Njen wrote:

I've been chatting with him too. Told him to not go to a book store to sell because they will drastically undervalue the items.

I actually mentioned a kind of crazy but much cooler idea to him: if the rest of collection is as rare and extensive as the items he has found so far are, I suggested to maybe see if an exhibition could be set up, and get a cut of the proceeds, that way many people can experience these once in a lifetime items. Then at the end, he can always sell if he wants to.

Honestly, book dealers (including specialist Tolkien dealers - some of whom I don't have a lot of respect for) will probably be the worst in terms of undervaluing (it is their job to make money after all). I would be chucking the really significant items through a very well publicised auction through one of the respected auction houses. It is impossible to value something like Songs (though I know roughly what the last couple sold for a decade or more ago). A well publicised auction could potentially lead to a fairly stratospheric price in the current market, I think.

Just extraordinary.

Hope we get to learn something about the man behind this collection!

And I second the idea of an exhibit before these get sold and scattered to the private winds.

Yes, this is absolutely amazing.
I am speechless!

What a discovery, I will be following this closely with no hope of buying. 😁

Mind-blowing !

Éarendel wrote:

What a discovery, I will be following this closely with no hope of buying. 😁

Same ! But who knows ? There may be some little things left for modest collectors ;)

I think the record is worth correcting on this. While I cannot speak for all dealers, I charge a straightforward 10% consignment fee and can realise greater prices than even major auction houses can. Meanwhile, auction houses take 20%-30% in fees from the buyer and 5-15% in fees from the seller, and still end up selling a large amount to dealers who then sell it for more!

Can any of you experts make a guess what would be a fair price to pay for Geschichte der Englischen Literatur if its from Tolkiens personal library? Just so I know if I can continue dreaming about owning a german book Tolkien once owned.

tomwa wrote:

I think the record is worth correcting on this. While I cannot speak for all dealers, I charge a straightforward 10% consignment fee and can realise greater prices than even major auction houses can. Meanwhile, auction houses take 20%-30% in fees from the buyer and 5-15% in fees from the seller, and still end up selling a large amount to dealers who then sell it for more!

Worth pointing out a dealer selling on consignment is a very different situation than a dealer buying the item to on-sell. I was personally referring to the latter situation (selling TO a dealer not VIA a dealer). And I do know of a few specific situations where uninformed sellers have been somewhat misled by Tolkien-centric dealers. I wouldn't say ripped off, but they have not received anything like fair market value. But as with any business, there are good eggs and bad eggs.

Buy yes, I don't doubt selling on consignment might be a good option for the OP.

Hey, I have some life stuff going on at the moment. I’m might not be very responsive or active for the weekend. I’ll try my best to get back to yall as soon as possible but no promises right now. Thank you for the messages, help and patience!

Once again, sorry for the tardiness on replying, I got stuff going on, I’ll try to respond to yall when I get chance, but thank you for understanding. Here’s a random shelf with some mid tier books(there are books behind the books you can’t see), hopefully this satisfies yall for the mean time.