Sunday, July 06, 2008

First Printing: Old Clock Sells for $11,700.00

Well ladies and gents,

The auction is over now and the first printing/first edition of The Secret of the Old Clock sold for a $11,700.00!

Anyone else watch the ending of the auction?

The bidding started on June 29th when the book was listed. 4 bids were placed on June 30th. 6 bids on July 1st. And 2 on July 4th. Nothing until the final 2 minutes. It topped out at $8000.00 on July 4th. Most of us figured it would sell for at least $10,000.00 at which it as sold for before and possibly more once before in an undisclosed sale.

I figured by the time it was going for $8000.00, we'd see a cease of activity until the last few seconds before it ends when people come in and manually snipe or use sniping software. I've been involved in auctions before where I snipe and all of a sudden you're outbid or outbidding someone else doing the same. I've seen an auction before suddenly go for hundreds due to half a dozen or more last minute bidders jumping in "out of nowhere." :) So those last few seconds are where the party's at.

It was down to the last 2 minutes and finally another bid. Up to $8100.00. Then 6 seconds before the auction ended, a sniper; Geowall bid it up to $11,700.00

FYI: Geowall is a reseller, not a collector as far as I know. So either he has a buyer in mind or will be reselling it. He sells on eBay as Bookbid. Buys as Geowall. I was hoping to see it go to a Sleuth member or Nancy Drew collector, but maybe it still will.

I wonder if the fact that the auction ended on a holiday weekend was a factor, as I would have thought word would have spread through the collector community since such a scarce book was up for auction. I usually do not list items to end on a holiday weekend as I figure people are traveling and not paying attention to eBay.

Here's to hoping that more of these begin to surface for collectors in the future! Heck, a first printing of The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, and The Secret at Shadow Ranch would be super to see too!

Jenn:)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's a lot of money!


Oh, I have a question: do you still have up that page for the Nancy Drew cookbook?

Jenn Fisher said...

Yes, it's linked on the Nancy Drew Collectibles; Books section at:

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/collectibles.html

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/cbooks.html

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/cbfood.html

Jenn:)

Anonymous said...

Thank you!

I'm not sure if you planned on doing this, but I was thinking of starting a ND 80 year anniversary project.
http://nancydrew80yearanniversary.wordpress.com/

If you want to do it I'll just delete that. I was thinking it would be a good idea to start early ...

Jenn Fisher said...

The Sleuths will be doing a big 80th anniversary convention in April 2010 so I'm excited about that:) I'm not sure if the publisher is planning anything for the 80th or not.

Jenn:)

Shell in the City said...

Wow! I'll have to mention that at our next Carolina Sleuths meeting. We had one yesterday and discussed The Secret of Red Gate Farm, The Clue in the Diary & Nancy's Mysterious Letter. I am still on the hunt for the old books..like you said, I hope collectors are able to get these.

Anonymous said...

i think it is so cool your blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Unknown said...

Do you know if anyone has made a Nancy Drew Wika?

Jenn Fisher said...

If you're talking about wikipedia, yes I believe there is an entry on Nancy Drew there.

Jenn:)

Sherrie said...

I just came across this blog while I was researching my 1930 1st Edition of The Secret of the Old Clock.

I am trying to learn about the books I collect, but I just can't fathom it going for so much.

Since I never saw the auction, can you tell me just what the book had extra (DJ?) that would command so high a price?

Jenn Fisher said...

Sherrie,

The book had it's dust jacket--a dust jacket holds about 90 to 95% of the value of the book, so with that, it's expensive--especially for these older format 1 books.

Jenn:)

Anonymous said...

How can you tell if a book is a "first printing," or not? (esp. Nancy Drew books)

Jenn Fisher said...

Anon - You can tell if you have a guide--Farah's Guide: http://www.farahsguide.com

Otherwise it's just guess work as there are many formats, factors, and styles of Nancy over the years.

Jenn:)