Stu wrote:

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The History Of The Hobbit 1 & 2 PB by JRR Tolkien John Rateliff - HarperCollins

225056080512

Seller: rustiebakes.34

(489)

Ended Jul 2, 2022

This item ended more than 90 days ago

That was a nice bargain for someone in current times. I hope those start to come onto the market more so the prices become less insane.

I own all the versions of History except the box which I sold for stupid money but newer collectors have paid some crazy prices for those paperbacks and the hardcovers.

Are the paperbacks particularly collectable?

Khamûl wrote:

Are the paperbacks particularly collectable?

They were really rare in the market as they were too recent for them to start appearing on the second hand market. For a time they did seem incredibly difficult to find. I was helping a few people find them around 2018 and they were crazy expensive.

I guess the collectable element is that they match the series of paperbacks that have the image on the spines (B-format?). From a practical pov they are redundant, as the one volume edition was a revised and updated edition.

onthetrail wrote:

Khamûl wrote:

Are the paperbacks particularly collectable?

They were really rare in the market as they were too recent for them to start appearing on the second hand market. For a time they did seem incredibly difficult to find. I was helping a few people find them around 2018 and they were crazy expensive.

I guess the collectable element is that they match the series of paperbacks that have the image on the spines (B-format?). From a practical pov they are redundant, as the one volume edition was a revised and updated edition.

See, to me, this (not you, but the "few people" you helped) is just lunacy collecting. There is a natural lag after an edition is published when copies are either genuinely hard to locate or simply not sold with enough detail to identify. This doesn't strike me as a particularly smart window in which to acquire these editions. Maybe for the odd book you missed here & there, sure; but making a habit of buying like this is going to cost you a lot of money. It just doesn't sound sustainable long-term.

Khamûl wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

Khamûl wrote:

Are the paperbacks particularly collectable?

They were really rare in the market as they were too recent for them to start appearing on the second hand market. For a time they did seem incredibly difficult to find. I was helping a few people find them around 2018 and they were crazy expensive.

I guess the collectable element is that they match the series of paperbacks that have the image on the spines (B-format?). From a practical pov they are redundant, as the one volume edition was a revised and updated edition.

See, to me, this (not you, but the "few people" you helped) is just lunacy collecting. There is a natural lag after an edition is published when copies are either genuinely hard to locate or simply not sold with enough detail to identify. This doesn't strike me as a particularly smart window in which to acquire these editions. Maybe for the odd book you missed here & there, sure; but making a habit of buying like this is going to cost you a lot of money. It just doesn't sound sustainable long-term.

I agree entirely. I pushed them toward the one-volume edition for that reason and fortunately they took my advice. I know one of the people I was helping search found volume two in paperback a few months later (around Oct 2018 iirc) and paid £120 for it. Bonkers way to collect, but people seem to be very impatient and want it now.

I have bought part 2 just a few weeks ago for 20 euro. I'll be patient for part 1. Paying more than 30 euros for a recent paperback seems a bit over the top. I always thought that those extreme prices were just a seller's wishful thinking and nobody actually bought them at those prices. Maybe I'm just a naive beginner.