Harry Potter fans are checking their official Harry Potter Wallets, mopping their perspiring brows with official Harry Potter Towels, and are repeatedly glance at their official Harry Potter Golden Snitch Watches as they anxiously await the cinematic release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (Warner Bros., November 16th).

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the first installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, set to debut December 19th (The Fellowship of the Ring; New Line Cinema), the folks back in Middle-earth have launched a merchandising blitz of their own. Everything from pewter goblets to chess sets and wall posters to T-shirts have appeared to entice the avid fan. There are even genuine copies of the One Ring of Power in gold and sterling!

Though "Lord of the Rings" was first published in 1954/55, and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 1997, there are a great many more HP items on the online auction block. Whether this reflects a wider audience or greater merchandising, I don't know. I suspect it's both. (As of November 10th, there were 11,478 active and 22,719 completed HP auctions on eBay versus 2,633 active and 3,422 completed for LOTR.)

As expected, the most interest in each case surrounds first edition books (signed and unsigned) and rare ephemera--a Tolkien letter reached $4,550 by end of auction; a Rowling-signed picture, $7,280. The most expensive lot was a 3-volume LOTR set, first edition, rebound in Moroccan leather and with the 3 brass binder's tools used for the cover designs. Auctioned on eBay by Butterfields, the lot garnered a final bid of $8,500 (which was actually lower than the $12,000-$18,000 estimate).

Many of the auctions emphasize first edition identification (for example, the numbers 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 on a copyright page usually indicate a First while the same sequence from 10 down to 2 would indicate a Second) and State (a variation within an edition). For a great review on how to identify various book editions, you might want to try Glenn Larsen's Guide to First Edition Identification at http://www.rarebooks.org/firsted.htm. For a more in-depth treatment, check out Modern Book Collecting by Robert A. Wilson http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558211799/auctionbytescom.

But back to all that new merchandise out there. Will it or will it not be worth anything? Who knows! LOTR has proved that it has staying power, but will anyone pay top dollar for a Frodo Lives T-shirt ten years from now? Is Harry Potter a flash in the pan? Will anyone want a Hogwarts book binder in 2005 when there are ten million of them? My advice is: buy what you like; buy two and put one away as a potential investment; and finally, enjoy the films!

May the Force be with you. (Oops! Wrong film!)

There are LOTS of HP and LOTR Web sites out there (just go to Yahoo or Google to see for yourself), but the following are some of the best: ~http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/index.html The Harry Potter Lexicon (The Ultimate Harry Potter Reference) http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/home.html The Official Harry Potter Web site http://www.tolkien-movies.com Lord of the Rings Movie News http://www3.tolkienonline.com Tolkien Online-The One Ring --- Michele Alice is AuctionBytes-Update Contributing Editor. Michele is a freelance writer in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. She collects books, science fiction memorabilia and more! Email her at makalice@adelphia.net eBay ID:Malice9