Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #37

A Collection of 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Books

Question: how many of the 30 books have a blue cover with an orange picture on the cover? also of the the above books that are this way do any have a blank page on the inside of the cover, and if so what books?

Answer: The Sign of the Twisted Candles - inside covers are white with orange pics inside The Quest of the Missing Map - white w?orange complete and unabridged The Mystery of the Tolling Bell w?o The Message in the Hollow Oak w/o The Secret at Shadow Ranch w/o Thw Whispering Statue - w/o complete and unabridged Nancy's Mysterious Letter w/o The Hidden Staircase w/o The Mystery at the Moss Covered Mansion w/o writing in front cover The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk w/o writing in the front cover The Secret in The Old Attic w/o The Clue in The Diary w/o writing in the front cover The Clue in The Jewel Box w/o The Secret of Red Gate Farm w/o The Haunted Bridge w/o The Password to Larkspur Lane w/o The Clue of the Tapping Heels w/o The Mystery of the Ivory Charm w/o Complete and unabridged The Clue in the Crumbling Wall w/o 11 white with blue in cover *Complete and unabridged = This Book, while produced under wartime conditions, in full compliance with goverment regulations for the conservation of paper and other essential materials, is Complete and Unabridged these are only ones marked this way

It sounded like the prospective buyer wanted to know how many of the books had the orange silhouette on the cover, and of those books, whether any of them had blank endpapers. It is not possible for a book with an orange silhouette on the cover to have blank endpapers.

It is worth revisiting Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #7. In that post, I stated, "All books with the orange silhouette in the center of the front cover have the orange silhouette endpapers. There are no exceptions whatsoever! Notice that the center of the front cover has an orange silhouette. Likewise, the endpapers have the orange silhouette."

I then pictured a blank endpapers book, which has no silhouette on the front cover. I stated, "Notice that there is no image of Nancy Drew on the front cover. Likewise, the endpapers are blank; there is nothing printed on them."

Going back to the above question and answer, I have to admit that the seller's response was a bit confusing. Trying to understand it all just about gives me a headache. The seller stated that a book had the orange silhouette endpapers, but for most of the books, the seller only made the comment "w/o." It rather made it sound like all of those books had blank endpapers, but the books had to have had some other type of printed endpapers like blue silhouette.

Describing Books as Pristine

This is a mini rant. I'm getting really tired of seeing eBay sellers use the word "pristine" to describe books that are not pristine.

pristine - Remaining free from dirt or decay; clean: pristine mountain snow.

The example that prompted me to write this post has some books that have dark, dirty spines and other books that have faded spines. Could someone please explain to me how a book with a dark, dirty spine is pristine? I really would like to understand, because I sure don't get it.

The Economy and Series Book Prices

I have been meaning to write this post for a while. Series book prices are the lowest I have ever seen. While some books that are rare and desirable still command high prices (this one, for instance), many others are slipping through the cracks and selling for atypically low prices.

In particular, thick blue Nancy Drew books with either one glossy illustration or all four glossy internals and intact dust jackets are selling for ridiculously low prices. I could cite quite a few instances of these books selling for $20 to $50, when they are supposed to sell for hundreds of dollars.

Here are a couple of low auction results:

Nancy Drew Hidden Staircase WS dust jacket OEPS Item #330373145796

This is a thick blue book that has a dust jacket listing to Tapping Heels. It sold for $10.99.

Nancy Drew SECRET SHADOW RANCH early formt internals dj Item #370272219711

This thick blue Nancy Drew book had the glossy internal illustrations and a dust jacket. It sold for $57.78. The same seller auctioned off a Lilac Inn with internals and dust jacket for the same price.

I could give many other examples. I dislike mentioning specific information when I have purchased something at a bargain that I will ultimately resell, but I have a similar story on something I purchased in recent months. The book was something that was very desirable, and this could be seen in the gallery photo and in the title of the auction. There was no reason for it to sell at a bargain. It was clear what it was from the description. It was a very scarce book but not quite rare. I placed a lowball bid and won the auction at a fraction of the book's value. If I wished to fully disclose the details, you would be impressed. It missed being better than the copy I have, so it will be sold. It will bring in a nice profit even if I price it at the low end of what it is worth.

I have blamed eBay recently for these atypical results, but it is actually more the economy than eBay's foolish actions. The economy is still in bad shape. The media have reported that the economy is getting better, but the results have yet to be seen for the average person. As I stated in comments to my last post, I expect sales to be very slow through the end of the year. I think sales will get better in January, and we just have to wait it out. The prices will go back up again eventually.

I admit that I am disgusted with how difficult it is to sell good books. I am not happy about the situation, but I know that it will get better at some point. The value of series books is always going up or down, depending upon supply, demand, and the economy. The 80th anniversary of Nancy Drew in the spring will hopefully generate some good media coverage and maybe that will help.

Remember the buying frenzy of the summer of 2008? Gosh, those were such great times! We could list anything for a high price, and she would buy it! For those who don't know what I mean, a certain buyer was buying approximately $20,000 worth of series books per month for around three months on eBay in the summer of 2008. She paid $50 to $100 for $5 books. She paid $500 for $100 books. She paid $1,000 or more for $300 to $500 books. She won just about all auctions she bid on because of her huge bids. Months later we learned that she had stolen several hundred thousand dollars from a bank and went to federal prison.

Bonanzle Update #21

Check this out. Run a Google search for the phrase "series books for sale" and see what comes up.

Google results

That little page I created on my website is now showing up as the number one result for the search term "series books for sale." This is good. I checked some other search terms. Lian's Bonanzle booth is served up high for the term "buying series books." My booth shows up close to the top for the search term "buy series books." For the term "buy vintage series books," Lian's booth is the second result. I could go on, but you get the idea.

For general search terms related to buying series books, we are getting some good exposure in Google.

Another way to gain exposure is to use Bonanzle's hand picked lists.

Gift Guides on Bonanzle

Here are some directions that I sent Jack recently.

Go to My Bonanzle. Look at the left sidebar towards the bottom where it says “Buying Activity.” You will see a selection for “Hand Picked Lists.” Click on it, and you will see a prompt to create one.

Give your list a title. Most people try to be witty, although I didn’t bother. The subtitle is optional. Pick a gift guide category so that it also shows up as a gift guide (more exposure).

Click on create.

Now what you do is search for something on Bonanzle. After you find it, click on the item, and near the bottom of the description, you will find a place that you can click to add it to your hand picked list. Once your list has 20 items, it will be viewable to others.

I have created three gift guides in the last few days. Some lists get chosen for rotation on Bonanzle's home page. One such list called "A Series of Adventures" was in rotation for a few days until my book that was in the list sold, thus knocking it out of rotation. This was on October 7, and I made a screen capture, since it pleased me so much.


My book was the Beverly Gray book that shows in the upper right corner. Click on the image to see the screen cap in its full glory. A couple of you might recognize some of your books.

This brings me to something else. The photos that I take of my books are far from perfect for presentation on the hand picked lists, but I do try to size them so that the books do not show up distorted and cut off in an odd fashion. A lot of the pictures on Bonanzle need to be sized or centered better so that they would look better in the lists. To edit photos, go to the "sell" section on Bonanzle. Click on the item you want to edit and then pick a photo. Click on "crop/rotate" and then you can resize and center the photo so that it will display better.

I plan to create some more of the hand picked lists, and I encourage others to do the same. It is very hard to find a good variety of books to use. Many of the ones I want to use are in my booth, but the creator of a list is limited to using only one of his or her own items for sale. I decided that I need to pick something that other people don't have, like a Beverly Gray book in dust jacket, which is what I did for my most recent list.

Last, I really expect sales to be slow for the next month. If sales turn out to be good, then I will be pleasantly surprised. I could be wrong, but I do not believe that most people are looking to buy vintage books for Christmas presents. I think that most people buy retail and will be short on extra spending money during the next month, so I expect few sales.

In the years prior to eBay favoring the Buy It Now format, eBay listings always plummeted in December. Very few people used to list auctions in December. For the few auctions that did get listed, the prices tended to be very low, and I was always able to get very good deals on great books since everyone else was out shopping. The demographics of eBay have changed so much in the last two to three years that this is not necessarily still the case for eBay but it may be the case for other marketplaces where the vintage sellers now reside. My point is that sales of vintage items have always tended to slow down in December, so that is what I expect to occur for me in December.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #36

This time the question was for me. A prospective buyer asked, "I'm concerned about the disparity between this cover and the multipic endpapers, this looks like a very old dj (which is great) w/ a newer edition, especially w/ the listing to The Golden Pavilion which was, I think, after the sixties rewrites. Can you help me out on this one?"

This is the listing:

Nancy Drew #12 Message in Hollow Oak Carolyn Keene HCDJ

It bothers me to get comments like this. I am not sure whether they just need an explanation or whether they think I have misrepresented the book.

First, Golden Pavilion was published in 1959, which is not after the 1960s. My copy of Hollow Oak has a jacket that lists to Golden Pavilion, which means that it was printed in 1959. According to Farah's 12th edition, the book and jacket match the points for the 1959B-52 printing. This is not a mismatch, and there is no disparity.

The blue tweed books went out of print in 1962, so a blue tweed book cannot be from years later, if that is what the buyer thought. The blue multi endpapers were used on all original text books until they were revised, with the exception of #35-38 which had blue multi endpapers but were never revised. Additionally, the older picture covers for the revised books, #1-4 and #6, did have the blue multi endpapers. The blue multi endpapers were used on at least some books until when they were revised or went through a cover art change in the 1970s.

Aside from #1-4 and #6, all blue multi endpaper books have the original text (#35-38 do have the original 20 chapter text). This might be the first time that I have found someone who thought that the blue multi endpapers likely indicate a revised text book. The presence of blue multi endpapers is more likely to indicate that a book has the original text rather than indicate that it does not have the original text.

Hollow Oak was not revised until 1972, so all printings of Hollow Oak from 1935 through early 1972 have the original text.

All blue tweed books have the original text except for just a few printings of #1-4 and 6. Those are the only blue tweed books in which a buyer needs to worry about which text the book has. Even in those cases, the vast majority of tweed books that surface will have the original text. It is actually quite difficult to find #4 and #6 in blue tweed books with the revised text.

This is a battle that will never be won. We have quite a few people who are confused about formats and must not be visiting the several websites out there that explain formats. Just do a Google search for "Nancy Drew formats," and you will find the information you need.

I remain convinced that the popularity of the Nancy Drew Applewood facsimile editions is largely due to people who cannot figure out which of the older books have the original text, so they pay high prices for the Applewoods so they can be guaranteed to receive a book with the original text. For those who disagree, remember that someone once commented in this blog that it was too confusing to figure out which old books have the original text, so she found it easier to buy the Applewoods.

The Foam Pellet Disaster

This catastrophe can alternatively be called "The Foam Peanut Disaster," depending upon which type is used inside the package. Whenever I receive a heavy package in which the seller has used some type of foam, the foam is usually damaged enough that small pieces go everywhere when I open the package. It is worse when the foam is not the anti-static type and sticks to me and everything else. It can take forever to clean up. I received one such package this week.

I had bought a large lot of books. When I cut open the top, I saw a sheet of foam as well as tiny pellets that had broken loose. Oh no... I immediately closed the box and began dragging it towards the front door. Despite my quick action, a number of tiny pellets had already escaped. I pulled the box outside, then I went to get the vacuum cleaner, which I also took outside.

This is how the books were packed.



The books were packed well, but the problem was the foam. The little pellets that had broken loose from the foam sheets had found their way between the dust jackets and books and into the front and back hinges of the books.


In some cases, the smashed pellets had lodged in between the mylar covers and dust jackets. It took me 30 minutes to remove the books from the box and vacuum all of the pellets off of and out of the books.

This is why packing unwrapped books in foam peanuts or sheets is a bad idea. It causes the buyer to waste a lot of time cleaning up a mess. That same night, I wasted some more time on the next package. I went inside and opened that package, which was a lot of 15 books. That seller had wrapped every single book individually in paper and taped the paper shut. It took at least five minutes to extract those books from that package. I was not prepared to spend the better part of 40 minutes opening packages.

While I prefer to receive my books packed well, the sellers can go too far, such as wrapping every book securely. It would have been better to have wrapped the books in groups so that it didn't take so long to extract them.

As to the foam, it is always a nightmare.

The Destroyed Package

It was bound to happen eventually. I have written of some of my damaged packages, and sometimes the packages have been missing a book or two but most books arrived okay. I finally received a package which turned out to be a total loss. I knew it was likely a total loss as soon as I saw it.

The package was enclosed in a plastic bag that USPS places around damaged packages. The thin brown paper that the seller used was quite torn. The seller sent the package priority, so it was destroyed in the first two days of transit. I received the package a week later after it had been processed through the place where damaged mail is sent.


Before I opened the package, I could see what was inside. This next photo shows what I saw.


There were two DVDs, a book that was definitely not anything I had bought, and a mysterious smashed box-like shape. Hmm. This was definitely not good. I opened the package, and this is what I found.


I was the lucky recipient of two Pam Grier videos, Sheba, Baby and Fox in a Box. I had never heard of Pam Grier until I received these DVDs. Wow. No offense to Pam Grier, but I was not impressed. One of the DVDs was badly scratched.

Even better, I received my very own Reader's Digest Condensed book. I'm sure all book collectors know that RDCBs are the most unwanted books ever printed. You have to just about pay people to take them. Most book readers want to read the entire story rather than a condensed version.

The only item that was kind of cool but still unwanted was the mysterious box. The box was smashed, but the model railroad log car inside was in perfect shape. I noticed that the log car did not have a UPC on the box, so it must have been part of a set of railroad cars and got separated from the rest.

I knew that these items were so random that likely the seller did not mail them to me. I checked with the seller, and she had never seen any of them before. She is supposed to be sending me a refund for my payment.

What must have happened is that my package was ripped open, which was not surprising since the brown paper was quite thin. My books fell out and were separated from the wrapping. The package was sent to a mail sorting center along with all of the other damaged mail, and USPS was unable to figure out what the package contained. Someone took random stuff from other damaged packages and placed enough stuff in the wrapping to fill up the package, then sent it along to me. Nice.

I did get a good laugh out of the message on the plastic bag that contained my package. The beginning of the message read, "We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service. We hope this incident did not inconvenience you." Inconvenience? I got random junk I did not want and will never receive my books. I spent 20 minutes taking pictures, cropping them, and sending them to the seller with a letter of explanation. It was much more than just an inconvenience.

I have heard of this happening to others in the past. I have been lucky that this is the first time it has ever happened to me.

In closing, remember that it is never a good idea to wrap a stack of books in brown paper, especially thin brown paper. If you must package in brown paper, at least run a strip of tape all the way around the package horizontally and vertically just like you would do if you were using ribbon on a present for someone. If this package had had tape around it, the books may have been damaged but would have arrived. I would rather have damaged books than no books.

Series Books for Sale on Bonanzle #3

This is a work in progress, but take a look and tell me what you think:

http://series-books.com/seriesbooksforsale.html

If you sell series books on Bonanzle, you will hopefully find at least a few of your books listed somewhere. I was working from search results and was not checking to see who the seller was, although I knew for sure in some cases. I tried to pick low-priced books plus a variety.

I did not mess with trying to sort items, since Bonanzle's widgets often sort the items the way they want. The main thing was to get the items in there to see if this might work the way I want. I know where I want to go with this, but I have no additional comment at this time. Let's just say that this has potential, which I'm sure you will readily recognize even though you don't know my full plan.

This page is not yet linked from my site, but since I have just linked to it from here, Google will know about it immediately since Google owns Blogger. It should get indexed fast.

If you have suggestions, let me know. I'm liking the way it is shaping up, and it looks much better than my first attempt earlier today.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #35

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories- Lot of 2 Books Item #110441656908

This auction was for two Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. The seller stated that the books have the wartime conditions notice, which dates the books to World War II. The seller stated that one book lists to Missing Map and the other one to Moss-Covered Mansion. The seller also stated that the books were printed around 1942-1943.

Question: Please send pictures of the book without the dust jacket. Are they blue cloth or tweed? Orange on blue or blue on blue? Are the inside end papers orange?

Answer: Yes books are orange lettering on blue. and inside Orange figures/pictures

The buyer's questions were all unnecessary. While the seller did not state the requested information in the original description, the books were printed during the early 1940s (for multiple reasons given by the seller and mentioned above). All Nancy Drew books from the early 1940s have orange print on the cover and orange silhouette endpapers. The prospective buyer asked whether the books are tweed. The tweed books did not come along until the 1950s, so the books cannot be tweed. Please see my Nancy Drew formats page for this information.

Some Tips for an eBay Seller

I had an email discussion with an eBay seller of series books this weekend. This person's sales have plummeted, and she wanted input. This post contains my responses with all identifying information removed.

October 31

It is frustrating, isn't it? I think some of my recent comments do apply to your situation. I know that you use the fixed-price 30-day listings for many of your listings. What I found when I analyzed search is that the fixed-price listings are getting buried in best match. They show up ranking high when first listed, but as each day passes, the ranking goes down. By the very last day, the fixed-price listings are at the very end of the best match search. For a search like Nancy Drew that contains 3,000 items, this means that on the final day your items would be ranking at around 2,800 to 3,000 in best match search. As a result, buyers sorting by best match may never see your listings regardless of how you price them.

People like me who use ending soonest see your items on the last day just fine. I see your stuff all the time. I suspect that a majority of buyers no longer use ending soonest since the default is best match. I think it is the reason your stuff is not selling like it should.

I think it was in September that eBay changed the best match formula to what it is now. Prior to September, fixed-price listings were getting preferential treatment in best match, especially if the sellers had high DSRs. The DSRs are no longer used in the same way they were prior to September. It no longer matters in best match if you have all 4.9s and 5.0s on your stars. The primary boost in best match seems to come from the auction listings and whether a seller is top-rated. Since your sales have dropped, which is eBay's fault, you do not quality for power seller, so you do not have the top-rated seller icon. You can't win.

I have been paying close attention to the fixed-price listings and how well several sellers have been doing recently on eBay. (ID removed) is a seller whose sales I have mentioned in my blog (never by name of course), and she has had mostly low sales for months. Unfortunately, you seem to have been pulled into the same quagmire as she.

When I recently mentioned some books that were fixed-price and moments before ending that were buried in best match, the seller was (ID removed). Her sales were still great the last time I checked, but even her listings are getting buried in best match, which truly surprises me.

You are now in the position I was in back in December when I found my books were not selling, and I was trying to figure how to make eBay work for me. Of course you know what I decided to do, mainly because eBay kept telling me on my seller dashboard that I was a bad seller.

So, what can you do? I don't have an easy surefire answer. I do believe that auctions are now receiving preferential treatment in best match due to my observations last week when I had some auctions running. My auctions had relatively high placement in best match the final two days that they ran. They were already showing around the 300th item position two days before closing and were fairly high on the very first page of best match during the last day.

Since auctions are finally favored again, my best advice would be to try running more auctions than what you have. Auctions are more expensive, but it might pay off. Let's say that you have 20 items up for sale as 30-day fixed price listings. You could try listing around 10 or so auctions, staggered as a couple each day, so that you would always have an auction close to ending. This way you would always have an item near the top in best match. What you would then need to do is put a blurb in your auctions (probably prominently placed somewhat near the top) inviting buyers to take a look at your fixed-price items. This way you might be able to get more traffic to your fixed-price listings, since eBay seems to want to hide them.

The economy may also be part of the problem. I have sold a lot of books on Bonanzle this month, but they were mostly very low-priced. I will have a summary of my sales posted to my blog either tomorrow or Monday. Earlier this year, I was selling some more expensive books, but it seems that most buyers want cheap books. On eBay, it is just about pointless to try to offer cheap books since the fees are so darned high.

After reading my message, the seller checked on the ranking of fixed-price items in best match and was shocked at what she found. She noticed that in best match, the top results are all auctions and all top-rated sellers with just a few fixed-price listings mixed it. She was not happy about what she saw and realized that she will have to completely change her selling strategies. My next response follows.

November 1

I just posted to my blog about a group I created on Facebook. It is supposed to be a place where sellers of series books can advertise what they sell. I'm doing it to help out the other people on Bonanzle who really aren't getting that many sales. If you wish, you could also use it to promote your books on eBay. Right now it isn't going to do anything since I'm the only member, but if I can get a bunch of people to join, it ought to help in time. It is public, so it could help to some degree even without having very many members.

I do think an increasing number of people are looking outside of eBay for books.

One thing that did help me out when I first started on Bonanzle is that I emailed a bunch of old buyers. I only went back six months, but I sent messages to all of those buyers about my booth on Bonanzle. I know that a few did join Bonanzle because of my message, and a few purchased books from me.

If you ever do list books on Bonanzle, when you sell books on eBay, you can include a paper inside your package advertising your books on Bonanzle. eBay can't stop people from advertising other sites inside their packages. It is a shame that eBay tries so hard to control all aspects of transactions.

My last response is next.

November 1 (later)

It is stressful, but just know that we can come out of this ahead in the end. All of the people who buy series books are out there, but we just have to get them to know where we are. I really think that my Facebook group could help us pull in buyers and direct them to wherever we choose to sell our books. I have my post about my October sales on Bonanzle written, and it will post at midnight. When you read it and look at the screen caps of my stats, you will see how many sales I have been able to get through my website.

I think that others can pull in buyers through Facebook and other means. I also have another idea that would pull in buyers for Bonanzle, but I'm not going to mention it until if/when I decide to do it. It requires a lot more work on my part than creating a Facebook group, but it could pay off big time if I decide to do it. It might be a project for Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation.

I'm going to take my original message to you and post it in my blog in the next day or so. I will remove the user IDs and will not mention anything that would identify you. I think it is very important that everyone know what eBay is doing so that they can deal with it.

Here is a direct link to the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165267408961&ref=mf

In closing, I want to state that anyone who still sells on eBay should take a look at how their listings are displayed in best match, even if their sales are still good. If a seller is doing well, it is good to know why and try to make sure it continues. If a seller is not doing well, then it is necessary to know why so that changes can be made.

October Sales on Bonanzle

October was a good month on Bonanzle. It was my best month in the number of transactions and in the sheer number of books sold. It missed beating both August and May in the dollar amount in sales, since people are buying mostly very inexpensive books.


I sold a total of 126 books in October. I tallied the number of books by dollar amount, and this is what sold:

38 books— $3.00-$5.00
68 books—$6.00-$10.00
5 books—$11.00-$15.00
9 books—$16.00-$20.00
4 books—$21.00-$25.00
1 book—$30.00
1 book—$35.00

The average selling price was $9.39. So, as I knew all along, the higher-priced books are not selling.

The traffic to my booth dropped during the first part of October from what it was near the end of September. Near the end of September it had rebounded from the slump during the beginning of September, but the progress unraveled in early October. In the second half of October, my traffic began to increase again. Right now, my traffic is pretty good but still not at the level it was at back in late July and early August when it peaked.

The primary reason that my booth traffic dropped again is that Google did something that negatively impacted many marketplaces. Google changes its algorithm frequently, and the change that occurred in early October has caused some sellers to have very poor placement on Google or to have broken links from Google. On Bonanzle, some sellers are affected more than others. I know that I am at least partially affected but not to the extent of some others. We hope that the problems on Google will be fixed when Google next adjusts its algorithm.

In looking at my sales stats, it is quite apparent that a large number of my sales are coming off of my website. I am getting few sales from Google, which is not surprising due to the many problems. If I did not have my website pulling in traffic, I would have had fewer sales.


Many of my sales came from direct traffic as well, but I suspect a good portion of the direct traffic is actually from my widgets but just not counted as from my widgets. Notice that I did get a number of sales from Bonanzle search, so some people do recognize Bonanzle as a marketplace and are coming to Bonanzle to search for books.

Traffic to Bonanzle is steadily increasing. The venue is not to the point where everyone can have good sales—yet. I do believe that traffic will increase enough in the coming months so that we will begin to see great improvement in sales. I am constantly mulling over ideas on how to draw in more traffic. The Facebook group that I created was one of two ideas that I was thinking over. I thought of creating the Facebook group after I read this post on Bonanzle.

I think that the Facebook group could ultimately be a great central location to find all of the different places that people sell their books. Whether that will happen depends upon how many people join the group and how they decide to use it. Regardless, I think that it could have great potential.

Promoting Your Online Sales of Series Books

I am working on ways to drive buyers of series books to the other booths on Bonanzle. I have just created a group on Facebook for that purpose. As of right now, the group is less than an hour old, and I am the only member. I have posted a discussion topic asking where people sell their books. I have posted the URL of my booth on Bonanzle. I hope others will join me and post their links as well. Heck, I will probably post some links to other booths in the next day or so just to help others out.

The purpose of the group is to promote wherever you sell your books. You don't have to sell on Bonanzle to join the group and promote your books. Yes, eBay sellers of series books are very welcome. Some of you who sell on eBay probably need all the help you can get, so you are definitely invited. I do want to keep this group limited to series books. It's fine if people sell other stuff in addition to series books, but series books need to be the primary focus.

I named the group "Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books" so that there would be no doubt of its purpose. I guess a link would help, right?

Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books

I have not done anything with it except set it up and post my one message. Since I created the group, I am the administrator, but all members will be able to post messages, photos, links, etc.

The reason why I created this group is because the folks at Bonanzle have stated that Bonanzle is getting more traffic from Facebook than from Google. I figured that if that is the case, then why not give it a try? Let's see what happens.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #34

1933 NANCY DREW THE PASSWORD TO LARKSPUR LANE Item #220488653044

Question: Is there printing on the reverse side of the dust jacket or is it blank? Thank you.

Answer: THERE IS PRINTING ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE DUST JACKET.

The prospective buyer was asking the question in order to determine whether the dust jacket is the first/second printing dust jacket, which are identical. Only the first/second printing dust jacket has the print on the reverse side.

While the seller did not show the reverse side of the dust jacket, one of the photos contained the information that the buyer was seeking. It is something that I always watch for when a seller shows a photo of either flap of an early dust jacket. Here is the important photo:


Notice along the extreme right edge of the back flap that something is printed in red ink. The only Nancy Drew dust jackets that have that message on them in red ink are the ones that have lists of books printed on the reverse side of the dust jacket. Therefore, this dust jacket is one of the very early dust jackets with the ads on the reverse side.

Both the front and back flaps have a message along the edge in red ink. On the front flap, the message reads, "LOOK ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS JACKET." On the back flap, the message reads, "PRESERVE THIS WRAPPER FOR FUTURE REFERENCE." Anytime you see a photo of one of the jacket flaps and see a message at the edge in red ink, it is a very early dust jacket from the early 1930s that has the lists on the reverse side.

The "New" Dana Girls Books

Two "new" Dana Girls books are now for sale on various websites. I have seen them on at least three different websites, and I am sure that they are available on others as well. Two different people have asked me about these books, and they are also the subject of some discussion in the Judy Bolton group.

The "new" Dana Girls books are called The Secret at the Windmill Estate and The Mystery of the Cameo Curse. These are not new stories. They are actually Kay Tracey books that have been "rewritten" into Dana Girls books by someone. While names have been changed and passages have been partially rewritten, the "new" Dana Girls books have heavily plagiarized the two Kay Tracey books.

Here is the beginning of the Kay Tracey book, The Secret at the Windmill:

Three high school girls, their arms loaded with textbooks, raced across the Carmont station platform, swinging aboard the train just as it started to move.

"One day we'll be a second too late," Betty Worth declared, brushing a wisp of blond hair from her eyes. "Kay Tracey, you're a regular sprinter when it comes to catching trains at the last moment!"

"I don't like to stand around at a station platform when I can find more interesting things to do," Kay responded, her brown eyes twinkling. "Besides, foot racing is good for the figure."

"If we keep pace with you we'll be skeletons before the school term ends," Wilma drawled. "Look at me already."

Here is the opening of the "new" Dana Girls book, The Secret at Windmill Estate:

Two school girls raced across the Penfield station platform, swinging aboard the train just as it started to move. The train slowly left the station in the late afternoon sunshine.

"One day we'll be a second too late," Jean Dana declared, brushing a wisp of blond hair from her eyes. "Louise, you're a regular sprinter when it comes to catching trains at the last moment!"

"I don't like to stand around at a station platform when I can find more interesting things to do," Louise Dana answered her sister, her eyes twinkling. "Besides, foot racing is good for the figure."

"We'll be skeletons before the school term ends," Jean said. As the days grew longer and the temperature became warmer, she knew that Summer would soon be upon them.

The above passage is taken from the preview that appears on the link that I provided near the beginning of this post. I have not purchased these books, and I do not intend to do so. They sound interesting, but I do not find them interesting enough to want to pay nearly $20 for each of them. Perhaps if they were less than $10, I would at least consider it.

The copyright pages, which can be seen in the preview of the books, refer to the books as parodies. Parodies are protected under copyright laws, so by calling the books parodies, the author was able to get a publisher to accept them. By definition, a parody "imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule." First, I do not believe that these texts are intended to ridicule the original texts. Second and more importantly, these texts are much more than imitation. Large portions of these texts are identical to the original books. This is plagiarism.

Both the Dana Girls and Kay Tracey series were properties of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which was purchased by Simon and Schuster. I doubt that Simon and Schuster gave permission for these books to be published.

As to whether collectors should purchase these books, that is an individual decision. Some collectors have expressed positive opinions and will be purchasing them. Others, like me, will not be purchasing the books. Mainly, people need to be aware that these books are not completely new stories.

The Crossword Cipher Saga Continues...

This is just amazing. I bought this lot of books on eBay:

Nancy Drew 10 hardcovers 1933 & up GREAT set!!! Item #220494603776


I only bought the lot because of the library binding of Whispering Statue, not that I really needed another library binding. The books didn't look to be in very good shape, in spite of the seller's comments. I just received the books, and they are what I expected—not in very good shape. Whenever I buy library bindings, they usually come with poor condition books, and that is what I expect regardless of what the seller states.

As I pull Nancy Drew picture covers from packages, I always turn to the back cover to see what is the last title listed. I get to the rather trashed copy of Crossword Cipher and... it lists to Pine Hill on the back cover. The elusive first printing! Or is it?

The book lists to Pine Hill on the back cover, which meets the points for the elusive 1967A-1 printing.

However, we have a problem. The elusive first printing has no interior list of titles... then why on earth does mine have a list of titles? It is on the reverse side of the last page of text, which is page 177.


The list of titles is ND #1-43 and DG #1-27. This matches the interior list for the third, fourth, and fifth printings. So I seem to have a hybrid between the first and one of three later printings. So what do I have? Do I have the elusive first printing? As far as I'm concerned, I have yet another interesting anomaly. I'm not convinced that it is the first printing. I still think that the "first printing" of Crossword Cipher is more of an anomaly, even though multiple examples exist.

So if you own a Crossword Cipher listing to Pine Hill, does your book have a post-text list of titles? This gets stranger and stranger.

How to Complete Checkout on Bonanzle

Some people are having trouble following through on the process to complete checkout on Bonanzle. Here is the process complete with screen caps.

I used my own items for these screen caps, and I did it without logging in to demonstrate that one does not have to register on the site in order to make a purchase.

First, find an item that you want to add to your cart. I chose a Larkspur Lane PC. I clicked on "add to cart," and the item immediately showed up in the lower right in the cart.


I then looked at a Larkspur Lane with dust jacket. Notice on the next screen cap that the first book still shows in my cart.


I then clicked on "add to cart." In this next screen cap, you will see that the second book has now appeared in my cart.


I was ready to check out. I clicked on the green "view cart" that can be seen in the extreme lower right corner of the above screen cap. This brought me to the following page:

Since I was "new to Bonanzle" and did not wish to register, I entered my zip code at the left then proceeded to checkout. This is the page that I saw:

I had three options: money order, PayPal, and Google Checkout. For buyers who wish to pay by money order, that option is kind of hidden at the left. If you select "money order," your order will be submitted as an offer, which the seller has to approve. If you select "PayPal" or "Google Checkout," then you will proceed to your account to complete the payment. I hope this helps.

"Spring Cleaning" in Fall

I am in the process of sorting books. Right now I am working on the books that are in my Bonanzle booth.

Jennifer's Series Books

I have slashed the prices of a number of books, and I expect that I will lower some additional prices as well as I continue this process. I have also removed some books from my booth and plan to remove a bunch more. I need to reduce my extras so that I can get them in order.

So far I have reduced prices on all of my Dorothy Dale and Harriet Pyne Grove books as well as a couple of Marjorie Dean. I reduced prices on some of the Mildred Wirt Benson, Girl Scouts, and Girls' Series books.

The books that I decide to remove from my booth will get bulk listed on eBay. I am feeling pretty confident that people are able to find auction items in "best match" search after my observations during the last week. Therefore, I am feeling better about selling some of my better books in bulk. I will probably remove all of the Landmark Books and some of the Boys' Series books.

6:35 PM Update: Since posting this, I have cut my Landmark Books' prices in half to give them a chance to sell. I have now reduced prices on a few Nancy Drew books as well.

Warnings at Waverly Academy

The 21st Nancy Drew game, Warnings at Waverly Academy, was released this month by Her Interactive. This game is loosely based on the Nancy Drew book, The Curse of the Black Cat. Unlike the early Nancy Drew games, the more recent ones are just slightly based on the books, so it is possible to have read the book and not be able to guess who the villain is in the game.

This game was back to basics. I greatly enjoyed how for the first time in a number of games, the player is able to walk through and explore a building in first person. In most of the recent games, a large amount of the game play has been in third person, in which the player has to guide Nancy from above through some means.

The character interaction is much better than in the previous game, Ransom of the Seven Ships. In Seven Ships, the player is only able to talk to a couple of people so it is not hard to guess who the villain is. In this game, the player is able to speak to a number of characters, so it is not obvious.

As in previous games, the player has to play games with one of the characters in order to gain information. I found the two games to be much easier than the ones from Seven Ships. Seven Ships has this horrible coconut throw that is just about impossible to win. I hated it. This game has scram and air hockey, and I was able to win both on just the second try. My first try yielded me the necessary information on how to play each game, so on the second try I was able to beat both of them.

I cheated with online spoilers a few times, but if I had wished to spend the extra time, I could have completed all tasks without help. This game was easier than most of the recent Nancy Drew games. It would probably be a good one for someone to try who has never played a Nancy Drew game.

For people who like the play the game to learn the title of the next game, please stop reading here if you do not want to know the title or subject of the next game that is to be released next year. Remember, you've been warned to quit reading NOW...
.
.
.
.
.
.
SPOILER ALERT
.
.
.
.
.
.
The next game is called Trail of the Twister and is set in Oklahoma. Ugh... I was a bit dismayed since that means that the game is based on The Mystery in Tornado Alley, which is set in my home state of Oklahoma and is one of my least favorite Nancy Drew books. I absolutely hate that book...

Why do I hate it? First, it is written very badly. It makes little sense and the plot has a thousand holes. It is stupid. I haven't read it since I read it years ago, and I hardly want to put myself through a bad experience in order to refresh my memory of the specifics. I will, however, mention the part of the book that I object to the most. I found an old post of mine to the Nancy Drew Sleuths group in which I answered the question of whether I felt that Nancy Drew had ever had a "jump the shark" moment.

Once again, be forewarned of spoiler information concerning a dreadful book that you probably don't want to read anyway...

SPOILER

I could mention several, but I would say the main one would be in Tornado Alley when Nancy is sucked into an F5 tornado while in a car, stays conscious while banging around in the car, decides to get out of the car, and is set gently on the ground uninjured and unhit by debris. It is not only stupid and unbelievable, but totally irresponsible of the author to write such utter garbage. I live in Central Oklahoma and was nearly hit (missed by half a mile) by the F5 Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999. I have a healthy respect of tornadoes and what they can do.

I will elaborate a little bit. One cannot survive an F5 tornado without taking cover. The F5 tornado of May 3, 1999 killed more than 40 people. Nearly everyone took cover, which is why so few people were killed by a huge tornado with winds of 318 mph, and some of the people were killed in their homes while taking cover in closets or bathrooms. Many of the people who took cover under highway overpasses had hideous injuries such as losing an ear. It was not pretty.

I drove by a huge pile of mangled cars each day for months after the tornado while on the way to work. Those cars were twisted and torn like they had been in a horrific accident at a high rate of speed. There is no way that someone could have been in one of those cars and survived that kind of tornado, let alone been in full control of oneself and able to get out of the car (!) and land on the ground uninjured. Not only that, but Nancy's friends conveniently arrive right after the tornado passes, and they never check on the other person who was in the car with Nancy. They just leave assuming he is dead (!). If Nancy lived through it, then why couldn't he have lived? It turned out he was dead, but still... (!)

Just thinking about it brings back horrible memories of that book. I shudder.

The good news is that surely Her Interactive is changing up the story significantly like they have other recent games. I hope... I have this lingering worry that Her Interactive will have Nancy sucked into a tornado, etc. Ugh!

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #33

SIGN OF THE TWISTED CANDLES - KEENE NANCY DREW MYSTERY Item #380162102798

This is the seller's picture:

Question: Hi there! I'm interested in purchasing this book. I was wondering if you could describe for me the endpapers inside the front cover - what the design looks like and what color it's printed in.

Answer: The endpapers are orange silhouettes on white. ONe side shows three girls and the other side shows Nancy with a magnifying glass following a trail with a house in the background. Thanks for your interest. Good luck!

This is another example of an unnecessary question. Notice the lower right corner of the book where the dust jacket is turned back. We can see that the dust jacket has the print on the reverse side, which means that the jacket is from the early 1930s. Anyone who has visited my Nancy Drew formats page knows that Twisted Candles was never printed in the blank endpapers format (only volumes 1-7 were). Since the jacket is from the early 1930s, the book must have orange silhouette endpapers. Notice that the book is thick and that a small amount of the orange writing can be seen on the cover. These are other clues.

More on Best Match

In my last post, I mentioned discrepancies in eBay's "best match" search. Today I was able to check the "best match" standing of a couple of listings from a seller who has had a low recent sell-through rate. Both listings were for collectible vintage Nancy Drew books, and both listings were fixed-price.

One of the listings was the #1 item on the "ending soonest" search and was set to close three minutes later. I quickly ran a "best match" search. I was unable to find the item in the top 1,000 results in "best match" before I ran out of time.

I next chose another listing from the same seller which was set to close 20 minutes later. This gave me a bit more time. This item had a "best match" ranking of between 2,200 and 2,400. How would anyone find it with "best match" search?

I wondered whether 30-day fixed-price listings fall down towards the bottom of the "best match" search results when they get closer to completion. I tried to test my theory, but I was not able to find a listing from the same seller which was new. I did find one that was listed four days ago. This listing had a "best match" rank of between 1,600 and 1,800, which was bad but better than the items that were close to completion.

It is now no mystery to me why this seller has had low sales.

I next checked a fixed-price listing from another seller and found that a listing that closes tomorrow has a ranking of approximately 2,200 in "best match" search. This was a different seller but the same result. Interesting...

My four auctions close in two days. I decided to go ahead and look for them in the "best match" search results. I was quite surprised to find that all four listings were ranked at about 300 in the "best match" search. I feel that this is quite high for listings that still have two days to go, and especially for someone like me who was not wanted by eBay one year ago. I assumed that eBay favored sellers who use eBay more. Since I no longer sell much on eBay, I thought my listings would be buried, but this is not the case. This proves that eBay is favoring auctions over fixed-price listings in search, just as they have stated.

The ranking of my items cannot be because of anything I have done. I have only sold two items in the last two months, so I do not have previous sales to give me a boost. I am not a top-rated seller. Since these lots contain multiple books, I used the shipping calculator to set my shipping at above $4.00. It does not look like I am getting penalized for having higher shipping, which I sort of expected. The placement of the listings has to be because of the auction format.

Personally, I would be peeved if I were listing a bunch of fixed-price listings and eBay were hiding them from everyone. No wonder so many of them are not selling.

Search Discrepancies on eBay

Those of you who still sell on eBay should not take offense when I mention your sales. I do not mention names, and I am not implying that you have done anything wrong. On the contrary, I am indignant that eBay is hiding your items in search. The "best-match" search truly is hiding items—at least some of them.

I ran a search last night for "Nancy Drew" under "best match" and "ending soonest." I did not have the luxury of checking the results for any seller whose sales are down, since I needed for those sellers to have listings about to close, but I did find a result for someone who is well-known in the series book collecting community.

This person's book was #4 on the "ending soonest" search. It closed approximately one hour after I ran my search. This seller is not top-rated. I checked the results for "best match" and was unable to locate the book in the first 1,400 results (!). I figured that I had proved my point by that time, so I did not check further. I used the browser "find" feature on a word from the title of the listing as I searched each page of results to make certain that I did not miss it. There is no way that a buyer would have found that particular book in "best match." By the way, it was a blue tweed Nancy Drew book with dust jacket, so it was definitely a book that was of interest to collectors.

I also noticed that the missing item was one that had "Buy It Now or Best Offer" enabled. At the time that I ran this particular search, I noticed that the auction listings were receiving prominent placement in "best match" while the ones with Buy It Now were either missing or way down the page.

I checked the search results again this afternoon, and I noticed that the Buy It Now listings were receiving about the same placement as the auction listings. The "best match" results seem to change from day to day. It is very odd. If I were selling all of my books on eBay, I would be very concerned about this. The reason why I am checking into it is because people have mentioned the discrepancies on various message boards, and I wanted to see for myself if their statements are true. Apparently they are.

Tonight, I ran another search and compared the results for "ending soonest" and "best match." Once again, I was able to quickly isolate a book that is to close in around 12 hours and is not showing in "best match." This time, I went through every page of results. I was unable to find the book in any of the 18 pages of results, or 3,514 items. That book is not showing in "best match" at all. Why?

I noticed that the book is from the same seller as the first book I mentioned from last night. I also noticed that the book is a "Buy It Now or Best Offer" item. Odd... Out of curiosity, I checked to see if that seller had any other copies of that Nancy Drew volume available. The seller had two others. The other two books were showing on page 18 of 18 under "best match" and were ranked at around 3,400 out of the 3,514 items. This is not good.

These books are all vintage, collectible Nancy Drew books that are of interest to collectors. They are buried in "best match" while dozens, maybe hundreds, of near worthless flashlight editions are ranked higher. "Best match" indeed...

I am amazed that this particular seller who has a long track record and good sales has books that eBay is hiding in "best match." I thought eBay liked sellers who sell a lot, so why is eBay hiding some of this seller's items?

I do actually have four bulk lots of Nancy Drew books on eBay right now. They are books that I do not care to sell on Bonanzle. The books are all in auctions with no Buy It Now. As they reach the final day, I'm going to be checking to see what the placement is in "best match" and "ending soonest." I suggest other sellers do the same with their listings as the listings near the closing time.
..................................
In addition to the "best match" problems, eBay is messing around with the search results again. The store results have been placed back into the core search results for some lucky users like me. This was done in 2006 and resulted in auctions losing in popularity. When eBay realized the mistake, the store results were removed from core, but the damage had been done. Since 2006, auctions have been on a steady decline. For some reason, eBay has decided to place store results back in core in a test run. This means that our search results are cluttered with store items, and it is very hard to find anything for the larger searches. While the test search may positively affect eBay stores, it will negatively affect people who have paid higher fees for auctions and 30-day fixed price listings.

If you remove all of your eBay cookies, you may be able to get out of the test search. I tried it and was able to see the normal search results again. I do not know how long this test is set to run, but it is making large searches like "Nancy Drew" very hard to navigate.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #32

This is more of a case of seller confusion, but it is worth mentioning.

1931 NANCY DREW THE SECRET AT SHADOW RANCH Item #180405212444

In the description, the seller stated, "I BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE FIRST PRINTING SINCE THERE IS ONLY ONE DATE IN THE BOOK."

The seller is someone who, like many, believes that a single date proves that the book is the first printing. While this is true for many publishers, it is not true for Grosset and Dunlap. People do not realize that Grosset and Dunlap saved money by seldom changing the plates. Nearly all printings of all Nancy Drew books printed before 1985 only have one date on the copyright page. Just about every single book looks like a first printing to someone who thinks that a single date proves that a book is the first printing.
.........................................
In this case, a prospective buyer who is fully informed and owns a Farah's Guide wished to identify whether the book is the first printing in a more difficult method than was necessary.

VINTAGE NANCY DREW 1937 WHISPERING STATUE #14 First Ed. Item #120469851150

The listing included these photos in addition to many others.


The flaps of the jacket match the points for both the first and second printing dust jackets, which are identical. The book's points are needed to determine whether the book is the first or second printing, thus determining whether the book and jacket meet the points for the first or second printing.

Question: Your heading advertises this as a first ed first printing but your description says you aren't sure so this is a bit misleading to bidders. The only way to determine the difference between a first and second printing of this title is to show a pic of the actual book without the jacket. Thanks!

Answer: My own research indicates that this (and the other ND I currently have up) is a 1st edition. But I'm not a professional book seller, and want to make clear to prospective bidders that they should double check with reputable guide books. I'm not sure how showing the book without the DJ reveals anything more than all the many shots I've provided of the DJ (which contain the lists of books in both the NDrew series and other series and are used as indicators by Farah's and others), but will try to get a shot of the book without its DJ uploaded soon. Many thanks for your input.

First of all, I have a big pet peeve about the whole formats thing in Farah's Guide, and I absolutely cannot stand scrutinizing the boards of a Nancy Drew book and trying to figure out whether I am looking at a bunch of plus signs, wavy lines, slightly raised lines, slightly depressed lines, and all that rot. Sorry. I know why he mentions all that stuff, but I avoid it whenever I can determine a printing by some other, any other, means. Why would anyone go through that on purpose?

So... This is why it was unnecessary. The first printing book has the following post-text ads: ND#1-13, ML #1-6, and JB #1-9. The second printing book has the following post-text ads: ND #1-13, HBG (6), and ML #1-6. All that needed to be asked was whether the very last post-text ad page listed nine Judy Bolton titles ending in Mysterious Half Cat. Only the first printing book has that page as the last ad. That seems easier to me than trying to look at the boards from an eBay photo that has a reduced resolution.

Here is the picture of the book that the seller added in response to that question:


As much as I hate it, I will mention the format information for the boards of the book for the first and second printings. Farah states that the first printing book is Format 3 which has the cover stock texture of "moderately raised horizontal and vertical lines arranged in a weaving pattern." The second printing book is Format 4 which has the cover stock texture of "slightly raised rows of horizontally connected plus signs."

Um, okay. I hate this. It is really hard to tell from the photo, but I think I am seeing the Format 3 pattern. I had to get my first printing book off of the shelf to compare it to this one to make certain. Yes, this book has the Format 3 pattern, so it is the first printing. Wouldn't it have been easier to just look at the post-text ads?

Note: Since the questioner may be a reader of this blog, please try not to be offended as I seem to be offending quite a few people lately. This blog contains my opinions, and I abhor looking at the texture of the boards of Nancy Drew books. It raises the hackles, if you know what I mean. I realize that for reasons unknown to me, others might prefer to look at the boards when it makes me want to scream.

A Bonanzle Success Story

Recently someone listed a large lot of thick blue Nancy Drew books on eBay. The books did not sell, and they were relisted several times. The seller dropped the price each time, and the books continued not to sell. I placed the books in my watched items list each time, and I was flabbergasted that no one was buying them. The books were priced well even on the first list and the lot had good pictures of all of the books. The thick blue Nancy Drew books typically sell very easily when placed in bulk lots. The price got to be a bit ridiculous (meaning low) as the books were relisted. It was mystifying. Or was it?

This seller is someone like me who is not a large volume seller and does not have the top-rated seller icon. I think that the books were not getting noticed because they were buried in the best-match search. I suspect that more buyers use the best-match search than we can possibly realize. People who are savvy to the ways of eBay know that best-match hides good items, but inexperienced eBay users who may have just decided to begin collecting may not realize that best-match is not a best-match.

This person listed the books on Bonanzle at a price below the first list price on eBay but above the last list price on eBay. The books sold the very same day they were listed. They were noticed immediately and sold. This is another example how low volume sellers are able to get noticed better on a small venue like Bonanzle.

On the other hand, some of you are probably not getting many or any sales. The reason why is that the right person has not come along. I am finding that I have to be patient regarding most of my books. They will eventually sell, but it can take months before the right person comes along.

I had some books by Thornton W. Burgess that I listed early this year, probably in March or April. I finally sold two of them this week. I know that my buyer found one of the books direct from a Google search since that book showed on the first page of the Google search that the buyer ran. I have a premier account on Bonanzle so that I can get the seller stats, and this is why I have the information.

What is really great is that I sold two books to that buyer, and two other sellers also sold Burgess books to that same buyer. I always run completed item searches after I make sales to see if the buyers bought books from other people as well. Every time we can get a buyer to come to Bonanzle from Google, that buyer may buy from additional sellers and may come back later for more. Remember that your listings need to have good keywords, since Google is your best source for new buyers.

My sales in October are turning out to be pretty good, but I am primarily selling very low-priced books. I think that buyers are currently wanting low-priced books, so that is what is selling. Perhaps in a few months some of the higher-priced books will begin to move.

The media have reported for a while that the recession is either over or nearly over, but I believe that this is premature and false information. Buyers seem to be holding back and are choosing to purchase inexpensive books. I am pulling out all of the inexpensive books that I can and plan to get them listed on Bonanzle as soon as possible.

Bonanzle Update #20

I have a short list of around six sellers of series books that I check on each month in order to see how sales are going on eBay. These are people who always have books up for sale, so they are sellers whose names all of you would instantly recognize if you buy series books on eBay. These are also the type of seller that eBay loves, since eBay feels that recent sales are very important to how it ranks a seller in best-match search.

There are a few who have consistently had sell-through rates of 40% and above who still have comparable sell-through rates. There is one seller who I have mentioned in the past who has tended to have a dismal sell-through rate in recent months. During the last 15 days, this particular seller, who listed hundreds of books, had a sell-through rate of just 4.4%, which is far worse than the last time I mentioned this seller. Another seller who has typically had a sell-through rate of 30% or higher had a sell-through rate of just 8.8%.

Something is wrong on eBay. What I think is happening is that the stupid top-rated seller program is hindering everyone who is not part of the program. Now the badges themselves may not be to blame; it is more likely the fact that eBay is suppressing the results in search for those who are not top-rated.

Both of the sellers that I just mentioned do not have the top-rated seller badge. These sellers sold fewer books on eBay than I sold on Bonanzle in the last 15 days. I have had 13 transactions on Bonanzle in the last 15 days. These two sellers have each sold fewer than 10 books on eBay. The discrepancy gets greater if you look at how many books I sold in my 13 transactions. I have sold 55 books in the last 15 days!

This is interesting. I really do not think I am doing that great on Bonanzle, at least in the big scheme of things. Seriously! I am not selling that high of a dollar amount in books. I do not sell books each day. Sometimes a week or more can pass with no books sold. Bonanzle does not have much traffic. In fact, it has an extremely small amount of traffic as compared to eBay. Then how am I doing better than some people who are selling on eBay?

It is because those people's items are getting buried in the search results. I am having more luck on a site that has far less traffic. It is actually quite simple. EBay is not feeding items to Google. EBay is supposed to be feeding the store items to Google, but according to eBay store owners on the eBay Stores message board, eBay has not been sending their items for several months. EBay has never uploaded the auctions nor the 30-day fixed price items, to my knowledge.

Think about it. You place items up for sale on eBay, yet your items will not be seen in Google, which is the most popular website on the planet. Someone like me places items on Bonanzle, which has little traffic, yet my items get seen on Google, the most popular website. Which would you rather?

I am not suggesting that successful eBay sellers should try out another site. Those people have something good going for them and need to continue to exploit it. If you are someone who, like me last year, had trouble getting noticed on eBay, then you need to consider another venue. It does not have to be Bonanzle; it could be someplace else. Do yourself a favor and look into other options.

If you do try a site like Bonanzle, make sure you use good keywords to describe your items. I mentioned this in my last Bonanzle post, and it cannot be mentioned enough. Even on eBay, people have problems selling items when they are not described properly. On sites other than eBay, poor descriptions are suicidal. Google does not pick up items when those items do not have good keywords. As I stated before, if you are selling books, place the complete title of your book in the description area along with the author, copyright, publisher, and anything else of importance like the format of the book. Remember, Google is your friend, but your friend will turn on you when you do not place the important keywords in your description.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #31

Vintage Lot of 19 Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys HC Books Item #270447639838

This is the seller's picture:


The auction contained this information in the description:

1. The Scarlet Slipper Mystery 1954
2. The Mystery of The Ivory Charm 1936
3. The Clue of the Velvet Mask1953
4. The Clue in the Old Stagecoach 1960
5. The Mystery At The Moss-Covered Mansion 1941
6. The Haunted Showboat 1957
7. The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk 1940
8. The Clue of the Black Keys 1951
9. The Haunted Bridge 1937
10. The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933
11. The Secret At Shadow Ranch 1931
12. The Ringmaster's Secret 1953
13. The Clue of the Leaning Chimney 1949
14. The Secret of the Old Clock 1930 (missing binder)
15. The Whispering Statue 1937 (has water damage on front, back, & binder)
16. The Secret of the Golden Pavilion 1959
17. The Hidden Window Mystery 1956
18. The Clue in the Diary 1932

Question: Do these all have 25 chapters (in particular, The Hidden Window)? Thanks.

Answer: All but 3 have 25 chapters including The Hidden Window has 25. The 3 that have only 20 chapters are The Clue in the Old Stagecoach, The Haunted Showboat, and The Secret of the Golden Pavilion.

As I have stated in the past, this type of question is often unnecessary. In this particular case, it was completely unnecessary. The seller provided a photo of the books and even gave the copyright dates. With the inclusion of the copyright dates, there is no doubt which books contained the original text.

All Nancy Drew books with a copyright date of 1956 or before must contain 25 chapters. All blue tweed Nancy Drew books must contain the original text with the exceptions of #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is only necessary to ask about #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 if the copyright date is not given. If the copyright date is given and is before 1956 (it will be 1930 or 1931), then those books must contain the original text. Of those books, this lot only contained #1, and the copyright date given was 1930, proving that the book has the original text.

The blue tweed books for #35 through 38 have copyrights after 1956 and contain just 20 chapters. However, those four books never had 25 chapters in the first place, so they contain the original text.

Of particular concern to the prospective buyer was whether Hidden Window contained the original text. Hidden Window was not revised under the 1970s when it was in the matte picture cover format. It is not possible for a tweed copy of Hidden Window to have anything other than the original text. The copyright date for the original text is 1956, so this is further proof that the book has the original text.

If prospective buyers have a handy list of the original copyright dates of Nancy Drew books, then it is always easy to determine whether the book has the original 25 chapter text. The book just has to have a copyright date of 1956 or before.