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.
2 comments:
This is a neat post. I don’t necessarily keep track of the dates of purchase for the books in my collection, and the two most rare HB in jacket (#4 and #11) are more prevalent than ND #1 at least, and maybe #4 as well. #11 Clock is about as rare as Worlds Fair seems to be.
How many of your 1sts have been upgraded (DJ or book), and how many have you kept as-is?
Most of my first printings have been upgraded. Looking at what's on the shelf right now (my ND firsts are above my computer), I have definitely never upgraded these: #1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 11. It's more common for me to purchase multiple copies, upgrading over and over.
I've never felt like I had to be "one and done" on each first printing. Back when I purchased my first printings of #2 and #3, a few people criticized the purchases, because the books weren't perfect. The point was that I had acquired them. It's always been most important to get all of the first printings and worry about having a nicer copies later. Most titles are findable and can be upgraded when another comes along eventually.
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