31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #20 Nancy Drew Scarce Books & Collectibles

31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #20

Nancy Drew Scarce Books & Collectibles

Is it RARE? Or maybe it's just scarce. I don't want to define any of these items as rare - a term that is often overused by sellers and often what's called rare is just common. By scarce, I mean they seldom come up for sale but have come up enough to not be rare to just less than a handful of times to my knowledge. I have a section on my website - not updated in years, and it needs an update thanks to this posting. My tune has changed a bit about what is scarce or at least appears to be scarce.

 

Over the years of Nancy Drew publishing history, there have been a few books that are fairly scarce--or hard to find. As far as collectibles go, some are considerably scarce - meaning I've only seen 1 or just a few sell in the last 20 years. There could be a warehouse somewhere full of them, but, in our collecting circles and the usual spots in the wild, you just don't find these often and they are:

Books:

1st printings of Old Clock, Staircase, Bungalow, Lilac Inn, Shadow Ranch, Red Gate Farm and Diary - with dust jackets, complete. The blank endpaper books are fairly common - though not always first printings, often early printings listed, but the dust jackets are what is more scarce due to the nature of dust jackets. Of these 7, Lilac Inn and Diary to me are much harder to come by complete. But then again, they are not all as common as later printings, so there are not always firsts of these in dust jacket for sale all the time, so I consider these scarce when firsts and complete with DJs come up for sale.

Larkspur Lane printing with the Nancy Drew Detective movie wrapper - it's the wrapper that is scarce. I imagine many printings with this wrapper exist as to the book, but the wrapper surviving is another story.

1st printing of Crumbling Wall with Judy Bolton titles listed on the back of the dust jacket.

Books 2, 5, 8, and 11 in wrap spine dust jackets from 1950 listing to Wooden Lady - The ones that are misnumbered on the spine of the DJ - those are much harder to find than the hole-punched printings that followed them where they punched out the wrong volume number.

Wanderer hardcovers in dust jacket for books 76-78 - these have been the hardest for me to find. Still missing #76.

Library editions from the 30s/40s and the Grosset & Dunlap library binding of Thirteenth Pearl

Cameo editions with dust jackets of Old Clock and Hidden Staircase seem harder to find than the other Cameos even some of the harder to find Cameos, but I'm not sure I'd completely call these scarce as they do appear from time to time. But, if you wanted either of these in DJ, you may or not find them listed and it may take awhile for them to be at sites like eBay.

 

  

 

 

Collectibles:

I'm not going to include 1 of a kind things like cover art/etc. - obviously those are scarce items as there's only 1 of them. I'm going to include things that seldom have come up for sale to my knowledge in the last 20 years I've been collecting at eBay/etc.

TV Show:

The Nancy Drew watch and the puzzle in the canister.

Movie:

Lantern slides and press kits - these do not surface as often as posters and lobby cards/etc.

Book Collectibles:

Madame Alexander doll complete with all accessories/tag/box is not that common to see - and some would include this. But, more than that are these items which are more scarce - Printer blocks, Cereal boxes (not repros), the Datebook/Homework Planner, Old Lace book audio tape. Original vintage book displays like the Haunted House display. The rest of the collectibles come up for sale often enough I wouldn't include them in a list of most scarce. Some of them are not easy to find, but they don't make my top list. I've seen enough white diaries for instance over the years at eBay to not consider that item truly scarce. To compare, I've never seen a haunted house display, only one Nancy Drew TV show watch, etc. Like I said above, there may be a warehouse of these things somewhere, but I'm not aware of it.

So your philosophy to collecting should be BOLO - Be On The Lookout - you never know when something  might turn up or where. The hunt is fun, so branch out and make it fun. eBay is still a site to find things--it's not like it was in its heyday, but I still find things from time to time. Happy Sleuthing.

In the comments, what is the most scarce collectible you own? Do you have any on my list here? Is there something I'm forgetting?

Is this Nancy Drew Book Rare? Sleuthing at eBay #18

As a long-time collector, I feel the need to help educate those who are not as involved in knowing what exactly you are collecting and those new to collecting Nancy Drew books. There are a lot of book sellers out there who don't know what they have or don't understand what it takes to actually date a Nancy Drew book (by having a guide/etc.) and often go by a copyright date ( a red herring in the case of these books) or other misinformation they pick up. Seasoned booksellers however, generally do know what they have or they should know... ;-)

So I'm going to from time to time, highlight something that's stated to be "RARE" and is most definitely NOT Rare...And I'll tell you why it's not rare so you don't fall for that "RARE" trap in the future.

The basic definition of rare is something that is "seldom occurring or found." You know how they sometimes say a specialized lunar or solar eclipse is rare because it hasn't occurred in hundreds of years? So how can something that reappears on eBay frequently be so rare. To those that should know better: If it's so rare, why is it often being sold for less than $10.00? Or even $50.00? Wouldn't Sotheby's be a super duper place for it, if it's so...rare? ;-)

Bottom line in collecting Nancy Drew books? It boils down to common sense. If someone is shouting out to you that it's rare, but listing it for a few bucks and if you search for it you find a bunch more just like it or see a quite a few of the same or similar in a short period of time, then chances are 99.9% likely it's not so rare. As always, buyer beware. Do your homework before jumping in.

Book: The Lost Files of Nancy Drew

Why it's NOT Rare: The fact that this was published in 2007 and it was a mass-produced publishing should be explanatory enough. In fact you can often find remaindered copies in book stores like Half Price Books these days. Fun tidbit--I got to do a little consulting on this book as to the history section and went over it for them. I had hoped to work on the content of the pages as well, but the UK book packager that put it together didn't really ask for my help. I thought it turned out pretty good overall, but I think they should have used more of the internal art from the books and things along those lines.

Book: The Haunted Bridge--Picture cover, 3rd art cover.

Why it's NOT Rare: The auction showed a shot of the back cover--and it lists to Crocodile Island meaning it's not even the first printing of this text/cover. There's nothing rare about this at all. In fact an eBay search turns up nearly a dozen of those so-called rare book. The only picture cover book that might even come close to being called rare--and even then I hesitate to say that since I have seen it sold at eBay before so it's certainly scarce--would be the first printing of #44, The Clue in the Crossword Cipher. Even I don't own it--yet!

Book: Lot of 27 Yellow Spine Picture Covers

Why it's NOT Rare: The auction described this lot as having "rare copyright dates." Some of them do have 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s copyrights--but that's because those books still have the original text which isn't anything rare or unusual. They just hadn't been revised yet. Original texts with those copyrights are not considered rare in the picture cover format.

Book: The Secret of the Scarlet Hand

Why it's NOT Rare: This is most definitely not rare! It's a mass--produced modern paperback. It's claimed to be so rare in fact, that it's on sale for 3.99 down from the starting list price of 4.99!

Book: The Mystery at Lilac Inn

Why it's NOT Rare: Startling is the fact that the seller has this library discard listed at 99.00! Yes, 99.00! These library editions are most certainly not rare and were fairly mass produced in this style. I see them listed at eBay frequently. Nothing rare about it at all. The seller states that there are "hardly any surviving copies" in existence! Really? Hmmm....

Book: The Mystery of the Tolling Bell--1st Printing Book

Why it's NOT Rare: Of all the books I've featured in this Blog entry, you might wonder about this one--it's a first printing after all. It's listed at a fairly decent 89.99, well under Farah's Guide value. But it's not rare, I've seen them for sale fairly regularly at eBay. It's really not even scarce. Just because something is old or a first printing, does not mean it's rare or even scarce, so be sure to do your homework!

Jenn:)

Is this Nancy Drew book Rare? Sleuthing at eBay #17

As a long-time collector, I feel the need to help educate those who are not as involved in knowing what exactly you are collecting and those new to collecting Nancy Drew books. There are a lot of book sellers out there who don't know what they have or don't understand what it takes to actually date a Nancy Drew book (by having a guide/etc.) and often go by a copyright date ( a red herring in the case of these books) or other misinformation they pick up. Seasoned booksellers however, generally do know what they have or they should know... ;-)

So I'm going to from time to time, highlight something that's stated to be "RARE" and is most definitely NOT Rare...And I'll tell you why it's not rare so you don't fall for that "RARE" trap in the future.

The basic definition of rare is something that is "seldom occurring or found." You know how they sometimes say an eclipse--like the recent lunar eclipse--is rare because it hasn't occurred in hundreds of years? So how can something that reappears on eBay frequently be so rare. To those that should know better: If it's so rare, why is it often being sold for less than $10.00? Or even $50.00? If you're so proud that it's so rare, why aren't you auctioning it off at Sotheby's so you can get more than $50.00 for it? I think you all get the picture...

Bottom line in collecting Nancy Drew books? It boils down to common sense. If someone is shouting out to you that it's rare, but listing it for a few bucks and if you search for it you find a bunch more just like it, then chances are 99.9% likely it's not so rare. As always, buyer beware. Do your homework before jumping in.

Book: The Secret at Shadow Ranch--Format 1/1st Printing Book

Why it's NOT Rare: While it is a format one and could be a first printing book, these come up for sale too often to qualify by definition as rare. Scarce might be a more accurate term, but even that is a stretch. The dust jacket for this book might qualify as scarce as it seldom comes up for sale.

Book: The Mystery at Lilac Inn -- 3rd art cover in dust jacket, only issued in 2 printings this way.

Why it's NOT Rare: In the last week there were 9 of these listed at eBay/Bonanza/My Website. At any given time on eBay, there are usually several for sale. I really wouldn't even consider this scarce. Earlier last year I purchased 2 at eBay and then went to the Nancy Drew convention in FL and found 2 or 3 copies in a bookstore we visited.

Book: Twin Thriller Book Club edition of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm and The Whispering Statue. These came out in the 1970s.

Why it's NOT Rare: It's incredibly easy to find, there are tons of these on the market.

Book: The Secret of the Old Clock. Not a first printing.

Why it's NOT Rare: It comes up for auction pretty often in this style--various printing years, while this one may be from 1932, that alone does not make it rare.

Book: Mystery at the Ski Jump. Yellow spine picture cover printing from the 1970s.

Why it's NOT Rare: This book is listed at a VERY laughable $99.00. It's probably worth in its shape about $2.00. Not only is it not even close to being a first printing of this book (which isn't rare either), there's nothing rare/scarce/unusual or even very interesting about it. The seller even states in their auction listings, "There are hardly any surviving copies of this book left. Most of them have been destroyed over the years." Um...seriously!?? Then whey are so many more of these books listed at eBay all the time?

Jenn:)