The collecting situation has gone completely mad when tatty unjacketed 1958 Hobbits covered in some kind of shiny substance (probably renwax or sumesuch), with torn bindings are getting £210 on eBay. I am so glad that I am done collecting Hobbits (and pretty much done outright).
I wonder if this is all speculation because people think the Amazon series will push prices up? And I wonder if what will actually happen is that all the price-rises happen before the series and everyone paying top dollar for rubbish now will end up regretting it. It really seems to have happened in the last 6 months.
I would speculate that it's a mix of Amazon series hype and precedents being set (e.g. people thinking that if Hobbits go for that much, they must be worth that much). If the Amazon series is a success then I would expect prices would continue to rise as they did when the Peter Jackson films came out, but hopefully they come down in the not-too-distant future. I definitely think the Tolkien market (or at least the Hobbit market) is in a bit of a bubble right now.
I'm seeing the run-up on Tolkien stuff too, but I am also seeing it in general book auction prices, art auctions, bitcoin, precious metals, GameStop (joke), etc.
I think there is a serious investing market bubble hedge/capital protection going on in general that is spilling over into Tolkien collecting - concurrent with the run-up to the Amazon show also affecting the Tolkien collecting market.
I think there are a lot of very bored people out there at the moment using the web to buy more things and find things they think will be good investments. Bitcoin being a great example and books another. I was looking at recent Harry Potter books the other day and those too have seemingly gone through the roof ! Of course the bubble will burst at some stage I guess
That is much higher than I would have guessed or ever thought to offer for this.
I got a '59 with the Dust Jacket in VG condition a few months back for 220 GBP and felt like I was overpaying for that. So this is crazy to me.
One trend I'm noticing in the market for Tolkien, are the number of sellers asking for outlandish prices increasing (esp for Hobbits and LOTR sets) the number of "Dogfarks" are seemingly increasing.
I agree with Laurel. There are a lot of people out there who have absolutely nothing to spend their leisure money on. An an abundance of time to think about that. Add to that the relative drop in listings (worries about postal access perhaps) and you have a potent mix. A lot of people + spare cash + not much for sale. Prices are only going to go up in those circumstances. I'm not sure how Amazon figures in this mix yet.
That is much higher than I would have guessed or ever thought to offer for this.
I got a '59 with the Dust Jacket in VG condition a few months back for 220 GBP and felt like I was overpaying for that. So this is crazy to me.
One trend I'm noticing in the market for Tolkien, are the number of sellers asking for outlandish prices increasing (esp for Hobbits and LOTR sets) the number of "Dogfarks" are seemingly increasing.
Yeah, I paid £205 for a near-fine (other than spine tanning to the DJ) '59 that had obviously never been read, maybe three years ago. The listing was fairly obviously shilled and I felt a bit stiffed at the time (I figured 150 would have been about right). Now it would seem like good value.
The same thing is also happening in Italy, since about one year. There were some debate between Vittoria Alliata (the first, historical Italian translator of The Lord of the Rings, dating back to 1967) and Bompiani (the publisher of Tolkien's works in Italy since 2000), embittered also by the announcement of a new Italian translation of LOTR. In short, all the copies of LOTR with the historical translation has been withdrawn from the market, paving the way to the release of the new translation, which is now the only one available on the market, as three volumes (published between Oct 2019 and July 2020) and as a single volume (Oct 2020).
The aftermath was the general perception that "old" editions of LOTR became "rare" and "scarce", though they were on the market in the last 50 years and sold in thousands copies! Prices increased tenfold or more, including those of awful paperbacks previously sold for a handful of euros. It is emblematic the instance of the hardback edition of LOTR, illustrated by Alan Lee (similar to the HarperCollins original one), whose price on eBay and other sites increased up to 500+ euros! Furthermore, the prices of all Tolkien's stuff tremendously increased: not only LOTR editions, but everything with a "Tolkien" on the title page, including books still available on the market.
Hope this market bubble will burst as soon as possible!
Having large swaths of the world largely confined to their homes sends people searching for new hobbies, rediscovering old ones, and searching their closets for old collectibles.
Having large swaths of the world largely confined to their homes sends people searching for new hobbies, rediscovering old ones, and searching their closets for old collectibles.
I got two words: "Beanie Babies"....
If there are that many cards getting graded, there really isn't a shortage. Kind of like 1st impression Silmarillions!
10
1983