Nancy Drew First Format Lilac Inn Prices

I have written of my frustration with sellers pricing early printings of the Nancy Drew book, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, at huge prices because they have misunderstood my post, "Scarcity of Nancy Drew Lilac Inn First Printing."  That post was written for the advanced Nancy Drew collector, but people who have little knowledge of series books have decided that all early Lilac Inn books must be worth $500 to $1,000.  Compounding the problem is the extreme popularity of that post, which is the fifth most viewed post in this blog.  This blog now has around 900 posts, so a post which is fifth out of 900 is quite popular indeed.  I have gone back and edited that post and other related ones in hopes of reaching the people who continue to use it to list their books at extreme prices. 

A blank endpapers Lilac Inn matches the first format, 1930-1932, that is listed on my Nancy Drew Formats Page.  Sellers figure out that their book looks like that, read the blog post to which I linked above, completely miss the point about the post-text ads, and decide that their books are priceless.

To refute the belief of some sellers that all first format Lilac Inns are valuable, I decided that I should post screen caps of recent auctions for blank endpapers editions of Lilac Inn.   Since these were auctions, people had the opportunity to bid as high as they wished.  While eBay auctions frequently close below value these days, we can confidently conclude that auctions which consistently close at well under $100 are for books that are not worth $500 to $1,000.

Remember that you can click on any image to see a larger version, which is highly recommended since the images are too small for most people to read.

The above book closed at $36.00.  By the information given by the seller, the book was definitely not the first printing.  The book was in rough shape, and the auction closed at about the book's value.

This book was in nice shape and closed at $73.22.  The seller did not give any information to indicate the printing, but this particular seller would have stated if the book were the first printing.  Therefore, we know that the book was not the first printing.  It probably closed at least a little below value but was not worth more than $100 to $125.

This book closed at $57.10.  It was not the first printing.  It also may have closed a little below value but would not be worth more than $75 or so

My hope is that some of the people who are pricing the blank endpapers editions of Lilac Inn at huge prices will read this post and realize that the books are not all worth $500 to $1,000.  In fact, close to 100% of the copies that surface are not the first printing.  The only printing of Lilac Inn that is of high value is the one described in past blog posts.

Please refer to this blog post to see photographs of the correct post text ads for the actual first printing book.  Remember, the book must have the same ads in the same order with the identical last title listed in each ad in order to be the extremely scarce first printing.  If you find a book with the same ads in a different order, then you do not have the first printing, making your book worth about the same amount as the three books pictured here.