Ending today were the 2nd of the the recent first printings of The Secret of the Old Clock and The Hidden Staircase. Compared the ones that recently ended in the Blog posting below this one, these books were in really poor shape and condition. They were being sold by the same seller of the recent books #3-#6 that had mold/mildew problems. However, these two books were even in worse shape than those as can be evidenced by the images above and below.The dust jackets show discoloration and staining from moisture which correlates to the hellacious shape that the books are in as can be seen in the photos.
All that white is mildew and mold for the most part and I'm not sure you could even get that out of the book? I Googled and found this website with some instructions on removing mold/mildew from books. I'm not sure how much of the mold/mildew from these books could be removed or the discoloration? As you can see below the pages inside have moisture damage and that really cannot be undone.
Moisture damage has ruined this frontispiece
These two books sold today at eBay for $7633.88 and $4361.00 respectively. The Old Clock book sold for even more than the previous good condition Old Clock book and it's in far worse shape which surprised me! This one went to a reseller though.
The Hidden Staircase book sold for quite a bit less which would be expected due to the condition of the book but still higher than I expected for the shape these are in. The bidding was in the 500.00 range up until this afternoon and the end of the auction which it shot up considerably.I'd love to know if it's feasible to get out this kind of mold/mildew from these books? I'm guessing it would be a difficult task. Of course there may have been those bidding on these for the dust jackets to go with naked first printing books. That's always a possibility.
Jenn:)
2 comments:
I can now report that neither of the two highest bidders for these books wanted the books. Both wanted only the dust jackets. What most of us do who seek these early first printings is try to piece together the books and dust jackets in whatever way we can.
For instance, I bought a second printing of Red Gate Farm years ago for around $150. The book had a pretty good dust jacket. The dust jacket is identical to the first printing dust jacket.
I searched and finally was able to buy a nice first printing book for Red Gate Farm for around $90. I placed the dust jacket on the book, and then I had my matched first printing book and dust jacket for the low cost of $240. I then sold the second printing book that no longer had a dust jacket. That's the way to build a set of the early Nancy Drew books in first printing books and jackets without always having to pay a high price.
Very good points! I too did that for Larkspur Lane. I purchased a nice 2nd printing for the DJ and then searched for awhile until I found the book only with the 1932/1933 copyrights to match with it. I also recently got an Old Attic too that way--later printing but same as the 1st DJ to put on my 1st book I had.
Another thing that recently happened to me was I bought a Moss Mansion 1st on eBay--book/dj--dj had no silhouette. When I got it in, the book turned out to be a later printing but it appeared that the dj had been on that book for years and years. So I purchased a 1st of Moss Mansion--from you I think it was--at Bonanzle/a and went to put the DJ on it and the DJ was shorter than the book--as if at some point it had been cut down a bit at the top. It was weird. It's not a huge difference in height but I'll keep looking for an upgrade to that eventually.
Jenn:)
Post a Comment