I reactivated most of my Etsy listings.
Jennifer's Series Books on eBay
I have held back some listings so that I can decide what to do with them.
My eBay listings have all been reactivated.
Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy
On both sites, I converted many vintage teen books to bulk lots in order to get them moved out. This is often problematic, because buyers look at a bulk lot and think that they can cherry-pick the lot and get one book for a bargain. They also expect the postage to be unrealistically cheap as well, wanting me to ship the book as cheaply as Thriftbooks does. It doesn't work that way.
I price the bulk lots to sell. I want to move out all of the books that are in the lot. In order to do that, I must offer the books at a great price per book. If I sell individually, then the price goes back up to what it was before the book was placed in the bulk lot.
I will expand on these thoughts in an upcoming post that I wrote last week. It details a story about what a prospective buyer expected and how unrealistic it was.
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Most Etsy Listings Now Reactivated
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Nancy Drew #7 Clue in the Diary 1st Printing in DJ eBay Auction
Both the book and the jacket meet the points for the first printing, 1932A-1. The auction closed at $2,605.00.
Here are prices for examples that have sold in the past.
February 26, 2008 post:
#7 The Clue in the Diary w/DJ, 1932A-1, 1st printing, $2,750.00
June 3, 2008 post:
I believe that the first printing in jacket has also sold for around $3,500 on one occasion.
A discussion about this auction and others that closed at the same time occurred on Facebook. I made the following comments.
On September 15, I wrote:
Two things about eBay these days:
1. Prices are extremely volatile. A valuable first printing in jacket could sell at auction in the thousands one day and for a song at auction few weeks later. It all depends upon who's looking during the time that the auction is active.
2. Prices are being driven by people buying to resell, very often to list on other marketplaces. The winning bidder of the recent Shadow Ranch 1st w/DJ, tonight's Diary 1st w/DJ, and tonight's Bungalow Mystery non-1st w/DJ is a reseller who purchased the books under his buying ID. He was the runner-up bidder on Mysterious Letter. He will most likely be selling all of the books that he purchased.
I was asked who will buy the books from the reseller. I responded:
Some of them put the books right back on eBay with the price greatly marked up. They do often make a profit. Some buyers inconsistently check listings online, or they may impulsively purchase, thinking a high price means better quality. Buyers like that are likely quite well off.
Some resellers sell to celebrities who don't deal with common folk. Celebrities are fine with paying a premium. The eBay user Bookbid is someone who sells to celebrities. His Nancy Drew books are priced extremely high, and he doesn't expect to sell his books to any of us, just the rich and famous. Bookbid doesn't appear to have bid on any of these recent listings. When he does bid, he almost always wins.
A common tactic is to buy on eBay and then sell on Amazon or AbeBooks. There are buyers who only check sites like those and never check eBay. Those buyers probably never interact with any of us and aren't in these Facebook groups.
While $2,605.00 sounds like a high-end price, consider that someone purchased the book in order to resell it. The question is, how much do they think they can get for it? $4,000 or $5,000...?
Thursday, September 26, 2024
All eBay Listings Restored + Creating Bulk Lots
I reactivated all of my eBay listings this week.
Jennifer's Series Books on eBay
After I did that, I deactivated my Nancy Drew Files books. I gathered them together along with all of the unlisted extras. I separated them out into several bulk lots, which I then listed. Two of the lots have already sold.
On Etsy, 71% of my listings are expired.
Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy
I'm glad for that, because it gives me leeway to create some bulk lots. I pay for each listing on Etsy, so deactivating a bunch of listings turns into a headache. I then have to change the listings to other books so that I don't lose what I paid for each listing's four-month duration. Since most of my listings are expired, I can do whatever I want with them.
My next step will be to deactivate all of my Sweet Valley High books on eBay. I will pull all of my expired Etsy SVH listings. I also have a large number of unlisted extra SVH books. I will gather all of them together and then work on creating bulk lots.
If I feel like I'm handling my eBay store okay, then I will begin reactivating my expired Etsy listings sometime between now and fall break, which is in three weeks.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
The Value and Scarcity of Beverly Gray at the World's Fair
In this post, I expand upon what I mentioned about Beverly Gray at the World's Fair last night on Facebook.
I shared a photo of the book from my collection (first on the left) and the three extras that I currently have in my possession.
As I expected, last night someone purchased the World's Fair book that I mentioned. It was a good deal, and I'm glad someone got it.
What's going on with World's Fair right now is really just a crack in the veneer. There are signs of the value going down. The fact that I have been able to acquire three extras in the last year at reasonable prices is one sign. That didn't use to happen. That also has happened with Vicki Barr #15 The Mystery of Flight 908 in the last few years. At one point, I had two or three extra copies of it.
20 years ago, the idea of having extra duplicate copies of these extremely scarce books was unthinkable. The books aren't as scarce now. They are still pricey for the most part, but the values are reaching the tipping point where we will soon see them fall off greatly. More copies are showing up at reasonable prices.
This is because of the aging collector base. Many collectors are downsizing, and the books are entering the secondhand market in greater quantities than perhaps they ever have. This is causing the prices to decrease.
Furthermore, the aging collector base means that series like Beverly Gray will sharply decline in popularity. Even now, Beverly Gray is only known to people in the series book community. As the collector base ages, fewer and fewer people will care. This has already happened with all of the very early series books. Series like Poppy Ott, Jerry Todd, the Rover Boys, and the Corner House Girls still have fans, but they are mentioned very seldom in the discussion groups. Most series book fans just aren't interested in the early series.
Even Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are not immune. There is an obvious crack in the Hardy Boys veneer, since the Hardy Boys Adventures series hasn't had a new title since 2023. Simon & Schuster has said that the Adventures series will have a new title in 2025. Even if they do release a new title, the publishing gap isn't helping interest in the series. What I saw the last time I was in Barnes & Noble was dire.
Nancy Drew is in a slightly better position than the Hardy Boys, but only because Nancy Drew has been more popular than the Hardy Boys for most of the history of the two series.
Beverly Gray at the World's Fair will become public domain on January 1, 2031. When that happens, the value will really fall off. I expect in 2031 that the bare book copies of World's Fair will collapse in value. The copies in dust jacket should retain more of their value, since some collectors will always desire books with jackets.
I have one copy of World's Fair on eBay right now, and it's the worst condition of my three extras. It's not bad, but you can clearly see in my photo that it is in lower-grade condition than the other copies. I have been gradually lowering the price. I just went from $134.99 to $129.99 last night. I may have to reduce the price a bit more before it sells. A few years ago, a World's Fair book priced at $129.99 would have sold pretty quickly.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
The Order in Which I Acquired My Nancy Drew First Printings
Recent auctions of early and first printing Nancy Drew books on eBay got me to thinking about my acquisition of the first printings. I compiled a list of the order in which I acquired my first printing Nancy Drew books in dust jacket.
In some cases, I already had either just the first printing book or just the first printing jacket for a period of time before I finally ended up with the full matched set of first printing book and first printing jacket. The dates seen here are for when I finally had both the book and the jacket.
Some of the books and jackets were upgraded one or more times since the first acquisition. The dates seen here are for my first acquisition of each title. I suspect that there are a few where I do not have the actual first acquisition date, but these dates are pretty accurate for most of the titles.
I recall that I found a very early Old Attic book and jacket in the mid-1990s in a local antique shop. I don't know if it was the true first printing, mainly because of how confusing Farah's Guide is concerning the first printings and formats of the 1940s.
Looking at Farah's Guide, the Old Attic of the mid-1990s probably had the first printing jacket, but who knows what the book was. It comes down to cover color.
I know I have the first printing book now for certain reasons; I had a number of books on hand in 2002 and compared colors, using extrapolation to make my decision. The date given here for Old Attic is from when I upgraded my purchase from the 1990s and decided that the copy I purchased in 2002 simply had to be the first printing even though I didn't understand the format variances.
My search for first printings lasted 20 years and 9 months. As I worked on acquisition of all 38 first printings, I knew that the
final title would be Old Clock. I had very serious doubt as to whether I
could acquire it. Whenever a 1930A-1 jacket of Old Clock comes up for
sale, the resellers converge on it. Valuable first printings are books
that the rich and famous covet, and the resellers offer the books to
those people. Nancy Drew collectors must spend a lot in order to acquire the breeder set (#1-3) first printings in dust jacket.
At present, only 13 1930A-1 dust jackets of Old Clock are known to exist. Mine was the 13th jacket to surface, and another has not been seen since.
#37 June 1998
#20 July 1998
#38 October 1998
#18 July 1999
#17 August 1999
#36 August 1999
#29 August 1999
#34 August 1999
#30 October 1999
#24 January 2000
#28 April 2000
#23 May 2000
#35 July 2000
#12 August 2000
#26 September 2000
#27 November 2000
#33 November 2000
#11 January 2001
#32 June 2001
#8 May 2002
#7 May 2002
#21 May 2002
#31 May 2002
#14 June 2002
#19 August 2002
#16 October 2002
#13 October 2002
#25 November 2002
#22 January 2003
#10 July 2003
#6 October 2004
#15 April 2005
#9 January 2007
#4 February 2010
#2 October 2010
#3 October 2010
#5 September 2011
#1 March 2019
The only reason I have all 38 first printings is that I decided to significantly increase what I was willing to pay once I was down to needing just four first printings, which were #1, 2, 3, and 5. As in, I stayed under $500 for all first printing purchases until I was down to those four books. I decided that I would go above $1,000 for those that I needed if a purchase opportunity presented itself. I had concluded that I would never own first printings in jacket for #1, 2, 3, and 5 unless I became willing to compete with the resellers.
#7 has legendary status as a very tough first printing to acquire, but I view it kind of like Beverly Gray at the World's Fair. World's Fair is considered very scarce just like the first printing of Clue in the Diary, but I feel like there are more copies out there than people realize. In fact, I've had a few lucky purchases of World's Fair in recent months. I have three extra copies of World's Fair on hand right now. Yes, seriously. That's why I don't see World's Fair to be as scarce as people think. Quite a few copies are out there; the problem is that most sellers price them extremely high, making them out of reach.
I also am a bit biased concerning #7, since it was pretty much handed to me on a silver platter. I purchased the bare first printing book for #8 on eBay, and the seller then sold me #7 in dust jacket for $25. That's how I got my first printing book and jacket for #7.
Still, I've seen the first printing of #7 come up for sale quite a few times, especially bare books that are missing their jackets. The book itself is not as scarce as people think. The jacket is tough.
I am pretty sure that ALL of my first printing Nancy Drew books for #1-38 were purchased on eBay. This is why it's astonishing and disappointing that so many people on Facebook refuse to look at eBay. They complain that they can't find Nancy Drew books anywhere. They are told to check eBay, but they refuse. They see eBay as a place where it's too risky to buy. The key is to use common sense on eBay and view sellers' feedback. eBay is no riskier than anywhere else online.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Trilogy
The Good Girl's Guide to Murder Trilogy consists of these books.
1. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, 2020
2. Good Girl, Bad Blood, 2021
3. As Good as Dead, 2021
Everyone in Fairview knows the story.
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.
But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?
Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent... and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
The first two books are really excellent books. The third book is much darker. The first half of the third book is very much like the first two books, except that Pip has PTSD from what happened at the end of the second book. This is understandable. However, I did not expect the story to take the turn that it does halfway through the third book. Still, I greatly enjoyed reading the second half of the third book but as something quite different from what I read for the first 2 1/2 books.
I don't like what happens when the story turns. While I understand that the PTSD leads Pip into the situation, it doesn't fit the content of the first two books. It's just off. Many readers share my opinion, while other readers are fine with the turn in the story.
I read most of the second half of the third book, but I skimmed at times due to being uninterested in the extremely detailed descriptions of everything that Pip does in this part of the story. I was still invested in the story although I was less interested. I wanted to see if events would turn out the way Pip wants. I'm being careful with my wording so as not to give anything away.
Most reviews for this series are overwhelmingly positive. The negative reviews are in the extreme minority. It should be noted that many of the negative reviews suggest not reading the third book, feeling that the third book ruins the story. I don't feel that way, at least not exactly, but the third book is quite a downer.
The third book is heavy, dark, and foreboding. Like the other two books, it has a mystery. Unlike the other two books, the culprit is blindingly obvious. The point of the third book isn't to fake out the reader; it is to set up what happens halfway through the book. Beginning halfway through, the book turns into a thriller with a protagonist acting a bit different from what she is in the first 2 1/2 books.
The high point of this series is Pip and Ravi's relationship. It's just precious.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle
Publisher's summary:
Boarding school has never been more dangerous.
What if your roommate is a murderer? Or what if he's being framed and only you can save him?
Luke Chase made history as a child when he escaped a kidnapping. Now, all he wants is to be a normal teenager. So when he sneaks out to the woods one night to drink with friends and flirt with the new British girl at school, he's excited to feel some freedom.
Except the next morning, one of their teachers is found murdered—in the exact same spot where they had been partying. Soon, Luke's roommate and best friend Oscar is the #1 suspect.
As the evidence and list of suspects builds, Luke attempts to use his famous survival skills to find the killer and clear Oscar's name. But as Luke gets closer to the truth, the killer is getting closer to Luke.
I read through some of the reviews after I finished reading the book. As usual, the one-star ratings were people complaining that they didn't know it was a young adult book and that they don't like the tropes of the genre. If people would just avoid books with teenage protagonists, they'd avoid accidentally reading young adult books. I am not sure how it can be an accident, since the teenage protagonist is a huge red flag.
This is a very good to excellent story. I really enjoyed reading it. The book has some flaws, but the story flows well and held my interest throughout. I enjoyed Luke's investigation. Several parts of the story were very suspenseful. This is just a solidly good young adult murder mystery.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Nancy Drew #5 Secret at Shadow Ranch with 1st Printing DJ eBay Auction
I wrote a post in 2019 about the first printing of Shadow Ranch.
Nancy Drew Early First Printing Values and Avoiding Buyer Regret
In that post, I detailed how I purchased this first printing book and jacket of Shadow Ranch for $750.00.
Most people apparently weren't interested, since the jacket isn't perfect. It was a significant upgrade for me, and I was happy with it.
In the above linked post, I made this observation:
These days, few people are seeking the early first printing Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. Actually, everyone would love to own them, but only a handful of collectors are willing to spend the serious cash necessary in order to acquire the jackets. I have recently concluded that the handful of collectors who currently seek the early first printing jackets only want examples in very good or better condition. This means that the dust jackets in great shape are still very expensive when they show up for sale. The dust jackets in rough shape do not sell except at lower prices. That's an interesting turn of events.
The good news is that those collectors who are willing to settle for less-than-perfect first printing jackets can luck into copies at reasonable prices. I also commented in my previous post that I have been criticized for being willing to purchase examples in rough shape. That's nobody's business. My collection is mine alone, and I decide what I want to put in it.
A first printing copy of Shadow Ranch in dust jacket sold recently on eBay. The seller provided photographs, but did not photograph as thoroughly as they should have. Not all of the dust jacket was shown. The suboptimal photos likely held back the final bid price.
The seller did not provide enough information for us to know which printing the book is, but the jacket is definitely the first printing jacket. Since the first few printings of Shadow Ranch have the same book, the book is most likely the first printing. The auction closed at $1,375.08.
Click on the images in order to see them at a higher resolution.
This book and jacket might be in better shape than the one that I purchased for $750.00. The front panel chipping is less, but the seller didn't show what the back panel looks like from the front side. If it's fine, then the jacket that just sold is probably in better shape.
I saw the listing soon after it was listed and decided that I wasn't interested. After it sold for $1,375.08, I wondered if I should have at least considered trying to win the auction. I then decided no, it wasn't worth it to me. The jacket might be nicer than mine, but I would have to have outbid the person who won the auction. That might have only taken only a bid increment or so. I might also have had to pay a lot more than the winning bid.
Based on the feedback number of the winning bidder, 23931, the winning bidder is a prolific eBay user. Most people above 20,000 feedback tend to be high-volume buyers and sellers. Not all, of course, but there's a pretty good chance. I've been very active on eBay continually since 1997, and I'm still at under 8,300 feedback.
I'm fortunate because I've been so active on eBay. When I'm curious, I use my own feedback to search for the feedback numbers of winning bidders so that I can figure out who won the auction. This doesn't always work; but if I've had a transaction with the winning bidder, then I'll be able to figure it out.
I set my feedback to 200 results per page and searched for 23931. About halfway through my feedback, I found a hit. Shadow Ranch was almost certainly purchased to resell, and it will likely show back up on eBay soon. A prolific buyer and seller of first printing Nancy Drew books and Gibraltar hardcover Three Investigators books was the winner of the auction under a secondary ID. This is a hint if you're familiar with eBay sellers.
I didn't find a hit for the Lilac Inn second printing auction, so I believe that book was sold to someone who wanted it for their collection. If so, they made a good purchase.
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Book Reading Milestone for This Year
I feel like my book reading pace has been rather poor. The problem is that my reading progress is very inconsistent. I'll do great for a week or so, then I'll quit reading for weeks. That said, I'm pleased that as of today I've matched the number of books that I read last year: 51 books.
These are my yearly reading totals since I began tracking the number of books that I've read.
2014: 262 books
2015: 231 books
2016: 355 books
2017: 403 books
2018: 315 books
2019: 185 books
2020: 106 books
2021: 60 books
2022: 47 books
2023: 51 books
2024: 51 books+
Since the pandemic, my reading has been sporadic and not what it was in previous years. I don't know if that will ever change, since I'm under a lot of stress from different fronts.
I find that I cannot read old books at this time. By "old" books, I mean anything written before 1940. Those books have a different style, and I don't seem able to tolerate it currently. This is due to stress, etc.
Even books from the 1940s up through the 1990s are not to my liking at present. I just want to read very modern books published since 2000. I've read quite a few modern young adult books this year.
In fact, checking my list of 51 books, 45 of them have been published since 2000. Early this year, I published a post that mentioned that each year's reading tells a story. In 2024, I am focused on modern books, mainly young adult with a few middle grade fantasy books mixed in.
I'm guaranteed to match my total from 2021. I still have to complete my fourth reading of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, which I plan to do sometime between now and the release of book 9.5 in early December. I've already reread books 1 and 2 this year, but I got sidetracked like what always happens when I read these days. Once I read books 3 through 8, 8.5, 9, and 9.5, I will have read nine more books, equaling my 2021 total of 60 books.
While last year's total was 51 different books, the real total was 71 books. I didn't count my second and third readings of the Keeper of the Lost Cities books in the total since they were duplicate readings of the same books. It's possible that I might end up reading as many as 71 books this year, but it's unlikely. My reading is too sporadic, and I'm likely to have some big gaps in reading in the next 3 1/2 months.
I'm pleased that I will end up reading at least 60 books by the end of the year, at a minimum.
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Nancy Drew #4 Mystery at Lilac Inn with 2nd Printing DJ eBay Auction
Two auctions of very early Nancy Drew books in dust jacket closed recently. The seller provided photographs, but did not photograph as thoroughly as they should have. Parts of each dust jacket were never shown. The suboptimal photos likely held back the final bid prices.
This post covers the auction for The Mystery at Lilac Inn. The seller did not provide enough information for us to know which printing the book is, but the jacket is definitely the second printing jacket. The auction closed at $999.00.
Click on images in order to see them at a higher resolution.
To most people, this jacket would appear to be the first printing since the front flap lists just to Lilac Inn. However, the first two dust jacket printings of Lilac Inn list to Lilac Inn on the front flap. The first printing has Grosset & Dunlap general fiction on the reverse side. The second printing has series book lists on the reverse side. This jacket has the series book lists, so it is the second printing.
Both the first and second printing dust jackets of Lilac Inn are about impossible to find. And if you can't find the first printing, then the second printing is a mighty fine one to have.
I personally believe that the 1930A-1 dust jacket for Lilac Inn is harder to find than the 1930A-1 dust jacket of Old Clock. Yes, I'm serious. The 1930A-1 Old Clock dust jacket is the most sought-after dust jacket because of its status as the first printing dust jacket of the very first book in the Nancy Drew series. It will always be the most valuable dust jacket for that reason, but I contend that the 1930A-1 Lilac Inn dust jacket is harder to find and ought to be worth nearly as much as the 1930A-1 Old Clock dust jacket.
Let's look at past auctions.
In 2015, a Lilac Inn book with the 1930A-1 dust jacket sold for $4,302.22 (view blog post here).
In 2010, a Lilac Inn book with the 1930B-2 dust jacket sold for $2,330.00 (view blog post here).
It's safe to say that this recent sale of the second printing Lilac Inn dust jacket at $999.00 was a very good deal. Someone who was likely buying to resell was the second-highest bidder. This means that the second-highest bidder considers the book to be worth more than the closing bid price, since they were likely going to sell it.
I own both the first and second printing Lilac Inn dust jackets. I got very lucky in both cases through Buy It Now listings. Both jackets were paired with the wrong books, which is common with early Lilac Inn jackets for some unknown reason.
This is the first printing dust jacket (general G&D fiction on the reverse side). I paid around $300 for it.
The star seen on the spine in the above photo is not on the jacket itself. I place stars on the mylar covers of my first printings.
This is the second printing dust jacket (series book lists on the reverse side). I paid around $500 for it, and I acquired it before I acquired the first printing dust jacket.
I can't part with it because it's in better shape than my first printing dust jacket, and I consider the second printing Lilac Inn dust jacket to be just about as desirable as the first printing dust jacket.
Note: The seller relisted the book, and it closed the second time at $437.00. The buyer must have backed out or returned the book. It could be that they didn't realize that the jacket is the second printing, or it could be that the book is a later printing than they expected. The early Lilac Inn dust jackets are often mismatched with later printing blank endpapers books.
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Back to School Update
Last week wasn't the worst week ever, but it sure felt like it.
In a recent post, I wrote about my six-week autoimmune flare, caused by a chipped tooth. I improved immediately after the tooth was repaired. It's been a roller coaster ride since then. I had temporary deep fatigue from August 8 to 10. On the afternoon of August 9 during a meeting, I became so tired that I nearly fell out of my chair.
This fatigue was caused by the dental x-ray of August 5. The assistant, who I previously stated had an odd attitude, zapped me without covering my thyroid. My chart is flagged that my thyroid must be covered when I am x-rayed. She ignored it. Right as she hit the button, I realized that my neck was uncovered. Ugh. I paid for that, but at least it was only for a few days.
I improved again, but the school year didn't start well. We have new textbooks, so the entire year will be highly stressful. A few days after I returned to work, I realized that the summer update to my work computer messed up the Smart Board. I use the Smart Board for all instruction, so this was a big problem.
I put in a work order. It was fixed but still screwed up and even harder to use. This was a disaster, since by this point, the school year had started. I put in another work order. They figured it out on the second attempt. Finally, I was functional on the fourth day of school.
This made the first full week of school very stressful.
Last week was the second full week of school. The system for distributing IEPs for special education students has not been working in Oklahoma, and this is a state-level problem, not local. My school finally managed to get us the information last Monday. Since I was giving a test on Wednesday, I had to speak to every special education student that I have in class about their accommodations.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, all of this happened:
- Fire Drill
- spoke to 30 students about accommodations and their needs
- Open House (late night Tuesday)
- Lockdown Drill
- Picture Day
- gave a test
And to top it off, a neighbor's cat was killed by dogs on Tuesday morning. I also found out about the death of a very friendly neighborhood cat on Tuesday, likely from poisoning.
Everything I just mentioned caused a hard flare. I felt awful all week. I had a three-day weekend for the Labor Day holiday. It took me from Friday evening until late Sunday evening to get back to feeling okay, so I lost most of my weekend.
I've had a crummy start to the year.
At least my eBay and Etsy sales are greatly diminished as I planned, and I'm doing okay with keeping both stores open in a limited capacity so that I don't lose my search rankings. I currently have 67 items on eBay. My active Etsy listings continue to drop as more items deactivate, reaching the end of their four-month run. I'm down to 154 listings on Etsy. Around 20 more will deactivate in a few days.
In case you haven't read my posts from the last few years, I usually shut down both stores for the first two months of school due to the autoimmune flare that occurs during the early part of the school year. I am definitely in an ongoing flare that underlies the hard flares that I'm also experiencing. Overall, I'm not doing that bad. I mean... it could be a lot worse.
By the way, the real reason I decided to leave both stores open is because I have some free listings on Etsy due to a glitch. 21 of my Etsy listings have been expired for months and yet are still active listings. By keeping the listings active, they continue to stay active indefinitely.
I reasoned that if I was keeping Etsy open, then I would keep eBay open as well, only I deactivated most of my eBay listings.
My reading has been very sporadic. I'll read a few books, then I get too stressed or have a flare. When that happens, I go days or weeks without reading. I've managed to read a few books in the last few weeks, which is surprising considering everything that has happened. I will publish a few reviews soon.
I always bottom out with my thyroid sometime during September. That should happen in the next two to three weeks, and then I will steadily improve. How I feel at any given time is directly tied to what happened two weeks before, due to the pituitary-thyroid feedback loop. Since last week was particularly awful, I expect that I will bottom out sometime next week.
Note: I continued to find appalling typos each time I proofread this post before publishing it. I am making so many mistakes right now. If some are still in the post, then you know why.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Popularity of My Blog Pages
I created some blog pages awhile back to make it easier for readers to view my reviews. The drawback of the blog format is that posts are always listed in reverse chronological order. On these pages, I have listed the posts in order of publication.
It's interesting to see which pages have been viewed the most. The number of views does not truly represent popularity of one series over the others, for several reasons. The pages are generally only viewed by people who land on my blog, and those people tend to be fans of girls' series. This is why the Three Investigators page has such a low number of views, much lower than it should.
I have linked to some of the pages on Facebook, especially to the Nancy Drew Collecting Information page when people ask for information about Nancy Drew books. I have one link placed in an eBay group, so a good many people are using it for information.
Any pages linked on Facebook will have more views.
My Keeper page is linked from many of my Keeper posts, so that has inflated its number of views.
One obvious conclusion can be drawn. The most recent Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series are nowhere near as popular as the original sets. It's not surprising that the Hardy Boys Undercovers Brothers and Adventures page is in last place in views. The Undercover Brothers series is pretty awful. It was a difficult set to slog through.
Nancy Drew Collecting Information - 511 views
Hidden Clues Informational Posts - 341 views
Middle-Grade Fantasy Reviews - 327 views
Nancy Drew #1-56 Book Reviews - 327 views
Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories - 240 views
Dana Girls Reviews - 233 views
Nancy Drew #57-175 Reviews - 230 views
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