Hardy Boys #128 Day of the Dinosaur, #129 Dolphin Bay, and #130 Sidetracked to Danger

In Hardy Boys #128, Day of the Dinosaur, Frank and Joe investigate what appears to be sabotage at a museum that is preparing for its grand opening.  Someone has tampered with exhibits, and prowlers enter the property after hours.

This book is not about sabotage, but the back cover synopsis describes the plot as sabotage.  Even when the plot isn't sabotage, the publisher found it easier just to call it sabotage anyway.

The museum has a outdoor exhibit of mechanical dinosaurs that can make limited movements.  At one point, one of the dinosaurs goes on the rampage, resulting in a hilarious scene.

Frank and Joe discuss the case on page 67.

"So like I said, do you think it was stolen?" Joe said.

"And as I said, I don't know," Frank snapped.

Ooh, Frank and Joe are channeling the Power Boys.  I like it.

This is an excellent book all the way through.  I read it quickly.

In Hardy Boys #129, The Treasure at Dolphin Bay, the entire Hardy family is vacationing in Hawaii.  Frank and Joe soon become involved in a mystery at the dolphin research center.  One of the dolphins has been injured, and an employee has vanished.

I noticed that Fenton is not involved at all in the case, nor does he seem even slightly interested.  In one scene, the boys have dinner with their parents and discuss the case in front of their parents.  Fenton never says a word. 

I enjoyed this book from the opening page.  It's great to find a story interesting from the very beginning.  My enjoyment of the text decreased slightly towards the end, but overall I greatly enjoyed this book.

Hardy Boys #130, Sidetracked to Danger, is so boring!  Frank and Joe get to see a collection of model trains, but then the collection is stolen.  The theft might have something to do with another person's attempt to get a building condemned.  Or it might not.  I don't even remember.  I didn't care, and the story is boring.

I didn't like this book.  I have nothing else to say.

Hardy Boys #125 Makatunk Island, #126 Racing to Disaster, and #127 Reel Thrills

In Hardy Boys #125, Mystery on Makatunk Island, Frank, Joe, and Chet are staying on Makatunk Island.  The island is a tourist attraction and a haven for artists, but the island's economy is being threatened by a saboteur who is trying to drive people away.

This is yet another typical sabotage book, and I had trouble getting into it at first.  Once I finally did, I enjoyed it.

Page 132 states that Fenton Hardy is "a high-ranking police detective back in Bayport."  This makes it sound like Fenton is a Bayport police officer, and he is not.

The book has one huge flaw.  The main villain is too obvious.  I guessed the villain's identity on page 15.  The author probably wanted the incident to be a minor clue.  Rather, the way the character reacts to the Hardys is so obvious that I immediately knew that this person is the villain.

Despite that flaw, this is an excellent book.

In Hardy Boys #126, Racing to Disaster, Joe is participating in a mountain bike race.  Someone is sabotaging the race!  How shocking!

On page 23 we learn that the Hardys are from Bayport, New York.

The Hardys convince the woman in charge of the race that she should not notify the police because it would put the saboteur on guard.  On guard to what?  That they know there is a saboteur?  The saboteur had just sent them a warning note, so I think the saboteur already knows about the investigation.

Each time this book has a race, a bike malfunctions due to sabotage.  It is so predictable and boring.  The races are described in great detail with all of the moves and turns.  Whoever the Hardys want to have win is about to win, and then... sabotage.  Some part of the bicycle fails.  I was so bored.

The book lost me by page 50.  The book has too many characters, and I couldn't keep them straight.  I skimmed at least half of the book.  I did not enjoy this book

In Hardy Boys #127 Reel Thrills, film producer Mort Tannenberg has asked the Hardys for assistance.  Tannenberg is known for his surprise endings, but someone is staging crime scenes using the surprise endings to films that have not yet been released!  Tannenberg wants the culprit caught before his career is ruined.

This is the typical sabotage on a movie set plot that I have read several times before.  It does get old.  I overall enjoyed this book, but it could have been better.

Chet's line on the last page of the story made me laugh, but not in the way the author intended.  Chet has an idea for a movie.  He starts to explain, "It's all about three detectives who—"

Of course, Chet means Frank, Joe, and Chet.  The funny part is that I instead immediately thought of Jupiter, Pete, and Bob of the Three Investigators, since two films have been made based on the books.  Three detectives in a movie?  They must be the Three Investigators!

Hardy Boys #122 Carnival of Crime, #123 Robot's Revenge, and #124 Dangerous Beat

In Hardy Boys #122, Carnival of Crime, Frank and Joe go undercover to investigate who is sabotaging a carnival in Bayport.

Major Bowman's daughter, Susan, is in charge of the carnival.  Susan is 18.  I was amazed on page 23 when Joe suggests that she is too young for such responsibility.  Joe is younger than Susan.  Consider the type of experiences the Hardys have had, and Joe dares to suggest that someone older than him is in over her head.

This is the typical sabotage book that does not have a particularly imaginative premise.  I greatly enjoyed the early part of the book, but the story began to lose me around halfway through.  I overall enjoyed the last part of the book, even though I began to have trouble keeping a few of the characters straight.

While I enjoyed this book, I don't think I would want to read it again.

In Hardy Boys #123, The Robot's Revenge, Frank enters the Teen Inventor's Club competition in Chicago with Phil Cohen as his partner.  Soon after the boys' arrival, their robot is stolen!  Other inventions have also gone missing, and it soon becomes apparent that somebody is tampering with the competition.

This was one of the very first Digest books that I read.  As a result, I wasn't sure about this book at first, but I enjoyed it and found it interesting.  This is another example of the typical sabotage book.  The last part of the story is quite thrilling.

In Hardy Boys #124, Mystery with a Dangerous Beat, Frank and Joe are hired to protect famous rock star Brian Beat, lead singer of the Funky Four.  Beat has been the victim of several accidents and has received threats.

I noticed very quickly that the boys and all the other characters keep saying "no problem."  The expression is way overused in this book.

The members of the band all blur together like they are the same person.  They were introduced too quickly and did not make an impression on me.

The villain isn't that hard to guess.

Despite the flaws, I enjoyed this book.

Hardy Boys #119 Coyote Canyon, #120 Cosmic Kidnapping, and #121 Old Mine

In Hardy Boys #119, Trouble at Coyote Canyon, Mike Preston asks Frank and Joe to find out who is sabotaging his business, Teen Trails West, which takes teens on a horseback ride through the Colorado mountains. 

The beginning of this story mentions Doug Newman of Hardy Boys #96 Wipeout.  Doug recommended the Hardys to Mike Preston.  I've noticed that when a certain past book is mentioned that it usually means that the same author wrote both stories. 

I very quickly noticed that this story has a similar plot to both #96 Wipeout and #168 The Castle Conundrum.  All three stories feature a group of teenagers who are either in a competition or are partaking in an event together.  All three books feature more than one villain, and each villain is working alone for their own purposes with no connection to the other villain or villains.  This book has a hidden tape recorder being used to scare others, which also occurred in The Castle Conundrum.  As previously mentioned, Wipeout and The Castle Conundrum share specific plot elements. 

So, all three books have more than one saboteur with different motives.  In all three books, it is hard to keep the young people apart from each other in my mind.  In all three books, the characters are introduced very rapidly, and I had keep flipping back to the beginning so that I could remember them.

Despite that flaw, this is an excellent book.

In Hardy Boys #120, The Case of the Cosmic Kidnapping, Chet works as a cook at a burger joint that is losing money.  One night, the owner, Fred Hawkins, is abducted by a UFO in the parking lot outside of his business.  Frank and Joe witness the event.  The boys don't believe that an actual UFO was involved and wonder if Hawkins disappeared on purpose since he owes a large amount of money.

I tend to find UFO books interesting, since they are always hoaxes, and I am always curious to find out how it was done.  That is, UFO books are almost always hoaxes, since that is not the case in Nancy Drew #58, The Flying Saucer Mystery.

This book is thoroughly engaging from start to finish.  It is excellent.

In  Hardy Boys #121, The Mystery in the Old Mine, the Hardys' friend, Garth Trimmer, has been warned that his sister has been kidnapped.  Frank and Joe travel to Ridge City, Pennsylvania, to search for her.  Ridge City is a dying town due to the dangerous fumes from the mine fires.  The boys soon learn that Garth's sister and the mayor have a difference of opinion about what is best for the town.

It's interesting that just a few days before reading this book I read about Centralia, Pennsylvania, a town that has been condemned because of the mine fires. I recall actually thinking that Centralia would make a great setting for a series book.  I had no idea I was about to read one.

This is a very good book with no boring parts.

One Month on Etsy

On May 6 and 7, I moved all of my Bonanza items to eBay and Etsy due to a lack of sales.  While I want to say that I had no sales on Bonanza, this is not true.  I did still have some sales, but I had such low traffic that I did not feel it worthwhile to continue on Bonanza.  The site is like a ghost town, and I don't see the owners doing anything to change that.

In the spirit of full disclosure, these are my sales on Bonanza in the final five months my booth was open.

December 2015:  3 orders with a total of 7 items sold
January 2016:  5 orders with a total of 22 items sold
February 2016:  4 orders with a total of 9 items sold
March 2016:  5 orders with a total of 9 items sold
April 2016:  2 orders with a total of 10 items sold

So yes, I did still have a few sales.  The problem is that on Bonanza four to five years ago I was accustomed to 30 to 40 orders per month with over 100 items sold per month.  That's why I see the above sales as nothing.

eBay has been rather slow the last few months, meaning that eBay has been slow as compared to how eBay usually is.  That was probably mostly my fault, since I was not listing new items in my store.  I get higher sales when I consistently add new items.  It's such a simple concept, and it works!  Even with my lack of effort at listing new items, I have still had around 30 items sold per month on eBay.

I did get back to listing new items on eBay at the end of May.  As a result, I have sold 20 items on eBay in just the last week.  In a good month, I can easily sell 80 to 100 items per month on eBay, just like I used to do on Bonanza when Bonanza was the only place I sold.

So you can see why selling 10 or fewer items on Bonanza per month seemed a waste of effort.  I'd list some really good books on Bonanza at bargain prices, and nobody would even look at them.

It's like my Bonanza booth had a force field around it which prevented anyone from looking at the items.  Or like someone sprayed repellent on the Bonanza site, keeping everyone way.

In recent months, I continued to promote my Bonanza booth here and on Facebook, although I'll admit it was halfheartedly.  My Bonanza booth showed little traffic increase each time.  Something was preventing people from even wanting to take a look at the Bonanza booth.  My theory is that something about the Bonanza site turns people off, such as the verbiage used in Bonanza's message system.  For instance, who really wants to receive a message that opens with "Huzzah!" when one makes a purchase online?   It could be that a number of people have been turned off by that over the years and finally decided not to look at my booth anymore.

It could also be that a number of people have been victims of glitches.  The Bonanza site is riddled with glitches, so perhaps more people than I can realize have been turned off by that.  Regardless, something about Bonanza was repelling site visitors.  By that I mean that they wouldn't follow my links to Bonanza!

I knew keeping my Bonanza booth was pretty pointless by late 2014.  That was when I registered on Etsy and went halfway through the shop setup.  It took me until one month ago to finally have the courage to let go of Bonanza.  After all, I loved that booth for at least five years, and I hated letting it go.  But it was time.

Most of those Bonanza items that I moved to eBay and Etsy would have gone unsold on Bonanza.  Not including January, I was selling no more than 10 items per month, and my booth traffic continued to drop.  Within a few more months, I was probably going to sell no more than a couple of items per month.  So, how did those items do on eBay and Etsy instead of remaining stagnant on Bonanza?

I moved a total of 121 items from my Bonanza booth.  58 items were moved to eBay, and 63 were moved to Etsy.  One month later, 26 of those items have sold on eBay, and 12 have sold on Etsy.  Nearly half of the items moved to eBay sold in just one month.  Overall nearly one-third of my former Bonanza inventory has sold in the last month on eBay and Etsy.  That's pretty good and better than if the items had stayed on Bonanza.

On eBay, I pay a monthly subscriber fee for my eBay store, which is worth it for the interface that eBay provides to store owners and for the ability to set up store categories.  I do not pay a fee to list my items since I get 250 free listings per month.  I can usually float a higher number of items on my 250 free listings since eBay runs extra free listing promotions on a regular basis. 

I get a 20% discount in final value fees on eBay since I am a top-rated seller.  That takes final value fees down to 8% from the usual 10%, but with the store subscriber fee, the overall fees are equivalent to a 10% final value fee.

The big concern with Etsy is that I have to pay $0.20 to list each item, although each listing is good for four months.  $0.20 per item adds up very fast.  However, I have sold 28 items on Etsy in the last month, which has brought in enough revenue to cover my listing fees for all items including current unsold listings. 

I figured up the listing fees and the final value fees so far on Etsy.  I then looked at the revenue and figured out that the fees I owe average out to 10% of my revenue so far, which is equivalent to what it costs on eBay.  If more of my items sell in the next few months, then the overall cost for Etsy will be lower than eBay.

So far Etsy looks to be a viable selling venue for me and is better than what Bonanza has been in recent months.

eBay is by far the best venue with the most traffic.  Etsy has good traffic but nowhere near the level that eBay has.  Bonanza's traffic is less than what Etsy has.


You will pay the highest fees on eBay, but you will get the best traffic and the most sales.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Hardy Boys #116 Rock 'N' Roll Renegades, #117 Baseball Conspiracy, and #118 Fourth Dimension

In Hardy Boys #116, Rock 'N' Roll Renegades, Joe becomes a DJ at Bayport radio station WBBX.  The radio station's signal is jammed for a few hours each day by a pirate radio station that broadcasts on its band.  Frank and Joe must locate the pirate radio station and take it down before WBBX is driven out of business.

In the Hardy Boys Digest books, the boys do still own their boat, The Sleuth.  In this book, I was taken aback when the boys have to rent a boat on page 87 so that they can go out on Barmet Bay.  Apparently in this book, the boys don't own The Sleuth.  More likely, the author either didn't know about The Sleuth or forgot about it.

I greatly enjoyed this book.  The ending is exciting.

In Hardy Boys #117, The Baseball Card Conspiracy, Biff collects baseball cards.  Frank and Joe attend a show with Biff, where Biff is sold a counterfeit baseball card.  Soon after, a man with red hair does everything he can to steal back the card, even following the boys back to Bayport.

At first, I greatly enjoyed this book.  The second half is not as good as the first half.  The plot is a tad convoluted, and the book has too many characters.  I began to get confused and cared less the further I read.

Overall, the book is okay.

In Hardy Boys #118, Danger in the Fourth Dimension, Fenton Hardy asks Frank and Joe to help him with an investigation at the Fourth Dimension theme park.  When the boys arrive, they discover that their father has vanished!  His belongings are found in a dumpster, and the boys realize that their father has been abducted.  Since park security did not see Fenton leave, the boys conclude that their father must be hidden somewhere in the park.

This book is much better than the cover makes it look.  Since I'm not a boy, I don't go for covers that show things like aliens and exaggerated expressions on the boys' faces.  It's made to look like a comic book. 

The entire story takes place in the theme park.  I always like books that are set in a small area without a lot of traveling. This is that kind of story.

I greatly enjoyed nearly all of the book.  The last few pages are less interesting, since the book goes into the typical question and answer session, which is always used just to fill out the story to make it a complete book.  For instance, the boys ask the villain whose idea it was for a certain character to use a certain disguise.  Who cares whose idea it was?  That's just stupid.  The author was just filling pages.

This is an excellent book, except for the last few pages.

The Best Place to Sell Your Books

Rather often, I get contacted by people who want to sell their books to me.  They want me to find a good home for the books without them having to go to any effort.  The books are always ordinary books not worth my time.  Others don't want me to buy the books, but rather, they want me to tell them how to sell the books so that the books can find a good home.  The majority of these messages include a comment stating that they do not wish to use eBay.

Then they are out of luck.

I have never told any of them that, but it's a shame that the single best method to use to help an old book find a good home is the one method that none of these people will consider.  Why is that?

I suspect that one reason is the bad press eBay has received over the years.  I wrote many posts about eBay in 2008 and 2009 expressing my frustration with eBay's many anti-seller changes.  During that time, eBay made a series of idiotic moves that heavily damaged sellers' ability to conduct business.  eBay has reversed all of those changes.  None of that is true now, and those posts are no longer relevant. 

Another reason people don't want to use eBay is that they have heard of others who have been defrauded on eBay.  You can actually avoid being defrauded if you take some simple steps to protect yourself.  If you buy on eBay, be cautious about what you buy and file a PayPal claim if you don't receive the item.  You will get your money back.

If you sell on eBay, follow the seller protection plan.  Always use eBay to generate the shipping label so that it contains delivery confirmation.  Always sell through one of your eBay listings and not through a private message, which is where buyers try to pull scams.  Never close an auction early at a buyer's request, because any buyer who asks for an auction to be closed early is pulling a scam.

As a buyer, I have had a few sellers defraud me, but this is only around five people out of thousands of transactions.  I received my money back in all but one transaction, which was one from 1997 or 1998 before eBay had a buyer protection plan.

As a seller, I have never been defrauded, because I follow eBay's seller protection plan. 

In short, eBay is a safe marketplace and is the best way to find buyers for your items.  Furthermore, books are the very safest item to sell on eBay.  Book collectors are much less likely to cause problems than buyers from most other categories.

Another reason some people don't like eBay is because they don't get good prices for their items.  That problem can be solved as well.  It's quite simple.  Don't use auctions.  You won't get a bidding war, and you'll sell your item too low to somebody who is buying to resell. 

I always used auctions on eBay from 1997 through late 2008.  Auctions were great through the summer of 2008.  In the fall of 2008, auctions began to fail.  Auctions for series books brought low prices, and most of my own listings did not sell.  If I remember right, each auction cost $0.30 to list at that time.  I had listed quite a few auctions in December 2008, and most of them did not sell.  I think I wasted around $6 to $10 in fees for nothing.  That was unacceptable and is why I opened my booth on Bonanzle (renamed Bonanza in September 2010).

I realized in December 2008 that my discomfort with fixed-price had caused me to keep running auctions on eBay for longer than I should have.  When I went to Bonanzle, I was forced to use fixed-priced only, but I was willing to try because Bonanzle was free.  I sold on Bonanzle/Bonanza for 4 1/2 years without using eBay at all for selling.  I became very comfortable with fixed-price during that time and became quite confident in my ability to price books correctly under that method.

As a side note, I want to mention that I never quit buying on eBay.  During the 4 1/2 years that I did not list items for sale on eBay, I bought steadily on eBay and at the same rate that I always had.  My home page in my Internet browser has been set to eBay's search page since 1997.  That should tell you something.  eBay is the best place to buy books.

In July 2013, I returned to selling on eBay in addition to continuing to sell on Bonanza.  The reason I opened the store on eBay is because sales were beginning to fail on Bonanza.  My Bonanza sales fell further immediately after I opened my eBay store and never recovered.  Apparently I had cannibalized my own Bonanza sales.  Still, Bonanza was failing, and even if I had not opened the eBay store, my Bonanza sales would eventually have vanished.

Being on Bonanza taught me how to use fixed-price listings to my advantage.  I learned about the importance of Google ranking.  I learned many things.  I also ended up exhausted by the process, since the site has poor Google ranking.  I don't have it in me to start over on another free site where I would have to bring the traffic in.  That's why I went with Etsy, a site that does have traffic.

Most important, my experience on Bonanza taught me that fixed-price is the only way to price collectible items.  As a buyer, I highly prefer auctions.  I prefer them because I get bargains.  And that's exactly the reason why as a seller I hate auctions.

Some of you continue to cling to the eBay auctions.  I understand, since that's where I was in late 2008.  It always worked before, and we want it to continue to work.  However, I would highly recommend that you consider switching to fixed-price.

First, you need to let go of the belief that you have to sell the item within a week or two.  Most of my fixed-price listings do sell.  It just takes some time.  It might take a few months.  If I'm in a hurry, then I gradually reduce the price each month until the listing sells.

Second, you have to get comfortable with pricing a fixed-price listing.  Let's say you have a copy of a book that is somewhat scarce.  You should first see if any are for sale on eBay and see how they are priced.  If there are any at a fixed price, then you will probably want to price yours slightly cheaper since theirs has not sold.  Next, look at sold listings.  The auctions are always low, so you want to price your book higher than all auctions that ended with a winning bid.

The price range for the listing should be between the highest auction price and the lowest unsold fixed-price listing.  That is, usually.  Condition matters, so the condition of your book as compared to the other books is the deciding factor.  If your book is nicer than the unsold fixed-price listing, then in some cases your book might need to be priced higher.  It all depends.

I have had great success with using this method of pricing.  Since I started using this method, I seldom have had books bought by others to resell.  In late 2008 when I was still using auctions, a large percent of my books were getting purchased for resale, which means the prices were too low.

I actually don't care if sellers buy my books to sell at a higher price.  However, I do want to get as much as I can for myself to fund my book habit.  As long as I use fixed-price and have set a fair price, then I am not concerned with who buys my items or why.

In conclusion, eBay is the overall very best place to buy and sell collectible books.  Amazon is the #1 shopping site in traffic while eBay is #2, but eBay holds the edge due to the ease with which anybody can list items for sale. 

If you have books to sell and want them to find a good home, use eBay.

Hardy Boys #113 Radical Moves, #114 Counterfeit Criminals, and #115 Sports City

In Hardy Boys #113, Radical Moves, Joe has become a skateboarding enthusiast as Bayport gears up for its first annual Thrashathon skateboarding competition.  The Hardys befriend professional skateboarder Zack Michaels, who has been plagued by accidents.  It's clear that someone is sabotaging him, and Zack thinks someone is after his skateboard, which is a prototype.

After the boys begin helping Zack, they learn that he is guilty of theft, a theft that was blamed on another person.  It is kind of odd that the person the boys are helping is guilty of theft and even stranger that at first nothing is said about him taking responsibility for his actions.  I was uncomfortable as the Hardys continue to help Zack and don't talk to him about the theft.  I was relieved when the issue is finally addressed, and Zack apologizes and promises to make it right.

I enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #114, The Case of the Counterfeit Criminals, Joe's expensive athletic shoe fails during a track meet.  When Frank and Joe go to the store to return the shoe, they find a group of angry customers who have defective shoes.  The boys discover that counterfeit shoes have been sold in a number of local stores.

I did not expect to like this book.  I did not enjoy the first few pages, and I did not like the cover art.  Why would I want to read a book that appears to be set in a shoe store with an ugly thug attacking the boys?

This is a case when a reader should not judge a book by its cover.  I greatly enjoyed this book.  The suspense built as I read, which is how a good book should be.

This is an excellent book.  It's a great whodunit.  It almost has too many characters, but it turned out fine.  The book is suspenseful almost to the very last page.

In Hardy Boys #115, Sabotage at Sports City, Frank, Joe, and Chet attend the Olympics.  They soon learn of a threat against the athletes.  Someone has sent warning messages that claim that 53 people will die during the games.  The boys investigate.

This book was published to coincide with the 1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona.  In this book, the Hardys attend the Olympics in the United States.  Since the 1996 Olympics was held in Atlanta, Georgia, I decided that this book is probably set in Atlanta.  The text does state that the Hardys are 1000 miles from home, and Atlanta is 1000 miles from New York State, which is where Bayport is located in the Digest series.

What's really interesting is that this book was written four years before the Atlanta Olympics, and that the Atlanta Olympics ended up having a bombing that resulted in one direct fatality and over 100 injuries.  It's interesting that a book written four years before the real event included threats against the Olympics 

In this book, the Olympic athletes are told about the threat, and the athletes are told to keep quiet so that the press doesn't find out.  I find it really hard to believe that none of the athletes from any of the countries would tell the press.  This is improbable.

I guessed one of the culprits fairly early in the mystery, although I didn't know for sure.  The author did a great job in spreading out the suspicion in order to keep the reader guessing.  Even though I had guessed one of the culprits, I did not guess why the sabotage and threats were happening, and that part is surprising and interesting.

I greatly enjoyed this book.