It startles me how often sellers on Ebay advertise their copies of Alice in Wonderland as if the books are made of solid gold. They describe them as rare editions and extremely valuable. The unfortunate reality is that this is very seldom the case.

Pictures shown here are examples from my collection.

The most commonly listed Alice’s on Ebay are from the Young People’s Library and virtually always one can find dozens of these editions for sale on Ebay and the various book search services.

Today there are fifteen Alice’s listed with pictures on Ebay. Six are from the Young People’s Library. Only one of those is from Format 1. It is accurately advertised as being an 1895 book and is listed at $250. Unfortunately half the pages are detached from the spine. I cannot imagine this book selling for anything in this shape.

The other five Alice’s listed from the Young People’s Library all state a publication date of 1897. This is the Altemus copyright date-not the date of publication. The books shown on Ebay were published between 1899 and 1920. They are priced between $95 (opening requested bid) and $519. One is rebound, several have major defects and none has a dust jacket. Without a dust jacket in great shape even $95 is just too much for a very common book.

For information about all the Altemus Alice’s see http://henryaltemus.com/alice/alice.htm.