Collectible Childrens Books on eBay

[picture*books]

As per cc's suggestion, a thread for relatively higher dollar children's books sold on eBay and the ensuing discussions.

[picture*books]

Even a fair/poor dust jacket is much, much better than none.

Item 180936967816 sold for $2,475 on Jul. 29, 2012

The Emerald City Of Oz L. Frank Baum 1910 1st Ed. DJ Rare Dark Blue

"The Emerald City Of Oz, L. Frank Baum. 1st Edition, Copyright 1910.

Illustrated by John R. Neill.

Chicago, The Reilly & Britton Co. Publishers.

Hardcover with Jacket. Book is in Very Good Condition, No binding issues,Very Clean throughout. Dust Jacket is in Fair to poor Condition,but it has done its job and protected the Rare Dark Blue Covers very well. All 16 color plates by John R. Neill ,are all in Excellent Condition and light up as though they were electric.No writing or coloring in the book.Only repair we can see is tape on inside of dj. Hard to find a better book."

[picture*books]

A surprising $360 for this 1961 Oz item.

Item 280927107747 sold for $360 on Aug. 1, 2012

THE ELUSIVE 1961 WIZARD OF OZ Dick Martin Illustrated JEAN KELLOGG L Frank Baum

"THE WIZARD OF OZ" by L Frank Baum.

Adapted for younger children by Jean Kellogg. Illustrated by Dick Martin. Copyright 1961. Reilly & Lee. All pages are present!!!

Last summer I sold a similar copy on Ebay for $800....that is HOW RARE THIS BOOK IS!

Two reasons as to why this book is so hard to find is because 1) by 1961 the market was inundated with The Wizard of Oz by many different publishers and the book may have sold poorly, and 2) the binding for this edition was "weak" and the covers were easily torn off by the eager little fingers handling this very fragile book. You rarely ever see this book come up to auction!!!

Book's exterior has some wear. Cover has a little soiling at the top, and a tiny bit of paper loss near the bottom left. Corners rubbed. Top and bottom of spine showing wear. Rear board has some soiling and a little bit of the laminate is coming loose near the spine. When you open the book there is old tape at the book's binding. The next page shows signs of where old tape once was at the binding. All pages are in very good condition with a few smudge marks here and there!!! A couple of pages have a few very tiny little tears. Binding is solid which is quite rare for this book!!! Overall this is a very good copy of an extremely scarce edition put out by Reilly & Lee in 1961!!!

[picture*books]

$2,500 for this Enid Blyton book, first in the series. I added some line breaks to make the description a bit more readable, however resisted the temptation to change the ALL CAPS.

Item 251119672117 sold for $2,500 on Aug. 9, 2012

ENID BLYTON FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND 1st Ed [1st imp] 1942 ORIGINAL JACKET

70 YEARS YOUNG 1ST FAMOUS FIVE BOOK AUGUST 1942 V.RARE

BOOK  OFFERED IS  FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND BY ENID BLYTON THIS IS  THE 1ST BOOK IN  THE  SERIES.  BOOK  PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY HODDER AND STOUGHTON    THIS THE 1ST EDITION  [1ST IMPRESSION]   FROM  AUGUST 1942  SO 70 YEARS YOUNG   [SEE PHOTO]

///

ORIGINAL DUST JACKET IN  GOOD   CONDITION   THE JACKET HAS BEEN 'LAMINATED' BY A PREVIOUS OWNER [COVERED IN A THIN FILM OF CLEAR PLASTIC] THIS OBVIOUSLY IS WHAT HAS PRESERVED IT AS THIS BOOK RARELY COMES WITH  THE ORIGINAL JACKET AND ANY  THAT DO ARE BADLY DAMAGED  THIS IS  AS GOOD AS YOU WILL GET  FOR THIS BOOK AND YOU CAN HANDLE IT WITHOUT BITS FALLING OFF  THERE ARE 2 LARGE  TEARS AND 2 SMALL TEARS ON JACKET WHICH WERE REPAIRED WITH SELOTAPE WHICH HAS BROWNED  [SEE PHOTOS OF BACK OF JACKET ]  BUT THEY ARE NOW UNDER LAMINATE SO NOT EXPOSED SO CANT DETERIATE  FURTHER . UNFORTUNATELY MOST OF THE INNER FLAP IS MISSING  BUT I HAVE ADDED A FACSIMILE OF FLAP TO SEE THAT THE SMALL AMOUNT OF WRITING ON  FRONT INNER FLAP THAT REMAINS MATCHES UP TO WHAT IS WRITTEN ON FACSIMILE SO JACKET IS CORRECT ONE AS ONLY THE 1ST ISSUE HAD THIS INTRODUCTION ON INNER FLAP ALSO OTHER FLAP IS THE LONGER TYPE AS IT SHOULD BE [SEE PHOTO  OF OTHER FLAP ]

///

BOARDS IN  GOOD  CLEAN   CONDITION    MOTTLED  [OR FADED IN BLOBS] AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE WITH THIS BOOK WHENEVER IT HAS A ORIGINAL JACKET  A LITTLE RUBBED AROUND THE EDGES  AND THE CORNERS [SEE PHOTO]

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BINDING GOOD AND TIGHT

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CONTENTS  PREVIOUS OWNERS NAME ON FRONT ENDPAPER JUST A NAME .  AFTERWARDS  IN VERY  GOOD CONDITION  PAGES BRIGHT AND CLEAN   CERTAINLY DOESNT LOOK 70 YEARS OF AGE     MANY DRAWINGS BY  EILEEN SOPER  GOOD CONDITION NO COLOURING IN OF DRAWINGS .    NICE TO HAVE A COPY YOU CAN READ WITHOUT BITS FALLING OFF I HAVE ALSO INCLUDED A FACSIMILE JACKET  [AS WELL AS THE ORIGINAL ]

///

P.S I DONT KNOW IF PLASTIC ON JACKET CAN SAFELY BE REMOVED AS I HAVE BEEN QUITE HAPPY TO KEEP IT LIKE IT IS AS IT WILL KEEP IN  THE SAME CONDITION  FOREVER EVEN  BEING KNOCKED AROUND  OR BUMPED   . [AS MOST  SIMILAR OLDER BOOKS ARE KEPT IN A PLASTIC COVERS ANYWAY ]  BUT I WOULDNT RISK IT MYSELF

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PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE ONLY APPROX 5 OF THIS BOOK WITH ORIGINAL JACKET FOR SALE ANYWHERE  AT PRESENT . ALL THE  JACKETS HAVE EITHER BEEN  PROFESSIONALLY REPAIRED OR ARE POOR , AND FOR THAT MATTER THIS ONE IS THE CHEAPEST .

[picture*books]

An uncommon Baum book, in a tattered DJ, with a missing page sold for nearly $3,800.

Item 110936741370 sold for $3,761 on Aug. 21, 2012

John Dough And The Cherub By L. Frank Baum Reilly & Britton 1906 Dust Jacket Oz

"John Dough And The Cherub, By L. Frank Baum. Hard Cover with Dust Jacket. Reilly & Britton Company, Copyright 1906. Illustrated By John R. Neill. 1st Edition. Contest page between pgs 8 and 9 is not there. You can see tiny pieces where the entire page was removed. On top of page 8 and 9,there is a small crease,it is not a tear. Youngster signed his name in pencil on inside of back cover. Dust Jacket is as you see it in photos,and it has done it's job keeping covers in the condition you see in photos. Binding is tight and book is intact. Very Clean throughout the book. Please ask any questions you may have before commiting bid. Hard to find a better book."

[picture*books]

Two avid bidders took this book from $88 to close at $430. While the subject copy was without DJ, this edition of Snow White was initially issued with a DJ.

Item sold for $430 on Jun 9, 2012

SNOW WHITE Grimm Bros CEL ART BOOK Child Fairy Tale RARE vtg Walt DISNEY STUDIO

"SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

Illustrated by WALT DISNEY

This auction is for an original 1938 FIRST EDITION of "SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS," illustrated by WALT DISNEY, copyrighted 1938 by Walt Disney Enterprises in Hollywood, California, published by Grosset & Dunlap of New York.

The classic tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comes to spectacular life in this beautifully illustrated tale. Relive all your favorite moments as Snow White escapes the evil queen, meets the Seven Dwarfs, and finds true love.

Once there was an evil queen who cared about only one thing—that she was fairest of all. When she learns that Snow White's beauty is greater, she sets out to destroy the girl. It is then that Snow White finds herself lost. Then, she finds her way to seven little men who change her life forever. They grow to love her as she does them. When the Queen returns and all seems lost, love saves the day once more.

The breathtakingly expressive illustrations that GUSTAF TENGGREN created sets the tone for Walt Disney's animated film. Together these two incredible artists have created a Snow White that reminds us of the power of hope, friendship, and love.

This is based on Disney's 1937 motion picture, adapted from the Grimm's Fairy Tales and copyrighted in 1938 by Walt Disney Enterprises, Hollywood, California. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was one of Disney's greatest triumphs!

For Walt Disney, Grosset & Dunlap published a tie-in edition with stills from the film.The Brothers Grimm published the story of Snow White in the early nineteenth century. One hundred and twenty-five years later, Disney added the dwarves and gave them "names" to suit their individual personalities and characteristics.

As for the Swedish illustrator, GUSTAF TENGGREN, his career was about to take a dramatic turn and his style was never to be the same. In 1936, Tenggren went to work for Walt Disney...You can see his work throughout Snow White for which he obviously drew upon his Scandinavian heritage and experience. His Arthur Rackham-esque trees are featured prominently in the Snow White forest scenes.

Published in 1938, this book is in VERY GOOD CONDITION for its age of 74 YEARS OLD! The movie stills are illustrated in black and white and color with drawings from the film. The attractive exterior boards are floral patterned paper-covered boards over blue cloth spine, offering a pictorial in the center of the front cover. The matching floral pattern is on the back board as well. The hinges are in good order. There is the usual slight wear to the head and tail of the spine and shelfwear to the boards and corners. The interior pages are firmly bound, all present and beautifully preserved with no markings to the pages, text block or end pages. It measures 7 1/2" X 9" It is an un-paginated book with double sided pages, attractive from cover to cover!"

[cornercube]

From a poster on the Book Readers Board:

BEWARE OF BOWDLERIZED HARDY BOY BOOKS!

Aug 4, 2012 07:51 PM

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Book-Readers/Beware-Of-Bowdlerized/5100094552

[kentworld]

Good Lord!  If they were being "dumbed down" in 1959, how "dumb" should they be today?  Maybe someone should publish a graphic novel series of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery stories...

[picture*books]

There are still nice buys on eBay for the discerning book buyer, see this American edition of a Rackham illustrated Andersen's Fairy Tales. DJ and book are in remarkably good condition, probably in large part due to the publisher's box, which has not faired too well.

Item 221114413662 sold for $320 on Aug. 31, 2012

Arthur RACKHAM 1932 Fairy Tales First Edition in Dust jacket and publishers box

"Title: Fairy Tales

Author: Hans C. Andersen

Illustrated by ARTHUR RACKHAM

Publication: Philadelphia: David McKay Compnay .

No date printed but published in 1932

COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS throughout and in PUBLISHER's Original BOX

Description: First American Edition of this wonderful Rackham illustrated edition of Andersen's Fairy Tales. This copy complete with the publisher's original pictorial box. A beautiful copy that while covers are slightly soiled, the pages are fresh and clean with a tight text block it probably has never been read. A Very Good Plus copy with mild soiling to cloth and very faint foxing to fore-edge in bright Very Good Plus original dust jacket. This copy is housed in the publisher's original box which is in Good Plus only condition. With some time it could be repaired. The box is extremely fragile. The left side panel and top edge ( of lid) are off completely but I still retain the pieces so they could be repaired, splitting along lower bottom edge and right side panel as well as some rubbing to lid, the paper title label at bottom as small chip to top corner. The bottom of the box as paper loss at lower left corner with some shallow splitting and top right corner with splitting as well. The box is extremely fragile but still rare to be present. "

[picture*books]

This 1961 Golden Treasury of Caroline and her Friends book sold for $1135. A competitive auction with 13 bidders making 78 bids, it became a bit of a bidding war with only two bidders contending above $320.

Item 320973907459 sold for $1135 on Sep. 9, 2012

Vintage Golden Book Pierre Probst The Golden Treasury of Caroline & Her Friends

"This auction is for the vintage 1961 Pierre Probst book, THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF CAROLINE AND HER FRIENDS. This is A BIG GOLDEN BOOK. The book is complete, all pages are intact. The outside front cover and back show wear and age, and have been taped. The binding is intact, and not taped. The book was given as a Valentine gift in 1965, written inside the front cover. The book has bold beautiful illustrations. The stories are charming. The book is about a little French girl named Caroline, she is fiesty, and her animal friends. The book is printed in France, published in 1961. The language is English. The author is Pierre Probst. The stories are:

Caroline's Party

Caroline at CAMP

the trip to INDIA

the rescue

Spring CLEANING

off to the MOUNTAINS"

[picture*books]

Two bidders over $500 for this later edition of The King's Stilts by Dr. Seuss. Neither the book nor the DJ are the first issue.

The $2.00 DJ price would place the book between the years 1948-1950. The first edition DJ for Seuss's 1948 Thidwick The Moose has a price of $2.00, which is the same DJ price as the first edition DJ for the 1949 Bartholomew/Oobleck along with his 1950 If I Ran The Zoo.

Item 110945216940 sold for $510 on Sept. 7, 2012

The Kings Stilts Dr. Seuss 1939 1st  

For your consideration The Kings Stilts by Dr. Seuss. This book is a first printing from 1939 with $2.00 on back flap of dustjacket. Dustjacket is very good with light wear, book does have light spotting on front cover which can be seen in photo. The inside of book is wonderful with clean white pages and beautiful illustrations by Dr. Seuss. 

[bibliomonster]

The buyer can SNAD the buy and teach both himself and the seller a lesson.

There's still plenty of really 'dumb money' out there chasing collectible books.

Some of us should teach extension classes on collecting.  There's a HUGE need out there for education. Plenty of information access, but the sources for learning how to parse, filter and discriminate the data are few and far between.

.

[picture*books]

I was looking at the sale a little differently Michael, that $510 for a VG/VG early edition King's Stilts is a fair market price both for the seller and the buyer. A first edition King's Stilts in VG/VG condition would sell in the $8,000-to-$12,000, so for $510 a collector can fill a hole in their Seuss collection.

I agree there is a big need for education in the book collecting field. Unfortunately I don't have the time to coordinate the logistics around a class, though would be interested in teaching others about my specialty. In a small way, this thread and my website are helping to serve the community.

[bobstoybarn]

Who knew there was so much to this.  I found a 1939 soft cover edition at the flea market a few years back and am auctioning it off now.  Someone asked if there were 3 propellers on page 9, so I looked and found 3 prpellers, which led me to search why that was important, which led me here.  Very informative.

[picture*books]

The Meggendorfer mechanical books are reliably good sellers on eBay. A very competitive auction, with 25 bids and six bidders over $300.

Item 230840289493 sold for $648.85 on Aug. 26 2012

Lothar Meggendorfer VERY OLD CHILDREN'S BOOK- A Victorian German Mechanical Book

"Lebendes Affentheater"  A drawing picture book.  Esslingen, Schreiber undated, (shortly after 1893 (year of the first edition)). With 8 col. lithographic plates with moving parts.

1 sheet (foreword and back to the 1st verse panel). The rear side panels with verses, or last page with publishing ad.Original binding. with colored lithographed. Cover title. Everything complete! (corner bumped a bit).

36.2 x 26.2 cm FOLIO! Complete!

References: Seebaß II, 1279, Krahé 87. Ries 713, 84.  (for first edition)Well-preserved, complete and widely functional copy of the book in the very rare fourth edition.

Very few limited functions, some of the moving parts with warings., partly tears repaired with old tape . Little arm (0,4 cm) from a little monkey is lacking(nothing tragic!).

A very nice copy with only a few old repairs, of this very rare Meggendorfer childrens book.

Extremely colorful!

[picture*books]

Another mechanical book, this Nister book sold for $628. Another lively auction, with 18 bids and 4 bidders over $450.

Item 261095274432 sold for $628 on Sep. 17 2012

MAGIC MOMENTS/RARE 1st Edition/*1890's/*7 COLOR KALEIDOSCOPIC VOLVELLES-MOVABLES

"VERY RARE - SCARCE EDITION FINE ORIGINAL BINDING - RARE FIRST EDITION  SIX ENCHANTING KALEIDOSCOPIC VOLVELLES-MOVABLES

MAGIC MOMENTS

[A Novel Picture Book of Dioramic Scenes]

Illustrations by FLORENCE HARDY

Verses by CLIFTON BINGHAM, 1859-1913

LONDON: Ernest Nister, N. D. [c.1890's]. [published date: 1890's]. Rare First Edition. Printed in Bavaria. 4to. 11" x 10.5" (LxB). 7 fine colour kaleidoscopic volvelles. Verse by Clifton Bingham with illustrations by Florence Hardy features kaleidoscopic volvelles, which are wheels that change the images as the reader pulls ribbons on the book. This edition was famous for its movable scenes, with Cats, Dogs, Pets, Children playing et al., etc. Unpaginated with 7 enchanting full page colour Moveable plates with ribbon ties, delicately cut-out sliding tiers revealing charming hidden illustrations. Fine original publisher's color printed pictorial boards, spine with red cloth binding, Floral patterned endpapers. Very attractive chromolithographed movables, all 7 are complete and in perfect working order. Considered to be one of Ernest Nister's greatest productions. The revolving pictures, have two different pictures printed on intersecting, die-cut disks; with the pull of a tab one picture covers the second to show a completely new image. The cutting and construction of all of the movable books was done by hand and required considerable skill to align all of the separate pieces. The illustrations in Nister's books—typically featuring affluent, well- dressed, cheerful children at play—were produced by many different artists. Nister publications ceased in 1916 but many of the publisher's books had a second life in 20th-century reproductions. Some of the books published in the 1980s and 1990s were exact reproductions, some were issued with different titles, and some were compilations of Nister illustrations and were not true replicas of 19th-century movable books, this is a beautifully illustrated work. A classic work. There are numerous close-up pictures of the contents given below; please click on them for a detailed description (See Scans below). Please take some time to view the 50+ pictures in detail, in order to gain a full idea of the contents and condition."