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Valuation needed: English language Tintin books

Aalok
Member
#1 · Posted: 30 Oct 2010 19:40
Hey just interested in evaluating my books; would any of these be in anyone's opinion worth anything? Not that I'd sell of course :)

Tintin in America 1992 Mammoth SC
Cigars of the Pharaoh 1971 Methuen HC
The Blue Lotus 1992 Mammoth SC
The Broken Ear 1986 Magnet SC
The Black Island 1972 Methuen SC
King Ottokar’s Sceptre 1964 Methuen HC
The Crab with the Golden Claws 1964 Methuen HC
The Shooting Star 1965 Methuen HC
The Secret of The Unicorn 1959 Golden Press HC
Red Rackham’s Treasure 1965 Methuen HC
The Seven Crystal Balls 1975 Methuen SC
Prisoners of the Sun 1965 Methuen HC
The Land of Black Gold 1975 Methuen SC
Destination Moon 1965 Methuen HC
Explorers on the Moon 1975 Methuen SC
The Calculus Affair 1965 Methuen HC
The Red Sea Sharks 1972 Methuen SC
Tintin in Tibet 1972 Methuen SC
The Castafiore Emerald 1975 Methuen SC
Flight 714 1975 Methuen SC
Tintin and the Picaros 1976 Methuen HC
Tintin and Alph-Art 2004 Egmont HC
The Lake of Sharks 1975 Methuen SC
Tintin and The Golden Fleece 1966 Methuen HC

Moderator Note: It’s much easier to read, and looks less like shouting, if you try not to use block capitals so much; we have made the adjustment to the list, so it makes it looks a little less formidable!

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number1fan
Member
#2 · Posted: 11 Nov 2010 09:53
If there all first editions,Hardback and in mint condition.Some will go for about £175 some of the earlier ones but as for the later ones like The Blue Lotus may go for less.Keep hold of that Golden Press as they were the first editions to come out in America and various differences to some of the dialogue edition of The Secret of the Unicorn there quite rare and valuable.
Iwatts00
Member
#3 · Posted: 15 May 2011 03:17
Wow - all these years and I never knew about this site - and then after 50 years and the day I decide to sell my collection I find it....maybe I will not list the rest of them after all. I put Destination Moon on Ebay and referenced my other books I was going to list and someone asked me what I wanted for all eleven books. How should I value these? Is there soem guideline as to what they are worth? Should I keep them instead? I have all hardcover first editions of Methuen's King Ottokar's Sceptre - 1958, Prisoners of the Sun - 1962, The Castafiore Emerald - 1963, The Secret of the Unicorn - 1959, The Calculus Affair - 1960, Red Rackham's Treasure - 1959, The Seven Crystal Balls, 1962, The Red Sea Sharks - 1960, The Crab with the Golden Claws - 1958, Destination Moon 1959, and of course Explorers on the Moon - 1959. Any comments would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Ian
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 15 May 2011 13:03
Iwatts00:
I was going to list and someone asked me what I wanted for all eleven books. How should I value these?

Well, this puts me in a quandary - as the question of what you wanted for the set was asked by - me!

So really, I’d have to say that they are probably worth next to nothing… ;-)

Seriously, the reason that I didn’t e-mail you back immediately (apart from the fact that it was the middle of the night here) was you raise an interesting question here about worth and value.

In the normal scope of things, I’d say that they are worth somewhere between £25 and £45 each - you’ll see higher figures bandied about, and dealers on sites like abebooks will list them at over £100, but in the scheme of things they tend not to be very rare, and come up quite a lot, but between those figures seems to be where they fall on eBay. It would be up to you to decide if a “job lot” approach would work - normally the buying of a quantity would not be the multiple of buying all the individual items.

However, the biggest wrinkle is that you are in the States. This means that the postage angle may make them less attractive to a European audience. They may be more attractive to a U.S. collector, because Methuen books were not that widely available over there - but then there are probably fewer collectors to begin with.

Add to this (and my biggest surprise) is that the albums new today are $40 more or less in the U.S., and it makes it harder for me to advise what the best figure would be. Obviously that’s more than new books cost here in the U.K., and is closer to the collector value I’d expect for the old Methuens.

That something may cost more (or as much) as something “second-hand” in some ways is to be expected - yet in others seems to be odd too.

Feel free to e-mail me again off forum, as I’d still be interested in them if the postage wasn’t too huge an obstacle.
mondrian
Member
#5 · Posted: 16 May 2011 00:39
jock123:
the albums new today are $40 more or less in the U.S

That's quite shocking. Can anyone tell more? I'd assume that's hardcover, are cheaper softcovers available? And how that compares to price of other comics there?

(sorry for wandering off-topic, split into new thread if that's worthwhile).

And to say something on-topic:

Iwatts00:
Is there some guideline as to what they are worth? Should I keep them instead?

I don't follow the market, so can't suggest any numbers. But as a guideline, I'd suppose the prices will go higher in the autumn if the movie is a success. So I'd keep them at least until then if I was you. (And best advice of course is to keep them and read them.)

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