All I seem to do at the moment on this blog is write about eBay. In part this is because I’ve got my head thoroughly stuck into writing a book instead, and so there isn’t much mental bandwidth left for thinking about posters. (A normal service will be resumed in due course, I promise). But it’s also because eBay keeps chucking wonderful stuff at me. Take a look at these.
What you are seeing there is a complete set of King Penguins, curently at £235 without having reached their reserve. But I don’t really mind what they sell for because the photographs – and obviously the books themselves – are artworks in their own right.
A comprehensive condition report which is at the same time a thing of beauty. I like that.
And this is just a small selection, there are loads more on the listing if you’d like to take a look.
While I’ve got your attention, you might also like to know about these posters.
Three late Tom Eckersleys, all with a starting price of £50, but be warned, the bids have started to come in already.
I spotted these King Penguins too – I’m interested to know what they go for.
It made me think about this collecting thing. I have been resisting the blandishments of King Penguins for some time now, but even so there are a few you just have to have …… sixteen now to be precise.
And there are a few others I’d probably try to snap up if they appeared on ebay or in a shop I was browsing in.
But that cost is a bit of a killer really, £3.10 each at the moment and the reserve not met. I suspect the reserve is approaching £400 and considering the Edward Bawden Life in an English Village is there (the last copy I noticed went for about £30) wouldn’t be unreasonable – but how much have you spent on your collection when you pick them up piecemeal and hardly notice from week to week …….
How much have you spent on your collection when you pick them up piecemeal and hardly notice from week to week?
Or month by month or year by year. I am refusing to think how much we have spent on posters!
And they did go for £400, which Mr C reckons was the reserve. But part of the reason for not buying is that the thrill of the chase is rather missing, isn’t it?
I know exactly what you mean. I’m not sure I can tell you how much – it’s something I try to hide even from myself! But I did stop buying some things (like wedding photos) when I realised how many I had and that if each of them only cost £2.50 I’d probably spent a small fortune.
I’m afraid OH would have gone ballistic if I had bought these – and it did cross my mind I must confess. She has looked at me very sternly on a number of occasions and talked about STORAGE and CLUTTER and the SIZE OF THE HOUSE and also THE SIZE OF THE HOUSE WE’RE GOING TO MOVE TO which apparently isn’t going to have a whole floor devoted to a sort of museum for my various hoards as I’d always hoped
On the other hand, even at £400 it was a good buy, because as well as the Edward Bawden, there are some others in that set that always seem to go for loads so an average of about £5.50 is really not a bad deal when you think that the average cost (as logged on my King Penguinometer) is just over £6, and they all seemed to be in much better than average condition.
But as you say the thrill of the chase is part of having a collection, every time we go in a book shop or a charity shop I’m looking for the missing Picture Puffins (sadly, even on the very rare occasions they appear they’re usually more expensive than on ebay I find), but I keep looking in the hope of finding the elusive ones.
We’ve always thought that moving to a hotel, or possibly an old hospital would be good, because then there’d be plenty of corridor space to hang the posters. But a museum would be even better.
You really need to converse with Mr Crownfolio about the Picture Puffins as they’re his department, but I do have to ask whether you have the Emmett Festival Railway one? Trying to get that on eBay nearly drove him to distraction, and we still don’t have it…
No I’m afraid I haven’t got that. I have one book by Emmett, a book of cartoons that’s received some additional embellishment that I’ve never tried to remove.
It’s so far over my self imposed ceiling that as with the Edward Bawden one I have never seriously thought I’d manage to get it …… I’d enjoy an exchange with Mr C about the Puffins, I have had to adopt a fairly hard line stance about that collection, quality is most definitely secondary so there are one or two quite ropey copies, although th eother day I managed to snag one I’ve been after for ages and it was both a bargain and in lovely condition. But unless there is some special reason I don’t go after them in better condition. Well not yet anyway!
I’ll try and send him over.