The Wizard of Oz

Follow the yellow brick road to the land of OZ.
                                                                            

Thanks to the Oz Guy!!!! Meet the Wizard!!!     

WWW.OZ1200.COM                                          

THE OZ GUY   by Craig Nashville

Lee vs. Britton - Sounds like a civil war battle, I don't want to blast you with information, but any person selling OZ books must know these Publishers. The list of OZ titles I sent with my last email will not show the publishers, but the lines that I suggested to draw show what books came out under the Reilly & Britton publisher, and which under the Reilly & Lee publisher. I will refer to the list from my last email, so if for some reason you did not receive it let me know and I will mail you one if I have to. Also if you have a Reilly & Britton book let me know right away. Here are some of the rules:

  ~ Any of the 40 OZ titles can be found under the Reilly & Lee publisher.

  ~ Only 11 books,  # 2 The land of OZ 1904 - - - #12 The Tin Woodman of OZ 1918 can be found under the publisher Reilly & Britton. And these are worth considerably more money, they are much older and were printed in far less quantity.

  ~ The first 14 books are very collectable (If old enough) because they are the original Frank L. Baum books.

  ~ The following19 books from Ruth Plumly Thompson are well enough done, and some of them becoming old and rare enough now to be almost as collectable as Frank Baum's books

  ~ I will collect through # 38 The Shaggy Man of OZ 1949, I will not collect into the 1950s. I just purchased a Shaggy Man, with dust cover, for $97.00 but both book & dust cover are in beautiful condition. So these so called "newer" book can also fetch some money if in a nice condition.

  ~ The Royal Book of OZ is a special book and can bring more money, sometimes called the "transition book". This book was originally attributed to Frank L. Baum after his death in 1919, but published by Ruth Plumly Thompson in 1921. Some will say frank started the book and Ruth finished it but I don't know for sure, some day I will research it.

  ~ Very Important - All OZ books from 1935 and on were issued without color plates, and with black and white illustrations only. From a serious collectors view, few will invest in these "post 1935" books as they are called. But these books are not worthless, with the popularity of the recent movie, many people are buy these copies for reading, and don't want to pay a collectors price.

  ~ I loaded 4 photos for you, Two of collectable color plates, and two of color illustrations (one behind the text). There are a few different styles of plates and illustrations out there, but in the interest of keeping it simple for now, there you have it. As you can see the color plate is in full color and usually bordered, and the illustrations will be in one, two or sometimes three colors.

  ~ The 29th book on the list is important because that was the last book to be issued with the beautiful color plates all the collectors are looking for.

  ~ It is also worth noting that these color plates were originally full size, about 2 feet by 3 feet, stretched canvased works of art. Then reduced in size to be "tipped in" as they call it, after the book was printed. I have seen a video of the famous artist John R. Neill, who is responsible for this art work, painting one of these beautiful prints. 

~ Here is a lesson for you: Follow these books on your list, for example: If you had a copy of the # 23 Jack Pumkinhead 1929, and it did not have the 12 color plates that it was first issued with, it would be worth far less than a copy of # 32 The Silver Princess of OZ 1938 also without the color plates. Why, you ask because the Jack Pumpkinhead is almost 10 years older, therefore should be worth more? Answer - because the Silver Princess is in it's original state, it was never issued with color plates therefore worth more, it's all about original.

  Got to run, the wife's got that look in her eye. have fun - Craig

Hello good people of the Kingdom of OZ,

I don't know how much you know about books, or listing them on eBay, so I thought I would go over a few things that are important for you to know. I find for the general public, the difference between the words Edition and Copyright meld together like warm butter. You might have noticed for some miraculous reason almost every book on eBay is a 1st edition, that's because the seller might have a Road to OZ book, and know it was first published in 1909, that information is easy to find. Then they turn to the front of the book and check the copyright page and see the date 1909, then exclaim "Oh my God I have a 1st edition" and list it as such. The truth of the matter is, all the OZ books will have a copyright date listed on the copyright page telling you when the book was first  published. Then say 56 years or so later some publisher decides to print another batch of The Road to OZ, and he will also list the 1909 copyright, again informing us that this was the date the book was first published. Reading this you might question, what is the date that's most important for these collectors (the buyers you really want to attract). The date we are constantly looking for is the printed date, the date that is never listed in the book. If you think about, it this is the true age of the book, or when it was born fresh off the press, and for collectors it's all about true age and condition. Let me give you a great learning example of why I hate the word edition. The very first copy of the Road to OZ was Published & printed in 1909, and that copy would be a true 1st edition. Here is where this steers into the ditch for me. between 1909 & 1965, there was over 10 printings, and 5 binding changes involving at least 6 cover designs, but all these copy's of this book, thousands in all, for 56 years, are considered 1st editions. Books can even jump from publisher to publisher and still be considered a 1st edition. Now I have to ask the question, at what point do we jump off the 1st edition, and start a 2nd edition?, this has been a point of controversy for years. All that said (and I know that was a lot) try not to over use the edition of a book, for most books theprinted date is most important. For some books what binding is the most important, I've seen where they have stopped the printing and changed binding 3 times before finishing the print batch, a rare binding can be worth a great deal of money, but if you don't advertise it, buyers will never know want you have. this is mostly from the older and more expensive books.

  I know this was long, but important. You might want to save this for future reference. I will next sent you a few points to know about condition, which is very important, and too often over looked by sellers. Thanks for listening, Craig

Greetings from the Kingdom of Oz,

 ( I'm actually in Springfield but nobody knows were what is) First I would suggest printing this email, there's some on-line steps that would be easier to follow along using a printed sheet. Anyway, I just finished looking at all the photo you sent, I can from your photos you are having fun with that new camera (I'm jealous, and let me know what you bought, I'm still looking). They all look good, but I do have to mention one thing, The most important section of the spine for information is the publishers stamp at the very bottom, many people miss this, so always get a good shot of that (another email on publishers later, it's just too important). Whenever I'm looking at these OZ books I'm always keeping an eye out for an "Anomaly", that's to say something out of place, or maybe added by mistake during the printing process. There is more of this out there than you might think, the problem is most people miss it, but some collectors will pay for it if found.

  ~ Now - It's a must that you jump on www.rareozbooks.com ( Another wealth of information ) Then: 1) be sure you are on the home page 2) scroll down to "List of Official 40 Titles" 3) Click on it, then click print, then adjust your print zoom so you get all 40 titles, then print. This is the golden list I look at over and over. It will give you the order the books came out in, with the dates of publish, this helps because the older books are worth more, and this helps find were they land in the overall list. But you will need to draw some helping lines (see att. photo of my list).

  ~ Some books are worth more than others, just for fun jump on eBay and in the search bar type in "OZ Copp Clark". Copp & Clark is an old publishing Co. in Canada that Frank Baum experimented with for just a short time.

  ~ Sometimes for fun I will jump on eBay and type in "Wizard of OZ" then on the "Relevance" tab relist the page with the highest priced books first, there are usually books there for close to $100,000. It's a learning experience, but that's' playing with the big boys. 

  ~ Another thing I should mention is when listing, always mention if the "ownership page" is written on, this is the page towards the front with the cute little drawing that reads " This book Belongs to" some people are big on this, some aren't.

   ~ Another good to know point. Some OZ titles are popular for various reasons and will bring more money, while some are still rather unknown and are flat out hard to sell, even in great condition. (I think they are all cool).

  ~ WARNING, Be very careful if you attempt to clean a books cloth cover or its paper paste down cover label. The water base ink used back then is very unstable and will lift off quickly. You might attempt to gently wipe with a water dampened (not wet) cloth, but if you try any kind of solvent you are braver then I.

  ~ If you need to photo a book that has the clear protective plastic (Mylar) covering it, always take it off for it's naked photo shoot, the plastic can cause a glare, or what sometimes looks like water damage, which most collectors will have nothing to do with.

  Well there's another load of information. - Remember to take some time and have fun on the above websites. 
                                     Your OZ friend, Craig

List of official 40 OZ titles

1. The Wizard of Oz (originally published as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) (L. Frank Baum, 1900)

2. The Land of Oz (originally published as The Marvelous Land of Oz) (L. Frank Baum, 1904)
3. Ozma of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1907)
4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1908)
5. The Road to Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1909)
6. The Emerald City of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1910)
7. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1913)
8. Tik-Tok of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1914)
9. The Scarecrow of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1915)
10. Rinkitink in Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1916)
11. The Lost Princess of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1917)
12. The Tin Woodman of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1918)
13. The Magic of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1919)
14. Glinda of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1920)
15. The Royal Book of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson [but originally attributed to L. Frank Baum], 1921)
16. Kabumpo in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1922)
17. The Cowardly Lion of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1923)
18. Grampa in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1924)
19. The Lost King of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1925)
20. The Hungry Tiger of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1926)
21. The Gnome King of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1927)
22. The Giant Horse of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1928)
23. Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1929)
24. The Yellow Knight of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1930)
25. Pirates in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1931)
26. The Purple Prince of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1932)
27. Ojo in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1933)
28. Speedy in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1934)
29. The Wishing Horse of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1935)
30. Captain Salt in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1936)
31. Handy Mandy in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1937)
32. The Silver Princess in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1938)
33. Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1939)
34. The Wonder City of Oz (John R. Neill, 1940)
35. The Scalawagons of Oz (John R. Neill, 1941)
36. Lucky Bucky in Oz (John R. Neill, 1942)
37. The Magical Mimics in Oz (Jack Snow, 1946)
38. The Shaggy Man of Oz (Jack Snow, 1949)
39. The Hidden Valley of Oz (Rachel R. Cosgrove, 1951
40. Merry Go Round in Oz (Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner, 1963)

THE OZ GUY CRAIG NASHVILLE