Nancy Drew Prices on eBay

A strange phenomenon has been occurring in recent months on eBay.   The prices for most Nancy Drew books have plummeted while others have gone sky-high.  It is now easy to get most older dust-jacketed Nancy Drew books at very reasonable prices, while oddly, the Applewood facsimile editions from the last 17 years often sell for much higher prices.   It would seem to me that the older books ought to sell for higher prices than the newer books.

The Applewood editions have exploded in value ever since Applewood stopped printing them over a year ago.  I feel like people are reacting emotionally as though these books are suddenly rare and don't realize that the books will come up for sale.  There have been cases where the Applewood editions, which retailed for under $20.00, have sold on eBay for $50.00, $100.00, and even above $200.00.  Even if the sellers claim that the books are rare, they are not rare.  The books are out there and will come up for sale again.  Not only that, I recently read that Applewood is under negotiation with Simon and Schuster to begin reprinting the first six Applewood editions and that they will likely negotiate a new contract in the near future for the rest of the titles that they previously printed.  I fear that some people will soon regret the huge prices that they are paying.

Here are some recent Applewood facsimile edition prices:

#7 The Clue in the Diary w/DJ $33.00
#8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter w/DJ $34.33
#9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles w/DJ, 4th printing, $50.32
#10 The Password to Larkspur Lane w/DJ $44.00
#15 The Haunted Bridge w/DJ, 1st printing $70.00
#15 The Haunted Bridge w/DJ, 1st printing $63.66

While most of the older dust-jacketed Nancy Drew books have collapsed in value, the printings from the early 1930s have exploded in value, in some cases far exceeding what the books have ever sold for in the past.  I have quoted some of these prices in older blog posts.   Here are the noteworthy auctions from the last week:

#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, true first printing 1930A-1, no DJ $306.00
#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, 1932 blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $401.00
#5 The Secret at Shadow Ranch, 1931 blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $361.00
#2 The Hidden Staircase, 1931 blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $800.00
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 1930 blank endpapers edition, probably the 2nd or 3rd printing, lists to Lilac Inn, w/DJ $761.50
#7 The Clue in the Diary, true first printing from 1932, blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $1,641.88
#8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter, true first printing from 1932, w/DJ $910.00
#10 The Password to Larkspur Lane, true first printing with revised/enlarged copyright page notice, w/DJ $515.00
#17 The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk, true first printing, w/DJ $107.46

As high as these prices are, the five true first printing books were all sold to a bookseller who will place them back up for sale on fixed-price sites, unless the bookseller already has a buyer in mind.   In fact, because I know several seller's multiple ids, I am quite aware of exactly how much buying to resell occurs on eBay.   If not for the people buying to resell, the values of the more commonplace Nancy Drew books would have collapsed down to nothing. 

I estimate that roughly 40% of the collectible Nancy Drew books that are on eBay at any given time were recently purchased on eBay for the purpose of resale.  Most buyers would rather purchase a well-described book, so they do not buy from the sellers who found something in the attic and toss it on eBay with no description.  Those books almost always go to someone who then describes it correctly and places it back up for sale.