Query: The House Called Hadlows by Victoria Walker

Sorry if this turns up a couple of times, the first time we tried posting
nothing showed up.

I wonder if anyone can help us? We have recently come across a signed first
edition of 'The House Called Hadlows' by Victoria Walker, and were all set
to offer it for sale through our usual channels, when we checked for
comparisons online. We were only able to find one matching copy, and this
was being offered at over £1,200. From the little we have found, it does
seem to command a high price, but we want confirmation of this before
offering it for sale (and, just as important, choosing how we sell it). The
details of the book are as follows.

Author: Victoria Walker
Title: The House Called Hadlows
Publisher: Andre Deutsche (London, 1972)
ISBN: 0233963669

Light blue clothbound hardback book in very good condition (there is a
little wear to the edges of the boards, and a very small stain to the bottom
edge of the last couple of pages). Dustjacket is very good with some wear
to the edges, a couple of small dents and a couple of closed splits down the
line of the edge of the spine on the back cover. The book is dedicated and
signed by the author. The inscription reads "To Clem and Elliot, With the
author's compliments. Victoria Walker, July 1986".

Can anyone help?

Graeme & Chris Williams

The two books by Victoria Walker are hard to find, and became famously so
after being mentioned by Neil Gaiman in his weblog last year.

Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market. In the end we contacted Bloomsbury Book
Auctions who managed to find another copy for sale. After a lot of hard
thought we are going to include it in their first edition sale on the 6th
November. Slightly heart in mouth as we have never had a book that is
potentially worth so much.

Regards,

Graeme & Chris

www.exe-libris.co.uk

I'm not in any way trying to dissuade you from selling through Bloomsbury, who I
like a lot - I recently suggested to a friend that she sell some Iris Murdoch
letters there at their manuscript sale later this year, and I've bought there as
a collector (though not of modern 1sts) on a fair number of occasions in the
last couple of years. However, you should probably be aware (if you're not
already) that Bloomsbury's very much a dealers' auction house - very few
collectors buy there, so the prices fetched are generally "wholesale" rather
than "retail". That's one of the reasons I go to auctions there, in fact - I can
afford to buy much better books there than I could direct from a bookseller,
because the prices are (generally) significantly lower than they would be
elsewhere.

I couldn't tell you much about how modern 1sts do there in general (and
obviously it's in Bloomsbury's interest as well to get as much for your book as
they can), but you might want to check out prices realised for similar books at
recent sales - see http://www.bloomsbury-book-auct.com/html/archive.htm.
Unfortunately the prices and catalogue from their last major moderns sale in
June are no longer online, but the General Books sales since then have had a
fair number of modern 1sts in them, so by tying up the lot numbers from the
catalogue with the prices realised page, you should get an idea of how
comparable books sell there. (Although there are links for sales and prices
going back to #422 in Feb 2002 on that page, a lot of those are now broken; I
dare say the auction house might give you copies of the old catalogues and price
lists if you asked nicely, though.)

Apologies if you've taken all this into account already, but I thought it was
worth mentioning; the other folk in the room at Bloomsbury auctions are the same
ones I see selling at the London bookfairs every month, and while I can't
necessarily name all of them, I've bought books from most of them at one time or
another.

Sandy

"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market. In the end we contacted Bloomsbury Book
Auctions who managed to find another copy for sale. After a lot of hard
thought we are going to include it in their first edition sale on the 6th
November. Slightly heart in mouth as we have never had a book that is
potentially worth so much.

Regards,

Graeme & Chris

www.exe-libris.co.uk

"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for
sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market.

I've seen furious bidding for "The Winter of Enchantment" on eBay. Hadlows
might be less popular as it is the sequel to Winter, and presumably has less
interest, and according to reviews is inferior to the first book.

My experience is that I've been able to find every rare children's book I
wanted at auction at between 10-50% of dealer prices.

See these other newsgroup postings too:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...ws&sa=N&tab=wg

Well we are back from Bloomsbury book auctions. The book had bids of up to
£240 but we had set a high reserve so it didn't sell in the end. It was an
interesting experience and the staff at Bloomsbury were great so we are not
too upset. We also managed to find some interesting books while scouring the
charity shops so not a wasted journey and best of all we can claim it all
back from the tax man next year as it was a legit business trip!


"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for
sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market. In the end we contacted Bloomsbury Book
Auctions who managed to find another copy for sale. After a lot of hard
thought we are going to include it in their first edition sale on the 6th
November. Slightly heart in mouth as we have never had a book that is
potentially worth so much.

Regards,

Graeme & Chris

www.exe-libris.co.uk

Sorry your book didn't sell; one thing which interests me (as I occasionally buy
books at Bloomsbury - I was there on Thursday, actually, for the mss and older
books in the first day of the same sale) is that you say you had bids of up to
£240, but in the catalogue the estimate's £200-£300 (I assume your book was lot
881). Does that mean that at Bloomsbury the reserve might be higher than the low
estimate, or was there a mistake in the catalogue? I know Sothebys, for example,
guarantee that the reserve will be no higher than the low estimate, although as
far as I can see Bloomsbury don't make the same claim anywhere. There always
seem to be plenty of lots which don't sell when I've been at Bloomsbury sales,
but they've invariably been where the bidding doesn't reach the low estimate
shown in the catalogue; I've always assumed, though, that it wouldn't make sense
to give a low selling estimare of £200 if the reserve was actually £250, say.
I'm just curious - it'd be useful to know for future visits to Bloomsbury.

Sandy

"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Well we are back from Bloomsbury book auctions. The book had bids of up to
£240 but we had set a high reserve so it didn't sell in the end. It was an
interesting experience and the staff at Bloomsbury were great so we are not
too upset. We also managed to find some interesting books while scouring the
charity shops so not a wasted journey and best of all we can claim it all
back from the tax man next year as it was a legit business trip!


"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for
sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market. In the end we contacted Bloomsbury Book
Auctions who managed to find another copy for sale. After a lot of hard
thought we are going to include it in their first edition sale on the 6th
November. Slightly heart in mouth as we have never had a book that is
potentially worth so much.

Regards,

Graeme & Chris

www.exe-libris.co.uk

It was interesting. When we enquired about the book we were told it would
make high hundreds based on a copy on the internet selling for £1600 (we had
seen the same one). We sent the book and got back the catalogue with an
estimate of £2-300. When we contacted Bloomsbury they said that the only
copy they could find on the internet was £500. We checked and the copy that
had been at a thousands had dropped by half!

Shortly afterwards this copy disappeared from the internet so either it had
been sold or removed from sale. Either way we figured our book was worth at
least £500 and instructed Bloomsbury to increase the reserve to £500. They
also issued an ammendment to the catalogue which was put up at the front of
the rostrum with an estimate of £5-600.

What we wonder is if the estimate had been £5-600 in the initial catalogue
whether the starting bid would have been £500 but I guess we will never
know.

"Sandy Malcolm" wrote in message
news:3faed173$0$27137$afc38c87@britishlibrary...
Sorry your book didn't sell; one thing which interests me (as I
occasionally buy
books at Bloomsbury - I was there on Thursday, actually, for the mss and
older
books in the first day of the same sale) is that you say you had bids of
up to
£240, but in the catalogue the estimate's £200-£300 (I assume your book
was lot
881). Does that mean that at Bloomsbury the reserve might be higher than
the low
estimate, or was there a mistake in the catalogue? I know Sothebys, for
example,
guarantee that the reserve will be no higher than the low estimate,
although as
far as I can see Bloomsbury don't make the same claim anywhere. There
always
seem to be plenty of lots which don't sell when I've been at Bloomsbury
sales,
but they've invariably been where the bidding doesn't reach the low
estimate
shown in the catalogue; I've always assumed, though, that it wouldn't make
sense
to give a low selling estimare of £200 if the reserve was actually £250,
say.
I'm just curious - it'd be useful to know for future visits to Bloomsbury.

Sandy

"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Well we are back from Bloomsbury book auctions. The book had bids of up
to
£240 but we had set a high reserve so it didn't sell in the end. It was
an
interesting experience and the staff at Bloomsbury were great so we are
not
too upset. We also managed to find some interesting books while scouring
the
charity shops so not a wasted journey and best of all we can claim it
all
back from the tax man next year as it was a legit business trip!


"Graeme & Chris Williams" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply Mike,

We found Neil Gaiman's site and a copy of The House Called Hadlows for
sale
for a very high amount. The problem with finding just a single copy is
whether the book has a market. In the end we contacted Bloomsbury Book
Auctions who managed to find another copy for sale. After a lot of
hard
thought we are going to include it in their first edition sale on the
6th
November. Slightly heart in mouth as we have never had a book that is
potentially worth so much.

Regards,

Graeme & Chris

www.exe-libris.co.uk

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:17:44 -0000, "Graeme & Chris Williams"
wrote:

It was interesting. When we enquired about the book we were told it would
make high hundreds based on a copy on the internet selling for £1600 (we had
seen the same one). We sent the book and got back the catalogue with an
estimate of £2-300. When we contacted Bloomsbury they said that the only
copy they could find on the internet was £500.

Most surprising that a well-known house like Bloomsbury is basing
estimates on what they find on Internet databases. Don't they have
trained in-house experts? And what do they do when (as has become
more and more prevalent) there's a 10 to 1 ratio in the price of the
copies ordered, and their friends and customers who they know well
represent the high end?

R. Totale wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:17:44 -0000, "Graeme & Chris Williams"
wrote:

It was interesting. When we enquired about the book we were told it would
make high hundreds based on a copy on the internet selling for £1600 (we had
seen the same one). We sent the book and got back the catalogue with an
estimate of £2-300. When we contacted Bloomsbury they said that the only
copy they could find on the internet was £500.

Most surprising that a well-known house like Bloomsbury is basing
estimates on what they find on Internet databases. Don't they have
trained in-house experts? And what do they do when (as has become
more and more prevalent) there's a 10 to 1 ratio in the price of the
copies ordered, and their friends and customers who they know well
represent the high end?

surely this is a common auction house ploy? they entice you in with
high potential figures then dumb them down later. I sold some
paintings in auction through another major auction house earlier this
year and they did exactly the same they told me initially how good the
realisations would be then when it came to estimates and reserves they
completely changed their tune.

ASD