The Mystery of Holly Lane 1ST H/B D/W 1953 ACC

[pete9012S]

THE MYSTERY OF HOLLY LANE ENID BLYTON 1ST H/B D/W 1953 ACCEPTABLE

Just 3hrs to go on this one and no one has bid (yet) its still at £3.99 with £2.65 postage!
Wonder what it will finally go for?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280940075485? ... 1438.l2649" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MJE]

     Well, there's no way I would have bid on it, with that torn cover! I wouldn't accept it if you gave it to me for nothing, since I can't spare the space to keep books I know from the start I will want to buy again in a better copy.
     Maybe someone who just wants to read it but doesn't really care how it looks may feel a bit differently - but evidently no such person found this auction.

Regards, Michael.

[7upromana01]

MJE, it is hard to find first editions and it was actually fairly cheap for what it is. I would of bought it but I have very little money to spare at the moment and we're coming up to my birthday and christmas

[Fiona1986]

To me, there's no point in advertising it as "with D/W" as there's really not enough D/W to count! Anybody looking for copies with D/Ws specifically probably wouldn't touch that.

On the merits of edition alone, it's a decent enough deal. If I didn't already have a copy I'd certainly have looked twice. Just checked, and my copy is a 1st without D/W anyway. I can't justify the space or money to buy nicer/older copies of books I already have. I buy copies that meet or exceed my requirements and just have to suffer if I later see a better copy.

[MJE]

MJE, it is hard to find first editions and it was actually fairly cheap for what it is.

On the merits of edition alone, it's a decent enough deal. If I didn't already have a copy I'd certainly have looked twice.

     These reactions kind of surprised me. Admittedly I didn't really examine the exact edition, didn't notice whether it was a first or not - I personally don't attach as much value to being a first edition as some people do, although I strongly prefer earlier editions generally - both because I am concerned about getting unaltered texts and because, when illustrations change, I usually prefer the earlier ones.
     So evidently this is a better deal than I thought, and it looks as if I'm going to get a bit of a shock whenever I start trying to find older editions of this series with dustwrappers. Maybe I'd just better stick with the Dragon and Armda paperbacks I have - which after all are the ones I originally had as a boy, anyway.

To me, there's no point in advertising it as "with D/W" as there's really not enough D/W to count! Anybody looking for copies with D/Ws specifically probably wouldn't touch that.

     Yes, I think that's what got me. I have bought dustwrapperless copies before, probably to save money, but in the end not felt satisfied with them - so in the long run it seems a waste of both money and space to get them if you know in the end you'll want something better. The question is whether to hold back on lesser copies and just wait until you see one you'll be satisfied with, even if it takes years - and take the risk that it may become so rare or expensive you'll never find it - or whether to buy whatever you can find now and hope to find something better later on, even if it may cost more in the long run - because you've bought duplicate, triplicate, or more copies.
     These older copies are presumably getting rarer all the time: some must get destroyed, wear out, etc. from time to time, and some must be acquired by collectors who will never part with them for as long as they live; so I do wonder if a kind of "panic factor" is at work in the Blyton collecting world, where people are prepared to pay higher and higher prices, on top of what they would otherwise be worth, purely because they are afraid of the books getting rarer and rarer and feel they must get one soon, while they still can.
     I have a number of duplicates I am not really satisfied with, and perhaps I should consider selling them. I don't know if I'd get enough to justify the effort, though: while I am very glad indeed that there are lots of people in the world who consider it worthwhile selling second-hand books, I do wonder if it's really worth the hassle of doing so. I've never sold anything second-hand, on eBay or elsewhere, as I have the impression it's a lot more bother than it's worth. (Also I don't have a camera, so couldn't supply pictures, and I get the feeling that eBay auctions without pictures are pretty well a lost cause, and rarely attract bids.)
     But the supply of good Blyton editions (by which I mean unedited, unrevised ones) is surely going to dry up more and more. It's a pity that there isn't some way these older editions could be reproduced for those who want unaltered copies. With computers and all that, now for the first time it might be possible to produce these economically - but I suppose there would be all sorts of copyright problems with that, and the copyright holders (whoever they are now) presumably want to sell only the censored, politically-correct versions. I sometimes think copyright impedes access to artistic or literary works, and works against their interests rather than for them.

Regards, Michael.