BruffyBoy, any nice copies of The Silmarillion? --I don't recall if you bought any real gems, or not.

BH

As for prices: under £200 doesn't sound very common.

I agree that under £200 would be uncommon for CoH (although anyone paying over £250 would have to be a bit eager).

The average price just on your sample of two for S&G is £197.50. My point was really that once you add on postage costs to these prices, you pretty much hit £500 anyway, in which case the buyer is likely to buy new and unopened from HC (assuming they will still sell at the discounted price), especially if they are looking to purchase internationally.

All that said, eBay sales are all about luck. One day something fetches a high price, the next day it goes for peanuts.

>Sorry, not following --"3 Volume SD LOTR"?

3 Volume Super-Deluxe Illustrated Lord of the Rings - BruffyBoy purchased a set from David Miller and wrote about it on his blog.

Stu

Yes, I see it on his blog now --the Alan Lee set. Yes, very nice. Purely from a personal point of view, this is the sort of set which I really don't think is worth the £600 Bruffyboy paid for it; never mind the higher prices he suggests it's 'worth'. But, everyone to their own --if one wants to pay hundreds (or into the thousands) for books produced by HarperCollins in the 90's, fair enough. Just seems too much...

BH

>Yes, I see it on his blog now --the Alan Lee set. Yes, very nice. Purely from a personal point of view, this is the sort of set which I really don't think is worth the £600 Bruffyboy paid for it; never mind the higher prices he suggests it's 'worth'. But, everyone to their own --if one wants to pay hundreds (or into the thousands) for books produced by HarperCollins in the 90's, fair enough. Just seems too much...

£600 would be right at the top-end price-wise for any of the HC Super-Deluxes, I think. Realistically, no Tolkien book should be "worth" that kind of price, old or new. Tolkien Book prices make absolutely no sense, and long-term I can only see prices going down across the board.

I'm actually starting to find it a bit depressing; anything even slightly appealing to collectors is going for hundreds --mostly, I guess, to bookdealers. And some books, that you just want to read (like Rayner's Remembrancer), are going for more money than I'm likely to spend on any book ever! Other more desirable editions are just totally unaffordable, & I don't think I'll ever be able to acquire these books. Which, purely from a research point of view (if that's not too grand a term for examining these books), is really annoying.

BH

>I'm actually starting to find it a bit depressing; anything even slightly appealing to collectors is going for hundreds --mostly, I guess, to bookdealers

Unfortunately, the hardcore professional bookdealers are a bit like estate agents and second hand car dealers. They do have their place, but for the most part they just add to the cost incurred by everyone and drive prices up. I may have just been unlucky, but I have to say that my least satisfactory purchases (in terms of correct/accurate product description) have been from professional bookdealers. Even the more well known Tolkien book dealers can be a bit "optimistic" with their descriptions on occasion (and I'm not THAT picky).

Stu