How Much? Never ...

How Much? Never ...

A TinTin adventure anyone?

This copy of 'Red Rackman?s Treasure' by Castermans had been in my possession for about twenty years before I sold it.

I bought it in a secondhand bookshop for 99p. It was read by my children and had been 'well used' when I decided to send it off to the charity shop.

I cannot remember why it didn't make it with the rest of the books to the charity shop and was left on the bookshelf. Anyway, I eventually decided to sell it on eBay with one or two other things.

I listed it on eBay one Sunday in a seven-day auction. The starting price was 99p. Then the fun started ...

Within hours, I had been contacted by TinTin collectors from all over Europe, offering me silly money to stop the eBay auction and sell them the book direct. I felt bewildered. I knew something was up when one German collector offered me £500.

I stopped the auction and did some research. I discovered that I was in possession of the earliest English translation of the TinTin stories. The book had been published by Casterman in 1952 (and was sometimes referred to as the 'Holy Grail' by some Tintin aficionados ...)

I decided to restart the auction and almost immediately bids came flying in and the book had over one hundred eBay users 'watching' the auction. By the fourth day, the highest bid was £750 and there it stood until the last 10 minutes of the auction.

The last 10 minutes of the auction were surreal as the highest bid spiraled up and up and up. When the auction finally ending the highest bid had reached over £1100 ...

I received a payment within minutes of the end of the auction and an email from the winning bidder, an American collector, who was ecstatic with his purchase.

It was an odd experience and I needed a bit of a lie down when the auction ended ...