PROOF COPY - Mystery Of Strange Messages - Rare?

[pete9012S]

At £95 I wondered if this was a good price???

The Mystery of the Strange Messages Five Find-outers and Dog PROOF COPY. Softcover good condition with some notes to covers adhesives might be fragile. From The Julia Sesemann Collection

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155557051420 ... Sw~i9kY3QB

[Lucky Star]

A pretty rare item I would imagine? In which case it seems a fair enough price. Unless some of the more expert people on here know otherwise.

[Debbie]

They paid £10 for it by the look of it:
https://hansonslive.hansonsauctioneers. ... 381?page=7

[Courtenay]

Hmmm, and the fact that you're paying a premium for what amounts to a book without a cover... Unless you're an utterly fanatical collector who must have everything, I can't see any point in buying it.

[pete9012S]

They paid £10 for it by the look of it:
https://hansonslive.hansonsauctioneers. ... 381?page=7

Wow, thank you very much for that info Debbie.
What an amazing bargain for a genuine Enid Blyton collector.

[John Pickup]

Out of interest, what would you have been prepared to pay for it, Pete? I wouldn't have bid for it.

[pete9012S]

Good question John!

I was a bit stumped about it's worth, which prompted me to post this query for genuine collectors here.

I would have been very happy to have got it for a tenner!!

[IceMaiden]

That seller is on eBay, they seem to have bought quite a few of that collection and selling it on for higher prices. They had a copy of Up The Faraway Tree for sale for £499 . Granted it had a dust jacket but still that's quite a price!

[pete9012S]

Thank you IceMaiden.
That seems like a very expensive book now to try and get hold of in an older edition.

[Judith Crabb]

I wonder which lot 'Up the Faraway Tree' was in. The bulk, multiple lots often are illustrated by only a couple of titles so I guess I'll never know. For purely sentimental reasons and if I were likely to bid on an overseas auction, which I'm not, that lot would have been my first choice.

[Boatbuilder]

It would probably be this one, Judith.
https://hansonslive.hansonsauctioneers. ... 3Fpage%3D7

[Moonraker]

Looking at the prices raised on that auctioneer's, I must be sitting on a fortune.

[pete9012S]

Fair point Nigel - maybe the serious collectors will have the last laugh..

It's sad that The Enid Blyton Society wasn't informed about this auction.

Heaven knows we get enough enquiries from those who have found two or three 'rare' battered 1970's Dean Reward's and also tatty paperbacks, but not something as important as this!



Don't miss out - for around the price of two proof manuscripts you could have this!

[Judith Crabb]

Lot 315 is a stunner, Boatbuilder- a first 'Magic Faraway', a first 'Folk' and a reprint 'Enchanted', all in dust-jackets with added as an afterthought a modern 'Enchanted'. This is where logically 'Up the Faraway Tree' should have been included but only a true fan would have known the rarity of this later title, especially in dust-jacket. This lot is one where the verbal description and the photograph and the number of books (4) correspond. I believe 'Up the Faraway Tree' was in auction parlance a 'sleeper' included in a large lot because its value was overlooked. If there is only one aware bidder the lot goes for not much, if two or more, watch the sparks fly. Real-life theatre.

[Debbie]

Fair point Nigel - maybe the serious collectors will have the last laugh..

It's sad that The Enid Blyton Society wasn't informed about this auction.

Heaven knows we get enough enquiries from those who have found two or three 'rare' battered 1970's Dean Reward's and also tatty paperbacks, but not something as important as this!



Don't miss out - for around the price of two proof manuscripts you could have this!

The funniest ebay I saw on that front was one who described a fairly ordinary Find Outers book as something like: "This is an absolutely amazing discovery. It's by Enid Blyton and about 5 children doing detective work so it must be a prequel to the Famous Five. I've never heard of a prequel to the Famous Five so this must be super rare."