The Folk of the Faraway Tree with jacket

[IceMaiden]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-1958 ... ect=mobile" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Courtenay]

Ooooooh, that's just the one I want, and in such good condition... I was hoping against hope it would be a "Buy it now", not an auction!!

I'll keep an eye on it and see how high the price goes closer to the closing time, though unfortunately I have a nasty feeling it'll get exorbitant. Thanks for letting us know, IceMaiden.

[Courtenay]

Hmmm, also just noticed it's been covered with clear contact (i.e. stick-on plastic covering) — now that might put off "real" collectors who would shudder at any such sacrilege. Here's hoping. (I don't want to start bidding until a bit closer to the closing time.)

[IceMaiden]

The clear contact has to be Mylar film stuff, surely nobody would fix sticky adhesive sheeting directly onto a book dustjacket ? We used to cover our school exercise books in that and if you made a mistake putting it on the book was ruined as you'd never ever get it back off!

[Courtenay]

The clear contact has to be Mylar film stuff, surely nobody would fix sticky adhesive sheeting directly onto a book dustjacket ?

I reckon some people would — I've seen all sorts of things done to books by people who should have known better. I hope they haven't in this case, but you really never know.

[Rob Houghton]

Yes - looking at it closely I should say its been covered with sticky plastic - it fits too tight around the spine to be just a loose plastic cover - and the photo showing the inside flap seems to show that the plastic is not only stuck to the cover but stuck to the book's inside front end paper.

[Courtenay]

Yes, that's what I was thinking from looking at the photos. Ugh. Maybe that's why it hasn't had any bids and hasn't gone up in price at all yet, despite being one of the titles that usually fetches over £90.00 with a dust jacket in good condition. And yet, and yet — if that keeps it affordable, and seeing I'm not a serious collector and could live with it, this could mean I might just have a chance of getting it at last... (Annoyingly, its final day is when I'll be in transit from London to Melbourne, so I probably won't be able to watch out at the last minute. But I will bid before I leave and see what happens.)

[Rob Houghton]

I would still definitely go for it if I wanted it - the price is very good, as you say.

I have a couple of books with plastic stuck onto the dust wrappers - 'My Second Enid Blyton Book' and 'My Third Enid Blyton Book' from the 1950's - and to be honest it has really kept the wrappers in very good condition, even though its not the best way to do it! It keeps them extra bright and new looking!

[Courtenay]

Well, there it is. I'd far rather pay £25.00 for this book with a contact-covered dust jacket that's in perfect condition underneath the plastic, than £90.00 for it with a jacket that's un-plasticised (if you like) but tatty and torn around the edges!!

[Courtenay]

I've put in a bid for it now (just £30.00 to start off with), so we'll see what happens...

[Courtenay]

Aaaaargh... I bid £30 on it, only to find, when I got into Melbourne Airport this morning (evening for you in the UK), that I'd just been pipped by another bidder at the last minute (however much they bid, they got it for £31). Oh well. I would hope it went to a worthy owner — due to the contact covering, it's unlikely to be a dealer who's planning to sell it on for mega-quids — and there'll be another one eventually.

[Rob Houghton]

If I'd have known, I'd have bid for it and then sent it to you for the price I bid (if it wasn't much higher anyway!). Sorry you missed out!

[Courtenay]

That's very kind of you, Rob. I'm sure there'll be another one some day, though — hopefully not for too exorbitant a price (I wish )!

EDIT: Yeah, like this...

(I DID once pay that much for a first edition of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, but that is a book that IS genuinely very rare and the first edition is different from every other edition ever published, so I could justify it to myself and I don't regret buying it. This one is a little too much, to say the least.)

[Rob Houghton]

(I DID once pay that much for a first edition of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, but that is a book that IS genuinely very rare and the first edition is different from every other edition ever published, so I could justify it to myself and I don't regret buying it. This one is a little too much, to say the least.)

That makes me feel that my copy of The Magic Faraway Tree from 1967 with dust wrapper is actually quite cheap at 'only' £82.00 and free postage!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enid-Blyton- ... :rk:1:pf:1

[IceMaiden]

Sorry you lost it Courtenay . I saw it went for a good price and wondered if you'd managed to get it. I'll keep an eye out for another, hopefully without a stuck on plastic cover. Still can't get my head around anybody doing that, if it needed removing for any reason it would completely ruin the dustjacket. To me it's like gluing a valuable painting to the glass of it's frame .