L@@K SUPER RARE WOW!

Tonight is listed a SUPER RARE (yes, in capitals!) copy of Nancy Drew #41 The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes with the tri-fold ad. It is item #320260880170 for those of you who want a chance at such a RARE book. I don't think I've seen one for sale in years! No, wait . . . there was one listed in my recent Nancy Drew May 2008 eBay Prices post. This must mean that SUPER RARE books are ones that show up for sale each month. Therefore, RARE books must show up several times per month. That is what sellers must mean by RARE: only seen several times per month!

I decided to run a completed items search for "Nancy Drew RARE" to see how many listings would appear. The completed items search does not catch everything, since it only searches the titles. Some sellers put RARE in the subtitles, and those listings will not appear. Also, the completed items search only goes back two weeks.

I found 118 completed listings for Nancy Drew with RARE in the title. Browsing through these listings, this is what I noticed:

There is a $0.01 RARE tweed Hollow Oak and a $0.99 RARE tweed Mysterious Letter that did not sell. I can't imagine why, since they are RARE. A $0.99 RARE tweed Ivory Charm did sell. What a bargain for a RARE book!

The most shocking are the 85 (yes, EIGHTY-FIVE) copies of two Nancy Drew computer games that are packaged together. This is mind-boggling that there have been 85 listings for something so RARE! 27 of them sold.

RARE is really just the current gimmick. There is always some word or catch phrase that people use to try to draw buyers to their listings. Around five years ago, the gimmicks were "L@@K," "LQQK," and "WOW." I remember how tired I became of seeing those words. I didn't really object to them; they just grated on my nerves. It was around a month ago that I realized that I only occasionally see those words. I now must endure RARE and SUPER RARE. It will always be something.

The Blythe Girls Series

I am revisiting some of my old message posts from the Vintage Series Books group. This message contains my comments regarding the Blythe Girls series.

From June 20, 2005:

I finished reading the first book in the Blythe Girls series tonight. This is one of those series that is unfortunately overlooked by many collectors. I overlooked it for many years, and I heartily wish that I had started working on a set much sooner than I did.

As I read the first book, I noticed how very real the characters seem. They are described quite well, and I felt like I was experiencing their problems right along with them.

Something that stood out in particular is a plot similarity between this first book in the Blythe Girls series and the first Connie Blair book, The Clue in Blue. In The Blythe Girls: Helen, Margy, and Rose, Rose Blythe goes to work in the millinery department of the Lossar-Martin Department Store. Rose is accused of theft by the floorwalker when valuable plumes disappear from her counter.

In The Clue in Blue, Connie Blair goes to work with her aunt in Campion's Department Store. Connie's Aunt Bet is under suspicion of theft after a valuable hat disappears and after pearls that had disappeared are discovered in her purse. I was not at all surprised at the identity of the thief in the Blythe Girls book, because a very similar character was the thief in the Connie Blair book.

..........................................................

From July 5, 2005:

After getting sidetracked with other commitments, I resumed reading the Blythe Girls and am currently on Rose's Odd Discovery.

The more I read, the more I am reminded of the trio of Nancy, Bess, and George from the Nancy Drew series. Helen, Margy, and Rose are not like Nancy, Bess, and George in personality, yet it is another trio of girls. Helen and Rose each have a boyfriend, and Margy even has two that she doesn't really want, and somehow all four young men manage to spend so much time with the girls. They even join the girls briefly on their vacation in Three on a Vacation. It reminds me of how Ned, Burt, and Dave always manage to spend time with Nancy, Bess, and George, even on trips around the world.

It also interests me how the Blythe Girls series came to an end just a couple of years after the Nancy Drew series began.

I like how the villain of Rex Pepper comes back to plague Margy and Miss Pepper time and time again as he tries to steal Miss Pepper's fortune.

Helen's Strange Boarder is a good mystery. The truth about Jean Ridgeway is a great mystery and eerie as it parallels a popular novel in the story. I did, however, guess Jean's true identity fairly early in the story. Whenever there is a missing person and then someone else who either seems lost or is an amnesiac, they usually turn out to be one and the same. Series books are usually very predictable in this sense.

There are the same extreme coincidences all through the Blythe Girls books that occur in most series books. A character mentioned briefly near the start of Three on a Vacation turns up unexpectedly near the end of the book, and the same situation occurs with another character in Margy's Secret Mission.

And speaking of Margy's Secret Mission, I loved the part where Margy went undercover at the Royce Clever-Carlton estate. It was exciting, and Margy was in grave danger.

..........................................................

From August 1, 2005:

I finished the Blythe Girls series a few weeks ago. My favorite book was Rose's Hidden Talent. It read like a fairy tale. Rose had some terrible struggles, but everything worked out perfect in the end.

The Outdoor Girls Series

In the coming days, I will post some of my past comments from the Vintage Series Books group. These past comments are worth revisiting. I have decided to begin with my Outdoor Girls posts. Right off, I notice that I compared the Outdoor Girls series to the Beverly Gray series. In my last post, I mentioned that the Outdoor Girls series and the Ruth Fielding series were the most likely series that influenced Clair Blank.

From December 26, 2005:

I am about finished reading the Outdoor Girls series. I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I have enjoyed the books as I had no idea what to expect. I feel like the series is a combination of the Blythe Girls series and the Beverly Gray series. Most of the books were written by Elizabeth Duffield Ward, so it is natural that there is a similarity to the Blythe Girls series. Volumes 8 through 11 deal with World War I, both the girls' work in support of the war effort and their fears about their boyfriends' safety. The general feel of this part of the series is much, much like the Blythe Girls series.

I compare the series to Beverly Gray because like in the Beverly Gray series, the Outdoor Girls series has a group of girls and their boyfriends who go on one vacation after another (with the difference that the Outdoor Girls stay in the United States and generally in the northeast) and have many exciting adventures. The various Outdoor Girls are nearly drowned many times and are nearly bitten by snakes many times. In one case, a landslide traps the girls and their horses in a cave. The horses are spooked and the thought of the girls trapped in an enclosed place with spooked horses is quite frightening. So, the Outdoor Girls series appeals to my sense of adventure in much the same way that the Beverly Gray series does.

There is also a lot of humor in the Outdoor Girls series. There are many amusing scenes and/or comments in each book.

While I did like the first six books which were written by Howard Garis, I enjoyed the books written by Elizabeth Duffield Ward much more.

All in all, I consider the Outdoor Girls series to be a very strong series and well worth reading.

...........................................................

Days later, another person commented that the Outdoor Girls series is one of her favorite series. She wondered why it doesn't get noticed more. On January 3, 2006, I posted the following response:

I have an idea why it doesn't get noticed, and I base my thoughts upon why I ignored it for the longest time.

The Outdoor Girls series went out of print shortly after the Nancy Drew series began. Most people who are currently actively collecting are not old enough to remember the Outdoor Girls series. The Outdoor Girls series is only advertised on the very early Nancy Drew dust jackets which are very difficult to acquire. Most people collecting are buying books with dust jackets that do not advertise the Outdoor Girls series.

When I was in the early stages of collecting, I was buying Nancy Drews from the 1950s and 1960s. When I started to spot Dana Girls, Judy Bolton, Vicki Barr, and Connie Blair books in antique shops, I was very likely to purchase them because I had seen them mentioned on the Nancy Drew jackets. The advertising influenced me in my used book purchases.

I do remembering buying one or two Outdoor Girls books in the mid-1990s, but I later sold them because they didn't appeal to me. The titles didn't pique my interest, and this brings me to the other reason that I believe that the series is ignored. The name of the series itself sounds rather ordinary and does not at all convey how well-written, interesting, and even exciting the books are.

The books set during World War I are quite moving. I also found the comments that were made about the enemy to be interesting. There are a number of very negative comments about the Germans. For instance:

"Of course it's cruel," said Allen grimly. "But so were the Huns cruel, centuries ago. The German people have simply never advanced beyond that state. They're still in the first stages of civilization."

That quote is from Army Service, pages 25-26. Ouch! What strikes me about it is how politically incorrect that comment is and how comments like it would not be made in children's books nowadays. This type of thing is what I love about the old books. They give us an opportunity to see just a little bit of what things were like many years ago and how people viewed the world.

Clair Blank's Inspiration for Beverly Gray

Unfortunately, no one can ask Clair Blank what her inspiration for the Beverly Gray series was. Clair Blank died in 1965 at the age of 50, long before series collector groups existed and long before much research into series books had been done. Clair Blank wrote the first four Beverly Gray books while she was still in high school and was a published author in 1933 at the age of 18. Clair must have been influenced by series books and surely had read some of the popular series books of the time.

I have some vague idea of reading an article or a message post in the past in which someone speculated about what inspired Clair Blank. I cannot remember exactly what I read or where it was, and I wish I could. The two issues of Yellowback Library which discuss Clair Blank and the Beverly Gray series, issues #55 and #66, are the main sources of information about Clair Blank. These articles do not mention what inspired Clair Blank to write the series.

As to which series influenced Clair Blank, we cannot consider Nancy Drew or Judy Bolton to be likely candidates since these series were just getting started at the time that Clair Blank was in high school and writing the breeder set Beverly Gray books. Additionally, the Dana Girls series did not begin until 1934, the same year that the Beverly Gray series began its run.

Clair Blank's influences had to have been pre-1930s series books, most likely books put out by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. When I first read the Beverly Gray series, I had not read any of the important pre-1930s Stratemeyer Syndicate series. Now that I have read some of those books, I can see how some of them might have inspired Clair Blank. The Outdoor Girls and the Ruth Fielding series are the most likely ones that could have influenced Clair Blank. Of the two, Ruth Fielding is the more likely one.

In the first Beverly Gray book, Beverly decides to become a writer. From page 147:

"I know it isn't all primroses. As far as that goes, what branch of work today is easy? Every day competition becomes keener."

"What are you going to write?" Anne wanted to know. "Novels?"

"Eventually perhaps I will," Beverly said, her eyes dreamy as she stared out the window. "But now I'm interested in being a newspaper correspondent. I'd like to cover foreign stories. Stories from—Shanghai, Cathay, London, Switzerland—"

Beverly reflects about her future on page 197:

Her story lay in her room, neatly typewritten and ready to submit to the judges tomorrow. If her story won even the faintest recognition from the judges, she would be satisfied. Then she would go on writing—writing until she became famous. In her youth and with her idealistic nature she little realized that fame alone could be empty and meaningless without love and friends to share it. The crown of fame for her own achievements presented alluring possibilities.

She was Helen Chadwick's daughter. Why shouldn't she make good?

Ruth Fielding also wants to make good, and Ruth's desire to make good is the common thread that runs through all of the Ruth Fielding books. Ruth becomes a scenario writer, and Beverly Gray becomes a reporter and author. Ruth Fielding is fiercely independent, and Beverly Gray has that same independence. Ruth Fielding's career comes before everything else, and she puts off marriage to Tom Cameron for a long time, although she does eventually marry him. Beverly Gray becomes engaged fairly early in the series, and Beverly also puts off marriage since her career comes first. Beverly is still unmarried at the end of the series.

Although Ruth Fielding has a few close friends, she often is by herself, working towards her own goals. Beverly Gray has many friends, far more than Ruth Fielding, but she often shuns them and works independently. Beverly is sometimes misunderstood by her friends because of her independence. In one book, an imposter takes Beverly Gray's place and shuts herself in Beverly's cabin on The Susabella. Beverly's friends just think she is acting weird, and they don't even notice that Beverly is no longer around. This is a prime example of how independent Beverly Gray is—so much so that she can disappear without anyone noticing.

When I read the 29th Ruth Fielding book, Ruth Fielding and Her Greatest Triumph, I was astounded at how similar it is to the Beverly Gray books in which Beverly and her friends are in an exotic location. Ruth must deal with superstitious natives on a tropical island. The natives cause Ruth endless problems and sabotage her film. Beverly Gray finds herself at the mercy of superstitious natives in several instances. It is very likely that Clair Blank did read that Ruth Fielding book and worked some of the ideas into her books.

I may re-read many of the Beverly Gray books in order to gain a further perspective. Just from what I can remember, it is apparent that strong similarities exist between Ruth Fielding and Beverly Gray.

The Guesswork in Guides

Several excellent collector guides exist for juvenile series books.  The most well-known guides are Farah's Guide for the Nancy Drew books and Hardy and Hardy Investigations for the Hardy Boys books.   The guides are not perfect; all of them involve some guesswork, and as a result, revised editions correct mistakes and omissions from older editions.

Some people may wonder exactly how the authors figure out the sequence of the printings.  There are many factors involved, and I am going to discuss some of them in this post.  My comments will discuss certain printings from Farah's Guide.

The points for the first printing of The Thirteenth Pearl have changed since earlier editions of Farah's Guide.   Previously, the first printing was stated to be a book with The Triple Hoax as the next book notice on page 178 as opposed to later printings that have The Secret of the Old Clock as the next book.  Then it was noticed that some of the books have The Triple Hoax in italics while others have it in plain text.  The books are identical in all other ways, so which came first?

This is where Farah made an educated guess.   It makes more sense that the printing that came first is the one in which The Triple Hoax is in plain text, since this was clearly a mistake.  In the second printing, Grosset and Dunlap would have corrected the mistake so that the title was in italics.  It makes far less sense to think that the title was in italics in the first printing and then changed to plain text in the second printing.  So, even though there is no proof as to which book came first, Farah deduced that the book with the plain text "next book" notice is the earlier one.

Guesswork is also involved in the points for the first printing of The Clue of the Dancing Puppet.  The first printing of this book lists to #38 on the back cover and to #39 inside the book.  Some of the first printing books are 18 mm thick while others are 21 mm thick.  Farah has deduced that the 18 mm version is earlier than the 21 mm version.  So, how does he know that the less thick books were printed first since there is nothing else different about the books aside from the thickness?

Take the early picture cover printings of The Bungalow Mystery as an example.  The first picture cover printing, 1962A-71, which has the $1 suggested price box on the front cover, is 19 mm thick.  The second picture cover printing, 1962B-72, which has the blackened suggested price box on the front cover, is also 19 mm thick.  The fourth picture cover printing, 1963B-74, is 22.5 mm thick.

The early picture cover printings of The Mystery at Lilac Inn follow a similar pattern.  The first picture cover printing, 1962A-88, which has the $1 suggested price box on the front cover, is 19 mm thick.  The second picture cover printing, 1962B-89, which has the blackened suggested price box on the front cover, is 20 mm thick.   The fourth picture cover printing, 1963B-91, is 23 mm thick.

The other early picture cover books that I have follow the same type pattern.   The books printed in 1962 are 19 mm thick while the books printed in 1963 are around 22-23 mm thick.  This is why Farah can state with reasonable certainly that the first printings of The Clue of the Dancing Puppet that are 19 mm thick came before the ones that are 21 mm thick.  It is just a matter of observation and applying those observations to other books in the series.

There are some instances in which Farah has no way to deduce which book came first.  For the first printing of The Secret of Mirror Bay, some of the books have the Nancy Drew picture on the back cover overprinted with yellow while the rest of the books have the picture in the usual black and gray tones.   All that is known is that the books with the yellow overprint are much more scarce, and therefore, more valuable.   The yellow overprint is a mistake that occurred at some point during the print run.  It could be that the yellow overprint books came first, but there is no way of deducing whether this is true.   It could simply have been caused by a machine malfunction during the first printing and could have occurred at any point during the print run.

Any collector can make observations such as these, and the observations can easily be applied to other series that do not have collector guides.  When I created my Beverly Gray formats page recently, I used what I already knew about the other Grosset and Dunlap series in order to draw conclusions about the Beverly Gray books.  All of the Grosset and Dunlap series went through similar changes in format at about the same time.  While collector guides do not exist for many series, they are not completely necessary if one owns a guide for either Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys and applies the information to the other Grosset and Dunlap series books.

May 2008 Assorted eBay Prices

In my last post, I mentioned recent Nancy Drew prices. One of the books that I listed is an Applewood edition of The Clue of the Broken Locket. This book was described as SUPER RARE (in capital letters, of course). This interests me. Let's say that we use the definition of RARE which is that a RARE book comes up for sale once or twice every 10 years. So, what does SUPER RARE mean? I suppose that a SUPER RARE book would not have been seen in 50 years, except that the Applewood edition of The Clue of the Broken Locket was first published in 1998. I have to laugh at the use of SUPER RARE to describe such a recent book.

By the way, there is a seller describing recent Nancy Drew postcards as RARE . . . .

The same person who has been in part driving up the Nancy Drew prices is also bidding on quite a few other series books, although the end result is not so striking as it is with the Nancy Drew books. Here are some recent eBay prices for a number of different series books:

Betty Gordon at Boarding School w/DJ, $16.28
Betty Gordon at Ocean Park w/DJ, $16.28, $4.00
Betty Gordon and Her School Chums w/DJ, $16.28

Pirate Brig w/DJ, Mildred Wirt Benson, $104.70
The Crimson Cruiser, Trailer Stories for Girls, Mildred A. Wirt, no DJ, $91.00
The Painted Shield w/1950s DJ, Mildred A. Wirt, $39.38
Dangerous Deadline, Mildred Wirt Benson, softcover edition, $11.00

Penny Parker, Trail of the Witch Doll w/DJ, $46.44
Penny Parker, Danger at the Drawbridge w/DJ, $26.52, $26.01
Penny Parker, The Vanishing Houseboat w/DJ, $19.99

The Outdoor Girls on Cape Cod w/color DJ, $16.50
The Outdoor Girls at Spring Hill Farm w/color DJ, $11.50
The Outdoor Girls in Army Service w/duotone DJ, $11.50

Connie Blair, The Ghost Wore White w/DJ, $76.00
Connie Blair, The Brown Satchel w/DJ, $62.80
Connie Blair, The Mystery of the Ruby Queens w/DJ, $60.99, $39.01
Connie Blair, The Green Island Mystery w/DJ, $37.99, $29.99
Connie Blair, Peril in Pink w/DJ, $30.97

Vicki Barr, The Clue of the Carved Ruby, no DJ, $60.99
Vicki Barr, The Silver Ring Mystery w/DJ, $51.00
Vicki Barr, The Clue of the Gold Coin w/DJ, $24.07, $18.00
Vicki Barr, The Secret of Magnolia Manor w/DJ, $22.22
Vicki Barr, The Mystery at Hartwood House w/DJ, $17.85

Nancy Drew May 2008 eBay Prices

Nancy Drew books are selling quite well on eBay currently.   I would have thought that Nancy Drew prices would have been down right now due to the economy and high gas prices.  Instead, there are several people who are aggressively bidding on the books, and in some cases are paying extremely high prices.   Some of the ordinary tweed books with dust jackets have sold for $100 and up, which is surprising since most of them sell for $10.00-$35.00.

#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, 1930A-1 w/copy DJ, $570.00
#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, 1935 w/DJ, $690.00
#1 The Secret of the Old Clock, thick 1940s w/DJ, $56.50
#2 The Hidden Staircase, 1939 w/DJ, $125.00
#2 The Hidden Staircase, thick 1940s DJ, $61.00
#3 The Bungalow Mystery, blank endpapers edition, no DJ, $153.50
#3 The Bungalow Mystery, blank endpapers edition, no DJ, $103.38
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 1935 w/DJ, $150.00
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, thick 1940s w/DJ, $139.51
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 1945 w/DJ, $111.51
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 3rd art DJ, $95.00
#5 The Secret at Shadow Ranch, blank endpapers edition, no DJ, $58.00
#6 The Secret of Red Gate Farm, thick 1940s DJ, $149.05
#6 The Secret of Red Gate Farm, 1935 DJ, $125.00
#7 The Clue in the Diary, 1932A-1 w/DJ, $1,650.88
#7 The Clue in the Diary, 1934 w/DJ, $195.00, $99.99
#9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles, 1932D-2 w/DJ, $375.00
#9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles, 1948 w/DJ, $224.72
#10 The Password to Larkspur Lane, thick 1940s DJ, $151.00
#11 The Clue of the Broken Locket, thick 1940s DJ, $151.00
#11 The Clue of the Broken Locket, Applewood edition w/DJ, $53.00
#12 The Message in the Hollow Oak, 2nd art DJ, $76.00
#12 The Message in the Hollow Oak, thick 1940s DJ, $77.77
#12 The Message in the Hollow Oak, tweed w/DJ, $89.88
#13 The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, 2nd or 3rd prt w/DJ, $405.00
#13 The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, thick 1940s DJ, $67.00
#15 The Haunted Bridge, 1st prt w/DJ, $177.51
#15 The Haunted Bridge, tweed w/DJ, $92.88
#15 The Haunted Bridge, 1940s w/DJ, $77.88
#16 The Clue of the Tapping Heels, 1940s DJ, $90.00
#17 The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk, thick 1940s DJ, $142.50
#19 The Quest of the Missing Map, 2nd or 3rd prt w/DJ, $182.50
#19 The Quest of the Missing Map, early prt w/DJ, $67.00
#20 The Clue in the Jewel Box, 1943A-1 w/DJ, $228.40
#23 The Mystery of the Tolling Bell, 1946A-1 w/DJ, $56.55, $52.00
#25 The Ghost of Blackwood Hall, tweed w/DJ, $73.00
#30 The Clue of the Velvet Mask, 1st prt w/blue silhouette endpapers and DJ, $51.00
#32 The Scarlet Slipper Mystery, 1954D-1 w/DJ, $42.00
#35 The Haunted Showboat, 1958A-1 w/DJ, $75.00
#37 The Clue in the Old Stagecoach, 1960A-1 w/DJ, $53.51, $50.00
#41 The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes, w/tri-fold ad, $50.87
Complete Set Matte PCs #1-56, $405.00

May 2008 eBay Judy Bolton and Dana Girls Prices

This is a sampling of some of the higher prices paid for Judy Bolton and Dana Girls books during the last few weeks. For the Dana Girls, there are many books that I have not listed that sold in the $10.00-$15.00 price range.

The Judy Bolton prices have been all over the price, including some insanely high prices caused by at least one of the people who drove the Judy Bolton prices up back in April. What is bizarre about it is that while some ordinary tweed books sold for $100 and up, a book that contained a sticker that was actually signed by Margaret Sutton (and it did appear to be an authentic autograph) sold for a rather low price.

Judy Bolton Prices:

#1 The Vanishing Shadow 1930s w/DJ, $13.27
#2 The Haunted Attic 1940s w/DJ, sticker inside signed by Margaret Sutton, $31.01
#2 The Haunted Attic 1930s w/DJ, $44.99
#5 The Ghost Parade tweed w/DJ, $20.78
#7 The Mystic Ball 1930s w/DJ, $36.78
#8 The Voice in the Suitase tweed w/DJ, $81.00
#9 The Mysterious Half Cat tweed w/DJ, $89.99
#12 The Midnight Visitor tweed w/DJ, $180.27
#23 The Black Cat's Clue tweed w/DJ, $22.50
#25 The Haunted Road tweed w/DJ, $20.70
#27 The Trail of the Green Doll tweed w/DJ, $32.00, $31.00
#28 The Haunted Fountain tweed w/DJ, $251.49
#31 The Discovery at the Dragon's Mouth tweed no DJ, $20.50

Dana Girls Prices:

#5 The Secret at the Hermitage tweed w/DJ, $19.95
#6 The Circle of Footprints tweed w/DJ, $22.22
#7 The Mystery of the Locked Room tweed w/DJ, $20.49
#12 The Portrait in the Sand tweed w/DJ, $20.50
#13 The Secret in the Old Well tweed w/DJ, $19.95
#14 The Clue in the Ivy tweed w/DJ, $23.22
#16 Mystery at the Crossroads tweed w/DJ, $20.49
#17 The Ghost in the Gallery tweed w/DJ, $24.95
#18 The Clue of the Black Flower tweed w/DJ, $29.00
#21 The Haunted Lagoon tweed w/DJ, 26.20
#22 The Mystery of the Bamboo Bird PC, $26.00
#26 The Riddle of the Frozen Fountain PC, $19.99
#27 The Secret of the Silver Dolphin PC, $67.66, $15.00
#28 Mystery of the Wax Queen PC, $31.00
#30 The Phantom Surfer PC, $97.78