The Enid Blyton Society

Sarah Beeny's Four Rooms is on tonight at 9pm on MORE4
The program includes "An Enid Blyton First Edition"
If you don't know Four Rooms - a member of the public brings in an item to sell and then tries to get the best deal from one of the four dealers, by going into each of the dealers' rooms, deciding whether to accept an offer or move to next dealer but they can't go back.
Always a good show and interesting to see how EB Book will do!

Thank you very much for the heads up.I will look forward to watching that.

Interesting viewing. Book was sold for £1300. One other dealer would have gone to £1500. I was thinking around £2000. The man who sold it was very pleased so he did rather well.

What was the book? I'm guessing Five on a Treasure Island for some reason...

It was the 1922 version of Child Whispers, 1st edition.

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Wow! I agree the seller did pretty well, even though he could have got a couple of hundred quid more from the other dealer.

I'm staggered, I would love to know what dealer offered that amount of money - not a specialist children's dealer at a guess as they would never get their money back let alone make a profit!

I have just downloaded it on catch up and my suspicions were right, they really knew nothing about Enid Blyton books and the sort of prices they should fetch!!

Was it Stella or Rose, by any chance?

Tony Summerfield wrote:I'm staggered, I would love to know what dealer offered that amount of money - not a specialist children's dealer at a guess as they would never get their money back let alone make a profit!

He was a bit odd, lol - said he was buying it for his daughter (who was aged about 7 or .

However, the hardback (reprint?) version is for sale by Stella and Rose on eBay with dust wrapper for £2,500 -ish...and they are definitely 'specialist children's dealers'

Sorry, didn't realise there were new posts and I have added to my post above.

I thought it odd he wanted it for his daughter to read, as I said to hubby, I'd keep that safe somewhere, not give it to a child.

Still, I bet that dealer will sell it on, and for more than the £1300 he paid for it, too! Being a dealer, the buyer will think he knows best!

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he popped up here trying to sell it.

After all let's face it, as fans of Enid Blyton we're all more than happy to pay way over the odds for anything with her name on it!!!

I thought all four dealers were completely clueless when it came to books, particularly a children's book. They were obviously used to dealing with wealthy MNO customers (Money No Object!) who would just take their word for it if they said it was worth £2000!

Even the guy selling it had no idea of its value. Over the years I have seen quite a number of copies for sale and none has reached four figures - the hardback edition with a wrapper is actually much scarcer and I would expect it to reach a higher price. If it wasn't for the fact that it was Enid's first book there would be little or no interest in a book of poems at all. Her 2nd book, Responsive Singing Games, seldom reaches three figures.

I think the MNO side was summed up by that dealer paying £1300 for his 7 year-old daughter to read it - I am sure that she would have preferred a new Secret Seven Book at £5.99.

When it comes to value, I'm afraid that the price is totally controlled by the wrapper. Reprints of Famous Five books without a wrapper are numerous and shouldn't cost more than £5 even if they are early editions. Even first editions without wrappers are relatively common as they had large print runs. I remember at a car boot sale not bothering about a 1st edition of Five on a Treasure Island as the cover was pretty stained and I thought my 10p would be better spent on something better!

Tony Summerfield wrote: When it comes to value, I'm afraid that the price is totally controlled by the wrapper. Reprints of Famous Five books without a wrapper are numerous and shouldn't cost more than £5 even if they are early editions. Even first editions without wrappers are relatively common as they had large print runs. I remember at a car boot sale not bothering about a 1st edition of Five on a Treasure Island as the cover was pretty stained and I thought my 10p would be better spent on something better!

I agree. I'm afraid I was a bit startled that IceMaiden, on another thread, told us she had bought a first edition of Five On A Treasure Island for £30 - with no wrapper. I would rather buy a slightly later version (I have the 1950 version with the old style cover, which I bought for around £15.) in a wrapper, than buy a first edition without a wrapper.

I would usually charge no more than £6 for a Famous Five without a wrapper - and the same price for a Famous Five with a copy wrapper. Sometimes I've sold a few first editions without wrappers for £8 but not often. To me, books without wrappers are pretty useless except as reading copies, and the price should reflect that in my opinion. That's why I was astounded to see a 1946 edition of The Secret Island with a copy wrapper selling for £68 the other week. I would have charged maybe £20 at most and more likely £15.

Rob Houghton wrote:I agree. I'm afraid I was a bit startled that IceMaiden, on another thread, told us she had bought a first edition of Five On A Treasure Island for £30 - with no wrapper.

I think you will find that it was actually a 3rd edition, Rob!