I prefer some books in printed format and others in digital format. I only keep modern young adult books in a digital format. I don't see them as collectible, and I just want them to read. I am content to have them stored on my iPad.
I sold my Harry Potter set a few years back. I now have the books in digital format only. Reading the books on my iPad is much easier than reading such heavy books. Selling the set freed up valuable shelf space.
I now favor the digital format for the current Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. I am still purchasing the Nancy Drew Diaries in hardcover with jacket, but I am now also purchasing each book in the digital format. For the Hardy Boys Adventures series, I have quit purchasing the hardcover books and am only purchasing the digital format. I have sold most of my Hardy Boys Adventures hardcover books. I want to read the books to see what is going on with the franchise, but owning the books is not important.
Around 10 years ago, I sold most of my books that had pulp paper. I have seen a noticeable deterioration in those books in the 30+ years that I have collected. Of necessity, I still have some books with pulp paper, such as a few first printing Nancy Drew books from the 1940s.
This book is a copy of The Mercer Boys and the Steamboat Riddle. Since I do not own a copy of the Burt edition with good quality paper, I must keep the reprint that has pulp paper.
I have sold some of my older books that are now in the public domain. My Ruth Fielding set is now a partial set because a couple years ago I sold all of the books that were in the public domain. I also only kept one jacket style for each book.
I sold my entire Marjorie Dean set since all books can be read online. I love the story arc of Leslie Cairns, but I can revisit those books through digital copies. It's unnecessary for me to have the books.
I sold all of my Grace Harlowe books, including the Overseas set, simply because I didn't care for the books. I couldn't get through the books on my first try, and I will never try reading them again.
I have also sold other sets, like Melody Lane, since I know that I will never read them again.
My Hardy Boys set took up way too much space. I have sold many of my books. I have kept one dust jacketed copy of each of #1-40. I have the picture covers from #1-42 in copies that list to #40. I have kept some of #43-58. I sold the ones that I didn't enjoy reading since I'll never read them again.
I also reduced my Three Investigators set. I kept all hardcover books. I have all of #1-28 in hardcover and some of #29 and up. For the high-numbered books that I don't have in hardcover, I kept a softcover copy. I sold the rest of my softcover books.
Finally, I try not to keep multiple copies of very scarce books. Whenever possible, I sell the duplicates so that other collectors can acquire those books.
Please note that I do not judge other collectors who might own two copies of Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts or three copies of Dana Girls #30 The Phantom Surfer in the beige spine picture cover edition. I understand how that happens. Perhaps you've made some good finds over the years, and you have trouble letting go of them. Early in my collecting, I kept all duplicates until I found that I was running out of room. I find that I sometimes I have trouble letting go of books that I have owned for many years even though I might have upgraded them. It is a struggle.
Even though I made the decision to avoid keeping duplicates of very scarce books when I can avoid doing so, I don't always succeed. I quite unfortunately have two first printing Nancy Drew Twisted Candle books and two first printing dust jackets. I don't know which one to keep, so I'm keeping both until whenever I figure out what to do.
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