Thursday, November 27, 2008

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #18

The Question and Answer section of this auction is a mess.

Nancy Drew The Secret Of Red Gate Farm circa 1931 Item #220309555212

What is offered for sale is an early 1940s Nancy Drew book that has a dust jacket that lists to Missing Map.
Question: What are the DJ lists? Does this have a glossy frontispiece? Are there post script lists, in the back of the book? Thanks

Answer: DJ 1st: The Secret Of The Old Clock, 21st: The Quest Of The Missing Map. Yes. PS Dana Girls Mystery Stories. 1st: By The Light Of The Study Lamp, 10th The Mysterious Fireplace. Thanks for your inquiry, JP

Question: I'm confused by you Q&A. You state that the ND list on the DJ list to #21, which is The secret in the old Attic, not The Quest of the Missing Map,#18. Which is it? The DGirls lists to Mysterious Fireplace is on the DJ, also? Is there a Melody Lane list to Kashmir Shawl on DJ also?

Answer: The Secret Of Red Gate Farm. The ND DJ list: The last listing (#21) is The Quest of the Missing Map.The Mysterious Fireplace is the last listing for D Girls and The Secret of the Kashmir Shawl is the 7th and last listing on the back of the DJ
So the seller stated that the last and 21st title in the list is The Quest of the Missing Map, thus confusing the potential buyer. It didn't matter whether the seller counted correctly; the fact that the seller stated that it listed to Missing Map was enough information. I would not have engaged the seller in further discourse.

I found a book that has a dust jacket listing to Missing Map, and what the seller did was count every line as a title, so the titles that were printed on two lines were counted as two titles by the seller. The 19 titles appear on 21 lines, so the seller counted 21 titles. I realize that the potential buyer did not ask how many titles were listed, but the seller's incorrect answer is why buyers should never ever ask how many titles are listed and should not be concerned with how many titles the sellers thinks are there. Sellers often count the titles wrong.

The potential buyer knew that Missing Map was not #21 yet stated that it was #18 when it is actually #19. After looking at the two questions and answers, I felt like I was going to get confused!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you please recommend me some Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton books which have a perfectly logical explanation and no inconsistencies in plot? You know, for me this is the most important thing in a mystery book. I've read a few dozens of Nancy Drews (some early volumes as well as some high-numbered ones) and I really liked only four books: The Quest of the Missing Map, The Secret of Red Gate Farm, The Password to Larkspur Lane, and The Secret at Shadow Ranch.
As for Judy Bolton, I've heard a lot of praise for this series, so I started reading it. I've read 3 volumes recently: The Haunted Attic, The Invisible Chimes, and Seven Strange Clues. I generally liked The Haunted Attic, but found the explanation of the mystery unsatisfactory. The end of The Invisible Chimes was predictable and the whole book read like a soap opera, so I really hated this one. The next book, Seven Strange Clues, was much better than the previous ones, but it dealt with a secret passage which is such a cliche. Now I really don't know whether to continue reading this series or not. Maybe some of the high-numbered books are good, but I certainly don't want to read the entire series to find it out.
Looking forward to your advice,
Lena.

Jennifer White said...

Series books in general have inconsistencies and lack a completely logical explanation. It is hard for me to remember enough specific details in order to recommend the books that are the most logical. I posed this question last night in the Nancy Drew Sleuths group, and if anybody is able to give me some good suggestions, I will add another comment here later.

The best series books that I can recommend with respect to having logical explanations and are good whodunits are the Connie Blair mysteries. All twelve books are out of print, but reading copies can be found inexpensively.

The Gray Menace stands out as an especially good mystery. The reader is kept guessing until the end when the culprit is finally revealed. The Yellow Warning, The Puzzle in Purple, and The Mystery of the Ruby Queens also come to mind as Connie Blair books that keep the reader guessing.

Once again, I will post another comment later if I get any good suggestions from others.

Jennifer White said...

The Nancy Drew book The Mystery at the Ski Jump has been recommended as having a logical plot, and the Nancy Drew book The Double Horror of Fenley Place has been recommended for having a good mystery that is not easy to figure out.