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Information Wanted: Valuation of Tintin books?

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eveandamisdad
Member
#1 · Posted: 5 Apr 2005 18:58
Hi ,
I wonder if you can help - I am selling some Tintin books on e-bay at the moment. Seventeen books in excellent condition, printed around 1981 by MAgnet Publishers. I found them up in the loft at home !!
I wonder if you could tell me if they are actually worth anything, or is the current bid of £41.51 (roughly $100) a fair price. I have posted a link and hope that you can help me - I don't want to sell them for hardly anything if they are worth a lot more
Moderator Note: Link expired, so removed
Thanks in anticipation
Marc
BlackIsland
Member
#2 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 02:45
Not as much as you would think because there were so many of them printed. E-bay has a bad reputation of leveling out the field in value of things on the other hand.
jock123
Moderator
#3 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 10:50
I guess that's really just a question of what you get. None of the titles you have is what I would think of as "rare" - although you have chosen to use that in your description - as they are mass-market editions, the books are all still in print, and available in all good bookshops, as they say. As it stands there might be some people who want the particular imprint you have, as the English-language titles have changed publishers since then. I think getting over £60 is doing quite well!

Non-fiction Tintin titles in English are rare - they tend to get only one printing, and with small print runs. If you had the Tintin game book, or the "Making of" double albums, they tend to be more valuable.
rastapopoulos
Member
#4 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 13:26
jock123
If you had the Tintin game book, or the "Making of" double albums, they tend to be more valuable

I have the Making of Tintin Unicorn double album in mint condition, and I also have the Tintin Games book. My Tintin games book has a flattened spine, which at the time I brought it brand new and was given money off it. The flattened spine was a factory error - would this add value or decrease it? Also is the 60 years of Tintin book (of the exhibition) rare aswell?
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#5 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 13:45
Tintin: 60 Years of Adventure is extremely rare and you don't see many of them today. It only had one short print run back in 1989.

Faulty copies don't seem to have increased value in my experience, and although it's not too often seen today I don't think the Tintin Games Book is particularly valuable.

Ed
eveandamisdad
Member
#6 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 14:05
Thanks jock - very helpful of you.

I described them as rare as I felt that books over 20 years old are quite rare. I think I was trying to describe the editions as rare rather than the titles.

Thank you for the help again

Marc
rastapopoulos
Member
#7 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 14:15
Tintin: 60 Years of Adventure is extremely rare and you don't see many of them today. It only had one short print run back in 1989

Out of interest much do you think it would fetch? roughly (Not that i will sell it). I would say it is Mint condition as it has rarely been touched.
jock123
Moderator
#8 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 15:30
edcharlesadams
although it's not too often seen today I don't think the Tintin Games Book is particularly valuable.
Not by comparison with some books, no, but a good copy is hard to find, it wasn't around for long, and I think it would have increased it's value more than, say, a copy of a regular book from the series of the same vintage.
eveandamisdad
I felt that books over 20 years old are quite rare.
No, that only makes them (not-very) old; it's the number available which would make them rare or not - it's to do with scarcity. The books published twenty years ago aren't much different from the books twenty-five years ago, or fifteen years ago, or even now, so there isn't any real reason to buy them over other copies available. In fact, to many people the fact that they are "old" will mean that they should be less expensive than new ones (second-hand, rather than pristine).
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#9 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 15:56
Out of interest much do you think it would fetch?

They've gone for up to about £100 on eBay, though of course that's not a true indication of worth.

Not by comparison with some books, no, but a good copy is hard to find, it wasn’t around for long, and I think it would have increased it’s value more than, say, a copy of a regular book from the series of the same vintage.

In retrospect I agree jock, especially on your point about books of a similar vintage. Perhaps it would be clearer to say that its intrinsic value is fairly modest, but it's of some value to completists. My view is possibly tainted because I've seen people trying to sell copies for around £50 which in my personal view is way above its true worth. I suppose it all comes back to value being based on people's preconceptions and is therefore flawed (a point which I think I made in another thread somewhere).

Ed
jock123
Moderator
#10 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 16:16
edcharlesadams
Perhaps it would be clearer to say that its intrinsic value is fairly modest, but it's of some value to completists.
Quite right - that is certainly a far more elegant way of putting it! Value is such a relative thing - I saw a thing on TV about archaeologists and archivists conserving and restoring mediaeval fabric - beautiful little squares of fantastic tapestry; they had of course been used to wipe people’s 12th century bottoms before being discarded! One man’s toilet wipe is another’s gem…!

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