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Information Wanted: Valuation of Tintin books?

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jockosjungle
Member
#11 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 19:56
I missed out on a copy of 60 years which went recently for £21 on ebay.

Rik
Richard
UK Correspondent
#12 · Posted: 6 Apr 2005 20:39
£21 ? ... I am in shock. I managed to pick up a French copy of the book (called Hergé Dessinateur) for around £17, which seems a fair price. It would have been nice to get an English copy, though ...
tintinuk
Moderator Emeritus
#13 · Posted: 7 Apr 2005 22:44
£21 ? That's a really good price ... I picked my copy up for around £25 from Abebooks, last summer.
jockosjungle
Member
#14 · Posted: 7 Apr 2005 23:23
It ended at about midnight on friday night which probably accounts for the low price

Rik
frenchie46
Member
#15 · Posted: 24 Feb 2015 18:19
Hi, and apologies if I am posting in the wrong place but I am new and not too sure where to look on the forum.

I have 3 English paperback tintin books in average conditions and I wonder if they have any value at all? I am not looking to sell but wondering if I can lend them to young kids in my family or if I would be better buying them new versions on ebay/amazon.
Also, if anyone knows a place where I can find accurate vaulue of Tintin books in English that would be fantastic. I can find many sites for the French versions but none for the English version apart from one where you need to pay £9.99 for a year subscription.
Thanks for your help
Jonathan
jock123
Moderator
#16 · Posted: 25 Feb 2015 09:53
Hi, frenchie46, and welcome!

Sadly you aren't sitting on nest-egg there; as you will see if you read back through the thread, and similar discussions on the boards, there is not really any great call for second-hand paperbacks - they never seem to have attracted collectors.

Outside of hardback first editions, there are few obviously collectible books in English; there might be a slight difference if they have the old-style writing, as opposed to the later digital type currently to be found, but I don't know that it makes much of a difference to value.

We don't have the precise information about printing history, edition variations and suchlike that forms the structure of the French collector scene, but we also don't have nearly such an avid collector market for BD either.

I would save the £9.99 a month for information about the value of books, as without any concrete information about just how many copies of the books were printed, and how well they sold, and if there were specific differences between editions, it can only be supposition and speculation.

Dealers and speculators try to build up certain titles as being "rare" or "valuable", but with no real evidence for it.

The Making Of double albums are a prime example of this - given that they were widely available for a period of years, and the number which come up for sale, the books are not that uncommon, but prices were driven ever upwards.

This may have been because those that really wanted them really wanted them, but casual observation of how things performed on places like eBay suggests it being more like sellers trying and failing to sell at those high prices.

Personally, I'd not bother paying for information about pricing on the English-language books; for one thing, it is a charter to treat them as commodities, and that isn't good for the genuine fan collector, as you end up competing for items against those solely interested in making money on an investment, which is inflationary.

Another reason against it is, as I said, that the substantive data needed (publication numbers etc.) just isn't available (several of us have tried to get it over the years, but due to one reason or another it no longer seems to exist). Any listings will be entirely speculative, so the chances are that prices will be fixed with no more accuracy than stick a finger up in the wind and guessing.

If you are thinking of selling (or buying), it is probably best to make such researches yourself - look at how things do on eBay, not just as sales, but items which complete without selling, then you can get a better picture of what the monetary value at any given time is.
frenchie46
Member
#17 · Posted: 28 Feb 2015 18:12
Thanks very much for your very detailed answer. Do you know how much 1st edition hardback books are worth on average in good condition?
I have a couple and was wondering if I should maybe not let kids read them and hide them all they they don't get ruined.
I will try to do some research on eBay too. Just strange that there isn't a site with approx valuation
mariabenfield
Member
#18 · Posted: 25 May 2016 08:55
Hello, I was wondering if anyone could give me an average value of a Methuen Tintin book, reprinted in 1977, "The Secret of The Unicorn"?

Thank you in advance!
jock123
Moderator
#19 · Posted: 25 May 2016 09:52
mariabenfield:
I was wondering if anyone could give me an average value of a Methuen Tintin book

As the thread has shown, it's difficult to put a value on things like this, especially without knowing its condition, or if it's hardback or soft cover.
However, while it's unlikely to be especially collectable, it might serve as a reading copy or for someone looking for a copy with the old-style hand-written text, so a good hardback copy might go for around £10 (could be slightly more, could easily be less).
FormulaFourteen
Member
#20 · Posted: 26 May 2016 04:50
Ok, so I've got a peculiar question, then. I suspect the answer will probably come down to the number of copies printed...

According to page 168 of Michael Farr's book Tintin: The Complete Companion there are multiple versions of Tintin in Tibet that were produced. Some versions have the real life company "Air India" affiliated with the Chang's plane that crashes, while others have the fictitious "Sari-Airways." Apparently when the book was published originally Air India complained that their professional reputation had been damaged because they had never, in reality, had a crash to that date, so Hergé changed it to "Sari-Airways."

The copy I have would appear to be the 'original' version with "Air India." It's Atlantic-Little, Brown, American Copyright 1975 by Little, Brown and Co. It also states it's the Second American Edition, not that I'm particularly expecting that to add any value.

Would this be worth anything tangible, given it's relativity to an interesting story in Hergé's Tintin publishing career? Or is mine simply one in a 'bazillion.'

(Oh, also it's in alright condition. No huge tears or spine damage, but maybe a bit of discoloration from age and use over the years... Small coffee stain from a previous owner along the top of the pages...)

Bailey

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