Buyer Questions from Summer 2014

With the Hardy Boys books: when you say, 1930 DJ, does that mean it is a new book with a copy of an old dust jacket? Otherwise, I would think you would show pictures of the book under the jacket, and the inside of the front. It does take a lot of describing to allow a buyer to know exactly what they are getting. 

This question was asked about an eBay listing.  I have observed over the years that my practice of placing the copyright date in the title of many of my listings apparently upsets quite a few people.  I have always thought that the copyright date is the easiest way to tell if a book has the original text.  For instance, any Nancy Drew book with a copyright date of 1956 or before is an original text book with 25 chapters.  Silly me, because I have discovered that I am apparently the only person who thinks that the copyright date is helpful.  Everyone else likes to check the list of chapter titles to see how many chapters are present.  Some buyers ask every single seller how many chapters a book has instead of using the copyright date or visual clues.

That aside, my original assumption was that the person who wrote the above question was confused, as many buyers are.  However, I was puzzled that the buyer stated that I needed to provide a photograph of the book under the jacket.  I found a Hardy Boys listing that had "1930 DJ" in the title, figuring that was the one that prompted the question.

Hardy Boys #9 Great Airport Mystery 1930 DJ

How very odd...  I do show a picture of the book underneath the jacket, just like I do on almost every single listing of a book that has a jacket.  Ignoring that, I decided to respond to the question with the assumption that the buyer was confused while explaining the bit about the copyright date.  I tried to convey as much information as I could as briefly as I could.  I responded as follows.

I typically do photograph the books as well as the jackets. If you can let me know which listings are giving you trouble, I'll clarify. I give the last title listed on the jacket in the listings. For my listing, "Hardy Boys #9 Great Airport Mystery 1930 DJ," I state in the description that the jacket lists to Chinese Junk. Chinese Junk was published in 1960. Since Airport Mystery has Chinese Junk as the last title, then that means that Airport Mystery was printed in 1960 which is the year that Chinese Junk, the last title listed, was first published.

The reason that "1930" was placed in the title was so that buyers know immediately that the book has the original text from 1930 rather than the revised text from the 1960s. Most people prefer the original text books and seek them. I give the copyright date in the title so that buyers know that the book has the older copyright date, which of course is not the year the book was printed. In the rare case that I have a first printing, I give that information, but you can safely assume that my books are not first printings unless I say that they are.

You asked if the book is new. I do not sell new Hardy Boys books, and I do not sell jacket copies. All of my Hardy Boys books currently for sale are vintage from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. All Hardy Boys with jackets are no newer than 1961, which is when they stopped printing the books with jackets. All jackets are original jackets from whenever the book was printed.

I have some reviews and guides on eBay. If you click on my user ID and scroll to the bottom of the resulting page, you will see them. I don't have a Hardy Boys guide, but the information in the Nancy Drew guide will also help with determining the age of Hardy Boys books.

I hope this helps. I tried to give you extra information without going into too much detail. As it is, my response got a bit lengthy. Let me know if you need any additional information. Thanks for asking!

Of course I never received a response nor did the buyer make a purchase.  On a hunch, I checked the buyer's feedback, recent selling history, and recent buying history.  This buyer is not a seller and does not purchase books, at least on the ID used to contact me.  This person is either someone who is thinking of buying Hardy Boys books and doesn't know where to begin, or this person sells on another ID and is trying to enlighten me as to the proper way to do business, since I am just that incorrigible.

I lean towards the latter.

Around four years ago, another seller sent me an extremely long message taking me to task for using the copyright date in the title and for not using the Farah's guide "print run" number.  Let's just say that I disagree with some statements that seller has made in her listings, but I would never contact her about them.  We all need to do our own thing and quit worrying about everyone else.  

One seller on eBay touches up worn spots on books with marker, then says that the books don't have wear.  That seller also implies that library discards are not library discards and has some other shady practices.  That seller gets away with his behavior.  Instead, people worry about me.

Do you offer combined shipping discounts?

I get this question at least once a month.  I have had to offer free shipping on eBay ever since I had a buyer leave a low DSR for the shipping charge.  I realize that it seems awful to purchase three books at $9.99 each with shipping included in each price and receive no shipping discount.  However, I know how I have priced the books.  Most books that are for sale on eBay at $9.99 with free shipping would have been priced at $9.99 plus $3.95 for the first book if I had charged for shipping.  Therefore, the buyer has already saved $3.95 for the first book and $0.60 for each additional book.  I shouldn't have to discount more than that.

Sometimes I do partially add in the cost of shipping so as not to take too much of a loss.  Those items are typically the ones priced at $11.99, $17.99, $21.99, and so on.  Even on those items, I am still paying part of the shipping myself, so no further discount should be needed.

It is expensive for me when only one book is purchased, and that book is a cheap book.  I have some tweed Hardy Boys books priced at $6.99 with free shipping.  My shipping cost is $3.95, which only leaves me $3.04.  The eBay and PayPal fees get taken out of that amount.  Last, factor in what the book cost me, and I get nothing.  I always take a loss on the cheap books except when a buyer purchases several at once, thereby allowing me to send several in one package.  The combined purchases help me, not the buyer.  That's why I don't offer a discount on top of the discount that the buyer received in the first place.

As in the previous case, the buyer who asked this question did not make a purchase.

The Three Investigators #29 Sinister Scarecrow and #30 Shark Reef

In the Three Investigators #29, The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow, the boys stumble upon a mystery when the salvage yard truck breaks down on a lonely country road.  Jupiter walks off to find a telephone, and a man attacks him, mistaking him for a scarecrow!  The boys learn that the surrounding area is haunted by a scarecrow that attacks people.

I thought of #25 The Mystery of the Dancing Devil when I read this book.  I thought the dancing devil was stupid in that book.  This book features someone dressed as a scarecrow who threatens people with a scythe.  This time I did not think someone in a costume was stupid.  The scarecrow is scary!  Just look at the front cover of the book. 

I enjoyed trying to figure out the identity of the villain.

I correctly guessed part of the solution before I was too far into the story.  A nearby museum has priceless artwork, and... let's just say that one crime was obvious to me.  I did not guess the other part, however, so the complete solution to the mystery still surprised me.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In the Three Investigators #30, The Secret of Shark Reef, environmentalists try to prevent a petroleum company from beginning operations from Shark Reef #1, an oil-drilling platform off the coast of California.  Bob's father is interviewing people from both sides for his newspaper, and the Three Investigators have come with him.

All of the books in this series have grabbed my interest quickly.  This book is the first one that didn't grab me.  I was a bit bored for most of the book.  The most interesting part of the story was the explanation about what the diver had been searching for.  This would have been a more engaging book if that person had hired the boys at the beginning and for the boys to have worked out the solution along with him.  The book was uninteresting the way it was written.  It's like this book was a rough draft that ended up getting published.

This is not a horrible book; it could have been much worse.  It is certainly the worst out of the first 30 books in the series.  The first 29 books are all very good or outstanding.  The Secret of Shark Reef is mediocre.

Book Finds June 2014

Here are some June book finds. 

I am keeping the four Trixie Random House books.  #10 and #12 complete my set, although #10 will need to be upgraded since it is covered with clear contact paper.  #13 and #14 are upgrades to two that I found recently.

Trixie Belden Cobbett's Island from the 1970s is in better condition than mine.  Those books tend to have cracked and split hinges, and this one does not.  I selected it from among the Trixie Belden books for sale at that store because of the superior condition.

I will keep the Nancy Drew Tolling Bell with dust jacket because it is nicer than mine.

Two of the Nancy Drew book club edition PCs are upgrades:  #20 and #26.  The book club PCs from #20 and up are very hard to upgrade.

The Nancy Drew #37 PC with Carolyn Keene appearing twice on the spine is a lot better than mine, so I am keeping it.

The Three Investigators #10 paperback is one I need.

I am keeping the Rick Brant books (except for the duplicates) for now just in case.  I plan to force myself to read all of #1 to make certain I don't want to keep the Rick Brant books since this is the closest I've been to having a complete set all at once.

I also purchased these books in June.

The Three Investigators #27 Magic Circle and #28 Deadly Double

In the Three Investigators #27, The Mystery of the Magic Circle, the boys work in the mail room of Amigos Press.  The publishing company has a series of tragic setbacks when its offices burn, and the manuscript of famous actress Madeline Bainbridge is stolen.  Meanwhile, all of Bainbridge's films were just sold to a business next door to the publishing company, and the films vanish at about the time of the fire!  The boys are convinced that the events are connected.

It's now summer again, specifically August 1.

I reflected as I read this book how interesting I found the story, which centers around a retired actress and her past associates.  The feeling I had is so different from how I felt while reading Nancy Drew #123, The Clue on the Silver Screen, which I couldn't stand.  Perhaps the use of the Alfred Hitchcock name and the setting of the series near Hollywood helped.  Perhaps the fact that Bainbridge is a recluse and not attending public functions helped make the story more plausible.  For whatever reason, this book is more believable to me.

This is a very engaging book.  It is outstanding.

In the Three Investigators #28, The Mystery of the Deadly Double, Jupiter is kidnapped!  Bob and Pete struggle to find him with few clues.  Later, Jupiter gets free, but the villains still think Jupiter is the boy they want.  The Three Investigators learn that Jupiter looks just like Ian Carew, the son of an African leader.  Political opponents are trying to abduct Ian in order to hold him as leverage.  The boys must try to keep Jupiter safe while they try to find Ian.

On page 46, mention is made of the emergency signals "which Jupiter had built for their work many years ago."  The boys are still not old enough to drive, and this statement makes it sound like the boys have been solving cases for many years.  It is a mistake in the text, since the boys have not aged since the first book in the series.

I also greatly enjoyed this book.

Nancy Drew Diaries #5 Willow Woods and #6 Mystic Lake

In Nancy Drew Diaries #5, Sabotage at Willow Woods, George's cousin, Carrie Kim, is running for city council in the nearby community of Boylestown.  Nancy, Bess, and George all help Carrie with her campaign.  Carrie receives threatening notes, and an environmental group protests Carrie's proposal to build a new football field for Boylestown High School.

On page 4, we learn that George is a nonathlete, which I find extremely strange.  George has always been athletic.  In the Girl Detective series, George became obsessed with technology, but she still seemed to be athletic.  She took fencing lessons and participated in a grueling marathon.

In this book, George is not athletic and is very opposed to how more money is spent on sports instead of on academics.  On the one hand, the change is logical, since George is a technology geek.  On the other hand, it promotes the stereotype that anyone interested in computers cannot be interested in sports.

On page 5, Bess is described as girly and a mechanic.  This jibes with the Girl Detective series.  Mentioning that Bess is a mechanic seems strange simply because these books have given no indication of that ability.  It's just mentioned in passing.  There is evidence that Bess is girly.

On page 7, we learn that Bess is a field hockey champ. Why not George?  Why make George a nonathlete and make Bess have so many abilities?  Does this series hate George?

The book seems to imply that the girls are still in high school.  Page 20 states, "Luckily, RHHS had a teachers' conference the next day, which left me free to begin my snooping."

On page 33, Nancy is called "Fancy Nancy."  Please, no, not again!  They do mention the picture book series, which is interesting.  Fortunately, this page is the only place where "Fancy Nancy" is mentioned.

On page 154, Nancy is once again the person who picks locks with a credit card.  The Girl Detective series gave that ability to Bess, since Nancy was hopeless at everything except solving mysteries.

I greatly enjoyed Sabotage at Willow Woods.

In Nancy Drew Diaries #6, Secret at Mystic Lake, Nancy, Bess, and George join a bike tour around Mystic Lake.  Soon after the trip begins, their supplies are sabotaged, and later, one person disappears from the tour.

This is a very exciting mystery.  I read the book very quickly, and it flows quite well.  One part of the book is a bit scary.  This mystery is outstanding.

The Nancy Drew Diaries books mostly deal with sabotage, but the plots are quite varied.  While all of the plots are similar to past Nancy Drew books, every single one of them has a twist that makes the story very different from previous versions. 

The series starts off on shaky ground, since the first two books were obviously originally intended to be part of a Girl Detective trilogy.  Those books are the only two that have any mention of Nancy being clumsy.  The real beginning of this series is volume three.

Interestingly, this series does not come out and state the exact premise.  That may have been done on purpose so that we can draw our own conclusions, which reminds me of the style of Nancy Drew up to #56.  In those books, Nancy just is, no explanation necessary.  Even though the style is similar to those books, the premise does not match them.  The premise seems to be a mixture of the Nancy Drew Digest books and the Nancy Drew Girl Detective books.  I'm not sure that even by volume 6 that the series has settled on an exact premise.

I have figured out that Nancy, Bess, and George might still be in high school, as inferred from one line of one book.  Bess is described as girly in nearly all of the books, so that must be true.  George does still like technology.  In one book, she is said not to be an athlete.  In all six books, George is a very disagreeable person.

The books retain Ned's characterization from the Girl Detective series.  Ned's father still publishes the River Heights Bugle, and Ned still works for him.

When I finished Secret at Mystic Lake, I was quite lost.  I had been reading Nancy Drew for months, and I was suddenly finished.  I posted this update on Facebook just a few minutes after finishing #7.

I have renewed faith in Simon and Schuster!  Nancy Drew Diaries #1 and #2 are a bit odd and have problems.  #3 has a stretch of around 70 boring pages but is otherwise good.  #4 and #5 are very good.   #6 is outstanding!  Good job, Simon and Schuster!  I give you my seal of approval!

20 minutes later, I posted this update.

What am I going to do?   I just finished my four-month-long marathon of reading Nancy Drew books.  I know I will have to start my summer reading list, but I'm feeling a bit lost at the moment.  I enjoyed Nancy Drew Diaries #6 a bit too much, and it's hard to accept that #7 won't be published for months!

This means that I really did enjoy reading the books in the Digest, Girl Detective, and Diaries series.

With six books published, the Nancy Drew Diaries series is a composite of the Nancy Drew Digest and Girl Detective series but with the style of Nancy Drew #1-56.

The Three Investigators #25 Dancing Devil and #26 Headless Horse

In the Three Investigators #25, The Mystery of the Dancing Devil, Pete's young neighbor, Winnie, asks the Three Investigators to find her missing doll.  Her request sends the boys on a quest to find a black case that is being sought by a thief.  Each time the boys get close to a solution, a horrifying Dancing Devil jumps out at them and makes threatening statements.

The boys are on spring vacation.

This book overall struck me as a bit silly.  Over and over, someone dressed as the Dancing Devil jumps out at the boys and scares them.  I was reminded of the silly plot devices in some of the higher-numbered Nancy Drew books, such as The Mystery of the 99 Steps when the villains left Nancy warning notes constantly, which actually helped her solve the case.

I enjoyed this book except for the Dancing Devil scenes.

In the Three Investigators #26, The Mystery of the Headless Horse, Diego Alvarez and his brother, Pico, are in imminent danger of losing their ranch, which has been in their family for generations.  Skinny Norris' father has bought the neighboring ranch and is pressuring Pico Alvarez into selling.  The Alvarez's mortgage comes due, and money is needed immediately.  The Three Investigators hope to locate a valuable sword that would supply the enough money to save the ranch.

This book starts with the boys leaving school for the day.

My book is the first printing and has two mistakes that I noticed.  Page 43, line 11 has an extraneous line by Skinny Norris which should not be there.  On page 123, Sebastián is misspelled as Sebastien

Page 52 mentions "the gloomy bust of Alfred Hitchcock on the filing cabinet."  This is an interesting reference to the original cover art of #2 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot. 

This book has long stretches where Jupiter and Diego investigate one lead while Bob and Pete investigate another.  The Three Investigators make good use of their time by examining two paths at the same time. 

This book is outstanding from start to finish. 

Nancy Drew Diaries #3 Midnight Rider and #4 Once Upon a Thriller

In Nancy Drew Diaries #3, Mystery of the Midnight Rider, Nancy and Ned cheer on Ned's friend, Payton Evans, as she competes in the River Heights Horse Show.  Soon into the show, Payton's horse, Midnight, tests positive for drugs.  Ned is certain that Payton would never cheat, so Nancy investigates who is responsible for sabotaging Payton in the competition.

On page 7, Bess is described as "girly," so it sounds like she has retained her characterization from the Girl Detective series.

This book feels exactly like a Nancy Drew Digest book, just written in first-person narrative.  It is like a typical sabotage book, but the book takes a bit of a twist.  And I do mean quite a twist. 

I got a little bored around page 110.  By page 149, I was really bored.  On page 164, Nancy thinks, "The huge, colorful jumps had actually taken my mind off the case for a few minutes."  I needed something to take my mind off of the book.  I was so very bored!

By page 170, I was interested in the book again because I had guessed the culprit and was interested in how the rest of the story would play out.

Overall, the book is not bad, but the middle part could have been more interesting.  For around 60 to 70 pages, absolutely nothing happens except for Nancy wondering who the culprit is as she wanders around asking people questions. 

In Nancy Drew Diaries #4, Once Upon a Thriller, Nancy, Bess, and George travel to Moon Lake for what they expect to be a relaxing weekend.  Instead, the girls find mystery when a local book store is set on fire.  Nancy learns that a mystery author, Lacey O'Brien, lives at Moon Lake.  Strangely, the book store fire is similar to an event in one of Lacey's books, and other crimes that soon occur are also like events from Lacey's books.

The idea of someone setting up a crime spree to copy events from a book reminds me of the plot from Nancy Drew Digest #79, The Double Horror of Fenley Place, in which each scene filmed for the movie also occurs at the house across the street.  The plots of the two books are not at all the same, but I couldn't help thinking of Fenley Place as I read this book.

This book is set at Moon Lake and in a nearby town, Avondale.  In the very first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of the Old Clock, Nancy stays at Camp Avondale on Moon Lake.

On page 31, Nancy and Bess paddle while George rests.  This is very strange.  George has always been the athletic one.

On page 43, the word "portaged" is used.  The previous book has the word "fractious."  I feel like these are words that many children would have to look up. 

We learn on page 53 that Ned and his father are still involved with the newspaper, the River Heights Bugle.

Nancy goes looking for a typewriter, just like in the old mysteries, because a threatening note was typed on an old typewriter with a damaged key. 

This is a very good book.  I enjoyed it from start to finish.  The book grabbed me immediately, and I love the setting.

The Three Investigators #23 Invisible Dog and #24 Death Trap Mine

In the Three Investigators #22, The Mystery of the Invisible Dog, the boys are hired to help Fenton Prentice, who has a mysterious intruder in his apartment.  Prentice sometimes spots the intruder, who appears as a shadowy figure.  Shortly after the boys begin their investigation, a valuable crystal statue of a dog is stolen from Prentice. 

This book is set in late December while the boys are on break from school.

The solution to the mystery of the missing crystal dog is quite ingenious. 

The books written by M. V. Carey usually have some aspect of the occult woven into the story, although typically, the books are written in such a way that the reader could come up with a logical explanation for the events that does not involve the supernatural.  This book leaves no room for doubt.  One of the characters experiences astral projection while he sleeps, and the story is written so as no other explanation is possible.

This is a very engaging and entertaining story.  The book is outstanding.

In the Three Investigators #24, The Mystery of Death Trap Mine, Allie Jamison tricks the boys into helping her solve another mystery.  Allie is staying with her uncle in New Mexico, and she is convinced that their neighbor, Thurgood, is up to something.  The boys travel to New Mexico to stay with Allie and her uncle. 

Allie also appears in The Mystery of the Singing Serpent when she blackmails the boys into helping her solve a mystery.  Allie is a likeable character who adds an interesting dimension to both stories in which she appears.  Allie could get old if she were overused, but I wouldn't have minded seeing her in one or two other books.

This is another excellent book.