Up the Faraway Tree - £400 for a copy dust jacket?!

[IceMaiden]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186349399257 ... R4750ZTKYw

I know it's not an easy book to come by but still!

[pete9012S]

Thank you IceMaiden.

I have noticed this book is commanding exceedingly high prices too!

[tix]

"Up The Faraway Tree" appears to be one of those Enid Blyton narratives that can now be regarded as a good investment. It is of course an 'Enchanted Wood' offshoot which as opposed to the other three, is told in pictures with a line or two printed under each frame.

For Dorothy Wheeler fans this book contains around ninety pages of her illustrations so it's worth shelling out more than a few pounds for it. However unless you're fairly rich or an extremely avid EB fan it might be better to wait - as it were. One can still find bargains if one is patient.

For a dyed-in-the-wool follower, "Up The Faraway Tree" is a nostalgic romp through Enid Blyton territory with characters who represent the author at her most imaginative. The book introduces two children - 'Robin' and 'Joy,' but in no time at all we meet up with more familiar players namely Jo, Bessie and Fanny (not Joe, Beth and Frannie), plus of course Moonface and the Saucepan Man.

Trivia: Name an Enid Blyton book where one of the main characters utters not a single word.

[GloomyGraham]

Plus £30 postage and £40.99 'import tax' if anyone from down-under wanted to buy it.

No thanks...

[Judith Crabb]

I have it on good authority that it has sold at auction and on ebay for much more. Perhaps the fact that the copy on offer is partially coloured-in has restrained the vendor from asking more! I'm afraid that I shall never replace my paperback with an early hard-cover.

[tix]

In 2008 a copy of "Up The Faraway Tree" was offered with a reserve price of $185(Aust).

A year or so later another was up for auction at $300(Aust) although later reduced to $195.00.

In July of 2009 it was described as a 'Very Rare Enid Blyton Book' and marked with a start price of $350 but reduced to $250 about ten days later.

In 1996 I purchased a copy for about $4(Aust) which suggests it might be worth biding one's time when a particular book is a sought-after title.

All the editions (above) were minus dust-wrappers.

In August of 2011 Tony Summerfield gave us a satisfactory description of what "Up The Faraway Tree" is all about, and for the record - there used to be a devoted site (the-farawaytree.com) that shut its doors round September or October of 2009 due to cost and lack of interest.

PS: It appears that some years ago an Enid Blyton Society member bought a copy of "Up The Faraway Tree" for 99p.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A motto of sorts came into my head while reading your post, Tix - "Biding before bidding!" Mind you, going back in time might be better than biding one's time!

My copy of Up the Faraway Tree is a paperback but I'm happy to stick with that!

[IceMaiden]

Blimey it seems this book is super pricey with or without a dust jacket (though I still think £400 is an awful lot for a book with a copy jacket). Is there any particular reason why it is such an expensive title given it's not one of Enid's sought after proper novels? I have got a copy, I paid £10 for it about six years ago, and having got it and seen how thin it is and how little story is actually in it, truthfully it's not one I would have wanted to pay much more for.

[Judith Crabb]

The dust-jacket is a copy! Good grief, I read it as a copy with the dust-jacket and thought it not over-priced in comparison with other copies of the book. A copy was up recently on ebay without a jacket for a quarter of that, which would value this facsimile jacket at 300. Hmn. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a copy is a copy is a copy.

[IceMaiden]

Yes, sorry Judith I didn't realise my title wasn't very clear. The jacket is a copy that's why I was so shocked at the price. Had it been a real dust jacket I wouldn't have thought it so expensive (though it's obviously not exactly cheap), but for a copy jacket it seems very overpriced. Then again I saw a first edition Five on a Treasure Island with a copy dust jacket go for £175 at an auction recently so maybe copied wrappers are starting to be desirable additions on the books?!

[Judith Crabb]

No IceMaiden it was perfectly clear - I just didn't read carefully enough and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Occasionally, when I was a book-dealer collectors put the hard word on me to colour-copy rare dust-jackets but I never did. I felt that there was something unsatisfactory about it, not wrong (although copy-right could come into it) and I can understand the better appearance on a shelf, but not something I wanted to get involved in.

[Fiona1986]

I did worse, I read it and thought someone was trying to charge £400 for a copy jacket alone...