Scarcity of Lavell and Other Series Books

As I mentioned in a previous post, it took me around three years to build the complete set of the Girls Scouts books by Edith Lavell in hardcover with dust jacket. I restricted my purchases to books with dust jackets, or I would likely have had the complete set sooner. When I bought my Lavell Girl Scouts books, I bought them solely because of the dust jackets, so I paid no attention to the books themselves. In the past week, I began scanning the dust jackets for my site. For the first time, I took a good look at the books. I was surprised when I realized how many variations there are in the books. There are four different scenes pictured on the front covers of the books that I have, and I also have five different colors of bindings.

One could even have fun trying to collect all of the different binding variations for this series. I have no idea whether all titles are available with each of the different illustrations on the cover or whether all titles are available in all of the different colors of binding. These books are so hard to find that I doubt that I will ever know, nor do I plan to buy additional books unless I upgrade a dust jacket. Several of my dust jackets are quite tattered. Even though I restricted my purchases to books with dust jackets, I had to settle for tattered dust jackets.

The Lavell books are very hard to find. There are very few people who want the books; yet, there are not enough books for even the few people who want them. I have an extra dust jacket for one of the Lavell Girl Scouts books; in fact, it is for #1 in the series. It was purchased in with a lot that contained a number of various juvenile series dust jackets that had long since been removed from the books. I want to purchase the book to mate with the dust jacket so that I can sell it. I'm going to have more luck selling the dust jacket if it is actually on a book and can get a little more for it. I have been checking the listings for several months, and I still cannot find a book to mate with the dust jacket. I thought it would be easy just to get the bare book for the dust jacket, especially for #1 in the series!

It is because of my experience in collecting series books such as the ones by Edith Lavell that I scoff at all of the listings in which sellers claim that their books are rare. I have already stated that the only rare Nancy Drew book is the very first book in the very first printing with the intact dust jacket. It is laughable how many sellers label their Nancy Drew books as RARE. There is no comparison between the more scarce Nancy Drew books and truly scarce books like these early series books.

Let's take a Nancy Drew book that is scarce like the 1932 text picture cover of The Clue in the Diary, which went through only one printing. Normally, it sells for around $40.00 or so. It does come up for sale at least every month or so. One sold in a listing within the last two weeks. It is scarce because many people want it. Books are considered scarce when the supply is less than the demand. However, the 1932 text PC of Diary is not rare as most sellers claim because it does consistently come up for sale.

I have a few Kingsport Press file copies of Nancy Drew picture cover books from the 1960s and 1970s. The file copies indicate that 10,000 copies were bound in a single print run. We do not know for certain how many copies of the 1932 text PC of Diary were bound, but it was likely the standard 10,000. Many of the original copies did not survive, but it is likely that there are at least several thousand of them still in existence. Considering this information, does the book sound that rare? It isn't. With a little sleuthing it can be found on eBay and for under $20.00. I have done it . . . more than once. It has to do with being observant, which I will be discussing in several future posts.

Certain Nancy Drew books such as the 1932 text PC of Diary are only scarce because there are so many Nancy Drew collectors. Most Nancy Drew books are quite abundant; the problem is that the number of people who want them is also abundant. There may be thousands of the previously mentioned book, but there are potentially thousands of people who also want it.

Sellers who misuse the word RARE to describe many or all of their books are doing everyone a disservice. For the past week, I have struggled with whether I should bid on a certain book. I finally decided not to bid, and the listing did not sell. The seller described the book as RARE and as a first edition. Needless to say, RARE was in the usual capital letters. That book has sold without a jacket in the last few weeks; additionally, it is not even the first printing. That seller, along with several others, has an obnoxious habit of describing a large percentage of his or her books as RARE. I am so put off by the misuse of the word RARE that I decided not to purchase that particular book. It will come up for sale again in the very near future. I can wait.

I do not believe that it is worth the risk of offending some buyers in order to capitalize on the naivety of new buyers. Yes, using the word RARE will get newbie bidders to bid larger amounts. What if later those buyers figure out that the books are not RARE? What about people like me who decide not to bid because the word offends us? Is it worth it?

My current policy is that I will not use RARE to describe any book, and I will no longer use scarce. Scarce takes up too many characters in the title; besides, if the book is scarce, aren't bidders going to realize it? All sellers need to do is provide clear pictures showing the entire outside of the book and describe the characteristics of the book. Is that too difficult?