Nancy Drew 1st Printing Auctions Part 1 (#3, 5, 6 + Early #4)

I have been keeping quiet about the recent high-profile Nancy Drew auctions on eBay because of my interest in them.   Most of what follows was written over a week ago, but I felt it was best to wait to publish my comments.

Jennifer Fisher has already written about the first auctions in her blog post, "Nancy Drew Format One Printings Sell at eBay."

I had been holding back on commenting until I had Bungalow Mystery in my possession. I was the person who bought it. It sold for $3,305.00.

This is the first time that I had ever bid high on one of these books and successfully won. I had the money on hand in my savings account, so I went for it. I was shocked that I won, and I thought it went below value.

Several people have already commented about these books and seemed to think that they were not very desirable due to the condition of the books. I disagree. The first printing books, though very scarce, are not that hard to find as compared to the dust jackets.

Shadow Ranch was the first printing book and jacket and sold for $2,130.00. It went for about what Farah's Guide states that it is worth. For me, the jacket was too age-darkened to be worth that much, although now I am second-guessing myself since I do not have that first printing dust jacket.

Red Gate Farm sold for $2,130.00, which I feel was a bit steep since the dust jacket is not that hard to find. It closed well above the Farah's Guide price, and I recall one in recent months closing at around $800 and not meeting the seller's reserve.

The Red Gate Farm first printing book is very hard to find, but the jacket is the easiest one to find of the early first printing dust jackets. The first five printings all have the identical dust jacket, so it is approximately five times easier to find. Many people take the jacket from the 2nd-5th printings and place on the first printing book in order to get the true first printing. That is why the jacket is not worth $2,000.

Years ago, I bought the second printing of Red Gate Farm with dust jacket for around $150. The second printing of Red Gate Farm has the identical dust jacket as the first printing. I later bought the first printing book for Red Gate Farm for around $90. I placed the dust jacket from the second printing book on the first printing book and created a matched first printing for the low price of around $240.

Lilac Inn sold for $2,330.00, but it was not the first printing book or the first printing jacket.

I do not think that the mold/mildew problem had any impact on the auctions considering how high the prices were. In fact, the comments about the books in the Nancy Drew Sleuths group and on the eBay Bookseller's Board have centered in on the mold/mildew situation and have completely missed the point that the first printing dust jackets are approximately 90-95% of the value.

Take the first printing of Old Clock with the intact 1930A-1 dust jacket that sold a couple years ago for $11,700. The first printing book without a dust jacket seldom sells for over $500, regardless of what Farah's Guide states. Take $11,700 and subtract $500 to get $11,200. $11,200 is 95.7% of $11,700.

I took the time to look at my very early blank endpapers books. Nearly all of the blank endpapers books with jackets in my possession have books that have some significant problems. The jackets are so important to me that I do not care if the book has a mildew stain on it. I cannot see the mildew stain when the jacket is on the book. I see the condition of the jacket as far more important, and I am certain that the other bidders felt the same way.

I have sought the first printing books and jackets now for nearly 14 years. I have not found it very difficult to acquire the bare books, with a few exceptions. The first printing books for #4 and #9 are the hardest from my perspective. #6 and #8 are next. The others are not very difficult to acquire, relatively speaking. For instance, I have the 1930A-1 Old Clock book in my collection, have sold three extras over the years, and have a fifth copy for sale right now. While the first printing Old Clock book is very scarce, it is infinitely easier to find than the dust jacket.

The Bungalow dust jacket for the book I bought is very nice. The spine and back panel have darkened with age, but how many of these jackets show up without the age-darkening? How many of these dust jackets show up at all? The main problem with the book is that it is warped. Aside from that, the book is in very nice shape and does not have the usual major problems that books have when exposed to moisture.

The book only smells very slightly musty so that the smell is not even bothersome.  Be aware that I absolutely hate books that have a strong odor. I have to hold my nose very close to the book to smell it, so the smell is not a problem.  There are no water stains inside or outside the book. The book has no price stickers and no writing inside. The illustrations are all there. The condition of the outside of the book is excellent except for the spotting on the back of the book. It is very surprising that the book is nearly undamaged except for the warping. Most all books that I have ever seen that are warped have noticeable damage. Aside from that, the book is very nice.

I own a book press. I placed the book in the book press, and it will remain there for an indefinite period of time.

If ultimately I want a better first printing book that is not warped, it can be found for no more than a couple hundred dollars.   For now, I have the 1930A-1 Bungalow dust jacket on my 1930A-1 Old Clock book to keep it safe.

If I wanted to do it, I feel that I could put this book and jacket back up for sale at double the price and get a sale within six months to one year.   Of course, I'm not planning to sell the book and jacket.   As many of you already know, there is a lot more to this saga, and I will write about the other two rounds of auctions in the coming days.

The Adventurous Allens Afloat

At the beginning of The Adventurous Allens Afloat, the Allens hasten their departure from Michigan in their new yacht in order to protect a runaway girl. Adra Spencer has amnesia and believes that mean Mr. Spencer is not her real father. Adra remembers being in the hospital due to some type of accident but has no other memories of her past.

Under the cover of darkness, the Nancy Allen departs for its ultimate destination of Florida. On board are Philip, Nancy, Jimmy, and Marjorie, who are the four Adventurous Allens. Adra Spencer is hidden in one of the cabins. Newlyweds Pat and Ann Mary Ryan also depart on the yacht as the Allens' crew.

The Allens remain cautious, assuming that Mr. Spencer is suspicious about what happened to Adra. Shortly into the journey, Nancy and Marjorie purchase a wig and new clothes for Adra so that she can leave the ship on excursions. The Allens soon learn that their fears are well-founded. Not only has Mr. Spencer hired some men to shadow the Allens, Mr. Spencer himself soon appears. Later, the Allens discover Adra's real father, and Adra is reunited with him.

In time, the Allens arrive in New York City where they visit some friends of the Curtis family. They find themselves still followed by Mr. Spencer's henchmen and are constantly on the alert.

The Allens soon have a dilemma when they find that too many of their acquaintances expect to travel south to Florida on the yacht. Even worse, some of the hopeful travelers are not well liked by the Allens.

This story is suspenseful with the constant worry about Mr. Spencer and whether he or one of his men will catch up with the Allens. I also found the Allens' discomfort while visiting the Curtis' friends to be interesting. From pages 177-178:

From Mary's "ravings" by letter Nancy had expected to find the family that Mary was visiting one of the old aristocratic families of New York, not prominent in the gayer affairs, perhaps, but of a truer culture. Nancy's ideals of culture were built on Uncle John's ideas and those of the Allen family in general.

But instead of people like the Curtis family they found a noisy, pretentious group, friendly enough, indeed, but it all took Nancy's breath in surprise. The large apartment, to which Charles escorted them from the hotel, was decorated in the newest and most brilliant array of forms and colors in the "new art," admiringly explained to Nancy by Mary. It was "very effective," Nancy said, in wise evasion. The eldest daughter, whom Mary had met at school, was "devoted to art," her mother said, and Nancy played the part of the responsive and unsophisticated girl from the "Middle West" to perfection, though it was really only her natural desire to be responsive, while inwardly disliking the whole display and wondering at Charles and Mary. They had known people like this in the Middle West. Why be impressed and think it New York?

The room is "full of a blue smoke, the effect of too many cigarettes." Nancy declines a cigarette that is offered to her. Later, one of the young people at the party gets drunk. The Allens, of course, do not touch the cigarettes or the wine. They are shown to be very upright young people and are relieved to get away from the party.

I also greatly enjoyed this story. This book seems to have fewer errors than the first two books, although many of the same errors are still present. Grove continues to use quotation marks excessively, as can be seen above in the portion I quoted. While it is true that the quotation marks are often used for brief quotes made by others, I find it very annoying. It was not necessary to include brief quotes all through the entire book.

I could not help but think of Beverly Gray as I read this book due to the cruise connection. Could Clair Blank have read these books prior to writing her books? I also noticed that Nancy has multiple suitors. She receives a marriage proposal in this book and turns it down much for the same reasons that Beverly Gray turns down Jim's marriage proposal. Hmm.

Avoiding Shopping Cart Abandonment

Recently, I participated in a message thread on Bonanza about shopping cart abandonment. I made the following comments:

I have abandoned two shopping carts in the last couple of months. In the first case, it was on a seller’s individual website in which a shopping cart system was set up. The site clearly stated that PayPal was accepted, but when I went to check out, I was prompted to enter a credit card number. The cart had no way to pay through PayPal. I did not want to pay by credit card, and I did not want to have to contact the seller to work out how to complete the purchase through PayPal. I left. 

The other abandoned shopping cart was here on Bonanz[a]. I found a book I wanted to buy. I added it to my cart, and the cart showed no shipping. It stated to see the item description. I looked at the item description, and nothing was mentioned about shipping costs. I did not want to have to contact the seller to find out what the seller would charge. I did not want to submit an offer and wait to see what would happen. I removed my book from the cart.

After I made my comments, someone else made a response about never having left a cart due to no shipping quoted and seemed to think that someone who would is an impulse shopper. I wish to further explain my thinking.

The book was a common book, and I had many choices in my decision. Why on earth would I tie myself up possibly a day or so while waiting for a shipping quote? Furthermore, I did not want to submit an offer and risk having the shipping be more than I was willing to pay. I did not want to possibly be obligated to pay a higher than desired shipping amount. That is why I removed the book from my cart.

I understand why sellers on Bonanza and other sites do not have the shipping amount available when the items are heavy or irregular in shape. The alternative sites do not have adequate shipping calculators. For books, media mail is not zoned, and it is easy to figure out the correct shipping amount to all zones. I see no reason why sellers cannot have a flat rate media mail option for books.

I also want to mention other reasons why sellers fail to make a sale. I wanted to buy the two Penny Allen books since I am currently reading the Adventurous Allens series. The two Penny Allen books borrowed heavily from the plots of the Adventurous Allens books. I want to read them after I finish the Adventurous Allens series.

I was able to find one book easily on Bonanza with free shipping, and it was the nicest of any books up for sale at that time. That one was an easy decision. The other book proved to be more difficult. There were around 12 copies available, but none were on eBay or Bonanza. None of the available copies had pictures. None of them had good descriptions. Most of them were stated to be in "good" condition with few details. Some listings had a boilerplate description about how the book might have highlighting, etc., like an old children's book would have highlighting. Please.

I would have gone with a slightly higher-priced copy if a good description were present. Since none of the sellers could bother to describe the books, then I had nothing to go on. I went with the second lowest priced copy and hoped the condition would be okay.

Sellers need to have a clearly stated postage amount for books, and they need to have a good picture of the book with an adequate description. The description does not have to be long but it should state if the binding is secure and should mention any flaws. If a listing meets all three criteria, then I will be much more likely to purchase that book than a different one.

Books for Sale on eBay

Another promotion for free auction listings at any price has once again begun on eBay. This promotion is 100 free listings per month until January 7. eBay seems to be moving towards free auctions all the time, as people have predicted. I'm sure that they have figured out that people like me refuse to list anything unless the listing is free.

I have listed some more books in my continuing quest to knock down the number of extra books that I have. I listed some Black Stallion, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden books. I will list more books at various times between now and January 7 as I feel like it.

Books for Sale

The Adventurous Allens Find Mystery

As I read the last couple of chapters of the first book in this series, The Adventurous Allens, I felt like the content was filler in order to increase the length of the book. The interesting part of the book ended with Chapter 18, and I was not much interested in the events that transpired during Chapters 19 and 20.

The early Beverly Gray books have similar filler content, and I know that the A. L. Burt Company asked Clair Blank to increase the length of her manuscripts. I assume that a similar request was made of Harriet Pyne Grove with respect to the first book in this series.

I was uninterested in the final two chapters until just a few pages before the end of the story, when I sensed that something interesting was about to happen. The Adventurous Allens quite literally leads directly into the second book, The Adventurous Allens Find Mystery. The Adventurous Allens ends as follows:

Philip helped down an excited Marjorie, who ran like Jimmy, to the porch. But something came over Nancy, who put her hands to her face and cried softly, with a sob or two, reaching for her handkerchief in a moment, while Philip, who had started with his keys, came back to pat her on her shoulder in silent understanding. Then he joined the others, springing up the steps to unlock the door.

And beyond that locked door lay discovery, such discovery as led to further undreamed of adventures for the Adventurous Allens.

This is the beginning of the second book, The Adventurous Allens Find Mystery:

Almost too greatly surprised to believe in their good fortune, the four Adventurous Allens stood at the door of what had long been denominated by their uncle as his "Michigan Shack," while Philip, now the actual legal proprietor, tried to fit a key in the lock. It was well, perhaps, that none of them knew all which would attend their present adventure; but their anticipation was as keen as their surprise was pleasing.

The Adventurous Allens step out of the first book and right into the second. It is not too often that consecutive volumes in a series end and begin during the same moment.

The Adventurous Allens, Philip, Nancy, Jimmy, and Marjorie, just spent their entire summer traveling in two delivery vans. Now that summer is over, they have arrived at their uncle's cabin on Lake Superior in Michigan. Much to their surprise, they find a very nice two-story log cabin that is fully furnished. The Allens had not expected a place nearly so nice, or they would have come to the cabin before traveling west in the delivery vans.

The Allens plan to make the cabin their new home, although the trouble of finances still weighs heavily upon Philip and Nancy. They are not certain how long they will have enough money to maintain the cabin, but for now, they have a nice place to live.

The young people soon learn that the cabin is reputedly haunted, and Marjorie thinks she sees a glimpse of the "Green Lady" shortly after their arrival. The others assume that Marjorie is mistaken, but Marjorie continues to think that she did indeed see something. Later, Jimmy sees a strange intruder, and wonders whether Marjorie was right. The Allens learn of a missing girl and deduce that their mysterious intruder could be that person.

I find it refreshing that the Allens quickly make the connection between their ghost and the missing girl. Many of the Stratemeyer Syndicate books have missing individuals who turn out to be people who appear in the story. Yet in the Syndicate books, the author pretends that no connection exists, until shockingly, the connection is revealed near the end. I like how the Allens are smart enough to see the connection fairly quickly. My intelligence is insulted each time I read a book in which the author pretends that a ghost has nothing to do with a missing person known to be in the vicinity. Thank you, Harriet Pyne Grove!

The openness as to who the ghost likely is does not take away from the suspense of the book. Sure, we know that the ghost will turn out to be the girl, but we would have known that anyway even if the author had the characters act stupid about it. The mystery is still compelling because we do not know the girl's story or exactly where she has been hiding.

This book has the same errors as the first book, with extra quotation marks, omitted quotation marks, and misspelled words. I had a few instances of not quite understanding what I was reading and kept going rather than trying to figure it out.

A big problem with Grove's books is that important explanatory information is left out. For instance, on page 18, the young people find their uncle's boat and discuss going for a ride in it. They get in the boat, but nothing is mentioned about taking off. It is not until the end of page 19 that I figured out that the Allens are already on the lake in the boat. I was disoriented by thinking they were talking at the dock before taking off to discovering that they were well en route.

Despite minor annoyances with not quite understanding parts of the text, I enjoyed this second Adventurous Allens book even more than I did the first book. This book had no boring parts, except perhaps some of the story at the very beginning. Once I got into the story, the plot developed nicely, and I greatly enjoyed the story.

The Allens come into possession of a yacht partway through the book. The yacht is described to be "a thirty-eight-foot family cruiser." Wow-whee! Guess what the Allens decide to do? Why take a cruise, of course! Now onward to The Adventurous Allens Afloat.

Media Mail Shipping

A message thread on Bonanza a few weeks ago had people discussing media mail. Among the comments were ones by people that stated that they do not use media mail because it takes longer or that media mail can take up to a month. People just don't realize how fast media mail has become when one uses the computer-generated labels from either USPS or PayPal.

The PayPal labels are faster than both handwritten and typed addresses. The handwritten addresses are the slowest, because those are harder for the machines to read. Some people type their addresses and pay for the postage at the post office, and those are faster than the handwritten labels since the machines can read them better. The computer-generated postage is the fastest, because of the bar codes which are read by the machines.

For a number of years, I typed or copied and pasted my addresses into a Word document, printed the addresses and taped on the packages, and paid for the postage at the post office. I began using printed addresses after I heard that packages with printed addresses arrive quicker than packages with handwritten addresses.

I was slow to adopt to the PayPal shipping. I waited until after the service was available for a couple of years before I finally began printing my labels at home. I did not use delivery confirmation on media mail packages prior to going to the PayPal labels, so I did not know exactly how long it took for my packages to arrive. However, I could judge by when buyers left feedback. After I switched to the PayPal labels, I noticed that my buyers were leaving feedback a couple of days sooner than before. The PayPal labels made a difference in the delivery time.

I decided to check some of my recent media mail packages to see how long they took to be delivered. I almost always generate the shipping label the evening before I drop the package off at the post office, so a day can be subtracted from the number of days it took for each package to be delivered.

Delivered, August 30, 2010, 8:11 am, SLINGER, WI 53086
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 25, 2010

Delivered, August 28, 2010, 1:45 pm, CHANTILLY, VA 20152
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 23, 2010

Delivered, August 26, 2010, 1:14 pm, EAST HAVEN, CT 06512
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 20, 2010

Delivered, August 23, 2010, 12:03 pm, DALLAS, TX 75287
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 20, 2010

August 23, 2010, 8:57 am, HIGLEY, AZ 85236
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 18, 2010

Delivered, August 18, 2010, 11:00 am, DALLAS, TX 75287
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 14, 2010

Delivered, August 17, 2010, 9:25 am, CLINTON, MD 20735
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 17, 2010, 3:37 pm, MACON, GA 31210
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 16, 2010, 1:43 pm, CHARLESTON, WV 25314
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered August 16, 2010, 11:35 am, ROCHESTER, NY 14617
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 16, 2010, 2:25 pm, MANDAN, ND 58554
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

It looks like most of my packages are getting delivered within four to five days via media mail. I used to tell people that media mail takes 7 to 10 days delivery time, but I now tell them that they will have the package within 7 days.

It has been quite awhile since I received a media mail package that took three or four weeks to arrive. In the rare event that it does happen, either the seller has used a handwritten address or an extra bar code, like from UPS or a previous mailing of the package, is present on the package. Extra bar codes from previous shipments can cause the package to get misdirected to a different part of the country. Sometimes the package will bounce back and forth between two locations before someone notices the problem. This is why sellers should never leave old bar codes on packages.

The only time of year that I find that media mail can take two to three weeks is during December, especially for the packages with handwritten labels. I find that during December parcel post takes just as long as media mail. Otherwise, media mail is a cost-effective service that takes no more than around a week for delivery.

The Latest Buying Problems

I have made some purchases in the last month in which books were missing from the packages. In the first case, I knew that I did not receive all of the books, so I went back and looked at the auction. I saw the books in the picture that were not included in the package. I read the description and figured out that those books were not listed in the description. Why, then, were they in the picture?

I did not write the seller since the books were not mentioned in the description. Additionally, the main books I wanted were the ones I received, and I got a good deal. I did check the seller's other auctions, and the four books that were in my auction's picture but not received were sold separately in another listing. Again, why were they also pictured in with the books for the auction I won?

In another transaction, I believe that I received only one of the two books. The trouble is that I am not certain, which is totally my fault. I seem to recall opening the envelope which had just the one book in it. I was busy that day and did not get around to doing anything with the book for several days. In the interim, I moved a lot of my books around, as in hundreds of them that I had to move to a different room.

Days later, I knew I had a problem when I could find only one of the two books. I have no idea whether I could have actually received both books and misplaced one of them. Since I moved a bunch of books around, there is definitely a chance that the second book is around here somewhere. On the other hand, I can only remember and find the one book. I cannot exactly contact the seller with the statement, "I think I only received one of the two books, but I could be wrong. I need you to check and see if you still have one of the books." I would look a bit stupid making that type of request.

The alternative would be to state, "I only received one of the two books. Could you check to see if you still have one of them?" The second statement would not make me look stupid, but what if I am wrong? The seller would think I was pulling a scam. I have to let it go, even though I think only one book was in the package and can find no trace of the other one.

The Adventurous Allens Part 2

I gave the premise for the first book in the Adventurous Allens series in my previous post. I was unable to get into this book the first time I tried reading it due to the poor writing style. I was successful this second time, probably because I had already previously read the first 60 pages and remembered what I had read.

This book has about the most mistakes of any of the old juvenile series books that I have read. I have to wonder whether the book was even edited at all. Perhaps Burt published Grove's manuscript as it was sent to them. The book has misspelled words and missing quotation marks. Not only that, but Grove was overly fond of using unnecessary quotation marks.

I had to read some passages multiple times in order to understand them, because of the poor writing. In some cases, I had to ignore the fact that I did not understand what I was reading so that I could keep going.

This sentence on pages 50-51, reproduced exactly as it appears in the book, is confusing:

The two boys used the vacuum cleaner for Nancy as director of household affairs; and when everybody was tired, dishes and everything else could go, Nancy said, though they were "still there," when at last attention had to be turned in their direction!

Say what? I guess they put off doing the dishes when they were tired, but the dishes were still there, and then they had to do them after their other work was done.

From page 150:

Jimmy and the "bike" which was not a bike scurried around, gathering up various good things to eat and was warned not to lose the list which Nancy had given him.

Ignoring the fact that the sentence is very poorly structured, how am I supposed to know what a " 'bike' which was not a bike" is supposed to be? I had no idea, so I kept reading. It was a few chapters later that I finally figured out that the bike was the vehicle that Jimmy drove in the book, which was a small delivery van. At least, I think it was a small delivery van. Grove did not adequately explain the large and small delivery vans, so I really do not know exactly what the young people were using. It also did not help that Grove kept calling the large one a car.

I was taken aback on page 130 when Charles Curtis appeared. I did not know who he was, yet all of the Allens knew him quite well. I knew he had to be one of the Curtises from earlier in the book, so I went back and saw his name mentioned in passing on page 88, not enough to be remembered by the reader, which is why his appearance on page 130 nonplussed me.

Innuendos are always fun, and this book delivers a few good ones. From page 139:

Philip refused the offer to have him meet some young lady and join Charles and William with their ladies in dinner and later pleasures.

Yikes. I thought this was a children's book.

I had trouble understanding what Uncle John's business was, since the word "firm" was used repeatedly. I kept thinking that it was a law firm until I finally learned that it was a department store. How about calling it a department store from the beginning?

In spite of the bizarre punctuation and failure to explain basic parts of the premise, I actually enjoyed this book a lot. My favorite books tend to be books that were published during the 1930s, so this book fits right in. Despite the faults, I enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed several of the Billie Bradley books. I had trouble getting through a few of those. This book turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Perhaps the reason I enjoyed this book so much is because of how enjoyable it was to follow along with the adventures of the Allens, who are very likable young people. Philip, Nancy, Jimmy, and Marjorie have mutual respect for each other and get along quite well. Perhaps they get along better than one might expect of most siblings, but nevertheless, it made for very pleasant reading.