The main reason I decided to cover Frank Baum's first edition Oz books in fine condition because I noticed a few replicas on eBay sold for over $500. A recent example of a sold copy of The Lost Princess of Oz on February 6, 2020, for $713.
Below are a few images of the listing.
I have seen similar replica listings for other Oz titles such as The Tik-Tok of Oz, The Ozma which sold on eBay. It looks like a good deal to obtain the first edition Baum Oz books in fine conditions in $500 range.
Is there a catch?
In 2010, The Bradford Exchange has begun to offer replicas of first edition Baum Oz books. The Complete Wizard of Oz First edition Library book collection was published by Charles Winthrope & Sons. Images below of Oz books with and without dust jackets.
My quick observation of Bradford Exchange printing reveals that color images in replica are stamped instead of being printed in addition to overall paper quality. But for someone who does not have a true first edition copy as a reference, it is hard to distinguish differences.
I could not blame sellers listing those later reprints as a first edition since there is no clear way for them to know. Except for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz where publisher inserted am extra page before a title page with publisher name, all other Oz titles are hard to identify.
I hope that each of the 13 Oz titles has some points that might help to differentiate both editions. I decided to find differences between the first edition copy of Lost Princes of Oz and reprint.
I started to turn pages on both editions with the hope to find some extra or missing pages in the replica copy. A few years ago, I notice The Tik-Tok of Oz replica sold on eBay for over $500. I examined my original and replica copies and noticed the "Books belong page" that exists in the first edition copy is missing in the replica. Unfortunately, this is not a case for The Lost Princess of Oz replica. I had no luck to find differences between covers, spine, text block, extra or missing pages.
Images of true first editions and a replica copy placed in the middle.
The first difference between original and replica that got my attention is an image on the dedication page shown below. Look at the eyes in both editions. In replica, eyes are two black dots in comparison to an original. Somehow during the scanning process of the pages and images from a first edition, some elements of the image details disappeared. It should also be noticed three dots on the right side of the hat in the original that do not exist in the replica.
Another element that I noticed is the thickness of the volume. The replica is slightly thicker than the original. See the image below.
In conclusion, I would like to warn readers to be careful with copies of Oz books by L. Frank Baum in great condition. Although copies by Bradford Exchange easily be identified by collectors who have seen true first edition copies, it is a challenge for a novice collector. Being published over ten years ago, some of those copies starting to show signs of wear and tear that might more complicate an issue.