Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #1

Despite several online resources, I have noticed an increasing number of buyers who are struggling with the concept of how to tell whether a Nancy Drew book has the original text. I have also noticed quite a bit of confusion about which books were first published with the 25 chapter text. I had a buyer ask me whether a 1972A-1 first printing of The Secret of Mirror Bay had 25 chapters. Quite frankly, the question astounded me. If I am selling the true first printing of a Nancy Drew book and have given the Farah's Guide information to back my claim, why would someone ask how many chapters the book has? Why would it matter? Wouldn't the first printing have the original text?

I still don't get that question, but apparently many buyers are reading online guides and not quite understanding. This is frustrating to me, as I can see that many buyers are wasting time on pointless questions. I hate asking sellers questions, since so often my questions are either not answered or are answered incorrectly. This is why it is necessary to self-educate oneself about the books as much as possible in order to avoid unnecessary questions.

Only the first 34 Nancy Drew books ever had the 25 chapter texts. It is totally pointless to ask a seller how many chapters #35-56 have. #35-56 were originally published with 20 chapter texts, and those texts were never revised—not one bit. The current "flashlight" edition Nancy Drew books for #35-56 still have the same unrevised 20 chapter texts as the first printings of those books.

A big problem with asking sellers questions is that many people selling Nancy Drew books know even less about the books than the average newbie Nancy Drew collector. I have seen questions posted in which a buyer asks the seller whether the book is the first printing, and the seller replies that it is. Unfortunately, I can tell by looking at the seller's book that the book is not anywhere close to the first! This is an example of a bidder trusting that the seller actually knows anything about the books.

I believe that the rampant confusion among new buyers is the likely reason that the Applewood editions have exploded in value, aside from the possible hoarding. On one of my older posts about the Applewood editions, someone posted a comment that stated that the Applewoods are appealing because it is an easy way to know that the book is the original text. The drawback to this method is that it only works for the 21 titles which were reprinted by Applewood. Buyers are still going to have to self-educate themselves about #22-34.

To go back to #1-34, how does one know whether the book has the original text? One can always ask the seller how many chapters the book has. The book has the original text provided that the answer is 25 chapters. If I were trying to build a set of original text Nancy Drew books, I would get tired of having to ask everybody the number of chapters.

There is another way. I can actually tell by the outside of the book in nearly all cases, but I realize that new collectors may be too overwhelmed to go by appearance. However, if a new collector can become familiar with what books of a certain age look like, then they can go by appearance for some of the books, and it saves them the bother of asking the seller how many chapters the book has.

Take the books published from 1930 through 1951. These books all have the original text with no exceptions whatsoever. Visit my Nancy Drew Formats page to see what the books look like during this span of years. Therefore, any book that looks like the 1930 through 1951 books must have the original text.

The next format is the tweed books with digger or blue multi endpapers. For #1-34, all of the tweed books have the original text for the digger endpapers. There are a few printings from around 1960 with blue multi endpapers for which #1-4 and #6 have the revised 20 chapter text, so these are the only volumes for which a collector has to be careful. For #5 and #7-34, all blue and all tweed books have the original text. For anyone who knows this fact, it is not necessary to ask sellers about any of those books in order to determine whether the book has the original text.

For the picture cover editions from the 1960s and 1970s, one might think that it is possible to get all of #1-34 in the 25 chapter texts. However, since #1-4 and #6 had already been revised down to 20 chapters before the switch to the picture cover format, these books are not available in the picture cover format with the original 25 chapter text. #7 is available, but it is quite scarce as it went through only one printing in the picture cover format with the original 25 chapter text. Therefore, one can only expect to find #5 and #8-34 relatively easily in the picture cover format with the 25 chapter texts.

The glossy illustrations also seem to cause some buyers confusion. I have had people ask me whether a tweed book that is from the 1950s has glossy internal illustrations. The only books that ever had glossy internal illustrations are the very early thick blue Nancy Drew books that were printed from 1930 through 1937. Visit my Nancy Drew Formats page to see what the books look like that were printed from 1930 through 1937. It was after I had several questions about whether tweed books have glossy illustrations that I changed the color of the font on my formats page to make the information about the glossy illustrations stand out.

Additionally, only the first 13 titles had all four glossy illustrations. I have sold early copies of #14-17 and have stated that the books have a glossy frontispiece. Quite often, buyers have asked me to check #14-17 to see whether there are any additional illustrations scattered throughout the text. #14-17 never had the three additional illustrations, so these buyers are wasting their time looking for something that does not exist. As a result, I now try to always state that the book has a "glossy frontispiece illustration and no additional illustrations" just to save them the trouble of asking. Of course, if the buyers still think that #14-17 exist with all four illustrations, they will avoid buying my books, thinking they are not desirable. I can't do anything about that.

It is because of common misconceptions that earlier, more desirable books may sell for well below value while the Applewood editions continue to sell well above value.