In the case of the blue/red jackets, I kept the earliest copy of each, especially if it had good quality paper. This meant that sometimes I kept the lesser condition book and jacket since I went with the earlier copy. It was tough, but I did it.
I recently saw a bulk lot of Dana Girls books with blue/red dust jackets. After some thought, I purchased the lot. The main reason was because I figured that some of the books would have good quality paper and that some of them might be upgrades to the copies that I have. It was a crap shoot as to what would happen, but I figured in the worst case scenario, I'd at least be able to sell the books and break even. I knew that most of them would not be upgrades, but I hoped that at least some would be.
The books arrived, and this was what I saw when I opened the package. (Click on each photo in order to see it in higher resolution.)
I marvel that sellers can just stick 80+ year old books with dust jackets in a box unwrapped and that most of the time, the books and jackets arrive undamaged. It's amazing.
It's such a joy to open up a package like this one. I immediately compared the books to what I had on the shelf. Some were earlier copies. Some were better in some ways and not in others. Initially, I decided to keep four books from the bulk lot.
In the above photo, each book from my shelf is shown first followed by the corresponding book from the bulk lot that will replace it. Going by spines only, you can see that these are not clear upgrades and look to be downgrades, but I have reasons for keeping the new copies over the old ones. Here is the rundown.
While the spine isn't an upgrade for Lone Tree Cottage, the new dust jacket is much brighter.
The new Lone Tree jacket is earlier, listing to Cobweb.
The new Locked Room jacket is also much brighter.
The new Locked Room jacket is earlier, listing to Gatehouse.
The new Locked Room book is in much better condition.
It was at this point while writing this post that I realized that I needed to once again compare the rest of the books in the bulk lot to what was on my shelf. I needed to make sure that I had considered all details including book condition. I'll get to that shortly.
The new Portrait in the Sand book and jacket is a clear upgrade in all ways other than the spine. My old copy is water damaged and faded.
The new Old Well dust jacket spine has a hole in it, but it is otherwise in better condition, much more so that I have to keep the new one in spite of the hole in the spine.
The Old Well book situation is interesting. The old copy, seen on the left, is in better shape. The new jacket is the jacket that is in better shape. Here's what is interesting. Seen below is my old book, which is the book in better condition. Look at the top sticky note that I have inside the book. Remember that you can click on the photo in order to see it better.
The book is nice enough that I've already kept it and swapped jackets with later acquisitions. I have owned the book since May 12, 2000. The jacket currently paired with it is from a book I acquired on January 29, 2019. I'm going to keep the book again and swap it with the jacket on the book I just received. It's okay to do this when both books and jackets are from the same printing. Some people might frown on it, but it's how I cobbled together my complete set of first printing copies of Nancy Drew #1-38 in dust jacket.
I then went back to my shelf and made certain that I had made the right decision not to keep the rest of the books from the bulk lot. In most cases, the new books had poor quality paper, and my books had good quality paper. I would never downgrade to a later printing with poor quality paper, even if the dust jacket is better.
I did decide to keep two more books from the bulk lot.
In both cases, both books are the same printing, and the condition is very close. When that is the case, I usually keep the old book just so I don't have to mess with changing my records.
The Gatehouse jackets are very close in condition. The old jacket has a large water stain on the reverse side, but the front side looks better than the new jacket.
Unfortunately, both books have issues, but the new book is not as bad. Also, the paper is not soiled on the outside vertical edge of the new book, so the new book is just cleaner and nicer as long as I keep the jacket on the book so that I don't see the cover.
I will swap jackets on the Gatehouse books, keeping the new book but pairing it with the old jacket. The books and jackets are all from the same print run.
The new Rusty Key jacket is brighter.
The new book is a little better as well.
All told, I'm keeping four of the books and jackets from the bulk lot and two other books provided me the means to swap jackets to create an upgrade. Almost half of the books from the bulk lot helped me with upgrades, so this was a good purchase.
