Finally, the first two packages arrived on Monday, February 29, but alas, they contained just Nancy Drew books. Unsurprisingly, they were not packed well. Both of the following photos show exactly what I saw when I opened the packages.
All books in the first package were fine. Several books were damaged in the second package, one of them badly. The second package looked like it had been rolled around and tossed around. The seams were split and retaped, which worried me since I didn't know whether any books were missing. I needed to receive all of the packages from the transaction before I would know if any books were lost.
Since I hadn't received any Hardy Boys Digest books yet, I had to purchase even more of them in local stores. I received the tracking numbers for the reshipment of the six packages that had been returned to the seller, and those packages were finally on the way.
Three of the six packages arrived on Monday, March 7. Most of the Hardy Boys Digest books were in these three packages. Yay! At this point, my stress level went down greatly. Here are those three packages, and in each case, what I have pictured is exactly what I saw when I opened the box.
The next two packages arrived on Tuesday, March 8. The contents completed the set of Hardy Boys Digests, so I had now received the books that were most important to me.
One package remained. I needed it before I would know whether any books had gone missing and before I could figure out how to divide up my total cost between all of the books. That package was delayed until Friday, March 11 when it finally arrived.
The shipping label had been torn, which had caused the delay.
I later realized that I was very fortunate, because if the label had been ripped off completely, I would have never received that box. The seller didn't put a packing slip inside, so the shipping label was the only identifier for the package.
This is what I received altogether for a grand total of 684 books.
Nancy Drew #1-90, 92-175, Sleuth Book, Ghost Stories
Hardy Boys #1-190, Detective Handbook, Ghost Stories
Nancy Drew On Campus #1-25
ND/HB Supermysteries #1-36
2 Hardy Boys/Tom Swift Ultra Thrillers
Hardy Boys Casefiles #1-127
Nancy Drew Files #1-124
ND/HB Super Sleuths 1 and 2
The box that contained the lower-numbered Nancy Drew Digests was the box that had split seams which had been taped, so I believe that Nancy Drew #91 fell out of that box during shipment. I am very fortunate that I lost only one book out of the entire lot. One book is of little concern, especially since I received all of the books that were important. Here are pictures of the books put in order by number.
The seller told me that these books were an inheritance, so this was someone's complete set of modern Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. The Nancy Drew hardcover set is primarily books with double oval endpapers from the 1980s, but the Hardy Boys set is from the early to middle 1970s. Some of the Hardy Boys books have the first revised text, and Twisted Claw has the Nancy Drew list on the back cover.
Except for some of the early Wanderer Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, all of the softcover books are first printings. Nearly all of the softcover books are in excellent condition with almost no wear. I assume that the collector purchased every single softcover book new when released, which is why all are first printings.
It took exactly four weeks from the day I won the auction for me to receive all of the books. The experience was stressful, but I felt confident that the seller had been honest, which helped me through my long wait.
Even though stressful, the purchase was definitely worth it.
The purchase netted me the complete set of Hardy Boys Digests plus the complete set of Hardy Boys Casefiles, should I decide to read them.
I had sold my sets of Super Mystery books and On Campus books years ago when I decided not to read them. I am keeping the sets from this purchase for now just in case.
I had purchased a set of flashlight edition Hardy Boys books so that I could read the revised text books in January. It was another case of needing books fast, and the flashlight edition books fulfilled that purchase. I swapped out 25 flashlight editions with the matte picture covers from this lot.
I upgraded nearly my entire set of Nancy Drew Files books, since nearly every single book from this lot was in better shape than the copies in my set. I estimate that around 110 Files were upgraded. I also upgraded around 30 of the Nancy Drew Digests.
I would never have considered purchasing this lot if not for the complete set of Hardy Boys Digests that were included. The set of Hardy Boys Casefiles made the lot even more desirable. I knew that I would keep the Super Mystery books and On Campus books just in case, but I did not expect to keep any other books from the lot. This turned out much better than expected, since I will be keeping around approximately 485 out of the 684 books. That's pretty impressive. This was a very successful and satisfying purchase.
4 comments:
So glad it turned out well. The packaging was so disappointing! How can anyone pack books to ship and think that just stuffing them into a box without filler to prevent tossing about is acceptable?! Once I sold a two-volume Bible, using the services of two women who had an online (EBay) selling business. They were SO despicable, promising me they would handle the 150-year old Bibles with TLC. Instead, they did a flimsy job so that when the buyer tried to unpack his purchase, the cover of one volume ripped off! I'm still grieving over it, as the books were priceless. I should never have trusted the women who sold them. Some sellers are just idiots. Packaging is critical to the success of a sale!
Ugh. That's a shame. I have a few books in my collection that are damaged because of poor packing, and I have never been able to upgrade them. Even wrapping in plastic can help make up for some poor packaging.
One thing I didn't mention that I just remembered is that I was very worried about the second group of books to arrive because we were forecast to have thunderstorms that morning. I knew how the first two books had been packaged, just stacked in the boxes with no plastic around them. I was quite concerned that the second group (which turned out to be the HB Digests that were most important to me) would end up badly water damaged. Luckily, the postal carrier dropped off the packages an hour before the rain arrived. That was a close one.
WOW! What a buy! I would've been so angry if I'd opened that box of books stuck in every crevice. How did they expect the books to survive that?! Glad the rain didn't get your most prized shipment. I'm slowly working on my collections. Still only have a couple of shelves filled. Maybe 1 day.
The postage costs!!
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