The Silmarillion domestic 1st edition

Yes, that's a domestic (UK Market) first impression.

Nice! If that is the case how does this stack up to other printings value wise that are generally sought after. Seems that the emphasis on the other printings are on the errors like the lack of a period after Feanor on page 330 and the italic Lord of Waters and King of the Sea on page 352. Did the UK domestic version get it perfect on the first impression?

SilverHawk wrote:

Nice! If that is the case how does this stack up to other printings value wise that are generally sought after. Seems that the emphasis on the other printings are on the errors like the lack of a period after Feanor on page 330 and the italic Lord of Waters and King of the Sea on page 352. Did the UK domestic version get it perfect on the first impression?

People tend to collect both the first domestic and export editions (in their various states), I think. I think there are two states of the Billings (?). Khamûl knows everything there is to know about the various states. Worth saying that none of them have any great monetary value as the print numbers were so extraordinarily large (many hundreds of thousands of copies). There are dealers (the usual suspects) that will try and tell you you should collect X or Y, but generally it is just whatever they happen to be trying to sell. Unfortunately there are a couple of dealers in the Tolkien space that take predatory pricing very seriously. In that they really try to be very good at it.

Gotcha, thank you! I can only get so far researching the topic on the forums/net. Just wanted to reach out for some perspectives to get a baseline feel for the collectors market. Currently filling out the stash replacing paperbacks with some hardcovers. I read on the forums that Khamûl is the person to go to but I didn't want to invoke his name yet. :P

TolkienBooks has this pretty well covered. Although, in respect to the 1977 incarnation in particular, it is true that there are a few other unrecorded variants out there that Neil doesn't have listed. Pretty much every combination of printer/binding/errors is probably out there. As for later S entries on TB; again pretty comprehensive. There are a few more impressions of a few of the 80's editions than aren't recorded there, but it's o/w accurate. And as Stu says, the sheer volume of standard editions printed at the time was vast. These editions are easily & readily encountered & there is no real reason to be paying (in my opinion) more than £20-30 for any particular copy, unless it has some unique feature. Methuens, Dummys, 1982s, etc - sure you'll be looking at £££ (or higher for a 1982).