wheresrob wrote:

Shot up to 1000 pounds last week then been stagnant. Wonder if the bidder is sweating that they may actually win.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

First one I've seen come up for sale in about two years.

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THE HOBBIT, J R R Tolkien, rare 1968 Pleasure in Reading edition. Longmans 1st

234848711761

Seller: thepetersfieldbookshop

(2021)

Ended Jan 15, 2023

This item ended more than 90 days ago

Looking at the bid history so far the current leader jumped in initially when the biding was at £1000 so my guess is that they really want the book…

Very.. wow, it doubled at the end. 2150 pounds.

wheresrob wrote:

Very.. wow, it doubled at the end. 2150 pounds.

Looks likes it was a bidding war. Could have been that the high bid was due to a “win at any cost regardless of the value of item” mentality.

Or it could end up for resale at 3x the final price soon at one of our favorite sellers…

And so the market demand goes:

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Tolkien - The Hobbit Pleasure in Reading Longman 1970 - 2nd Imp - Scarce !

304771988623

Seller: thoutmosis2

(224)

Ended Jan 16, 2023

This item ended more than 90 days ago

LanceFormation wrote:

And so the market demand goes:

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Tolkien - The Hobbit Pleasure in Reading Longman 1970 - 2nd Imp - Scarce !

304771988623

Seller: thoutmosis2

(224)

Ended Jan 16, 2023

This item ended more than 90 days ago

is that the same one?

EDIT: It's a new one.

The fact that this has been posted so soon after the last one sold means it will crash the price. Nobody will buy this now. The fact the last one sold so high is because it hasn't been listed in so long. Or am I wrong?

The copy that just sold has (quite drastically) changed what it appears the market is willing to pay. Prior to this, the last one sold for a few hundred pounds (£400-500 if I recall). If you look at the bidding data



You can clearly see that there were *four* people willing to pay £1800 or more for that copy. This seller is hoping that one of the three that lost out is willing to buy their copy as a consolation - or that additional buyers will emerge and think they are getting a deal because £1800 is clearly much less than £2150.

I expect many more copies to emerge on the market from various sellers due to this last auction - whether they all sell is unknown, nor what price they will attain. I personally expect prices will come back down from this, eventually (but could be wrong - I have no idea what drove all these people to bid so much, there will be plenty more copies for sale in the future).

I’m no genius but it was incredibly short sighted for whoever made that listing to make it a buy instead of a bid.

A bid would have netted him a significant profit.

The only reason the last book sold for so much is because a couple individuals with a lot of money to throw around assumed it was insanely rare (it is) and another listing would probably not come soon.

The person who won the last bid has now lost a significant amount of money thanks to this new lister who, with his own listing probably crashed the theoretical value of book back down south of what it just sold for.

The only possible way it will sell anything close to above 1k now is if nobody lists it for a long time again. (Or if someone who will pay anything to get it buys it, but that shouldn’t be reflective of the value of anything)

My take.

This newest listing is a second impression, while the one that just sold is a first impression. I would expect that second impressions, generally speaking, sell for less than the first impressions (ignoring lots of other factors e.g. book condition).

I agree but I think with this book it's so rare the impression doesn't even matter...

Also, the last one was an ex-library. This lister made sure to note that his is not ...

The new one is torn with scribbles in it