More Nancy Drew Printing Anomalies

I have two more interesting printing anomalies which I have had for a long time. These two books are examples of printing errors; something went wrong when the books were printed. Here is a PC of The Mystery at the Ski Jump in which Nancy's sweater and the man's hat are orange instead of red:


I have seen other examples in which the sweater and hat look more orange than red, but the above example is the most extreme case that I have seen.

Here is a PC of The Secret of the Old Clock in which the different colors used on the outside of the book were printed on the book out of alignment with each other:


When I bought it, the seller advertised it as a 3-D book and enclosed a pair of 3-D glasses. The seller was right. The illustration is 3-D! It even looks kind of 3-D even without the special glasses.

Kit Hunter #3 Rival Riders

After several weeks in which I did not read at all, I have now resumed reading the third book in the Kit Hunter series, Kit Hunter, Show Jumper, in Rival Riders. Here is an amusing scene from page 50:

Françoise Dubois, having now received the homage of the officials rather than paid her respects to them, took deliberate stock of the rest of the company. She coldly scrutinised everyone thoroughly with unabashed disdain, as if deciding whom she would honour with her presence. Her arrogant gaze lingered on Kit for a few seconds as she inspected her from head to toe.

Kit could not resist turning round slowly like a model gracefully displaying every feature of a gown for the benefit of a wealthy customer. Françoise was quick to get the point, and Kit had the satisfaction of seeing the girl's expression change abruptly from one of lofty condescension to a self-conscious irritation, and one or two people tittered . . .

I have really enjoyed this book. Once Kit competes against Françoise for the first time—and wins, Françoise becomes a bitter rival. At one point Françoise causes Kit to have a serious accident that places her in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Kit finds an unexpected ally in Françoise's escort, Pierre Latour, who helps Kit after her accident.

I always enjoy books which have a mean, bitter rival who is seething with hatred, and I love seeing the rival get what is richly deserved. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'm sure Françoise will get what is coming to her.

Some eBay Observations

During the last week, I have made some observations about the behavior of buyers and sellers on eBay. The prices have dropped considerably for series books, and far fewer people are buying them. I had a complete set of yellow matte picture cover Nancy Drew books up for sale this week, and normally, I would have had 20 to 25 watchers. This time, I had only 12 watchers.

I had four people contact me about four separate lots, asking me to break up the lots and sell just a few books individually. I have never had this many people contact me in a single week asking me to break up lots. If I weren't so busy, I might consider doing it, but I have too much to do right now. I don't even want to sell on eBay right now, and I am only doing so in order to try to reduce my extras so that I can organize them better. It is not worth my time to mess with special lots.

Also, when people ask me to break up a lot, they usually want to pay the same price per book as they would if they were buying all of the books. They don't seem to understand that the books are discounted when sold in bulk. For instance, one of the lots had 31 books at $24.99. Someone wanted two of them. They probably wanted to pay $0.81 each plus postage. With what the books cost me plus the PayPal fees, it is not worth it. I would have to charge several dollars each for just two books in order for me not to take a loss, and it would still not be worth my time. The prospective buyer would be better off buying the books new.

I decided not to answer most of the people who asked me to break up the lots, simply because I am not interested in doing it. I am going to list the lots again and lower the prices until someone decides to take them off my hands. I need them all to go away quickly.

I also had more nitpicky questions than usual. I had two people ask for more information on the condition of the books, despite the fact that I had the condition stated in the listings. I answered the questions, and neither person placed a bid. If you ever wonder why some sellers are reluctant to answer questions, it is because most people who ask questions do not bid.

I had someone ask me about the complete set of Nancy Drew books. This person asked, "I was wandering [sic] if you would be interested in selling these books privately. If so, what would you be willing to take for the set. I am looking for a set for my daughter who loves Nancy Drew." I was not certain whether the person was wanting a Buy It Now or whether this person wanted a private auction so that it would not show in her bidding history. I asked for clarification and did not receive a response. Most likely, this person was hoping I would be willing to sell the books privately at a lower price than my opening bid, although why I would want to do that is a mystery to me.

I had one person outright criticize my price of the complete set of ND books, telling me that the books are only worth $1-2 each and that I should "reconsider" my asking price. I did not reconsider it, and I have re-listed it at the same price of $295.00. A set recently sold for $345, so my price may be high but is not out of line.

I notice that I am buying very little on eBay. I have only three packages on the way to me, and this is not what is usual for me. I know why I have not purchased as much as usual; I'm not finding many interesting items up for sale. I believe this is eBay's fault. EBay has driven away many sellers and is now blocking sellers who have low DSRs. Remember that eBay considers low DSRs to be DSRs of around 4.3 out of 5. EBay is successfully getting rid of many sellers. The overall quality of the stock of series books on eBay appears to be greatly deteriorating. I hope it is cyclical and that the stock gets better in a few months.

For what is getting listed, the closing prices are lower, and good books are not selling. Someone had a complete set of all eight Peggy Lane books up for sale at $60.00, and no one placed a bid. Considering what the books were selling for this last summer, $60.00 for the complete set is a bargain.

The economy is definitely a factor in the lack of interest in bidders, but I also wonder how much is eBay's fault as well. I hope things get better after the end of the year. EBay management must know that the company is in danger, because even though the site is now supposed to be PayPal only, eBay has stated that the policy is not going to be enforced until January. Belatedly, they must have realized that just before the holiday season is not the time for such a dramatic change.

An Even More Bizarre Nancy Drew PC Anomaly

I have another strange Nancy Drew picture cover that I have had for around a year. It has a bizarre combination that I have never seen before. The book is an early picture cover of The Ringmaster's Secret that lists to Fire Dragon on the back cover. Therefore, it should list to #39 or 40 inside the book, right? Those are the choices we have for early picture cover books. This one lists to #42 Pine Hill inside the book.

The back cover list matches the 1962A-22 (1st PC) and 1963A-23 (2nd PC) printing according to Farah's 12th edition. The interior list matches the 1965B-26 printing. I have never had an early picture cover book that is that far off on what the back cover and inside lists have. Does anyone have one like this?

A Bizarre Nancy Drew PC Anomaly

I found another Nancy Drew matte picture cover that is just plain bizarre. After checking the books on my shelf, I found that I already had one that I had set aside, so I now have two of these rather unusual books. They are identical. I will describe one of them in the singular, because it is easier, but both books have all of the same points.

The book is a matte picture cover edition of The Crooked Banister. It lists to Crocodile Island on the back cover, which would normally date the book to 1978. The only problem is that the book has double oval endpapers. The double oval endpapers were not used until the 1980s, and all of the double oval endpapers books list to Thirteenth Pearl on the back cover—or so I always thought. Farah has very little information on the post-1979 Nancy Drew books in his guide, so it does not help much with the 1980s-era books.



The back cover list dates the book to 1978, but the double oval endpapers date the book to 1982 through 1986. What is even more strange is that the book has the order form inside, and the order form lists to The Strange Message in the Parchment, which dates the book to 1977.

Obviously, the book cannot be simultaneously from 1977, 1978, and 1982 through 1986. The most obvious explanation is that a text block from the 1970s was somehow not bound until the 1980s. However, that does not explain why the back cover lists to Crocodile Island instead of the usual Thirteenth Pearl. It also does not explain why I have two of them.

I'm sure the books are from 1982 through 1986, especially since neither book has the dark blue ink on the top edge. What I do not understand is why the books list only to Crocodile Island on the back cover and to Parchment on the order form (which isn't even supposed to be there in the first place).

I would pass this off as a random anomaly, but if I can find two of them, just months apart, there must be more of them. Are the books from an actual print run? Does anyone else have one of these books? Maybe there are a whole bunch of them out there!

Nancy Drew Picture Cover Anomaly

I was preparing to list a set of Nancy Drew books when I noticed that The Whispering Statue had the back cover all in black print. I decided to pull that copy out of the set and keep it for now.


Normally, "Solve these Thrilling Mystery Stories with NANCY DREW" and "By CAROLYN KEENE" are in red ink. This is just the third picture cover book from the 1970s that I have seen with the all black print back cover. I have seen thousands of Nancy Drew picture covers from the 1970s, so for this to be only the third one I have seen with the print all in black makes it a scarce anomaly.

It is not mentioned in Farah's Guide, and my opinion is that these books are probably subsets of certain print runs. This book lists to Parchment on the back cover and on the order form inside the book, so it matches the points for the 1977A-66 printing according to Farah's 12th edition.

The other two books that I have seen like this one have been two copies of The Secret of Mirror Bay. Both copies of Mirror Bay list to Parchment on the back cover and on the order form inside the book, so they match the points for the 1977B-9 printing. One of the books has the gray overstamp of the price on the back cover, changing the price to $2.95. The other one has the identical back cover to the above book.


All three books are from 1977 and list to the same title on the back cover and on the order form. All three books are from printings in which Farah states that some copies have the gray overstamp of the price. I wonder how many other Nancy Drew books ended up with this anomaly? Does anyone else have any of them?

Betty Gordon Prices

I decided to look at what I paid for each of my Betty Gordon books, which are pictured in my previous post. Some of the prices were kept down by buying books that were part of larger lots. Large lots of books are always the way to go if a collector wishes to keep costs down and does not mind having to sell the extras.

I rounded the prices to the nearest dollar.

#1 Bramble Farm - $15
#2 Washington - $9
#3 Land of Oil - $15
#4 Boarding School - $25
#5 Mountain Camp - $6
#6 Ocean Park - $15
#7 School Chums - ?
#8 Rainbow Ranch - $5
#9 Mexican Wilds - ?
#10 Lost Pearls - $32
#11 Campus - $27
#12 Hale Twins - $28
#13 Mystery Farm - $22
#14 No-Trail Island - $46
#15 Mystery Girl - $40

I do not have record of what I paid for School Chums and Mexican Wilds, but my cost for each would most likely have been under $15 each.

#12, 13, and 14 are the hardest titles to find. I consider #14 to be the very hardest title to find. It was the title that was elusive for me, and I was pleased when I won an auction and paid only $46. I was prepared to pay quite a bit more, but the other bidders did not bid very high. The low demand for this series keeps the prices down. I sold an extra of #15 earlier this year for around $70, so it sometimes sells for higher amounts even though it is easier to find than the previous three titles.

My Betty Gordon Books

I recently upgraded three of my Betty Gordon books. My set is finally beginning to look pretty good on the shelf:


Of course this means that I once again have some Betty Gordon books with dust jackets to sell. I also have an extra of Betty Gordon and the Mystery Girl in dust jacket which has a nicer spine than mine but the front panel is slightly worse. My extra of Mystery Girl is my second extra of that title, but I have failed to upgrade the one in my collection both times since the extras have not been better to my satisfaction. Perhaps I will upgrade it, someday. I'd also like to upgrade Rainbow Ranch and Mystery Farm eventually.

The books that I upgraded are Lost Pearls, Campus, and Hale Twins, so sometime soon I will sell those titles with dust jackets. I also have an extra of Mystery Farm that does not have a dust jacket, and as previously mentioned, I have an extra of Mystery Girl with dust jacket.

When I first assembled my set of Betty Gordon books, I had to settle for several titles in bare books without dust jackets. I also had to be satisfied with several rough condition dust jackets. The Betty Gordon series is a somewhat difficult set to build, so it is necessary to settle for books and jackets that are not in top condition unless one wishes to spend years trying to build a set.

The Betty Gordon and Ruth Fielding series were heavily cross-promoted, so they are like sister series. This is why I have a poll asking which of the two series people like better. I'm not surprised that Ruth Fielding has more votes, since the Ruth Fielding books seem to be much more abundant. However, I feel that the Betty Gordon series is a better series overall, from start to finish. The Ruth Fielding series is quite good towards the end, but I feel that the earlier titles are much weaker than the later titles. Once my poll ends, I'm going to create a more specific poll about the two series. I suspect that the people who voted that they like Ruth Fielding better may not have read both series. I have read both and like Betty Gordon better.