Please Help Me Assess the Condition of this Hobbit

That certainly looks near fine to me! Given that the restoration work is reinforcement and not replacement, that dustjacket is in remarkable condition.

Please be aware that two auctions are coming up in the next month for 1st/1st Hobbits with excellent dustjackets.

https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/42520/ ... no&title=&view=lot_detail

and

https://fonsiemealy.ie/auctions/lot-5490303/

Hello Urulöké and Trotter, thank you very much for the info!

By the way, I see that the copy auctioned at Fonsiemealy is supposedly an unrestored copy with tears on the edges, but no missing parts.
What would be a more desirable copy to Tolkien bibliophile, disregarding their price tags? The one sold at Fonsiemealy or the one that I have listed above?

The one at Fonsie Mealy states that the condition of the dust jacket is in "extremely fine" condition, btw.

Go for the one that you like the best.

It's is incredibly hard to compare dustjacket flaws from scanned images - ignoring the possibility of photoshopping (for legibility, brightness adjustments, etc. in addition to the very rare bad actor), scans can mask flaws or really make them look much worse than they appear in person, it just depends on lighting, angle, if it was pressed against glass on a scanning bed or a photograph, etc.

I think adding non-original material to the presentation of a dustjacket would lessen the desirability - to be clear I don't think any of the three in this conversation have done this.

Flawless dustjackets command a higher price than flawed ones, but there is so rarely more than one high end Hobbit on the market at the same time, that comparing prices means you are also comparing marketplace shifts in the months or years in between sales. Did the value of the hobbit that sold for ~$100k fifteen years ago come from the condition? The movie hype? Something else? Once that buyer had a copy and "left the market", did other prices come down because they weren't bidding on subsequent auctions against the other handful of collectors and dealers that trade in first Hobbits? Impossible to tell with so few data points.

Buy the best condition you can, that you can afford, for something you really want in your collection. Remember that if you want to sell it again later, you have three options:

1. Sell it at auction again. Probably you will pay 20% or more of the hammer price in seller's fees, so the market would have to shift at least 25% higher for you to get your sunk costs back.

2. Sell it to a dealer, or put on consignment with one. Selling outright will likely mean they pay 50% or so of what they think they can sell it for. Consignment might get you more (once they find a customer) but I don't expect you'd ever get more than 75% or so of the final sale price based on my experience.

3. Find a buyer yourself and negotiate a price. You get to keep all of the money (minus bank fees for the transaction, but those are probably a few percent at best). This could take years of hunting for the handful of buyers willing to spend this kind of money for a private transaction, and building their trust in you as a seller could be challenging. Advertising fees, etc. to get the right people to be aware that you have one for sale could end up running a significant percentage of the final price, depending - there's a reason most high end books go through auction houses and dealers, and why they charge what they do for their services.

Just thoughts off the top of my head. I would say that the Tolkien collecting community is not the same as the high end book collecting community that drops tens of thousands of dollars on first editions any more, sadly. I know of maybe two or three people in the world who avidly collect Tolkien *and* can afford first edition copies of The Hobbit (and they have copies already), and I know many hundreds of Tolkien collectors.

To clarify this "the Tolkien collecting community is not the same as the high end book collecting community that drops tens of thousands of dollars on first editions any more, sadly" -

What I mean is that a few decades ago, an avid Tolkien collector could afford first editions if they were patient. The run-up to the movies and subsequent popularity has pushed Tolkien firsts of H and LotR into a whole different world of book collectors.

I've seen that copy for sale and thought it was a nice restoration. However, anyone restoring a book like that has before as well as after pics. You need to judge the actual condition of the dust-jacket from the before pics, which the seller should be able to supply. As Uruloke suggests, you will likely lose money, even if you find someone willing to pay the same price as you in the future, due to all the fees. That said, predicting where prices will go on these in the future is anyone's guess. Book collecting is fashion driven and things go in and out of fashion.

[Edit: Worth also noting there are a LOT of these coming to market at the moment -- way more than I have ever seen before]

[Edit 2:

"The fact that I do not own the copy keeps me sleepless at nights!"

It really shouldn't -- it is just a book. I think there is a point that collecting (of anything) can become a bit unhealthy, and if not having something in your collection is a source of stress, that is not good (IMHO)!]

I agree with Stu. Collecting shouldn't be too stressful. If it is, it isn't a good hobby anymore.
I am stressed from time to time, but it is usually connected to lost books in transit.
You can't influence that though.