Noddy Gets into Trouble - unusual copy

[PSBookshop]

Hi! I work as a volunteer at a charity bookshop in the Scottish Highlands. On our shelves, we have a most unusual Noddy Book from 1954. It is a 1st edition, in very good condition, spine and corners intact, with dustjacket and no writing on the book, but it is missing pages 21 to 28 inclusive. This was obviously a printing error, and it makes the book unreadable from cover to cover, and yet a highly interesting curiosity to the Noddy collector/expert. If anyone would like to hear more, please email me on pitlochrystationbookshop@gmail.com/

[pete9012S]

I don't think the missing pages will affect the value, except perhaps in a negative way.
Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

Here are the missing pages to peruse in case there is anything offensive contained in that section of the book:

Noddy Gets Into Trouble - Excerpt (pages 21-28)

https://www.docdroid.net/KOuigmj/pages- ... 1954-1-pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards

Pete

[Fiona1986]

No, I absolutely agree, Pete. Firstly it's hard to accurately identify a Noddy book as a first edition. It has to do with what books are listed on the dustjacket flap and the shape of the spine if I remember correctly. Secondly a book missing a chunk of content is not an interesting curiosity, it's a useless book!

(I frequently see people thinking that a book with pages upside down/back to front/missing/covers rotated etc are somehow valuable... nope!)

[Boatbuilder]

If the pages are missing from the original binding of the book (not removed later) and from its appearance genuinely so, then I would think that book could be classed as unique, in the same way as something missing from the printing of a postage stamp or the minting of a coin, when only a very few may have been produced in that state. In such cases those items can sometimes be worth thousands of pounds.

[Judith Crabb]

The error in this case was probably an error in the bindery. Perhaps the pages were present but never stitched in and at some time fell out, never to be seen again. Or perhaps your very own copy has pp. 31-38 duplicated, which will not I'm afraid increase its value but unlike the one with the missing pages not diminish its value either. Pete is right. There is a crucial difference between the misprinted book and the misprinted stamp. As any book dealer will tell you, the first is a pain. As any stamp dealer will tell you the latter is a cause to rejoice as Boatbuilder pointed out. As most of our books in the final decades of our business went overseas it was my duty to collate before the wrapping and I came across some extraordinary defects - a mint in dust-jacket children's book with a whole sixteen page gathering from another title - as I normally just checked pagination (which ran smoothly) I picked it up because the running title at the top margin changed. Sometimes gatherings are all present but bound in the wrong order. As for books bound upside down - they are legion. And what about a scrap of paper falling on the page just before the letterpress was printed and there is a big white patch on the page where there should be text. Or pages carelessly guillotined and missing letters at a margin. The only explanation I can come up with is a bunch of bibliophobic gremlins on the loose.

[FiveFanDownunder]

Judith, that’s a very interesting list of book printing/binding glitches you have seen over the years; I saw the occasional bad copy come into school libraries here and there, but nothing like your experiences. I imagine the mistakes made might be different nowadays with printing and binding much more automated. Certainly it is becoming less common ( but thankfully not yet history ) to see a nice new hardback arrive in the standing orders of new fiction. These tend to be for the older child or young adult reader, and seem more frequent for some of our recognised Aus. authors to be published in this way.

[PSBookshop]

Many thanks everyone for your interesting replies. I'm only sorry its taken me so long to get back to you. Next question - would anyone like to buy the book? Please email pitlochrystationbookshop@gmail.com

[PSBookshop]

OK sorry folks I have now checked and find it is NOT a first edition after all. The DJ lists all the books in the series, so it must have been published in 1964 or later. It is therefore not worth a great deal - but someone might still be interested? Please le me know. It will be cheap for me to post out...

[Katharine]

One suggestion for finding a buying would be to market it for the art work. I've seen birthday cards made from the cut out pictures from Noddy books (and others). Someone might be willing to pay a couple of pounds for it.

[pete9012S]

What a brilliant suggestion Katharine, as the book in its present condition is sadly now worth much less than its normal market value.