Books from a deceased Nancy Drew fan's collection have come up for sale on eBay, among them a 1930A-1 Old Clock book with dust jacket. The book sold for $6,877.00. Click on images in order to view them at a higher resolution.
This 1930A-1 Old Clock book and jacket was the first copy in dust jacket that ever surfaced. It first sold in 1996 and has passed through more than one owner since that time. The latest owner recently passed on, resulting in it coming back up for sale.
The jacket is in rough shape, but there are only 13 of them known to exist. It's been six years since the 13th example surfaced. That could mean that no additional examples exist. We will only know of additional examples if any ever surface. There's no guarantee.
In my post about the 13th known 1930A-1 dust jacket, I wrote:
I have been thinking a lot about the 1930A-1 Old Clock dust jacket in the last year. I reflected on how no new known copies had come up for sale since 2014 and wondered whether I should consider paying a higher price so that I could finally acquire one. The dust jacket is not getting any easier to find. A few copies are probably still in the wild unknown to us, but even the existence of just a few more copies has little effect on the scarcity and value. Hundreds of people would love to own the first printing dust jacket, and fewer than 15 are known to exist. Most people will never have one.
And now, six years later, I am less hopeful that additional examples will surface. I feel like there could be one or two more out there, but that's probably it. Likely no more than 15 examples exist.
I suspect that more people
are realizing what already guided my decisions back in 2010 when some
people criticized my buying habits.
In October 2010, I wrote:
The dust jackets that list to Bungalow Mystery are so extremely scarce that collectors have to settle for whatever condition dust jacket comes up for sale. There are only eight known examples of the Old Clock first printing dust jacket in existence, and two of them are the ones that just sold on eBay.
People criticized me back in 2010,
saying that I was wrong to purchase water-damaged books in order to get
first printing dust jackets. No, I got rid of the books, paired the
jackets with nicer first printings, and I have the matched first
printing book/jackets of #2 and #3. The jackets are currently in the
same condition as they were in when I purchased them over 15 years ago.
Mold and mildew are not growing on them.
You must take what you can get, and the getting has never been good. I believe more people now understand this better.
You
can't wait for a pristine copy in dust jacket to show up for sale
before you consider trying to win one of these auctions. You must try
for each copy that surfaces and trust that you will finally win an
auction when it's your turn. You must be aggressive as it's the only
way to beat out the Hollywood dealer. You can't wait for that perfect
copy that probably doesn't exist.
That said, not all examples
that surface will be for everyone. Some people will continue to wait it
out until they finally see the auction for the one they will purchase.
Each person knows when it's the right time. I knew in my heart that the February 2019 auction was the one for me while the final seconds ticked down. And it was.
To backtrack, when auctions featuring the 1930A-1 Old Clock book with dust jacket appeared on eBay during the 2000s and early 2010s, a certain enthusiastic Nancy Drew collector posted in the Nancy Drew Sleuths group about each auction, saying that everyone needed to know!!! That person's actions guaranteed that people like me had no chance of getting the book.
The Hollywood dealer was a member of the Nancy Drew group, no doubt so that they'd know if a first in jacket came up for sale. I remember one time that they bid on one of the auctions immediately after the enthusiastic fan notified the group. That fan was unwittingly helping the Hollywood dealer who was going to drive the price up by a considerable amount. I found it all quite annoying.
Coupled with that, many people tried to get the auctions shut down so that they could buy the book direct from the seller at a bargain. It was stressful waiting each of those auctions out, worrying that they could be ended at any time due to trickery.
All of those early auctions were circuses. That is why I have very strong feelings about avoiding auction interference. So....
Coming back to the present, the very last thing I would ever do is interfere in one of these auctions, especially the first one to run on eBay after I finally got my copy. Interference on my part would make me a hypocrite. Sigh....
The problem was this: The seller had another auction running for a 1930A-1 Old Clock book, but that book had a reproduction dust jacket. Several of us were suspicious about that one and verified it, but many other fans would be fooled. We were concerned about those fans. Jennifer Fisher, and likely a few others, were in communication with the seller, who added information to those listings. I planned to warn people about the reproductions. Then, the seller listed the book with the real 1930A-1 dust jacket. Now what to do?
After much mental debate, I finally wrote a quick post about the situation. I included the one thing I didn't want to mention towards the end of the post.
Current Nancy Drew Auction Warning, Store Hiatus, and Other Updates
I created a post that combined more than one topic. I first mentioned my stress and why I closed my stores abruptly. I then mentioned the Larkspur Lane reproduction wrapper and the reproduction Old Clock dust jacket.
Another listing has a 1930A-1 Nancy Drew Old Clock book that has a reproduction 1930A-1 dust jacket. The jacket is off in appearance in several ways. We have determined who made the copy jacket for the collector whose book is for sale. There is no doubt that the jacket is a reproduction.
Finally, I mentioned the one thing I didn't want to mention but I had to mention.
And yes, the same seller has a 1930A-1 Nancy Drew Old Clock book with an authentic 1930A-1 dust jacket up for auction. I have moved back my upcoming posts, since all of this is going on right now.
And so I did the one thing I never wanted to do: I told people about the latest 1930A-1 dust jacket while the auction was still running. I knew that I needed to get the warning out the best I could about the reproductions. I knew, and a few others knew. But lots of people would be fooled. We had to try since the seller wasn't handling the situation in an optimal fashion due to their inexperience with high-end Nancy Drew books.
By warning about the reproductions, I was inadvertently interfering in the auction for the book with the real 1930A-1 jacket. Some people would misunderstand and think that the real 1930A-1 dust jacket was a reproduction. I didn't want to hurt the seller by causing people not to bid. I also didn't want to keep someone from bidding who might have been the future winner of the auction.
After wrestling with the dilemma for at least one day, I concluded that I had to warn people about the reproductions but also had to clarify that a real 1930A-1 dust jacket was also in the mix. So, that's what I did.
Unfortunately, the winning bidder of the auction with the reproduction jacket didn't find out the truth until after they won. The winning bid was $2,015.10, and they backed out. Think of how unhappy that buyer was. They thought they'd finally won an auction for the 1930A-1 jacket and then they learned that it was a reproduction. That is why the seller should have ended that listing and relisted it. It would have spared someone the disappointment.
Meanwhile, I worked on my more detailed post about reproduction dust jackets.
Identifying Whether a Dust Jacket is a Reproduction
The real 1930A-1 dust jacket was also mentioned in that post, which was also published while the auction was still running. I knew that my post was getting the word out about the real 1930A-1 jacket auction to all the people who aren't on Facebook. It was potentially going to impact the auction.
So, did it? Fortunately, I am confident that my actions had zero impact on the final auction price. I am able to determine in most cases who the bidders are on these high-end Nancy Drew auctions. Those of us who are well-connected in the Nancy Drew collecting community typically can figure out who the bidders are. As the auction ran, I kept track of who was bidding since it concerned me about what impact I was having on the auction.
I have identified every bidder for this auction. Obviously, I'm not sharing that information.
The Hollywood dealer had already bid before I mentioned the auction, so I didn't tip him off. He keeps a close watch on eBay and misses nothing. The other bidders were the usual players. I didn't tip them off, either.
I am certain that every bidder would have known about the auction regardless, through either their own eBay use or through looking at the seller's other auctions as a result of the discussions on Facebook about the reproductions. All of the other bidders are active on Facebook. I had no impact on the final auction price.
The top two bidders were the winner and the Hollywood dealer. The top four bidders in the last auction from 2019 were me, someone who didn't bid this time, the winner of this auction, and the Hollywood dealer. Next time, the highest bidders will likely be the Hollywood dealer and the third-highest bidder on this auction.
Another person has joined the ranks of the very few who have the dubious honor of being able to say that they actually outbid the Hollywood dealer in an auction. It's a mixture of "Yay! I beat the Hollywood dealer!!!" and "Ouch. I beat the Hollywood dealer."
I heard that people did try to get this auction closed so that they could buy the book outright. Some things never change.
2 comments:
I remember that you once posted of a Clock 1930A1 jacket with just the front flap and a small piece of the back. Do you count that as one of the 13 known copies?
No, we're only counting the ones where all parts are present, even if they are chipped. There is also at least one other partial jacket. So, there are 13 surviving jackets plus 2 partial jackets.
Post a Comment