Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #40

I spotted a few listings which had interesting buyer questions.

LOT of 48 Vintage Nancy Drew Books Carolyn Keene

The seller first received these questions and answered them.

Question: Hello. What is the last title listed on the back cover of The Hidden Staircase? And what is the last Nancy Drew title listed on the interior book list near the front of the book? Also, does The Secret of Red Gate Farm have a $1 box printed on the front cover in the upper right corner? How many pages are in your copy of The Clue in the Diary? And what is the last title listed on the back cover of The Clue in the Crossword Cipher? Thank you.

Answer: What is the last title listed on the back cover of The Hidden Staircase? The phantom of Pine Hill And what is the last Nancy Drew title listed on the interior book list near the front of the book? The Mystery of 99 steps Also, does The Secret of Red Gate Farm have a $1 box printed on the front cover in the upper right corner? No but it has a $1.25 sticker on front How many pages are in your copy of The Clue in the Diary? 174 And what is the last title listed on the back cover of The Clue in the Crossword Cipher? The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (This book has some writing on back cover that checks off the books read)

Question: Can you tell me the title of thevlast nancy Drew book listed on the back cover of Clue in the Crossword Cipher?? Thanks

Answer: It is The Clue in the Crossword Cipher. This book has some writing on back cover-check marks stating what books had been read in the series.

I am glad that the seller took the time to answer every question correctly. So often, when sellers are asked multiple questions, they ignore most of them.

The next day, the seller received a question about the previous questions.

Question: Hello, why do you think the people are asking about what is the last title in a list? Do you think it is to see if it was the last one written? Most interested in this answer. Why was the person asking how many pages in the Diary book? Has that book been added to in the story? Thank you

Answer: I think it must be something to do with the Age of the book. Probably depending on the answer it may be a first Run Edition that would be worth more. Just my guess......

The seller had a pretty good idea why the questions were being asked. More specifically, both potential buyers were asking about Crossword Cipher in order to determine whether the book offered in the lot was the first printing. The first printing lists to Phantom of Pine Hill on the back cover.

Regarding Clue in the Diary, the buyer was trying to determine whether the book was the scarce first picture cover printing with the original text. With just 174 pages, the book offered in this lot was the common revised text picture cover.

Splendid copy of Nancy Drew 1932/33 1st printing Password Larkspur Lane Keene

Question: What is distinctive about this copy that helps you to know it is a first printing? Thank you.

Answer: Greetigs, It states it in the bok on the title page. I will be posting a few more pics.

This question and answer is very interesting. The copyright page is the reason that the book is considered the first printing, but not because the copyright page states that the book is the first printing. Confusing, yes?

Grosset and Dunlap never identified Nancy Drew books as first printings on the copyright page. This particular printing had what was probably intended to be the copyright page for some other Grosset and Dunlap book placed in it by mistake. I believe that David Farah identified this printing as the first by going under the assumption that a mistake would have been made with the very first printing and corrected for the second printing.

Now this is where I am going to go into some speculation of my own. How do we really know which came first? The first and second printings of Larkspur Lane, as identified by David Farah, are identical in every single way except for the copyright page. The first and second printing dust jackets are identical and are the only jackets for Larkspur Lane which have the ads on the reverse side of the jacket.

I believe that both printings are the same printing, as in the very first printing. It's just that some scattered copies of the first printing happen to have the wrong copyright page. Remember that the price guides are based on speculation, just like what I am doing, and we don't really know for sure what happened nearly 80 years ago.

Note: This is a reminder to those of you who are way too sensitive that these comments are in no way intended to criticize David Farah or his guide. Do not read anything into this post that is not here.