eBay Item #131312397468

This wasn't on for long! Haven't we seen it before somewhere?

Trotter wrote:
eBay Item #131312084897

This is already bid up to 1,020 pounds with 8 days to go. I simply don't understand the logic of people bidding the price up so far in advance - there is just no rational logic in using eBay in that manner any more.

Out of interest, what is the sense from anyone who has purchased Jacket-less 1/1 and 1/2 Hobbits (within the last couple of years) of what they are actually worth?

Yep its flying for sure. The seller had a reserve on it initially and I suggested to him that would put some bidders off so if brave take a gamble and remove. He did this and it looks to be paying off.

The tatics of bidding have no doubt been talked though before but I sometimes I think a high bid to 'blow others out of water' sometimes works. This definitely works at auctions where I have won items with a high starting bid which stuns other bidders.

Of course you are left wondering if you could have got cheaper ?!?!?

Wonder what this will finish at ? It wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't get any more bids, you know how crazy ebay is!

Stu wrote:
Out of interest, what is the sense from anyone who has purchased Jacket-less 1/1 and 1/2 Hobbits (within the last couple of years) of what they are actually worth?

I think that at the moment prices for GA&U editions,without the original dust jacket, are that the second is roughly 50% of the first, depending on conditions such as damage to the book, book plates, inscriptions, ex-library, etc.

1st Impression GA&U Hobbit (no dust jacket) £5-6000
2nd Impression GA&A Hobbit (no dust jacket) £2500

The current seller has not provided much information on the condition of the book, and only a few photos, so this item may go for less.

A very interesting area though would be if you have the original book and parts or bits of the original dust jacket, how are these valued?

I don't know.

mmm
I think you wouldn't even get these prices at the moment. The market has definitely taken a slump for all bar very rare items
I'd say £3-4,000 for a 1st
and £1,500 -£2000 for a 2nd

Part jackets are an interesting debate though. What do you do with them?
Have them restored at a high price or try and put in a protective cover no matter what the state?

I guess its a personal preference and over the years I have done both. With good jacket restoration running at £750 + for significant work the former is not cheap for sure.

laurel wrote:
With good jacket restoration running at £750 + for significant work the former is not cheap for sure.

I think the problem with restoration is that the general opinion (that I have read online) seems to be that a restored jacket is worth the same (if reversible) or less than the unrestored. Anything beyond very minor restoration is skirting dangerously close to facsimile territory, anyway.

Seems better to just keep the jacket fragments protected for posterity and stick a facsimile jacket on the book to make it look nice in the shelf (or possibly some combination of the two -- with the facsimile behind the genuine jacket, depending on the state of the original).

This is interesting, but also a bit of a "Wonders of" on account of who pays 750 quid for a book based on a single picture of the dustjacket?

eBay Item #390947917179