The Lord of the Rings is the most memorable and expertly-written of the many Fantasy novels published. The third book, "The Return of the King," is being offered for sale in this description. According to The Tolkien Library, there were only 7,000 copies of the third part of The Lord of the Rings. Despite this low number of initial publishing copies, today "There are literally thousands of booksellers selling millions of used and new Tolkien and Tolkien related books on the net right now." (Tolkien Library) These books, as with all of Tolkien's works, have become extremely desirous to collectors. In fact the prices for The Lord of the Rings or any of its three books, has skyrocketed. Some of the prices booksellers are selling for the series or parts of it include, up to: The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King Advanced Book Exchange (AbeBooks) $45,000 $11,350 Tolkien Library $28,000 Peter Harrington 12,500 pounds 3,000 pounds Ebay $18,369.95 $2,135 The following quote from the Tolkien Library indicate the high cost and desirability of the books: "If you plan to collect the best known First Editions of The Hobbit (Allen & Unwin - 1937), The Fellowship of The Ring (Allen & Unwin, 1954), The Two Towers (Allen & Unwin, 1954), The Return of The King (Allen & Unwin, 1955) in fine or near-fine condition, you are going to need really a lot of money. For The Lord of the Rings, around €10,000-€17,000, and for a nice copy of The Hobbit, somewhere in the €20,000. Signed copies are extremely hard to find and the prices can go from € 2.000 up to € 150.000 depending on the provenance, association and especially the state of the book(s)." Condition: The book jacket is from the original edition and is the only major defect in the book -- there is a piece missing from the spine and it is frayed in places with colors faded. The outside cover is also frayed at the front corners at the top and bottom. However, it is an authentic first edition with the 1955 copyright on the title and copyright pages; the signature mark "4" appears on page 49, as well as lines sagging on the same page; the map of Middle Earth is undamaged and one of the rare copies of the first edition being offered for sale at this time.
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