The Destroyed Package

It was bound to happen eventually. I have written of some of my damaged packages, and sometimes the packages have been missing a book or two but most books arrived okay. I finally received a package which turned out to be a total loss. I knew it was likely a total loss as soon as I saw it.

The package was enclosed in a plastic bag that USPS places around damaged packages. The thin brown paper that the seller used was quite torn. The seller sent the package priority, so it was destroyed in the first two days of transit. I received the package a week later after it had been processed through the place where damaged mail is sent.


Before I opened the package, I could see what was inside. This next photo shows what I saw.


There were two DVDs, a book that was definitely not anything I had bought, and a mysterious smashed box-like shape. Hmm. This was definitely not good. I opened the package, and this is what I found.


I was the lucky recipient of two Pam Grier videos, Sheba, Baby and Fox in a Box. I had never heard of Pam Grier until I received these DVDs. Wow. No offense to Pam Grier, but I was not impressed. One of the DVDs was badly scratched.

Even better, I received my very own Reader's Digest Condensed book. I'm sure all book collectors know that RDCBs are the most unwanted books ever printed. You have to just about pay people to take them. Most book readers want to read the entire story rather than a condensed version.

The only item that was kind of cool but still unwanted was the mysterious box. The box was smashed, but the model railroad log car inside was in perfect shape. I noticed that the log car did not have a UPC on the box, so it must have been part of a set of railroad cars and got separated from the rest.

I knew that these items were so random that likely the seller did not mail them to me. I checked with the seller, and she had never seen any of them before. She is supposed to be sending me a refund for my payment.

What must have happened is that my package was ripped open, which was not surprising since the brown paper was quite thin. My books fell out and were separated from the wrapping. The package was sent to a mailing sorting center along with all of the other damaged mail, and USPS was unable to figure out what the package contained. Someone took random stuff from other damaged packages and placed enough stuff in the wrapping to fill up the package, then sent it along to me. Nice.

I did get a good laugh out of the message on the plastic bag that contained my package. The beginning of the message read, "We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service. We hope this incident did not inconvenience you." Inconvenience? I got random junk I did not want and will never receive my books. I spent 20 minutes taking pictures, cropping them, and sending them to the seller with a letter of explanation. It was much more than just an inconvenience.

I have heard of this happening to others in the past. I have been lucky that this is the first time it has ever happened to me.

In closing, remember that it is never a good idea to wrap a stack of books in brown paper, especially thin brown paper. If you must package in brown paper, at least run a strip of tape all the way around the package horizontally and vertically just like you would do if you were using ribbon on a present for someone. If this package had had tape around it, the books may have been damaged but would have arrived. I would rather have damaged books than no books.

Series Books for Sale on Bonanzle #3

This is a work in progress, but take a look and tell me what you think:

http://series-books.com/seriesbooksforsale.html

If you sell series books on Bonanzle, you will hopefully find at least a few of your books listed somewhere. I was working from search results and was not checking to see who the seller was, although I knew for sure in some cases. I tried to pick low-priced books plus a variety.

I did not mess with trying to sort items, since Bonanzle's widgets often sort the items the way they want. The main thing was to get the items in there to see if this might work the way I want. I know where I want to go with this, but I have no additional comment at this time. Let's just say that this has potential, which I'm sure you will readily recognize even though you don't know my full plan.

This page is not yet linked from my site, but since I have just linked to it from here, Google will know about it immediately since Google owns Blogger. It should get indexed fast.

If you have suggestions, let me know. I'm liking the way it is shaping up, and it looks much better than my first attempt earlier today.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #35

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories- Lot of 2 Books Item #110441656908

This auction was for two Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. The seller stated that the books have the wartime conditions notice, which dates the books to World War II. The seller stated that one book lists to Missing Map and the other one to Moss-Covered Mansion. The seller also stated that the books were printed around 1942-1943.

Question: Please send pictures of the book without the dust jacket. Are they blue cloth or tweed? Orange on blue or blue on blue? Are the inside end papers orange?

Answer: Yes books are orange lettering on blue. and inside Orange figures/pictures

The buyer's questions were all unnecessary. While the seller did not state the requested information in the original description, the books were printed during the early 1940s (for multiple reasons given by the seller and mentioned above). All Nancy Drew books from the early 1940s have orange print on the cover and orange silhouette endpapers. The prospective buyer asked whether the books are tweed. The tweed books did not come along until the 1950s, so the books cannot be tweed. Please see my Nancy Drew formats page for this information.

Some Tips for an eBay Seller

I had an email discussion with an eBay seller of series books this weekend. This person's sales have plummeted, and she wanted input. This post contains my responses with all identifying information removed.

October 31

It is frustrating, isn't it? I think some of my recent comments do apply to your situation. I know that you use the fixed-price 30-day listings for many of your listings. What I found when I analyzed search is that the fixed-price listings are getting buried in best match. They show up ranking high when first listed, but as each day passes, the ranking goes down. By the very last day, the fixed-price listings are at the very end of the best match search. For a search like Nancy Drew that contains 3,000 items, this means that on the final day your items would be ranking at around 2,800 to 3,000 in best match search. As a result, buyers sorting by best match may never see your listings regardless of how you price them.

People like me who use ending soonest see your items on the last day just fine. I see your stuff all the time. I suspect that a majority of buyers no longer use ending soonest since the default is best match. I think it is the reason your stuff is not selling like it should.

I think it was in September that eBay changed the best match formula to what it is now. Prior to September, fixed-price listings were getting preferential treatment in best match, especially if the sellers had high DSRs. The DSRs are no longer used in the same way they were prior to September. It no longer matters in best match if you have all 4.9s and 5.0s on your stars. The primary boost in best match seems to come from the auction listings and whether a seller is top-rated. Since your sales have dropped, which is eBay's fault, you do not quality for power seller, so you do not have the top-rated seller icon. You can't win.

I have been paying close attention to the fixed-price listings and how well several sellers have been doing recently on eBay. (ID removed) is a seller whose sales I have mentioned in my blog (never by name of course), and she has had mostly low sales for months. Unfortunately, you seem to have been pulled into the same quagmire as she.

When I recently mentioned some books that were fixed-price and moments before ending that were buried in best match, the seller was (ID removed). Her sales were still great the last time I checked, but even her listings are getting buried in best match, which truly surprises me.

You are now in the position I was in back in December when I found my books were not selling, and I was trying to figure how to make eBay work for me. Of course you know what I decided to do, mainly because eBay kept telling me on my seller dashboard that I was a bad seller.

So, what can you do? I don't have an easy surefire answer. I do believe that auctions are now receiving preferential treatment in best match due to my observations last week when I had some auctions running. My auctions had relatively high placement in best match the final two days that they ran. They were already showing around the 300th item position two days before closing and were fairly high on the very first page of best match during the last day.

Since auctions are finally favored again, my best advice would be to try running more auctions than what you have. Auctions are more expensive, but it might pay off. Let's say that you have 20 items up for sale as 30-day fixed price listings. You could try listing around 10 or so auctions, staggered as a couple each day, so that you would always have an auction close to ending. This way you would always have an item near the top in best match. What you would then need to do is put a blurb in your auctions (probably prominently placed somewhat near the top) inviting buyers to take a look at your fixed-price items. This way you might be able to get more traffic to your fixed-price listings, since eBay seems to want to hide them.

The economy may also be part of the problem. I have sold a lot of books on Bonanzle this month, but they were mostly very low-priced. I will have a summary of my sales posted to my blog either tomorrow or Monday. Earlier this year, I was selling some more expensive books, but it seems that most buyers want cheap books. On eBay, it is just about pointless to try to offer cheap books since the fees are so darned high.

After reading my message, the seller checked on the ranking of fixed-price items in best match and was shocked at what she found. She noticed that in best match, the top results are all auctions and all top-rated sellers with just a few fixed-price listings mixed it. She was not happy about what she saw and realized that she will have to completely change her selling strategies. My next response follows.

November 1

I just posted to my blog about a group I created on Facebook. It is supposed to be a place where sellers of series books can advertise what they sell. I'm doing it to help out the other people on Bonanzle who really aren't getting that many sales. If you wish, you could also use it to promote your books on eBay. Right now it isn't going to do anything since I'm the only member, but if I can get a bunch of people to join, it ought to help in time. It is public, so it could help to some degree even without having very many members.

I do think an increasing number of people are looking outside of eBay for books.

One thing that did help me out when I first started on Bonanzle is that I emailed a bunch of old buyers. I only went back six months, but I sent messages to all of those buyers about my booth on Bonanzle. I know that a few did join Bonanzle because of my message, and a few purchased books from me.

If you ever do list books on Bonanzle, when you sell books on eBay, you can include a paper inside your package advertising your books on Bonanzle. eBay can't stop people from advertising other sites inside their packages. It is a shame that eBay tries so hard to control all aspects of transactions.

My last response is next.

November 1 (later)

It is stressful, but just know that we can come out of this ahead in the end. All of the people who buy series books are out there, but we just have to get them to know where we are. I really think that my Facebook group could help us pull in buyers and direct them to wherever we choose to sell our books. I have my post about my October sales on Bonanzle written, and it will post at midnight. When you read it and look at the screen caps of my stats, you will see how many sales I have been able to get through my website.

I think that others can pull in buyers through Facebook and other means. I also have another idea that would pull in buyers for Bonanzle, but I'm not going to mention it until if/when I decide to do it. It requires a lot more work on my part than creating a Facebook group, but it could pay off big time if I decide to do it. It might be a project for Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation.

I'm going to take my original message to you and post it in my blog in the next day or so. I will remove the user IDs and will not mention anything that would identify you. I think it is very important that everyone know what eBay is doing so that they can deal with it.

Here is a direct link to the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165267408961&ref=mf

In closing, I want to state that anyone who still sells on eBay should take a look at how their listings are displayed in best match, even if their sales are still good. If a seller is doing well, it is good to know why and try to make sure it continues. If a seller is not doing well, then it is necessary to know why so that changes can be made.

October Sales on Bonanzle

October was a good month on Bonanzle. It was my best month in the number of transactions and in the sheer number of books sold. It missed beating both August and May in the dollar amount in sales, since people are buying mostly very inexpensive books.


I sold a total of 126 books in October. I tallied the number of books by dollar amount, and this is what sold:

38 books— $3.00-$5.00
68 books—$6.00-$10.00
5 books—$11.00-$15.00
9 books—$16.00-$20.00
4 books—$21.00-$25.00
1 book—$30.00
1 book—$35.00

The average selling price was $9.39. So, as I knew all along, the higher-priced books are not selling.

The traffic to my booth dropped during the first part of October from what it was near the end of September. Near the end of September it had rebounded from the slump during the beginning of September, but the progress unraveled in early October. In the second half of October, my traffic began to increase again. Right now, my traffic is pretty good but still not at the level it was at back in late July and early August when it peaked.

The primary reason that my booth traffic dropped again is that Google did something that negatively impacted many marketplaces. Google changes its algorithm frequently, and the change that occurred in early October has caused some sellers to have very poor placement on Google or to have broken links from Google. On Bonanzle, some sellers are affected more than others. I know that I am at least partially affected but not to the extent of some others. We hope that the problems on Google will be fixed when Google next adjusts its algorithm.

In looking at my sales stats, it is quite apparent that a large number of my sales are coming off of my website. I am getting few sales from Google, which is not surprising due to the many problems. If I did not have my website pulling in traffic, I would have had fewer sales.


Many of my sales came from direct traffic as well, but I suspect a good portion of the direct traffic is actually from my widgets but just not counted as from my widgets. Notice that I did get a number of sales from Bonanzle search, so some people do recognize Bonanzle as a marketplace and are coming to Bonanzle to search for books.

Traffic to Bonanzle is steadily increasing. The venue is not to the point where everyone can have good sales—yet. I do believe that traffic will increase enough in the coming months so that we will begin to see great improvement in sales. I am constantly mulling over ideas on how to draw in more traffic. The Facebook group that I created was one of two ideas that I was thinking over. I thought of creating the Facebook group after I read this post on Bonanzle.

I think that the Facebook group could ultimately be a great central location to find all of the different places that people sell their books. Whether that will happen depends upon how many people join the group and how they decide to use it. Regardless, I think that it could have great potential.

Promoting Your Online Sales of Series Books

I am working on ways to drive buyers of series books to the other booths on Bonanzle. I have just created a group on Facebook for that purpose. As of right now, the group is less than an hour old, and I am the only member. I have posted a discussion topic asking where people sell their books. I have posted the URL of my booth on Bonanzle. I hope others will join me and post their links as well. Heck, I will probably post some links to other booths in the next day or so just to help others out.

The purpose of the group is to promote wherever you sell your books. You don't have to sell on Bonanzle to join the group and promote your books. Yes, eBay sellers of series books are very welcome. Some of you who sell on eBay probably need all the help you can get, so you are definitely invited. I do want to keep this group limited to series books. It's fine if people sell other stuff in addition to series books, but series books need to be the primary focus.

I named the group "Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books" so that there would be no doubt of its purpose. I guess a link would help, right?

Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books

I have not done anything with it except set it up and post my one message. Since I created the group, I am the administrator, but all members will be able to post messages, photos, links, etc.

The reason why I created this group is because the folks at Bonanzle have stated that Bonanzle is getting more traffic from Facebook than from Google. I figured that if that is the case, then why not give it a try? Let's see what happens.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #34

1933 NANCY DREW THE PASSWORD TO LARKSPUR LANE Item #220488653044

Question: Is there printing on the reverse side of the dust jacket or is it blank? Thank you.

Answer: THERE IS PRINTING ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE DUST JACKET.

The prospective buyer was asking the question in order to determine whether the dust jacket is the first/second printing dust jacket, which are identical. Only the first/second printing dust jacket has the print on the reverse side.

While the seller did not show the reverse side of the dust jacket, one of the photos contained the information that the buyer was seeking. It is something that I always watch for when a seller shows a photo of either flap of an early dust jacket. Here is the important photo:


Notice along the extreme right edge of the back flap that something is printed in red ink. The only Nancy Drew dust jackets that have that message on them in red ink are the ones that have lists of books printed on the reverse side of the dust jacket. Therefore, this dust jacket is one of the very early dust jackets with the ads on the reverse side.

Both the front and back flaps have a message along the edge in red ink. On the front flap, the message reads, "LOOK ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS JACKET." On the back flap, the message reads, "PRESERVE THIS WRAPPER FOR FUTURE REFERENCE." Anytime you see a photo of one of the jacket flaps and see a message at the edge in red ink, it is a very early dust jacket from the early 1930s that has the lists on the reverse side.

The "New" Dana Girls Books

Two "new" Dana Girls books are now for sale on various websites. I have seen them on at least three different websites, and I am sure that they are available on others as well. Two different people have asked me about these books, and they are also the subject of some discussion in the Judy Bolton group.

The "new" Dana Girls books are called The Secret at the Windmill Estate and The Mystery of the Cameo Curse. These are not new stories. They are actually Kay Tracey books that have been "rewritten" into Dana Girls books by someone. While names have been changed and passages have been partially rewritten, the "new" Dana Girls books have heavily plagiarized the two Kay Tracey books.

Here is the beginning of the Kay Tracey book, The Secret at the Windmill:

Three high school girls, their arms loaded with textbooks, raced across the Carmont station platform, swinging aboard the train just as it started to move.

"One day we'll be a second too late," Betty Worth declared, brushing a wisp of blond hair from her eyes. "Kay Tracey, you're a regular sprinter when it comes to catching trains at the last moment!"

"I don't like to stand around at a station platform when I can find more interesting things to do," Kay responded, her brown eyes twinkling. "Besides, foot racing is good for the figure."

"If we keep pace with you we'll be skeletons before the school term ends," Wilma drawled. "Look at me already."

Here is the opening of the "new" Dana Girls book, The Secret at Windmill Estate:

Two school girls raced across the Penfield station platform, swinging aboard the train just as it started to move. The train slowly left the station in the late afternoon sunshine.

"One day we'll be a second too late," Jean Dana declared, brushing a wisp of blond hair from her eyes. "Louise, you're a regular sprinter when it comes to catching trains at the last moment!"

"I don't like to stand around at a station platform when I can find more interesting things to do," Louise Dana answered her sister, her eyes twinkling. "Besides, foot racing is good for the figure."

"We'll be skeletons before the school term ends," Jean said. As the days grew longer and the temperature became warmer, she knew that Summer would soon be upon them.

The above passage is taken from the preview that appears on the link that I provided near the beginning of this post. I have not purchased these books, and I do not intend to do so. They sound interesting, but I do not find them interesting enough to want to pay nearly $20 for each of them. Perhaps if they were less than $10, I would at least consider it.

The copyright pages, which can be seen in the preview of the books, refer to the books as parodies. Parodies are protected under copyright laws, so by calling the books parodies, the author was able to get a publisher to accept them. By definition, a parody "imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule." First, I do not believe that these texts are intended to ridicule the original texts. Second and more importantly, these texts are much more than imitation. Large portions of these texts are identical to the original books. This is plagiarism.

Both the Dana Girls and Kay Tracey series were properties of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which was purchased by Simon and Schuster. I doubt that Simon and Schuster gave permission for these books to be published.

As to whether collectors should purchase these books, that is an individual decision. Some collectors have expressed positive opinions and will be purchasing them. Others, like me, will not be purchasing the books. Mainly, people need to be aware that these books are not completely new stories.

The Crossword Cipher Saga Continues...

This is just amazing. I bought this lot of books on eBay:

Nancy Drew 10 hardcovers 1933 & up GREAT set!!! Item #220494603776


I only bought the lot because of the library binding of Whispering Statue, not that I really needed another library binding. The books didn't look to be in very good shape, in spite of the seller's comments. I just received the books, and they are what I expected—not in very good shape. Whenever I buy library bindings, they usually come with poor condition books, and that is what I expect regardless of what the seller states.

As I pull Nancy Drew picture covers from packages, I always turn to the back cover to see what is the last title listed. I get to the rather trashed copy of Crossword Cipher and... it lists to Pine Hill on the back cover. The elusive first printing! Or is it?

The book lists to Pine Hill on the back cover, which meets the points for the elusive 1967A-1 printing.

However, we have a problem. The elusive first printing has no interior list of titles... then why on earth does mine have a list of titles? It is on the reverse side of the last page of text, which is page 177.


The list of titles is ND #1-43 and DG #1-27. This matches the interior list for the third, fourth, and fifth printings. So I seem to have a hybrid between the first and one of three later printings. So what do I have? Do I have the elusive first printing? As far as I'm concerned, I have yet another interesting anomaly. I'm not convinced that it is the first printing. I still think that the "first printing" of Crossword Cipher is more of an anomaly, even though multiple examples exist.

So if you own a Crossword Cipher listing to Pine Hill, does your book have a post-text list of titles? This gets stranger and stranger.

How to Complete Checkout on Bonanzle

Some people are having trouble following through on the process to complete checkout on Bonanzle. Here is the process complete with screen caps.

I used my own items for these screen caps, and I did it without logging in to demonstrate that one does not have to register on the site in order to make a purchase.

First, find an item that you want to add to your cart. I chose a Larkspur Lane PC. I clicked on "add to cart," and the item immediately showed up in the lower right in the cart.


I then looked at a Larkspur Lane with dust jacket. Notice on the next screen cap that the first book still shows in my cart.


I then clicked on "add to cart." In this next screen cap, you will see that the second book has now appeared in my cart.


I was ready to check out. I clicked on the green "view cart" that can be seen in the extreme lower right corner of the above screen cap. This brought me to the following page:

Since I was "new to Bonanzle" and did not wish to register, I entered my zip code at the left then proceeded to checkout. This is the page that I saw:

I had three options: money order, PayPal, and Google Checkout. For buyers who wish to pay by money order, that option is kind of hidden at the left. If you select "money order," your order will be submitted as an offer, which the seller has to approve. If you select "PayPal" or "Google Checkout," then you will proceed to your account to complete the payment. I hope this helps.

"Spring Cleaning" in Fall

I am in the process of sorting books. Right now I am working on the books that are in my Bonanzle booth.

Jennifer's Series Books

I have slashed the prices of a number of books, and I expect that I will lower some additional prices as well as I continue this process. I have also removed some books from my booth and plan to remove a bunch more. I need to reduce my extras so that I can get them in order.

So far I have reduced prices on all of my Dorothy Dale and Harriet Pyne Grove books as well as a couple of Marjorie Dean. I reduced prices on some of the Mildred Wirt Benson, Girl Scouts, and Girls' Series books.

The books that I decide to remove from my booth will get bulk listed on eBay. I am feeling pretty confident that people are able to find auction items in "best match" search after my observations during the last week. Therefore, I am feeling better about selling some of my better books in bulk. I will probably remove all of the Landmark Books and some of the Boys' Series books.

6:35 PM Update: Since posting this, I have cut my Landmark Books' prices in half to give them a chance to sell. I have now reduced prices on a few Nancy Drew books as well.

Warnings at Waverly Academy

The 21st Nancy Drew game, Warnings at Waverly Academy, was released this month by Her Interactive. This game is loosely based on the Nancy Drew book, The Curse of the Black Cat. Unlike the early Nancy Drew games, the more recent ones are just slightly based on the books, so it is possible to have read the book and not be able to guess who the villain is in the game.

This game was back to basics. I greatly enjoyed how for the first time in a number of games, the player is able to walk through and explore a building in first person. In most of the recent games, a large amount of the game play has been in third person, in which the player has to guide Nancy from above through some means.

The character interaction is much better than in the previous game, Ransom of the Seven Ships. In Seven Ships, the player is only able to talk to a couple of people so it is not hard to guess who the villain is. In this game, the player is able to speak to a number of characters, so it is not obvious.

As in previous games, the player has to play games with one of the characters in order to gain information. I found the two games to be much easier than the ones from Seven Ships. Seven Ships has this horrible coconut throw that is just about impossible to win. I hated it. This game has scram and air hockey, and I was able to win both on just the second try. My first try yielded me the necessary information on how to play each game, so on the second try I was able to beat both of them.

I cheated with online spoilers a few times, but if I had wished to spend the extra time, I could have completed all tasks without help. This game was easier than most of the recent Nancy Drew games. It would probably be a good one for someone to try who has never played a Nancy Drew game.

For people who like the play the game to learn the title of the next game, please stop reading here if you do not want to know the title or subject of the next game that is to be released next year. Remember, you've been warned to quit reading NOW...
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SPOILER ALERT
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The next game is called Trail of the Twister and is set in Oklahoma. Ugh... I was a bit dismayed since that means that the game is based on The Mystery in Tornado Alley, which is set in my home state of Oklahoma and is one of my least favorite Nancy Drew books. I absolutely hate that book...

Why do I hate it? First, it is written very badly. It makes little sense and the plot has a thousand holes. It is stupid. I haven't read it since I read it years ago, and I hardly want to put myself through a bad experience in order to refresh my memory of the specifics. I will, however, mention the part of the book that I object to the most. I found an old post of mine to the Nancy Drew Sleuths group in which I answered the question of whether I felt that Nancy Drew had ever had a "jump the shark" moment.

Once again, be forewarned of spoiler information concerning a dreadful book that you probably don't want to read anyway...

SPOILER

I could mention several, but I would say the main one would be in Tornado Alley when Nancy is sucked into an F5 tornado while in a car, stays conscious while banging around in the car, decides to get out of the car, and is set gently on the ground uninjured and unhit by debris. It is not only stupid and unbelievable, but totally irresponsible of the author to write such utter garbage. I live in Central Oklahoma and was nearly hit (missed by half a mile) by the F5 Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999. I have a healthy respect of tornadoes and what they can do.

I will elaborate a little bit. One cannot survive an F5 tornado without taking cover. The F5 tornado of May 3, 1999 killed more than 40 people. Nearly everyone took cover, which is why so few people were killed by a huge tornado with winds of 318 mph, and some of the people were killed in their homes while taking cover in closets or bathrooms. Many of the people who took cover under highway overpasses had hideous injuries such as losing an ear. It was not pretty.

I drove by a huge pile of mangled cars each day for months after the tornado while on the way to work. Those cars were twisted and torn like they had been in a horrific accident at a high rate of speed. There is no way that someone could have been in one of those cars and survived that kind of tornado, let alone been in full control of oneself and able to get out of the car (!) and land on the ground uninjured. Not only that, but Nancy's friends conveniently arrive right after the tornado passes, and they never check on the other person who was in the car with Nancy. They just leave assuming he is dead (!). If Nancy lived through it, then why couldn't he have lived? It turned out he was dead, but still... (!)

Just thinking about it brings back horrible memories of that book. I shudder.

The good news is that surely Her Interactive is changing up the story significantly like they have other recent games. I hope... I have this lingering worry that Her Interactive will have Nancy sucked into a tornado, etc. Ugh!

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #33

SIGN OF THE TWISTED CANDLES - KEENE NANCY DREW MYSTERY Item #380162102798

This is the seller's picture:

Question: Hi there! I'm interested in purchasing this book. I was wondering if you could describe for me the endpapers inside the front cover - what the design looks like and what color it's printed in.

Answer: The endpapers are orange silhouettes on white. ONe side shows three girls and the other side shows Nancy with a magnifying glass following a trail with a house in the background. Thanks for your interest. Good luck!

This is another example of an unnecessary question. Notice the lower right corner of the book where the dust jacket is turned back. We can see that the dust jacket has the print on the reverse side, which means that the jacket is from the early 1930s. Anyone who has visited my Nancy Drew formats page knows that Twisted Candles was never printed in the blank endpapers format (only volumes 1-7 were). Since the jacket is from the early 1930s, the book must have orange silhouette endpapers. Notice that the book is thick and that a small amount of the orange writing can be seen on the cover. These are other clues.

More on Best Match

In my last post, I mentioned discrepancies in eBay's "best match" search. Today I was able to check the "best match" standing of a couple of listings from a seller who has had a low recent sell-through rate. Both listings were for collectible vintage Nancy Drew books, and both listings were fixed-price.

One of the listings was the #1 item on the "ending soonest" search and was set to close three minutes later. I quickly ran a "best match" search. I was unable to find the item in the top 1,000 results in "best match" before I ran out of time.

I next chose another listing from the same seller which was set to close 20 minutes later. This gave me a bit more time. This item had a "best match" ranking of between 2,200 and 2,400. How would anyone find it with "best match" search?

I wondered whether 30-day fixed-price listings fall down towards the bottom of the "best match" search results when they get closer to completion. I tried to test my theory, but I was not able to find a listing from the same seller which was new. I did find one that was listed four days ago. This listing had a "best match" rank of between 1,600 and 1,800, which was bad but better than the items that were close to completion.

It is now no mystery to me why this seller has had low sales.

I next checked a fixed-price listing from another seller and found that a listing that closes tomorrow has a ranking of approximately 2,200 in "best match" search. This was a different seller but the same result. Interesting...

My four auctions close in two days. I decided to go ahead and look for them in the "best match" search results. I was quite surprised to find that all four listings were ranked at about 300 in the "best match" search. I feel that this is quite high for listings that still have two days to go, and especially for someone like me who was not wanted by eBay one year ago. I assumed that eBay favored sellers who use eBay more. Since I no longer sell much on eBay, I thought my listings would be buried, but this is not the case. This proves that eBay is favoring auctions over fixed-price listings in search, just as they have stated.

The ranking of my items cannot be because of anything I have done. I have only sold two items in the last two months, so I do not have previous sales to give me a boost. I am not a top-rated seller. Since these lots contain multiple books, I used the shipping calculator to set my shipping at above $4.00. It does not look like I am getting penalized for having higher shipping, which I sort of expected. The placement of the listings has to be because of the auction format.

Personally, I would be peeved if I were listing a bunch of fixed-price listings and eBay were hiding them from everyone. No wonder so many of them are not selling.

Search Discrepancies on eBay

Those of you who still sell on eBay should not take offense when I mention your sales. I do not mention names, and I am not implying that you have done anything wrong. On the contrary, I am indignant that eBay is hiding your items in search. The "best-match" search truly is hiding items—at least some of them.

I ran a search last night for "Nancy Drew" under "best match" and "ending soonest." I did not have the luxury of checking the results for any seller whose sales are down, since I needed for those sellers to have listings about to close, but I did find a result for someone who is well-known in the series book collecting community.

This person's book was #4 on the "ending soonest" search. It closed approximately one hour after I ran my search. This seller is not top-rated. I checked the results for "best match" and was unable to locate the book in the first 1,400 results (!). I figured that I had proved my point by that time, so I did not check further. I used the browser "find" feature on a word from the title of the listing as I searched each page of results to make certain that I did not miss it. There is no way that a buyer would have found that particular book in "best match." By the way, it was a blue tweed Nancy Drew book with dust jacket, so it was definitely a book that was of interest to collectors.

I also noticed that the missing item was one that had "Buy It Now or Best Offer" enabled. At the time that I ran this particular search, I noticed that the auction listings were receiving prominent placement in "best match" while the ones with Buy It Now were either missing or way down the page.

I checked the search results again this afternoon, and I noticed that the Buy It Now listings were receiving about the same placement as the auction listings. The "best match" results seem to change from day to day. It is very odd. If I were selling all of my books on eBay, I would be very concerned about this. The reason why I am checking into it is because people have mentioned the discrepancies on various message boards, and I wanted to see for myself if their statements are true. Apparently they are.

Tonight, I ran another search and compared the results for "ending soonest" and "best match." Once again, I was able to quickly isolate a book that is to close in around 12 hours and is not showing in "best match." This time, I went through every page of results. I was unable to find the book in any of the 18 pages of results, or 3,514 items. That book is not showing in "best match" at all. Why?

I noticed that the book is from the same seller as the first book I mentioned from last night. I also noticed that the book is a "Buy It Now or Best Offer" item. Odd... Out of curiosity, I checked to see if that seller had any other copies of that Nancy Drew volume available. The seller had two others. The other two books were showing on page 18 of 18 under "best match" and were ranked at around 3,400 out of the 3,514 items. This is not good.

These books are all vintage, collectible Nancy Drew books that are of interest to collectors. They are buried in "best match" while dozens, maybe hundreds, of near worthless flashlight editions are ranked higher. "Best match" indeed...

I am amazed that this particular seller who has a long track record and good sales has books that eBay is hiding in "best match." I thought eBay liked sellers who sell a lot, so why is eBay hiding some of this seller's items?

I do actually have four bulk lots of Nancy Drew books on eBay right now. They are books that I do not care to sell on Bonanzle. The books are all in auctions with no Buy It Now. As they reach the final day, I'm going to be checking to see what the placement is in "best match" and "ending soonest." I suggest other sellers do the same with their listings as the listings near the closing time.
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In addition to the "best match" problems, eBay is messing around with the search results again. The store results have been placed back into the core search results for some lucky users like me. This was done in 2006 and resulted in auctions losing in popularity. When eBay realized the mistake, the store results were removed from core, but the damage had been done. Since 2006, auctions have been on a steady decline. For some reason, eBay has decided to place store results back in core in a test run. This means that our search results are cluttered with store items, and it is very hard to find anything for the larger searches. While the test search may positively affect eBay stores, it will negatively affect people who have paid higher fees for auctions and 30-day fixed price listings.

If you remove all of your eBay cookies, you may be able to get out of the test search. I tried it and was able to see the normal search results again. I do not know how long this test is set to run, but it is making large searches like "Nancy Drew" very hard to navigate.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #32

This is more of a case of seller confusion, but it is worth mentioning.

1931 NANCY DREW THE SECRET AT SHADOW RANCH Item #180405212444

In the description, the seller stated, "I BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE FIRST PRINTING SINCE THERE IS ONLY ONE DATE IN THE BOOK."

The seller is someone who, like many, believes that a single date proves that the book is the first printing. While this is true for many publishers, it is not true for Grosset and Dunlap. People do not realize that Grosset and Dunlap saved money by seldom changing the plates. Nearly all printings of all Nancy Drew books printed before 1985 only have one date on the copyright page. Just about every single book looks like a first printing to someone who thinks that a single date proves that a book is the first printing.
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In this case, a prospective buyer who is fully informed and owns a Farah's Guide wished to identify whether the book is the first printing in a more difficult method than was necessary.

VINTAGE NANCY DREW 1937 WHISPERING STATUE #14 First Ed. Item #120469851150

The listing included these photos in addition to many others.


The flaps of the jacket match the points for both the first and second printing dust jackets, which are identical. The book's points are needed to determine whether the book is the first or second printing, thus determining whether the book and jacket meet the points for the first or second printing.

Question: Your heading advertises this as a first ed first printing but your description says you aren't sure so this is a bit misleading to bidders. The only way to determine the difference between a first and second printing of this title is to show a pic of the actual book without the jacket. Thanks!

Answer: My own research indicates that this (and the other ND I currently have up) is a 1st edition. But I'm not a professional book seller, and want to make clear to prospective bidders that they should double check with reputable guide books. I'm not sure how showing the book without the DJ reveals anything more than all the many shots I've provided of the DJ (which contain the lists of books in both the NDrew series and other series and are used as indicators by Farah's and others), but will try to get a shot of the book without its DJ uploaded soon. Many thanks for your input.

First of all, I have a big pet peeve about the whole formats thing in Farah's Guide, and I absolutely cannot stand scrutinizing the boards of a Nancy Drew book and trying to figure out whether I am looking at a bunch of plus signs, wavy lines, slightly raised lines, slightly depressed lines, and all that rot. Sorry. I know why he mentions all that stuff, but I avoid it whenever I can determine a printing by some other, any other, means. Why would anyone go through that on purpose?

So... This is why it was unnecessary. The first printing book has the following post-text ads: ND#1-13, ML #1-6, and JB #1-9. The second printing book has the following post-text ads: ND #1-13, HBG (6), and ML #1-6. All that needed to be asked was whether the very last post-text ad page listed nine Judy Bolton titles ending in Mysterious Half Cat. Only the first printing book has that page as the last ad. That seems easier to me than trying to look at the boards from an eBay photo that has a reduced resolution.

Here is the picture of the book that the seller added in response to that question:


As much as I hate it, I will mention the format information for the boards of the book for the first and second printings. Farah states that the first printing book is Format 3 which has the cover stock texture of "moderately raised horizontal and vertical lines arranged in a weaving pattern." The second printing book is Format 4 which has the cover stock texture of "slightly raised rows of horizontally connected plus signs."

Um, okay. I hate this. It is really hard to tell from the photo, but I think I am seeing the Format 3 pattern. I had to get my first printing book off of the shelf to compare it to this one to make certain. Yes, this book has the Format 3 pattern, so it is the first printing. Wouldn't it have been easier to just look at the post-text ads?

Note: Since the questioner may be a reader of this blog, please try not to be offended as I seem to be offending quite a few people lately. This blog contains my opinions, and I abhor looking at the texture of the boards of Nancy Drew books. It raises the hackles, if you know what I mean. I realize that for reasons unknown to me, others might prefer to look at the boards when it makes me want to scream.

A Bonanzle Success Story

Recently someone listed a large lot of thick blue Nancy Drew books on eBay. The books did not sell, and they were relisted several times. The seller dropped the price each time, and the books continued not to sell. I placed the books in my watched items list each time, and I was flabbergasted that no one was buying them. The books were priced well even on the first list and the lot had good pictures of all of the books. The thick blue Nancy Drew books typically sell very easily when placed in bulk lots. The price got to be a bit ridiculous (meaning low) as the books were relisted. It was mystifying. Or was it?

This seller is someone like me who is not a large volume seller and does not have the top-rated seller icon. I think that the books were not getting noticed because they were buried in the best-match search. I suspect that more buyers use the best-match search than we can possibly realize. People who are savvy to the ways of eBay know that best-match hides good items, but inexperienced eBay users who may have just decided to begin collecting may not realize that best-match is not a best-match.

This person listed the books on Bonanzle at a price below the first list price on eBay but above the last list price on eBay. The books sold the very same day they were listed. They were noticed immediately and sold. This is another example how low volume sellers are able to get noticed better on a small venue like Bonanzle.

On the other hand, some of you are probably not getting many or any sales. The reason why is that the right person has not come along. I am finding that I have to be patient regarding most of my books. They will eventually sell, but it can take months before the right person comes along.

I had some books by Thornton W. Burgess that I listed early this year, probably in March or April. I finally sold two of them this week. I know that my buyer found one of the books direct from a Google search since that book showed on the first page of the Google search that the buyer ran. I have a premier account on Bonanzle so that I can get the seller stats, and this is why I have the information.

What is really great is that I sold two books to that buyer, and two other sellers also sold Burgess books to that same buyer. I always run completed item searches after I make sales to see if the buyers bought books from other people as well. Every time we can get a buyer to come to Bonanzle from Google, that buyer may buy from additional sellers and may come back later for more. Remember that your listings need to have good keywords, since Google is your best source for new buyers.

My sales in October are turning out to be pretty good, but I am primarily selling very low-priced books. I think that buyers are currently wanting low-priced books, so that is what is selling. Perhaps in a few months some of the higher-priced books will begin to move.

The media have reported for a while that the recession is either over or nearly over, but I believe that this is premature and false information. Buyers seem to be holding back and are choosing to purchase inexpensive books. I am pulling out all of the inexpensive books that I can and plan to get them listed on Bonanzle as soon as possible.

Bonanzle Update #20

I have a short list of around six sellers of series books that I check on each month in order to see how sales are going on eBay. These are people who always have books up for sale, so they are sellers whose names all of you would instantly recognize if you buy series books on eBay. These are also the type of seller that eBay loves, since eBay feels that recent sales are very important to how it ranks a seller in best-match search.

There are a few who have consistently had sell-through rates of 40% and above who still have comparable sell-through rates. There is one seller who I have mentioned in the past who has tended to have a dismal sell-through rate in recent months. During the last 15 days, this particular seller, who listed hundreds of books, had a sell-through rate of just 4.4%, which is far worse than the last time I mentioned this seller. Another seller who has typically had a sell-through rate of 30% or higher had a sell-through rate of just 8.8%.

Something is wrong on eBay. What I think is happening is that the stupid top-rated seller program is hindering everyone who is not part of the program. Now the badges themselves may not be to blame; it is more likely the fact that eBay is suppressing the results in search for those who are not top-rated.

Both of the sellers that I just mentioned do not have the top-rated seller badge. These sellers sold fewer books on eBay than I sold on Bonanzle in the last 15 days. I have had 13 transactions on Bonanzle in the last 15 days. These two sellers have each sold fewer than 10 books on eBay. The discrepancy gets greater if you look at how many books I sold in my 13 transactions. I have sold 55 books in the last 15 days!

This is interesting. I really do not think I am doing that great on Bonanzle, at least in the big scheme of things. Seriously! I am not selling that high of a dollar amount in books. I do not sell books each day. Sometimes a week or more can pass with no books sold. Bonanzle does not have much traffic. In fact, it has an extremely small amount of traffic as compared to eBay. Then how am I doing better than some people who are selling on eBay?

It is because those people's items are getting buried in the search results. I am having more luck on a site that has far less traffic. It is actually quite simple. EBay is not feeding items to Google. EBay is supposed to be feeding the store items to Google, but according to eBay store owners on the eBay Stores message board, eBay has not been sending their items for several months. EBay has never uploaded the auctions nor the 30-day fixed price items, to my knowledge.

Think about it. You place items up for sale on eBay, yet your items will not be seen in Google, which is the most popular website on the planet. Someone like me places items on Bonanzle, which has little traffic, yet my items get seen on Google, the most popular website. Which would you rather?

I am not suggesting that successful eBay sellers should try out another site. Those people have something good going for them and need to continue to exploit it. If you are someone who, like me last year, had trouble getting noticed on eBay, then you need to consider another venue. It does not have to be Bonanzle; it could be someplace else. Do yourself a favor and look into other options.

If you do try a site like Bonanzle, make sure you use good keywords to describe your items. I mentioned this in my last Bonanzle post, and it cannot be mentioned enough. Even on eBay, people have problems selling items when they are not described properly. On sites other than eBay, poor descriptions are suicidal. Google does not pick up items when those items do not have good keywords. As I stated before, if you are selling books, place the complete title of your book in the description area along with the author, copyright, publisher, and anything else of importance like the format of the book. Remember, Google is your friend, but your friend will turn on you when you do not place the important keywords in your description.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #31

Vintage Lot of 19 Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys HC Books Item #270447639838

This is the seller's picture:


The auction contained this information in the description:

1. The Scarlet Slipper Mystery 1954
2. The Mystery of The Ivory Charm 1936
3. The Clue of the Velvet Mask1953
4. The Clue in the Old Stagecoach 1960
5. The Mystery At The Moss-Covered Mansion 1941
6. The Haunted Showboat 1957
7. The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk 1940
8. The Clue of the Black Keys 1951
9. The Haunted Bridge 1937
10. The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933
11. The Secret At Shadow Ranch 1931
12. The Ringmaster's Secret 1953
13. The Clue of the Leaning Chimney 1949
14. The Secret of the Old Clock 1930 (missing binder)
15. The Whispering Statue 1937 (has water damage on front, back, & binder)
16. The Secret of the Golden Pavilion 1959
17. The Hidden Window Mystery 1956
18. The Clue in the Diary 1932

Question: Do these all have 25 chapters (in particular, The Hidden Window)? Thanks.

Answer: All but 3 have 25 chapters including The Hidden Window has 25. The 3 that have only 20 chapters are The Clue in the Old Stagecoach, The Haunted Showboat, and The Secret of the Golden Pavilion.

As I have stated in the past, this type of question is often unnecessary. In this particular case, it was completely unnecessary. The seller provided a photo of the books and even gave the copyright dates. With the inclusion of the copyright dates, there is no doubt which books contained the original text.

All Nancy Drew books with a copyright date of 1956 or before must contain 25 chapters. All blue tweed Nancy Drew books must contain the original text with the exceptions of #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is only necessary to ask about #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 if the copyright date is not given. If the copyright date is given and is before 1956 (it will be 1930 or 1931), then those books must contain the original text. Of those books, this lot only contained #1, and the copyright date given was 1930, proving that the book has the original text.

The blue tweed books for #35 through 38 have copyrights after 1956 and contain just 20 chapters. However, those four books never had 25 chapters in the first place, so they contain the original text.

Of particular concern to the prospective buyer was whether Hidden Window contained the original text. Hidden Window was not revised under the 1970s when it was in the matte picture cover format. It is not possible for a tweed copy of Hidden Window to have anything other than the original text. The copyright date for the original text is 1956, so this is further proof that the book has the original text.

If prospective buyers have a handy list of the original copyright dates of Nancy Drew books, then it is always easy to determine whether the book has the original 25 chapter text. The book just has to have a copyright date of 1956 or before.

Series Books for Sale on Bonanzle #2

Jennifer's Series Books

I have recently listed quite a few Nancy Drew first picture cover books, generally at lower prices than what the prices are on eBay. I have just listed a bunch of Nancy Drew blue and tweed books that do not have dust jackets. I have quite a few Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Dana Girls books that I will be listing within the next few days.

I also have a wide variety of other girls' series books already listed in my booth. If desired, buyers can select one freebie for each book purchased. Visit the "freebies" category in my booth to see what is available.

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Lian's Vintage Series Books

Here you will find a nice selection of Judy Bolton, Dana Girls, Nancy Drew, Happy Hollisters, Trixie Belden, Phyllis A. Whitney, and Bobbsey Twins.

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Nancy Drew Sleuth

This booth has some Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Three Investigators, and other series books.

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Vintage Girlhood Books

This booth offers a nice variety of Kay Tracey, Judy Bolton, Outdoor Girls, Nancy Drew, Beverly Gray, Perry Pierce, Dana Girls, Trixie Belden, and many other series books.

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Series Book Lover

This booth offers some Oz books as well as some thick and first printing Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. This booth also has some Hardy Boys books in dust jacket and Nancy Drew Girl Detective hardcover editions.

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Book Venture

This seller has a variety of series books available, including Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, The Tuckers, and many others.

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The Mystery at Harpers Ferry

This book has a few nice Nancy Drew books in dust jacket plus a Dana Girls book.

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CAL's Book Inn

This seller has many Bobbsey Twins, Betty Gordon, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and other children's books.


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Only Nancy Drew

This booth offers a variety of Nancy Drew books, including dust jacket editions, picture covers, and twin thriller editions.

Bonanzle Update #19

I removed the money order option from my booth since I have had problems with money order buyers not paying. Since it has become a problematic method of payment, I no longer wish to accept it. However, if anyone reading this blog is someone who has purchased from me in the past and prefers to mail payment, I would be willing to change my payment methods temporarily in order to accept a mailed payment. Other than people from whom I have successfully received mailed payment in the past, I am no longer willing to accept mailed payment. I regret having to make this decision, but it is necessary due to the problems I have had.
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I am finding that the low-priced reading copies are selling best for me on Bonanzle. A few months ago and previously, I was selling some of my higher-priced books. Recently, this has not been the case.

My biggest sellers are books that are priced from $3.00 to $10.00, especially the books that are priced from $3.00 to $6.00. I cannot keep Vicki Barr tweed books without jackets in stock. They go fast. I also sell Nancy Drew blue and tweed books without jackets quite rapidly. I have found that the low-numbered and low-priced Judy Bolton and Dana Girls books also tend to sell fast. Trixie Belden books that are priced reasonably are selling very fast.

What I am trying to do for now is find as many low-cost books as I can in which to stock my booth. I want to keep driving traffic to my booth, and it is apparent that my buyers want low-cost books. I find that even tweed Nancy Drew books in rough shape are selling, so long as they are priced accordingly.

Most people can no longer offer the cheap books on eBay, because the fees are too high. Bonanzle takes the fee off of the total transaction, not per book. This means that I can sell a stack of low-cost books to someone and even have them take freebies and still not take a loss in the end.

If you are someone who has primarily high-cost books in your booth, check to see whether you have any low-cost books to sell. People love low-cost books. I just had someone tell me that she just wants reading copies and is not interested in collectible copies.

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Check to see whether you are formatting your listings to give you a boost in Google's search results. Take a look at this listing. I placed this information at the beginning of the listing:

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
#48 The Crooked Banister
By Carolyn Keene
Published by Grosset and Dunlap
1971

I do this for all of my books. I find that many people who list their books on Bonanzle do not do this, and it does help raise your items higher in Google's search results. This is particularly important if you are selling Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. For that matter, it will help for all series books.

Bonanzle still does not have name recognition, so you must do a few simple things to help yourself, like place the series name and title of your book in your description. The title of the listing is not enough to get it good placement in Google. Also, have a better description than just "good condition." Google likes words. I can understand people not wanting to go back and edit older listings, but please consider spiffing up your future items so that you will have a greater chance of success.

I just checked a few series book booths on Bonanzle. Some of them have done what I have suggested in the above paragraph. Others have not. I also notice that some booths have good categories, while others do not. Some booths have separated the items into categories such as "Nancy Drew," "Judy Bolton," etc. Other booths have just one category called "Books." The booths that only have one category for all items might as well not have a category at all. It is not going to help buyers find books. Buyers need to be able to separate the books out into different types, such as by series.

Many months ago, someone suggested that critical mass for Bonanzle would be 50,000 users. Right now, Bonanzle is at 111,000 users. I currently think that critical mass is 500,000 users. We're getting there, but it is going to be at least several months before Bonanzle is going to see a significant jump in sales.

I track Bonanzle's traffic ranking on Alexa each day. It is steadily increasing, but the site needs a little more time in order to reach the point where it will begin to have name recognition. My plan is to keep as many low-cost books listed as I can, thus bringing more buyers to Bonanzle.

Does Best Match Hide Items?

The answer is "yes." People have been stating that this is true, and I have felt that it is likely true based on the examples people have given. I decided to check the veracity of their statements today.

I ran two searches for Nancy Drew in the Books category in different windows within seconds of each other (I did not want the extra clutter of all of the Her Interactive games.). I chose Nancy Drew because it is a search that returns thousands of items. The first search was "Best Match" and the second search was "ending soonest."

This was the very first item returned in the "ending soonest" search:

Mylar Covers Nancy Drew Hardy Boys Dana Judy Bolton

It was set to close six minutes after I ran the search, so it was the next item to close.

"Best Match" returned this item as the top result:

4 Nancy Drew SC Books #9 #145 #168 + Chapter Book #51

Notice that the seller of this second item is a top-rated seller. That item was set to close 27 minutes after I ran my search.

I had my search results set at 200 items per page. I checked the first 200 items in the "Best Match" search and did not find the listing for the mylar covers, in spite of the fact that it was just a few minutes before closing. I did not take the time to try to figure out how far down the mylar cover listing was in "Best Match," but I feel that a drop of more than 200 in rank is lethal to an item that is moments before closing. Historically, eBay has given a boost to items right before they close and still is for some items. Other items are never making it anywhere near the top. By the time a prospective buyer finishes looking at the first 200 items in the search, that listing would be closed.

I reloaded my results and noticed other discrepancies in which some items moments before closing were nowhere to be seen in "Best Match." This is why I can no longer sell all of my stuff on eBay. This game of eBay is distasteful.

I have noticed some very low auction results in the last week for some items. For instance, some larger lots of blue and tweed Nancy Drew books are selling at a total cost of $1.00 to $2.00 per book, which is quite low. At the same time, other sellers are getting results of $10.00 to $12.00 per blue or tweed book for comparable lots. In both cases, I refer to books that do not have dust jackets.

I think the low results are due to items that were buried in "Best Match" search. It would be nice if all buyers would use "ending soonest," but that is not the default, so many buyers use "Best Match" and fail to notice many good items.

Something really odd that has happened to me in the last month is that I have had multiple sellers put extra books in the packages when they pack the lots I have won. I think it has happened three times in the last month, and it usually happens no more than around once per year.

I had several lots arrive within days of each other, and I did not take the time to go through all of them. I did notice the extra books when I unpacked the books. I went through the books yesterday, and was able to figure out from where most of the books came. I was left with two very nice condition Dana Girls picture covers and an early Nancy Drew picture cover, and I cannot figure out who sent me those books. I went through my purchases for the last two months, looked at all of the pictures and read all of the descriptions. I cannot figure out where I got those three books. They are "mystery" books.

What I am wondering is whether it is getting so hard for some people to sell on eBay that they send extras along just to get rid of them. It is very strange.

More on Billie Bradley Sun Dial Lodge

Boring! That is how I feel about the first half of the book. It is not until page 115 that the girls finally arrive at Sun Dial Lodge. The first half of the book should be called Billie Bradley Worries about Someone Else's Lost Treasure Chest for No Reason. The treasure was found in the previous volume and belongs to someone else. While Billie is supposed to receive a small share, it little matters if the treasure is lost.

In volume 1, Billie's treasure was important since it was the means for Billie to pay for her tuition to Three Towers Hall. When that treasure was stolen (naturally all treasure chests get stolen in Syndicate books), it was vitally important that Billie recover it.

Back to the current treasure chest: Why couldn't the treasure have disappeared near the end of the last volume and then been recovered? Why waste space in this volume with the lost treasure chest? I don't care about the dang treasure chest! It belongs to a man who barely appears in this volume. I mean, really?

The first 115 pages also covers the story of Mrs. Westlock, who is the old lady who was given money near the beginning of the story (see this post) I am just not feeling the story of Mrs. Westlock. She is a pitiful old woman, and she certainly needs help. Why don't I care? Maybe if she actually interacted with the young people, I would care. She is just there, kind of like the missing treasure chest that means nothing to me.

Ah yes, once the young people arrive at Sun Dial Lodge, the book redeems itself. Vi sees a shadow lurking behind a tree and thinks it might be a ghost. The others doubt her, but we readers know that the shadow must have been a very bad person. If I were reading Nancy Drew, I'd know the person must be swarthy.

The house is completely surrounded by trees, to the point that no sunlight shines through the open windows. This is spooky. The description of the herb garden reminds me so much of the description of the grounds of Heath Castle in the Nancy Drew book, The Clue in the Crumbling Wall. I'm liking this portion of the book very much. I like descriptions of overgrown gardens with winding paths. Why couldn't the whole book have been like this?

eBay's Best Match 2.0 and Top-Rated Sellers

I am getting increasingly frustrated at eBay. Last week, eBay rolled out its second batch of changes for the year. OH NO... that stupid test search must have been the trial run for Best Match 2.0. I hate it. The Buy It Now icons are gone, so they are very hard to spot. Someone said they called eBay the other day, and the representative claimed the changes are here to stay. How is hiding the Buy It Now icon helping the item sell? Can someone explain that to me?

My next grievance is the stupid top-rated seller icon. That thing is HUGE. It also proclaims that those are the very best sellers, and as a buyer, I take this to mean that all sellers who do not have the icon are somehow inferior to the top-rated sellers and cannot be trusted. Additionally and possibly worst of all, buyers can now filter their searches to show only the top-rated sellers. For all of you sellers who are not top-rated, exactly how does that make you feel?

A few months ago, eBay sent me a message stating that I was on track to be a top-rated seller. My DSRs range from 4.9 to 5.0 and my seller dashboard says that I have no ones or twos, so I definitely qualify. However, I missed the cut, and I know why. It was originally implied that small sellers could qualify for top-rated seller status, but this is not true. I had more past sales still showing for the previous year a few months ago. As I continue to sell on Bonanzle instead of on eBay, my sales for the previous year are dropping off fast. I no longer qualify.

A bait and switch has been done by eBay. The power seller icons were retired and replaced by the top-rated seller icons. They mean exactly the same thing, except that not all power sellers qualify to be top-rated sellers. The top-rated seller icon is for an exclusive club of sellers—the cream of the crop power sellers plus those that eBay favors like Buy.com. You do know that eBay manipulates the feedback of large companies, don't you? What all of this means is that eBay has now angered many of its power sellers and all of its sellers who are not power sellers.

My seller dashboard says that I am "Above Standard," yet "Above Standard" has no impact on search ranking. Then what good is it? We either get top-rated seller status which boosts our listings in search, or we get told that we are all "Above Standard Sellers." Erik Andresen has created an image which sums up the situation nicely and has given permission for it to be shared across the internet.

The image speaks for itself.

As for those of us who are ASS sellers, this is what an eBay representative had to say about us (see this thread):

In order for us to be confident in identifying a seller as Top-rated, the seller must sell at least 100 items per year and sell at least $3k in merchandise.

There are many great sellers who sell less than that, eBay can't be confident enough to promote them, badge them, etc.

So I have to sell at least 100 items worth at least $3,000 in one year, or eBay has no confidence in my track record? What if I successfully sell 50 items and get all positives with no ones or twos? Apparently that is not good enough. They do only want high volume sellers.

I am so glad that I quit selling on eBay on January 1 (except for the occasional bulk item), since the situation has unfortunately grown quite worse.

By the way, I have reversed my opinion on the five free auction listings per month. I now think it is great, since I only intend to sell occasionally on eBay. My items are getting buried in search because I am not a top-rated (power) seller and because I have no recent sales. When I do list, it needs to be free because it won't sell since no one will notice it. I have to list multiple times before I get any takers. The final value fees are higher, but at least I don't pay for all of the unsuccessful listings.

I feel that I have around the same exposure on Bonanzle that I would have on eBay. I really do. I probably have less exposure on Bonanzle, but the way I see it, I have around the same exposure. My stuff is now hidden from buyers on eBay in a big giant mass of stuff, while on Bonanzle, I can actually get noticed. I like it.

Last, I feel that the best thing eBay has done this year is is to create the eBay Bucks program. Woo-hoo, I keep earning those bucks! I get my next certificate in a few days. Nice...

By the way, I could post lots of links here to all of the discussions about these latest changes, but it would be too much work. The idiocy of eBay management knows no bounds, and I have not mentioned everything. It appears that eBay wants to go to a bizarre feedback system in which buyers rate sellers on a scale of 1 to 10 based on whether they would recommend that seller to their family and friends (who in my case don't shop on eBay so I wouldn't be recommending anyone to them - ???). I can think of a number of specific instances in which I would not recommend a good seller to someone else, so that is just stupid. It would also be too hard to try to give a seller that kind of rating and be fair. If eBay goes to that system, I will probably never leave feedback again.

Do you own the first printing of Crossword Cipher?

Recently, Jenn Fisher asked me if I owned the first printing of the 44th Nancy Drew book, The Clue in the Crossword Cipher. I replied that I did not, and she shared that she does not own one either. We wondered why it is so hard to find.

I was reminded of this when I received a complete set of all 56 Nancy Drew picture covers. This set came from someone's collection. It contained nearly all first printing picture covers from #8 up through #56. #44 was one of the very few books that was the second printing instead of the first printing. I already had the third printing, so now I have both the second and third printings.

I find it very odd that the first printing is so elusive. Now I have an idea about this, but it is based upon what I think is the true scarcity of the first printing. I need to get an idea of how many other people actually own one.

I have created two polls. The first poll asks whether respondents own the first, second, or third printing of Crossword Cipher. The first printing of Crossword Cipher lists only to #42 on the back cover. Both the second and third printings list to #44, and I bet many people own a second or third printing and think they have the first printing.

The second printing of Crossword Cipher has no interior list, either pre-text or post-text. The third printing of Crossword Cipher has an interior post-text list of titles that ends with #43.

In my second poll, I ask which scarce picture cover printings are owned by the respondents. The list includes the $1 box editions, #7 with the 1932 text, #11 man with pipe 1934 and 1965 text variants, #41 with the tri-fold, #44 listing to #42 on the back cover, #49 with the yellow overlay on back cover, #55 first printing, and #56 first printing. That should cover the scarcest picture cover printings, aside from any unusual anomalies that have been mentioned in this blog but not documented in Farah's Guide.

This brings me to what I really think: I suspect that the first printing of Crossword Cipher is an anomaly and that possibly very few examples exist. I could be wrong, so I need to get an idea of how many people have one. I know it exists, since Farah's Guide has documented it. But was it really an entire print run as is suggested by Farah's Guide? I doubt it.

Crossword Cipher was published in 1967. Checking Farah's Guide, 1967 books tend to list to either #43 or #44 on the back cover. 1965 and 1966 books tend to list to #42. It is rather odd that the 1967 first printing of Crossword Cipher lists only to #42. This is why I think it might be an anomaly—perhaps it was a mistake or leftover back boards were used on some copies.

Aside from that, it will be interesting to see how many people own the other scarce picture printings, especially the ones that are regularly touted as so extremely RARE on eBay.

If you own one of the first three printings of Crossword Cipher or any of the scarce picture cover editions, I would really appreciate you taking the time to answer the polls.

September Sales on Bonanzle

My September sales were down from my sales in August.


I had a total of 15 transactions. The first half of the month was extremely slow with just three transactions. Part of the reason was the start of school and the Labor Day holiday. Traffic to my website and this blog were also down during September, and more so during the first part of the month.

The more significant reason for the drop in sales is that Google Base was not working for most of the month. During the first week of the month, Google announced that individual sellers would no longer have the ability to upload their items to Google. The sites would become responsible.

Google deactivated our Google Base accounts as Bonanzle prepared for our feeds to be incorporated into the new site feed. Bonanzle had the site-wide feed ready by the middle of the month, but the items did not immediately show back up in Google Base. Some seller's items are still affected even now. Gradually this problem will be worked out completely. All sites will have to transition to site-wide feeds by early December, so sellers on other sites will be affected as those sites switch over.

If you have items for sale on Bonanzle and have been getting notices from Google about failed feeds, go to your Google Base account and pause your feed. This will prevent you from getting notices that now mean nothing. By December, Google will delete your Google Base account.

Because my items did not show in Google's product search for a good part of the month, I received only one sale through Google in September, and that sale occurred at the end of the month after the problem was fixed. This is a big reason why my sales were down.


Notice that in my sales sources, only one search query is listed, which is from the one sale I had from Google. Most of my sales came through my website. Quite a few were direct traffic, which is a combination of traffic from my widgets at my website and actual direct traffic from Bonanzle search. We do now have a small group of people who are regularly purchasing series books on Bonanzle. This is a change from earlier in the year when we had none.

For some reason, some of my sales sources are from Amazon.com. This has now happened three times, and in all three cases, the sales were for Trixie Belden books. I am still at a loss as to how Amazon is getting credit for driving traffic to those sales. I continue to feel that it is an error in the stats.

October is already off to a good start with more than one sale. I notice that Bonanzle's user base is growing more rapidly than it was a month ago. The site now has over 106,000 users. I joined the site when it had around 17,000 users, so the site has come a long way since January.

Posts That Strike a Nerve

Since I have been ripped for being a vile, despicable person in a comment to my previous post, I thought I would post my response in a new post. Why not give it the attention it deserves? Here it is:

To respond to the first comment, I feel that the seller withheld the information on purpose, but I do not wish to be accused of defamation of character, so I waited to publish this post. I really do not wish to harm any seller, which brings me to the last comment...

Hmm...interesting that someone would take such offense at my comments. You aren't by any chance that seller are you? If not, then I was not speaking of you, and you had no reason to take offense.

Are you the seller who defrauded me? If not, then you had no reason to take offense.

Are you someone who packs badly, therefore allowing valuable, collectible books to get damaged? If not, then you had no reason to take offense.

Guess what? I have two lots for sale on eBay this week. I am an eBay seller (at least occasionally), yet I take no offense when people belittle eBay sellers. I know whether their comments refer to me.

As to enjoying watching the feedback crumble, I'm sorry you think I enjoy it. I have been defrauded by that seller of more than 30 dollars. I am not very happy about it. I don't know why someone would not understand how I feel when I have lost money, and more importantly, when I am not going to receive a purchase that I very much wanted to receive. I am a victim, just like when people are victims of crimes. Don't they want the perpetrators to be punished? I want my seller to be punished.

I meant the title of that post to be kind of humorous, but obviously you had to take it personally. Of course I am going to take interest in watching the feedback go down. Yes, I want retribution. I feel that bad sellers deserve bad feedback. I suppose that makes me a bad person.

It is a fact that in general sellers who sell series books on eBay at very low prices tend not to pay attention to detail. This does not make them bad sellers. It does provide me with some interesting content for this blog, which of course some people choose to take personally. There is nothing wrong with selling items for low prices. There is nothing wrong with packing badly, except that it stresses buyers out who want to receive their books in good condition. There is nothing wrong with defrauding buyers...no wait, there is. I don't care if this post makes more people angry. I just don't care.

P.S. I am not upset. I just find it amazing that people take offense at comments that are not intended in a mean-spirited fashion and are not aimed at them. If the shoe fits...

P.P.S. Just like on message boards, we tend to discuss the bad more than the good. The vast majority of my eBay transactions are flawless. I don't discuss them here because it would not be very interesting. Don't think for a minute that I think all eBay sellers are bad. 99% of my eBay transactions have been great. I have bought around 3,000 items on eBay in the past 12 1/2 years. I have been defrauded fewer than 10 times. While I have received hundreds of purchases that were packed badly, I have had fewer than two dozen purchases that were received damaged due to inferior packaging. Most transactions, and most sellers are great.

Anyone else want to have at it?

Failure to Fully Disclose Information

Too many sellers withhold information about their listings, some because they do not know better, and others on purpose. One such seller and listing are the subject of this post, and I have decided not to link to the listing. I also delayed publishing this post until I knew that the listing would not show in the completed items search, so that it would be much harder for the item to be found. I could be wrong about the seller's intent, so I'm playing it safe. The seller is not someone who normally sells series books.

The listing was for an early printing of The Clue in the Crumbling Wall with dust jacket. The seller stated that the book was a first edition in the title of the listing. The seller's picture showed that the back panel of the dust jacket lists the Beverly Gray series to Beverly Gray's Problem, so the dust jacket is definitely not the first printing dust jacket. Of course since the front flap lists to The Secret in the Old Attic, most buyers who do not have a Farah's Guide would assume that the book is the very first printing.

The seller received an informative comment from someone who was hoping to help the seller avoid a bad situation.

Question: According to Farah's Guide, the generally recognized authority of ND books, this is a 2nd -5th printing. The first printing shows Judy Bolton 1-15 titles on the back panel. The 2nd printing has a wartime conditions statement on the title page. The 2nd- 5th printings also list to Attic on the front flap with BG 1-13 on the back panel. Experienced collectors know this, but the novice lookers seem to take everything the seller says as 'gospel' and then don't exhibit any sense of humor, even over an honest mistake. It can be ugly. Good luck!

Answer: Hi, Thanks for the e-mail....according to my source (AbeBooks.com) this is the 2nd printing of the 1st edition. I use AbeBooks.com as my reference source for rare and out of print books. Thanks for your information.

The seller's response annoyed me tremendously. It sounds like the seller knew from the beginning that the book was not the first printing, but chose for whatever reason to leave that information out of the description. Not only that, it sounds to me like the seller thought that using "first edition" was all that mattered. Who cares which printing the book actually is? Gee, thanks.

If the seller had found through research that the book was the "2nd printing of the 1st edition," then why on earth did the seller not place that information in the listing?

Billie Bradley Page Now Up

I just placed the link to the Billie Bradley section on the main page of my site. Here is a link:

Billie Bradley section

I almost put it up a week ago, but I was feeling ill enough that I never followed through. I still have to finish the summary for #7, which I am currently reading, and do the summaries for #8 and #9, which I have yet to read. At the rate I am going, it might be a number of weeks. #7 has been difficult to get through, but it is getting better. I am on page 124, which is where I found the quote that I used on the main page of the Billie Bradley section. Finally, the book is getting interesting. I will expand upon my thoughts regarding #7 in another post.

Last weekend before I felt too ill to do anything, I placed my extra Billie Bradley books up for sale on Bonanzle.

Billie Bradley books for sale

These books are from some lots that I purchased relatively recently on eBay. In each lot, I was able to get at least a couple of dust jackets that I did not already have.

In just the last week, I acquired one of the Sully dust jackets. I like the Sully dust jacket because it actually has summaries of the first three titles in the series. The Cupples and Leon dust jackets do not have summaries.

Watching a Seller's Feedback

10/01/2009: I edited the title since some people apparently found it offensive.

10/05/2009: PayPal has decided the claim in my favor and states that $33.95 will be credited to my account within five days. I have not received the books, nor have I received any communication from the seller. The seller did apparently mail out some items that were sold around two weeks after my purchase, since she has received some positive feedback for those transactions. It is a mystery why some sellers decide not to mail some purchases but then mail ones that were sold later.
.........................................
On August 25, I bought a fixed-priced lot of books from a seller on eBay. As I have mentioned in the past, the fixed-price lots that are priced a little low tend to arrive packed badly, since the sellers do not know what they are doing. Another problem with low fixed-price lots is that the sellers might not be honest.

Readers of this blog may recall that I had to file a PayPal claim earlier this year for a Betty Gordon book that I never received. I had to file a PayPal claim this week on the lot of books from August 25. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have had to file more than one PayPal claim in one year due to not receiving a purchase, so from my perspective, eBay is not a better place after J.D. tightened the rules for sellers. I feel like he drove off half the good ones, and all of the bad ones are still there.

My seller's feedback was fine on August 25, and there were no signs that anything was amiss. In fact, the seller's feedback was fine until this week. The only indication of a problem was that the shipping time DSR was slightly lower than the other three DSRs, and I do mean slightly. I did not think I would have a problem because of the fact that the shipping DSR was lower; I knew the seller would ship a little slow, so I was not concerned about the purchase until three weeks had passed. The feedback comments were great, so the buyers had no problems with the seller. Slow shippers can still be overall good sellers.

This is a good example of how the DSRs do not help. The shipping time DSR was only slightly low and actually reassured me that everything would probably work out in the end. It did nothing to warn me of the kind of person that the seller actually is. No matter much eBay harasses sellers and reassures buyers that transactions are guaranteed, eBay cannot prevent this from happening. We, as buyers, have to make educated decisions about whether we can trust our sellers, and we are always taking a risk when we send money to a stranger. We cannot be protected by eBay (I typed "from eBay" accidentally at first, which is quite funny and true.).

I filed my claim on Thursday. I would have done it sooner, but I was too tired to feel like messing with it. I noticed that when I filed the claim, PayPal had me escalate it immediately, which is not how it normally works. Usually PayPal has a seven day waiting period in order for the seller to have time to leave a response. PayPal stated that the seller was unable to respond and that I should escalate at once. This told me that the seller must have already lost access to her PayPal account due to multiple claims. Not good.

I now have a new recreational activity, which happens each time I find myself in this position. I now take the time to check my seller's feedback multiple times per day to see what kind of feedback is getting posted. The seller's feedback is tanking. The communication and shipping time DSRs are plummeting fast.

I predict that the account will be suspended within the next week or so. The seller had listings up until this week, so the account may now be restricted. I hope so. Who knows how many people were defrauded, and we do not need any more people to join us.

There is still a slight possibility that I might receive the books, but I do not expect it to happen. I hope that PayPal will recover my money ($33.95 to be exact), but I have no guarantee. I will add an update to this post once something happens.

Some Funny "RARE" Books

Vintage RARE Nancy Drew Book LoT Double Books C. Keene Item #300338900982


Since when are Twin Thriller editions RARE? I laughed when I saw it, which is why it ended up in my watched items list for mention here later.

This next one is even funnier:

RARE Nancy Drew Mystery stories 7 Hollow Oak ATTIC bell Item #360181180489


Now ordinary Nancy Drew picture covers from the 1970s are RARE. I really laughed at this one! Also funny is how the books were placed on top of a bush for the photo. I would never have thought of photographing books on top of a bush.

This next one is an example of a seller stating rarity for the wrong reasons.

RARE NANCY DREW APPLEWOOD THE MESSAGE IN THE HOLLOW OAK Item #200366792295

The seller stated in the description, "HOLLOW OAK IS A RARITY- I DID NOT FIND 1 ON EBAY INCLUDING COMPLETED AUCTIONS!!!"

Back ten years ago, not finding a book in the completed listings actually meant something. Completed listings went back three months. For quite a few years, completed listings went back 30 days. That length of time has now been reduced to 15 days. So what the seller was really saying was that the Applewood Hollow Oak is a rarity because one had not been seen on eBay in the previous two weeks. Wow. I did not know that rare books are ones that have not been seen in two weeks.

So what about Linda Carlton's Perilous Summer and Linda Carlton's Hollywood Flight which no one can find for their collection? Hmm? The books were published in the 1930s and have all but disappeared from the face of the earth. A few people own them, but most people will never ever see a copy, even if they search for 30 or more years. I am not exaggerating. Isn't that what "rare" ought to mean? No wait... that is what "rare" means to people like me, which is why I laugh at these listings.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #30

Here we go again:

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Bridge (1937) 1st Edition? Item #220459821578

Here are the seller's pictures:

Question: Hello, Can you tell me if the book has orange title on the front cover, orange top of pages, & orange pics inside? Is copyright on the title page? Thanks.

Answer: Hi! The title on the front cover is black. The tops of the pages are blue. The pictures are black and white. The copyright is on the back of the title page. Sorry to have taken so long to answer, but I was called out of town.

First of all, the copyright date is never on the title page of a Nancy Drew book, except maybe in some oddball case that I can't quite remember. The buyer must know that, for many publishers, a way to determine a first printing is when the copyright date appears on the title page and is the same as the copyright printed on the copyright page. This is not true for Grosset and Dunlap. It would have required effort on G&D's part to print the date on the copyright page and to change it accordingly for later printings. G&D was low budget and low effort.

Next, the first picture tells me that the book is not thick and must be a tweed book from the 1950s. The reason I know is because the white spine wraps onto the left edge of the front panel, which indicates that the spine design of the dust jacket is too wide for the book. Most white spine dust jackets that were printed for tweed books wrap onto the left edge of the front panel. When the white spines were originally designed, they were sized to fit the thick books. As the books became less thick, the spines overlapped onto the front panel.

The second picture proves that the book is a tweed book. The list of Dana Girls titles ends with Black Flower, which was published in 1956. Therefore, this book was mostly likely printed in 1956 and must be a tweed book. Tweed books do not have orange endpapers, orange on the front cover, or orange on the top page edges.

As I have stated in the past, buyers need to educate themselves about the books before jumping into trying to buy a bunch of old books. Multiple websites exist that detail how to tell how old a Nancy Drew book is. Just a search for "Nancy Drew old books" will bring up some of the important pages. "Nancy Drew formats" works even better. A search for "Nancy Drew orange silhouette" brings up some good results. It is not hard to find the information, and having the information saves so much time. I would hate to have to ask every single seller whether a book has orange endpapers. It would waste so much time.

A Billie Bradley Observation

I have been proofreading the Billie Bradley section of my website, since I am thinking of putting it up before I finish the summaries to the last three books. I am having some trouble getting through the 7th title, Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge, as the story is boring me. I just feel like part of it is a retread of some earlier events in the series, and I find that I really don't care. It also isn't helping that I now have a wicked cold, no doubt because my immune system took a hit from the virus I had a week ago. Anyway...

I was looking at my summary page in which I have pictures of the frontispiece illustrations. Since my head is stuffy right now, I am having trouble thinking, but also, I am seeing things differently. Having a cold can have its benefits. I glanced at one of the frontispiece illustrations, and then I really stared at it.


This is the frontispiece illustration for Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes. As I stared at it, I thought of the Outdoor Girl series and how much it reminded me of a couple of Outdoor Girls dust jackets.



Walter S. Rogers drew the Billie Bradley frontispiece, and he drew most of the Outdoor Girls duotone dust jackets. I can't remember at this moment if Rogers drew the duotone dust jackets for The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale or The Outdoor Girls Around the Campfire, but he did draw the color dust jackets of those titles. Regardless, the illustrations are similar.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #29

Here is my 29th example of buyer confusion on Nancy Drew:

Nancy Drew THE CLUE IN THE CRUMBLING WALL Item #250480505779

Here is the seller's main picture:


The Clue in the Crumbling Wall had just one dust jacket design in all of the years that it was in print. Apparently many people do not know this fact.

Question: does dustjacket have a white spine ?

Answer: Yes, the dustjacket is white. It has a slight tear at the top. Nixie

A visit to one of several online resources would have answered that question for the buyer.

Nancy Drew Dust Jacket Gallery

Note that only one version of #22 is pictured in the above gallery, and it has a white spine. The buyer probably didn't realize that #22 only had one dust jacket version. The buyer may also thought that some jackets had both the white spine and the wrap spine but kept the same cover art. This is not true. When the jackets were changed to the wrap version, the cover art changed as well. The entire jacket was redone. Of course, #22 was never issued with a wrap dust jacket, so the white spine version is the only version.

Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge

A scene in the opening chapters of Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge really caught my attention. The girls have befriended an old woman who was held captive by a giantess (Does this not also remind you of Beverly Gray?). The girls have helped the woman to escape, and Billie has paid for the woman's ticket on the train to New York City. The woman has told Billie her sad story and how she hopes to make a living in the city. Billie writes her address on a slip of paper and tells the woman to come to her home if she ever needs any help.

The woman tried to smile as she accepted the slip of paper, but her lips trembled and she turned sharply away to the window.

Billie was suddenly startled by something that fell into her lap. It was a dollar bill!

"For the old lady !" some one said.

Now the girls saw for the first time that a group of passengers had gathered about them, evidently attracted by the plight of the miserable woman. That they had listened to her story with sympathy and interest was practically demonstrated a moment later.

The dollar bill became only one in a small snowstorm of bills. The passengers were betraying their sympathy in a very practicable and pleasant way!

Laughing excitedly, Billie gathered up the bills and thrust them into the trembling hands of the little old woman.

"There!" she said. "That will get you started nicely, anyway."

"But she has no pocketbook," Vi protested.

A young girl in the group of passengers hurriedly emptied the effects out of her own bag and thrust it toward the old woman.

"Here," she said. "Take mine! I haven't much money to offer, but at least I can contribute something to hold it in!"

"You see, people do care !" cried Billie gayly. "Every one wants to help. I'm sure you will find it the same in New York. But if you don't, there's still North Bend and our house with a welcome sign always hanging out for you! Don't forget!"

Usually only our heroes go out of their way to help those in need, and the other people who are in the vicinity are mainly bystanders who take no significant role in aiding the needy person. It was interesting for the other passengers to be the ones to give the woman money and a pocketbook in which to keep the money.