Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #3

A good sleuth is observant, and buyers of Nancy Drew books need to be observant. By being observant, one can avoid having to ask sellers so many questions. Here is an example:

RARE NANCY DREW BOOK THE QUEST OF THE MISSING MAP 1942 Item #200242350619

I knew immediately by looking at the pictures that this is a tweed book and not anywhere near a first printing, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Question: Hello! Does the dust jacket front flap and the list of Nancy Drew titles in the book (usually before the title page) both list to the Missing Map? Thanks!

Answer: Hi, both places do list the quest of the missing map. Thank you for your interest. Evie

Based on what I can see in the photos, the seller's answer is definitely wrong. This is why it is best to use one's knowledge as much as possible and avoid asking the questions unless totally necessary. Due to the way the seller phrased the answer, she meant that Missing Map was included in the list. She didn't answer what the buyer meant for her to answer. She did not realize that the buyer was trying to figure out whether the book is a first printing.

This is why it is important to specifically ask what the very last title in the list is. Although even that is not foolproof; I once had a seller tell me that the last title was "Grosset and Dunlap" followed by "Publishers New York."

Do not ask the seller whether the list ends with a certain title, as the question may be misunderstood. I have noticed that a number of sellers will state something like this: "The front flap of the dust jacket lists Nancy Drew titles and Missing Map is 19th in the list." These sellers must think that there is a significance to the title appearing 19th in the list. There is, but only because Missing Map is volume 19. Missing Map is always going to be 19th in the list. The position of a particular title in the list does not help in determining the age of the book, so it is irrelevant information.

Next, someone else has a try at getting the correct information.

Question: Hi. Could you please tell me the last nancy drew title on the front inside of dust jacket, the number of dana girl books listed on the jacket, and the last nancy drew title on the book's internal list? 3 questions: thanks! Karen

Answer: last titlE is THE HAUNTED SHOWBOAT ON THE DUST JACKET - 15 DANA GIRL BOOKS AND THE LAST NANCY DREW TITLE ON THE INTERNAL LIST IS, THE CLUE OF THE VELVET MASK.

Now we learn that the dust jacket lists to Haunted Showboat. We now know that it is a tweed book from the late 1950s.

As I stated in the first place, I already knew from the pictures that it was a tweed book and would not have had to ask the questions in order to approximate the age of the book. How did I know?


The above picture is clue #1. Look along the bottom edge. The book looks like it has the approximate thickness of a book from the 1950s. It also looks tweed-like to me, not like the solid blue of the mid-1940s. I realize that many of you cannot discern what I can from the above picture, so look at the second picture.


This picture reveals the approximate age of the book without any doubt. Look at the front flap. The first part of many of the titles is visible. Count them by what can be seen. I can count 24 titles, and there are gaps where I cannot see the titles. It looks like the first few titles are not visible as well as two small groups of titles, probably around 10 total. Therefore, around 34 titles must be in the list. By the seller's second answer, it is actually 35 titles, so my approximation is quite good. This is why I already knew that the book is a tweed book from the middle to late 1950s. I also have seen enough Nancy Drew dust jackets to know what the font is like for the front flaps from the 1950s, so just seeing the first part of the titles told me the age. As I stated at the beginning of this message, it all has to do with being observant.