How (not) to Collect Nancy Drew Books

While searching Google in a attempt to figure out something about the placement of a page, I ran across this article:

How to Collect Nancy Drew Books

*Sigh* Based on some of the wording, it sounds like the writer may have read my Nancy Drew guide on eBay and mangled the information. Step 2 in the list states:

Make a list of the titles and copyright years you are looking for. Carry this list with you everywhere. Books published between 1930 and 1959 will have 1930 listed as the copyright date. First editions will also have 25 chapters (books 1-34).

According to this person, all Nancy Drew books printed between 1930 and 1959 have 1930 as the copyright date regardless of which title in the series it is. Um, no.

This is what my Nancy Drew guide states:

The copyright page is the last place to look when you are trying to discover the age of a Nancy Drew book. Grosset and Dunlap very rarely made changes to the copyright page. All copies of The Secret of the Old Clock printed from 1930 through early 1959 have 1930 as the only year listed on the copyright page. From 1959 and on, The Secret of the Old Clock was printed with 1959 as the year on the copyright page.

I believe I am clear that I mean, as an example, that Old Clock has 1930 on the copyright page until 1959. The rest of the books have their corresponding original copyright dates.

I hate reading the statement, "First editions will also have 25 chapters (books 1-34)." For many people, particularly new collectors, "first edition" and "first printing" have the same meaning, the very first printing of a book. These people will think that any Nancy Drew book with 25 chapters is the very first printing. No it isn't!

The writer recommends, "Books with dust jackets are very rare. If you find one, buy it." This statement is too broad. It depends upon the age, the condition, and the price of the book. I hate reading general statements that give poor advice. There is a set of book club edition Nancy Drew books with yellow spine dust jackets for volumes 1, 2, and 3. These books and jackets can sometimes sell for above $10 each, but in general, are close to worthless.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #25

It appears that quite a few people are not informed about what the Applewood editions look like, thinking they are vintage books. Or, it may be that they simply do not read auction descriptions carefully.

NANCY DREW THE CLUE OF THE BROKEN LOCKET, NEW WITH DJ Item #170332476189

This is the seller's picture:

Question #1: Hi - Is this an Applewood reprint of the original? Thanks.

Answer #1: Yes it is....thanks for asking.

Question #2: What do endpapers look like- orange with 4 girls? Are there pictures inside - glossy or plain? What titles are listed on dust jacket flaps? Thanks!!

Answer #2: This book is a Apple reprint of the original.

Question #3: Several questions. Are there any glossy illustrations in the book - if so, frontispiece only or total four (3 internals and frontispiece)? What is the last book listed internally and on the dust jacket? Other series listed on back dust jacket - if so, last title listed? What format/color are the endpapers (orange, blue, nancy magnifying glass etc?) Can't see the spine symbol either. Finally are the interior text pages white, off-white, tanned etc? Sorry for so many questions but it's all very important to a Nancy collector. Thanks.

Answer #3: This book is a Apple reprint of the original. Not a vintage book,thanks for asking.

It is very clear from the picture that this book is an Applewood edition. Notice the gold border along the top and bottom of the front panel. The vintage dust jackets do not have a gold border, only the Applewood editions have it. Look at the spine. I can see the edge of the gold seal on the spine, which is another feature of the Applewood editions. Finally, the seller's title stated "NEW" and the items specifics stated that the condition was "Brand New." Vintage books are not normally described as "brand new" unless the seller is lying.

More on Search Aggravation

This is worth reading:

eBay's New Search Slowing Buyers?

Also read the comments. You may also want to click on the links to the various discussions on eBay's message boards. If you read some of the complaints, eBay is telling people to check their browser settings, clear their cache, etc., which is why I refuse to report my glitches. The people at eBay think that all of the problems on their site are our fault and not theirs.

I am having some of those problems as well. For instance, I have auctions that I know I have clicked on and viewed because I placed the items in my watched items list. Yet the next day when I search, those links no longer show as being already visited. This is yet another example of eBay wasting my time! In some cases I know at a glance that I have already viewed the items, but in other cases, I end up wasting time by clicking the links again.

Read the discussion here. One person was told by eBay that it is not possible to fix the problem. I cannot state what I think without cussing, so I have no comment.

I had a few items for sale the last week. These were the first items I listed after everyone was forced into the new search. I had four items for sale. One item had one watcher, and the rest had none. Two items sold at the opening bids. The items had very few page views. Last year at this time, sales were great. Of course part of it had to do with one buyer who was buying everything, but many other people were also bidding and purchasing. We should still have the other people around, yet eBay is like a ghost town.

What I want to know is whether any of you are having problems with search? Most particularly, if you still sell on eBay, how are you doing since June 10? I want to know whether you have noticed a significant difference in your page views, watchers, and bidders since June 10. If you have had a change since June 10, the culprit is search. I hate the new search, and I almost don't want to say it, but I am beginning to hate eBay. All this time that I have complained, I have been annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed in eBay... but I have not hated the site.

A Mystery Is Solved... or Maybe Not

Most series books have a few typos in them. Since the books were made and sold inexpensively, the books did not have much quality control. Usually the mistakes are not too bothersome. One exception is the glaring error—really, a discontinuity—that occurs in the final two volumes of the Brownie Scouts series.

When I first read the Brownie Scouts series, I was utterly flabbergasted that Veve McGuire's name changed to Vevi McGuire in volumes five and six. If the mistake had been in a few stray places, I would have been forgiving. However, the name is consistently Vevi every single time it is mentioned throughout all of volumes five and six. The name is Veve in all instances from volumes one through four.

It is truly bizarre. In the documents that I purchased, a letter from Cupples and Leon mentions the problem.

We have been proof-reading the Brownie Scout Series for errors in the text which we intend to correct in the next edition. We are distressed to find that in volumes five and six the name of one of the characters had been changed from Veve to Vevi McGuire.

Actually this should be corrected - however, if we tried to do so the last two volumes in the series would need to be reset. This would be a great expense and we wish to avoid doing so if we possibly can. Do you think you could write an explanation - a story about a little girl - perhaps a friend of yours - whose name was Vevi and spelled in this manner - and to please her you had made the change starting in volume five - if so this could be inserted just before page 1, it might serve sufficiently so that we will not need to reset those volumes.

The books were not reset nor was a message about the name inserted into either of the books, at least not in the copies which I own. When I first read this letter, I concluded that the publisher had made the mistake. Even so, I was still puzzled. Exactly how would the name Veve be changed to Vevi in every single instance throughout two books? I know little about the specific details of the publishing process, but I assume that the author's manuscript is used at the beginning of the process. If the name was spelled correctly in the manuscript, how would it accidentally get changed in every occurrence throughout the final published work? The name would get changed if whoever set the type decided to change it, but that would be odd.

Although the name change still bothered me, I did not think much more about it for around a week after reading the letter. When I began looking through my documents again, I happened upon the outline for The Brownie Scouts and Their Tulip Show, which was published as the sixth volume in the series, The Brownie Scouts at Windmill Farm. Prepare yourselves for this . . . it is really shocking . . . the name is Vevi in the outline! Mildred Wirt Benson was the person who inexplicably changed her character's name from Veve to Vevi. It was never the publisher's mistake.

I now know where the mistake was made, but I still do not understand why. Surely Benson had not forgotten how to spell her own character's name? Maybe she decided she liked Vevi better, but for the sake of consistency, one would think she would have left the name alone. Perhaps she was writing so many books at that time that she forgot how she had spelled the name. This is a mystery that will never be completely solved.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #24

This is another example of a buyer not knowing that certain books must contain the original text.

Lot 7 VINTAGE Nancy Drew books most w/ dust jackets Item #230347387714

Here is the seller's picture:

Question: can you give copyright years and number of chapters of each with additional pics?

Answer: The Bungalow Mystery-c 1930, 25 chapters The Secret at Shadow Ranch- c 1931, 25 chapters The Secret of Red Gate Farm- c1931, 25 chapters The Clue of the Leaning Chimney- c 1949, 25 chapters The Mystery at the Ski Jump- c 1952, 25 chapters The Clue of the Velvet Mask- c 1953, 25 chapters The Haunted Showboat- c1957, 20 chapters

From the picture, I can tell that Bungalow Mystery is a solid blue book, and all solid blue books have the original text. The remaining books are tweed. Shadow Ranch, Leaning Chimney, Ski Jump, and Velvet Mask were never revised in the tweed format. Those books must have the original text. Haunted Showboat has only 20 chapters, but it never had 25 chapters in the first place, so it is the original text.

The only book that the buyer needed to ask about was Red Gate Farm. Most people who have not seen many Nancy Drew books would not be able to tell that it must also have the original text. The reason I know that the book must have the original text is because the revised text tweed books, #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, tend to be less thick than the earlier tweed books and are not a bright shade of blue like the book pictured in the auction.

Private Offers on eBay

This topic has come up lately in the comments section of this blog. Here is one of our discussions. The way it works is that someone offers a seller a price that is substantially higher than the opening bid but substantially below the true value of the book. If the seller is foolish enough to take what appears to be an excellent offer, the buyer gets the book at a bargain and the seller loses out.

Recently, a seller came to the eBay Booksellers board after receiving an offer for $2,500. The book was at around $700 at that time. Previous to the $2,500 offer, the seller had received a $750 offer. The seller was seriously considering closing the auction early in order to accept the $2,500 private offer.

PLEASE HELP ~~Rare book, offer $2500, what would you do?

The seller was worried that the book might bring only $1,000 instead of $2,500 and was afraid to lose out on the guaranteed $2,500. Several people stated that in cases like this, the books always close at higher prices than the amounts of the early private offers.

RARE signed This Side of Paradise F Scott Fitzgerald NR

The seller wisely refused the offer, and the book closed at $5,355. The $2,500 offer was less than half of what the auction brought.

This tactic has been used with series books, but normally, it is only used for the scarcest ones. I have frequently seen auctions closed for dust-jacketed first printings of the first seven Nancy Drew books. It has sometimes happened with the last titles in certain series, such as Judy Bolton and Vicki Barr.

I do not believe that it happens very often nowadays for last titles in series because the value has mostly collapsed, due to eBay's folly and the economy. I have seen some surprisingly low prices for scarce books in just the last couple of weeks. For those auctions, people were better off placing lowball bids than making private offers.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #23

I have not done one of these posts since December. I have some closed auctions in my watched items list on eBay, and I will cover some of those in the coming days.

These posts are inspired by prospective buyers' questions that I see in various Nancy Drew auctions on eBay. I use the title "Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew," but it is more a lack of buyer research than anything else.

Whenever I decide to collect another series, my first task is to research the series as best I can. I obtain a list of titles, and I research the publisher and the author and try to figure out which formats are available. Since I am now collecting very obscure series such as Grace Harlowe and Marjorie Dean, I am going on very limited information, but I have armed myself with as much information as I can find. Additionally, what I already know about other series applies to the obscure ones, so I have a good idea how to proceed.

What amazes me is how many people decide to collect Nancy Drew books and try to buy on eBay having completed very little research. They clearly have done some research, since they know that they want the original 25 chapter texts. Their questions indicate that while they have some basic information, they have not viewed this series of posts nor have they viewed my formats page nor my page about the original texts. It continues to frustrate me how much time these people waste asking unnecessary questions when the research is so easy. Nancy Drew is not an obscure series like Grace Harlowe or Marjorie Dean. It is very easy to find substantial useful information about collecting Nancy Drew books and how to tell by sight whether a book contains the original text.

Here is a good example:

Nice Lot (5) Vintage Blue Cover Nancy Drew Books -Keene Item #160340606402

This is the seller's picture:


It contains all of the information we need to know in order to tell whether the books contain the original text.

Question: can you show more pics re: all books and how many chapters do each have? are the listed copyright dates the original for these listed books?

Answer: Thanks for your interest. The listed copyright dates are the only dates listed in the books and judging from the years I would say they were the originals. Chapters and total pages are: Missing Map, 25 Chapters-213 Pgs; Velvet Mask, 25 Chapters and 211 pgs; Tolling Bell, 25 Chapters and 213 pgs; Wooden Lady, 213 pgs; Old Album, 25 Chapters, 218 pgs. Please send me your e-mail address and I can send more pictures. Good Luck & Happy Bidding!!

First, the books from this auction are all either blue or tweed books. All blue books contain the original 25 chapter texts—no exceptions. For the tweed books, the only books that were ever revised were #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. The auction did not contain any of those titles. Therefore, I know from the above photo that all five books must contain the original 25 chapter text. It is not necessary to ask. I have this information on the page about the original texts which I mention further up in this post.

The buyer asked the seller whether the copyright dates were the original ones, and the seller did not know. Please refer to this page to see a list of the original copyright dates. For the 34 titles listed in the first section of that page, if the books have those copyright dates, they must contain the original 25 chapter text. The seller did list the copyright dates in the description, so even without the photo, there was no doubt that the books contain the original text.

I now fully understand why the Applewood editions have become so valuable. It is not so much that the books are nice but that uninformed buyers know that the Applewood books contain the original text. People who have done no research can be certain that they are buying books with the original text when they buy the Applewood editions. That is the reason.

The Brownie Scouts in the Circus Part 3

The outline for The Brownie Scouts in the Circus is titled The Brownies and the Golden Chariot. The characters are described as follows:

Connie Williams, "Master Mind" Jane Tuttle, Veve McGuire, Rosemary Fritche, etc., members of the Brownie troop.

Miss Gordon, leader of the troop.

Jim Cardale, animal trainer

Eve Leitsall, girl bareback circus rider.

In the book, Eve becomes Eva and Mr. Cardale becomes Mr. Carsdale. The description of Jane Tuttle as "Master Mind" intrigues me. This is never mentioned in the books, and Jane Tuttle is not a very important character. It could be that Wirt meant Connie Williams, but Connie is never described as a "Master Mind," either. It is interesting that Veve's name is mentioned third, since Veve is the star of the Brownie Scouts series.

Another difference between the book and the outline is that in the outline, Connie drops her hat during the circus performance, and she and Veve go to retrieve it. In the book, Veve is the one who drops her hat and is scolded for being careless. Veve and Connie go to retrieve the hat. There are a few other minor differences between the book and the outline, but for the most part, the book follows the outline rather closely.