Updating My Library Thing Database

In the last few years, I have sold quite a few books from my collection.  The books tended to be international editions, library editions, series books that no longer interested me, or books in the public domain that I didn't need to keep on hand.

Early this year, I published a series of posts detailing how I decided what to remove from my collection.

My Collection Parameters Part 1: The International Editions
My Collection Parameters Part 2: The Library Editions
My Collection Parameters Part 3: Thinning Out Book Sets
My Collection Parameters Part 4: Collectibles
My Collection Parameters Part 5: Nancy Drew Sets

My collection has been catalogued since 2014 on Library Thing.  I have tried to keep up with it, but I sold off so many books in the last few years that I didn't remove all of them from the database.  I'd like to get that fixed.

I spent several hours last night and this morning creating screen captures of what is on Library Thing, pasting them into a document, and then printing the pages.  I have 118 printed pages of images which are grouped in alphabetical order by my tags used on Library Thing. 

I am in the process of placing the pages in a 3-ring binder.  I will go shelf by shelf marking out the books that I find.  Once I'm finished, any books that didn't get marked out will be deleted from Library Thing.  This will take awhile since I have over 5,000 books to check.  Many of the books are up high and are double-shelved, so this won't be easy.

I can already see some additional books that I want to get rid of just based on seeing the images on Library Thing.  No doubt I will pull more books from my collection as I check through everything.

I do anticipate that I will begin selling again online sometime in the next few weeks.  When I make that decision, Etsy will most likely reopen first followed by eBay at a later date. 

My Collection Parameters Part 5: Nancy Drew Sets

I have already mentioned how I have limited my sets of international editions and library editions.  This post covers my sets of Nancy Drew books as published by Grosset & Dunlap, Simon & Schuster, and Applewood.

With Nancy Drew, I would love to have everything, but I don't have room for everything along with my other collections.  

I don't care for the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries or the Nancy Drew On Campus series.  I tried reading both series and couldn't get past the first few books.  I found both sets to be lacking, so I sold them.

I did have the complete set of Nancy Drew Files #1-124 in softcover.  I then began building a set in the hardcover library editions.  I'm not that fond of the Files series.  I found the second half of the set to be very repetitive and often boring.  As I've worked on my set of hardcover Files, I've sold the corresponding paperback copies.  I still have a complete set of Files, but the set is now mostly hardcover with paperback copies filling in the gaps.  Eventually, I hope to have the complete hardcover set with no paperback copies.

I have all of Nancy Drew #57-175 in both softcover and hardcover books.  I have all of them in hardcover library bindings.  I have all of the softcover books in first printing copies, all cover art variants, and most titles in second printing copies without the first printing blurb on the front cover.

I do not collect the flashlight editions.  I owned a set for around a year quite a few years ago.  I sold them as my library editions sets increased.

I have true first printings per Farah's Guide of all Nancy Drew hardcover Grosset & Dunlap titles from #1-56.  I have all first printing picture cover editions.  I have most of the first printing revised text picture cover editions.  I do have some restrictions on what else I keep for these books.

I do not collect the picture cover editions with the Cookbook ad on the back cover.  That would make nearly another complete set of the books, and I just don't have space for them.

I do collect the picture cover editions with double oval endpapers.  I didn't for many years, but I finally ran across some in excellent condition.  I decided that the books are well worth having if in excellent condition.

These photos show my near-complete set of Nancy Drew books with double oval endpapers.

I do not try to get every Nancy Drew title in every format.  For instance, I don't care whether I have a tweed Old Clock with all endpaper variants (blue silhouette, digger, and blue multi endpapers).  It suffices to have the first wrap dust jacket printing and the first revised text printing.  I don't have to have all three endpapers in the tweed edition.

I have a number of thick books with the glossy frontispiece only, but I don't necessarily have all of #1-17 in that format.  It's not important to me to have all of them.

I do have all of Nancy Drew #1-13 with glossy internals, since I have all of them in first printing books matched with first printing jackets.

I do have a set of Nancy Drew #1-18 with dust jackets that list to #18 and have the blue silhouette spine symbol.  My set is shown in the next photo.

I mentioned in a previous post that I've sold many of my books that have pulp paper.  I decided to sell my Nancy Drew books with Dana Girls endpapers.  I never was concerned about finding all of them and never did have all of them.  It's just not a variant that is extremely important to me. 

I think this is because of my strong aversion to pulp paper.  The particular books that I acquired with Dana Girls endpapers were not in very good shape because of how cheaply they were made.  I didn't care to keep them.

I've gone back and forth on the Applewood editions.  I will always keep my FAO Schwarz boxed set of Applewood #1-8.  Since it would be too hard for me to get at my set, follow this link to see a picture of the set from Jenn Fisher's Pinterest.

That aside, I'm not concerned with having a set of Applewood editions.  Years ago, I sold all of my Applewood copies of #9-21.  I later became motivated to collect them again when the prices went up.  I found copies inexpensively and kept those copies for a number of years.  I sold them again in the last year. 

I like the old books better.  I don't need the Applewood editions and don't care for them because of how tightly bound they are.  The tight binding makes them harder to read than the older books.  I would prefer reading any old Grosset & Dunlap original text book over an Applewood edition.  I even prefer reading my library editions over the Grosset & Dunlap editions.  The last time I read through Nancy Drew #1-56, I read my library editions.

As with my previous posts, I have not mentioned all of my parameters, but this should give you an idea.

In conclusion, I have had to place parameters on my collection because I have too many interests which have caused me to collect far more than I can comfortably display and enjoy.  I also collect vintage teen books, and complete sets of Sweet Valley High, Christopher Pike, Dark Forces, First Love from Silhouette, and all the others take up a lot of space just like my series books do.  I have had to reduce what I have due to how very many books are of interest to me. 

My Collection Parameters Part 4: Collectibles

Collectibles such as puzzles and board games take up a lot more space than books do.  For that reason, I am less enthusiastic about this kind of item.  I am mainly all about the books and not the other stuff.

I have the Nancy Drew board game from the 1950s, but I do not own a copy of the one from the 1960s.  I am partial to the earlier game and have no interest in the later game.

I do not own the Madame Alexander Nancy Drew doll.  It would only collect dust and be a nuisance to maintain.  Besides, I have never been interested in it.

I have never wanted the Nancy Drew Halloween costume from the late 1970s.  It would also be a difficult item to maintain and display.

I have no interest in any memorabilia associated with the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies of the 1930s.  I do have one lobby card, but only because I got lucky at an estate sale.

I will likely sell it eventually.

I recently sold the red and white Nancy Drew Diaries because they never meant anything to me. 

They are better off in the hands of someone who will treasure them.

I am also not interested in many of the modern collectibles.  Most modern Nancy Drew collectibles recycle artwork from the original 56.  I prefer collectibles that bring something new to the table. 

The Cobble Hill puzzles are very nice, but they have the same old cover art.  We've had postcards, notebooks, jewelry, and many other items with reproductions of the original cover art.  I would prefer to see something new that is inspired by the original cover art.  That is precisely why I collect the international editions.

Fans were excited when the recent Nancy Drew game was released at Barnes and Noble.  It's no surprise why; the game features new artwork.  The artwork is based on the original art, but is instead a fresh take on it rather than a reproduction of the original art.

I wish we had more items with a fresh take on the old illustrations.  Having the same artwork show up over and over gets a bit boring.

My Collection Parameters Part 3: Thinning Out Book Sets

I prefer some books in printed format and others in digital format.  I only keep modern young adult books in a digital format.  I don't see them as collectible, and I just want them to read.  I am content to have them stored on my iPad.

I sold my Harry Potter set a few years back.  I now have the books in digital format only.  Reading the books on my iPad is much easier than reading such heavy books.  Selling the set freed up valuable shelf space.

I now favor the digital format for the current Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books.  I am still purchasing the Nancy Drew Diaries in hardcover with jacket, but I am now also purchasing each book in the digital format.  For the Hardy Boys Adventures series, I have quit purchasing the hardcover books and am only purchasing the digital format.  I have sold most of my Hardy Boys Adventures hardcover books.  I want to read the books to see what is going on with the franchise, but owning the books is not important.

Around 10 years ago, I sold most of my books that had pulp paper.  I have seen a noticeable deterioration in those books in the 30+ years that I have collected.  Of necessity, I still have some books with pulp paper, such as a few first printing Nancy Drew books from the 1940s.

This book is a copy of The Mercer Boys and the Steamboat Riddle.  Since I do not own a copy of the Burt edition with good quality paper, I must keep the reprint that has pulp paper.

I have sold some of my older books that are now in the public domain.  My Ruth Fielding set is now a partial set because a couple years ago I sold all of the books that were in the public domain.  I also only kept one jacket style for each book.

I sold my entire Marjorie Dean set since all books can be read online.  I love the story arc of Leslie Cairns, but I can revisit those books through digital copies.  It's unnecessary for me to have the books.

I sold all of my Grace Harlowe books, including the Overseas set, simply because I didn't care for the books.  I couldn't get through the books on my first try, and I will never try reading them again.

I have also sold other sets, like Melody Lane, since I know that I will never read them again.

My Hardy Boys set took up way too much space.  I have sold many of my books.  I have kept one dust jacketed copy of each of #1-40.  I have the picture covers from #1-42 in copies that list to #40.  I have kept some of #43-58.  I sold the ones that I didn't enjoy reading since I'll never read them again.

I also reduced my Three Investigators set.  I kept all hardcover books.  I have all of #1-28 in hardcover and some of #29 and up.  For the high-numbered books that I don't have in hardcover, I kept a softcover copy.  I sold the rest of my softcover books.

Finally, I try not to keep multiple copies of very scarce books.  Whenever possible, I sell the duplicates so that other collectors can acquire those books.  

Please note that I do not judge other collectors who might own two copies of Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts or three copies of Dana Girls #30 The Phantom Surfer in the beige spine picture cover edition.  I understand how that happens.  Perhaps you've made some good finds over the years, and you have trouble letting go of them.  Early in my collecting, I kept all duplicates until I found that I was running out of room.  I find that I sometimes I have trouble letting go of books that I have owned for many years even though I might have upgraded them.  It is a struggle.

Even though I made the decision to avoid keeping duplicates of very scarce books when I can avoid doing so, I don't always succeed.  I quite unfortunately have two first printing Nancy Drew Twisted Candle books and two first printing dust jackets.  I don't know which one to keep, so I'm keeping both until whenever I figure out what to do.

My Collection Parameters Part 2: The Library Editions

When I first began collecting library editions, I purchased all kinds of library editions with no restrictions.  As my collection grew, I began to place some limits on which library editions I kept.  Complete sets of every kind of Nancy Drew library edition take up way too much space.  My library edition collection totals over 1,000 books.  If I had not placed restrictions on what to keep, I'd have at least double that amount.

Early on I kept all of the plain binding books that I acquired.  I quickly decided not to keep those since they aren't as interesting as books with some kind of design.  Here is an example of a plain binding that I have kept.

I keep this book because it is from a nearby high school, and the name of the school is printed on the spine.  Other than books with a special feature like this one, I do not keep any of the plain bindings.

I also limit what I keep for the patterned bindings.  I have a pretty large collection of patterned bindings, so I no longer feel that I need to keep every variant that I find.  

Since I have such a large number of patterned bindings, I now purchase only examples that are rather striking, such as what was used on these two books.

The above books are Nancy Drew books, Tolling Bell and Wooden Lady.

Not only do I avoid buying the less interesting patterned bindings, I also try to keep from having duplicates of the same pattern.  I used to own a good many Judy Bolton books in these two patterns.

I now have just the two examples seen above.

The green APC Nancy Drew library binding is one of my favorites.  It has five distinct subtypes.

I have never cared for the bright green books seen at the top.  The only bright green books I keep in my collection are the few titles that were done in the bright green with the yellow.  I think most or all of the set was done in the bright green with white, but I don't have those since I don't like them that much.

The bottom row shows three shades of green, each book with a different texture.  My very favorite type is the style seen with 99 Steps.  I love that shade of green the best, and the cover is smooth.  The bottom middle book is probably the type seen most often.  The green is darker and the texture more rough.  The bottom right book is slightly darker than the one in the middle, and the texture is even more rough.

By keeping only the two types of green APC books, I avoid having multiple sets.  I have just one set plus the ones with yellow.

This next picture shows a BTSB edition on the left and a Multi edition on the right.

I used to own a complete set of each binding, but I have sold off many of them.  I now have around 15 of each.  I settled on books in nicer shape and with a nice selection of binding colors.

These books are the Econo-Clad edition.

I have sold off many of my Econo-Clad books.  I used to have multiple examples of each title in different colors. I reduced my set to just one example of each title.  In some cases, I sold the only example of a title if it was heavily scuffed.  I do keep all of the Econo-Clad books with the yellow box on the front cover, even though some of mine are a bit scuffed.  

For the Cameo library binding, I want every title in every color with every style variant regardless of condition.

I have no restriction on them, and they take up a lot of space.  I have nearly 200  Nancy Drew books in this format.  I also have a good many Dana Girls and Judy Bolton library editions in this same style.  Since I won't place a restriction on my Cameo library edition set, I instead restrict what I purchase for my other sets.

My Collection Parameters Part 1: The International Editions

Every collector has a way of limiting what they purchase.  Many of us struggle with large collections that take up too much space, but we make collecting decisions that limit what we decide to purchase.

I have a large collection of international edition series books, but I have sold off many of them to get what I have back under control.  I originally collected all international edition variants of Nancy Drew, the Dana Girls, Judy Bolton, Trixie Belden, Connie Blair, Vicki Barr, Beverly Gray, and Cherry Ames.  I also purchased a small number of Ken Holt and Hardy Boys international editions as well as a large number of Three Investigators international editions.

I then realized that many of the international editions didn't mean that much to me.  I had collected them just for the sake of collecting them.  I concluded that the two series for which the international editions are most important to me are Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton.  That decision helped guide me.

I decided to sell all of my Cherry Ames, Vicki Barr, Ken Holt, Hardy Boys, and Three Investigators international editions.  I sold the majority of my Trixie Belden international editions but have kept a few.

I did keep all of the few Beverly Gray international editions that I had as well as most of the Connie Blair and Dana Girls international editions.  I kept all of my Judy Bolton international editions.

I then looked at Nancy Drew.  Nancy Drew is the most important series, but my collection of international edition Nancy Drew books was quite bloated and contained many books not that important to me.

I have sold most of my international editions where the cover art is the same as the original cover art.  These two books are Icelandic editions.  They feature the original cover art of Blackwood Hall.  Even though the books are nice, I sold them since they have the same cover art as each other and as the original Nancy Drew Blackwood Hall.

I decided that in most cases I would limit my international editions to Nancy Drew #1-56.  While I am fond of the Nancy Drew Digest books and love my complete sets of softcover and hardcover books, I find that the international editions of those books do not hold the same appeal.  

I sold these two Swedish editions that are post-56 and have the same cover art as the original editions.

I also culled many books from my rather large set of French editions.

I sold all books in the above paperback format, including books from the first 56.  I sold most of the books in the below paperback format, including most books from the first 56.  I kept a small number of books for which I really like the cover art.

I sold all of the post-56 books from my hardcover French editions, such as the one pictured below.  I kept all from the first 56 books.

I sold all of my French Girl Detective books plus any Girl Detective books that I had in other languages.

I made some more difficult decisions as well.  I first began reducing my Armada Nancy Drew books by selling off the ones where I don't care for the cover art.  My least favorite style was sold first.

From there, I gradually reduced my Armada editions until I finally decided to sell my favorite format.

I like them, but I like other international editions much more.

I have made a conscious decision not to purchase any of the Norwegian Nancy Drew books that use the Armada cover art.  This next book is an example of that format and is from a listing recently sold on eBay.

What I have mentioned doesn't cover everything, but it should give you an idea of the parameters I have used to limit my collection of international editions to some degree.  The main takeaway is that I am not interested in international editions that feature cover art that is identical to the original books or that I find less attractive.