Upgrading My Beverly Gray Books

Around a month ago, I saw that a seller had listed a bunch of Beverly Gray books on eBay in individual Buy It Now lots ranging from $30 to $65 each.  What caught my eye is that the books appeared to be all very early or first printings and had dust jackets in excellent condition.  I found my A. L. Burt edition books and determined that at least a couple of the Burt books offered by this seller would easily be upgrades to my books.  I determined that the other Burt books might be upgrades and that a good many of the Grosset and Dunlap books might also be upgrades. 

I first bought the Burt books that were of the greatest interest.  Next, I bought the other Burt books.  I then gave it some more thought, since I knew that my overall cost was rising quickly.  Did I want to get all of them?  Not only was this a chance to upgrade a bunch of books, this was also an investment in my Bonanza booth.  The worst case scenario would be that I would be selling some very nice Beverly Gray books in my booth for approximately what I paid for them.  It took around half an hour for me to finish thinking about it, but I ended up purchasing all of the books at a total cost of close to $600.

I was very pleased when I received the books in the mail.  Below, you will see a photograph of the spines, which is the part of the dust jacket that is always in the worst condition.  The spines have light wear, and only one of them is faded.  The front panels are in excellent condition.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

I will be keeping all of the books except for Junior which has a faded spine and is in worse condition than the one I already had.  The rest of the books are in better condition than mine.  Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior appear to be first printings since the jackets list the first four titles.  Career is an early printing and the same printing as mine, but in better shape.

World Cruise and Orient appear to be first printings and are about the same condition as mine.  The main reason I will sell mine is because my copies of these two books have water stains on the back panels of the dust jackets. 

Return is the first printing and slightly better than mine.  Treasure Hunt is the second printing and in better condition than my first printing.  For that title, I will keep both mine and this one.  Reporter and Romance are the first printings and in better shape than mine.

In addition to Junior from the above photo, these are the books from my collection that I will be selling as a result of this transaction.

It is always quite satisfying to buy a number of excellent condition books that are firsts and early printings, especially when those books are upgrades to books in my collection.  I greatly enjoyed this transaction.