
26 Oct, 2007
2007-10-26 11:16:24 PM UTC
Thanks Rowns.
Amazing, I guess you can be too sceptical sometimes.
Did anyone catch how much this went for?

Dior
30 Oct, 2007
2007-10-30 9:39:27 PM UTC
It was cancelled before ending. Don't know if eBay killed it because of the controversy or if the seller pulled it.
12
Jump to Last
All original content ©2024 by the submitting authors. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Contact Us