A first printing of Nancy Drew #8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter in dust jacket sold recently on eBay. (Click on images in order to see them in higher quality.)
The seller provided enough photos to show that both the book and the jacket are from the first printing, 1932A-1. The auction closed at $1,275.10. Several people were surprised at how high the final bid was. I can shed some light on the situation.
I own first printings of all Nancy Drew books in dust jacket from #1 through #38. It took me over 20 years to acquire all 38 book first printing books matched with first printing dust jackets. I phrased it that way because I had to match books and jackets together from separate purchases for a number of the earliest books. I recall that I matched first printing books and jackets together for #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, and #10. I also swapped out dust jackets or books when I found a better example of ones that I had. It was quite an endeavor.
Spending over 20 years searching for all 38 first printings gave me a good idea of the scarcity of the early titles, #1-10, as compared to each other. I don't think about it very often, but I have a good feel for the situation.
I searched this blog for my old comments about the first printing of Mysterious Letter.
From March 23, 2008 in my post Nancy Drew Prices on eBay, I noted these early and first printing prices on eBay.
#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, true first printing 1930A-1, no DJ $306.00
#2 The Hidden Staircase, 1931 blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $800.00
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 1930 blank endpapers edition, probably the 2nd or 3rd printing, lists to Lilac Inn, w/DJ $761.50
#5 The Secret at Shadow Ranch, 1931 blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $361.00
#7 The Clue in the Diary, true first printing from 1932, blank endpapers edition, w/DJ $1,641.88
#8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter, true first printing from 1932, w/DJ $910.00
#10 The Password to Larkspur Lane, true first printing with revised/enlarged copyright page notice, w/DJ $515.00
#17 The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk, true first printing, w/DJ $107.46
I also wrote this about the closing prices:
As high as these prices are, the five true first printing books were all sold to a bookseller who will place them back up for sale on fixed-price sites, unless the bookseller already has a buyer in mind.
Nothing has changed in 16 years. Most of the recent first printings were also purchased to resell.
Even though not all of the books that sold in 2008 were first printings, the closing bids as compared to each other can help us draw some conclusions about the perceived scarcity and value back in 2008. The first printing of Mysterious Letter sold for $910.00 in 2008. It's no easier to find now than it was back then. It might be even more scarce.
On September 25, 2011, I published the post Ten Rarest Nancy Drew Books and Collectibles. Guess which book I included as one of the ten?
Nancy's Mysterious Letter first printing book
The first printing dust jacket is scarce but can be found without a huge amount of trouble since it was used on the first three printings. The first printing book is nearly impossible to find. The first printing book has a post-text ad that ends with Clue in the Diary. Some buyers have had trouble with sellers answering questions about the post-text ad wrong, which adds to the difficulty in acquiring this book.
On July 14, 2013, I published the post Recent Interesting Nancy Drew Auctions. I mentioned a first printing of Mysterious Letter that had sold.
Another interesting auction was for the first printing book of Nancy's Mysterious Letter.
The first printing of Nancy's Mysterious Letter lists to The Clue in the Diary in the post-text ads. This auction closed at $118.28, and the book does not have a dust jacket. Multiple later printings list to Nancy's Mysterious Letter in the post-text ads, and those books are often mistaken as the first printing.
The first printing [of Mysterious Letter] listing to The Clue in the Diary is extremely scarce and is one of the toughest first printing books to acquire. This first printing is harder to find than nearly all of the blank endpapers first printings, with the possible exception of the first printing of The Mystery at Lilac Inn.
In 2013, I thought the Lilac Inn book was the toughest to find of the blank endpapers first printings. I felt that the first printing Mysterious Letter book was harder to find than all of the other blank endpapers first printings. I considered it harder to find than the first printing book for Clue in the Diary. Note that I am referring to the books, not the jackets.
My opinion remains unchanged. I consider the Lilac Inn book to be the hardest to find first printing book with Mysterious Letter in second place. The first printing book for Twisted Candles is right up there with them.
Now you know my perspective, which is quite pertinent to this recent auction of Mysterious Letter.
I noted the listing for Mysterious Letter with interest when I first saw it. I determined that the jacket and book are both the first printing. I do already own the first printing. I matched a bare book purchased in 2002 to a first printing jacket purchased in 2003. The book was a bit rough, but at least I had the first printing book and jacket, even if the book had seen better days.
I haven't had the patience to continue searching hard for a better first printing book. Too much has happened in my life, and my autoimmunity has worsened over the years. I figured I'd spot a better condition book someday. A few years ago, I realized that I probably wasn't ever going to upgrade the book.
At first, I wasn't sure I would bid on the Mysterious Letter auction. The seller's presentation was suboptimal. Upon looking at the listing again, I realized that the bad appearance of the jacket's spine in the first photo was caused by shadows. Suboptimal presentation, indeed.
The jacket was clearly the first and was overall in better condition than mine. My attention was on the book, which the seller didn't picture. The book was the first printing due to the post-text ad ending with Clue in the Diary. There it was, a first printing without a doubt, and no need to ask a question. This was an opportunity.
It was also a problem. I only needed the book, but I couldn't just purchase the book. I would have to purchase the book and its dust jacket. Not only that, I would have to outbid the resellers, who are very stiff competition.
Despite the drawbacks, I decided that I would bid.
But what to bid? I knew that I would have to outbid the resellers. That's always the case with early first printing Nancy Drew books in dust jacket. With me involved, the auction was going to close at a high price and probably at more than I would like. The resellers have deep pockets and have clientele who are willing to pay high prices. The resellers are tough to beat in these auctions, and any bidder who wants to have a chance must bid aggressively.
I don't like to have regrets. There was a high chance that I would lose the auction, but I had to make sure that I bid high enough that I wouldn't be kicking myself when I ended up losing the auction.
I use eSnipe for stealth last-minute bids. A last-minute bid is the only way to win these high-end auctions without paying extreme prices. I use a buffer of five seconds, which means that my bid lands five seconds before the end of the auction. Two seconds would be ideal, but I'm not brave enough to do that. Sometimes bids land slightly later than intended.
I entered an eSnipe bid of something above $1000. In the last day of the auction, I raised my bid two more times, just so that I wouldn't regret it too much when I lost. I was prepared to pay what I bid, regardless.
I ended up winning the auction, and I don't regret what I bid. I wanted the book, and I now have it.
The second-highest bidder is a reseller, the same one I mentioned in a recent post. The third-highest bidder is probably a collector who wanted the book. A rule of thumb from years ago was that the true value of an item sold in an eBay auction is whatever the third-highest bidder was willing to pay. Since that person bid $1,024.00, the first printing of Mysterious Letter in dust jacket is solidly a $1,000+ book.
Here is what I upgraded. Note: I put stickers on the outside of the mylar covers of my first printing Nancy Drew books.
The jacket is okay but the book has a water stain and pencil markings on the back cover. The book also has a loose illustration. As I stated earlier in this post, I swapped out books to turn a second printing combo into the first printing, which is how I have a rough condition book matched with the jacket.
This is the book that I just purchased.
It is not in the very best of condition, but it is an improvement over what I already had.
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