NANCY DREW AS A COLLECTIBLE IS DEAD!
AND NONE OF THEM ARE ANY LONGER RARE!
Well, this one is rare - but none of the others!
There really is no such thing as a 'rare' Nancy Drew book anymore. They are all so totally commonplace and easy-to-get. Some collectors still carry on about how RARE the books are, but it's all hype to get you to fork over your cash. The only ones worth any money nowadays are the very first printings of the early books, the first ten or so, and, yo buds! - you just ain't gonna find those. They are all locked up now by celebrity collectors who paid big bucks for them in the 1990s, and they won't see the light of day for a long time to come.
The Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys books you see for ridiculous high prices on eBay and Bonanza were almost all bought at those same sites for a few dollars each, then repriced high and re-listed. I know, because those dealers bought the books from ME. If you watch, those books seldom sell. They run for 30 days at the high Buy It Now prices, then are relisted again. And again. And again. These dealers are not making money. They are using their Paypal Credit to buy vast quantities of Drews and Hardys and similar series books, and then trying to resell them all at higher prices. It doesn't work. Soon enough, they are in over their heads owing Paypal money they can't pay back, and having a vast supply of books they can't sell at $20-plus prices because the smart buyers know how to get them for $5 or $7.
If you pay big bucks for any of these books you are being had. Take your time and look through all the listings and you'll find what you want at decent prices. The books are NOT rare anymore! The booths on Bonanza are especially offensive - they have common books for $30, $40, $50 or more, and advertise them as rare and hard-to-find, when they found them easily on eBay for a few bucks and are using Paypal Credit to finance a book business that's gonna bust them. In truth, the books are only hard-to-find for someone who is a dolt and does not know how to scour the listings and find the books at realistic prices.
This same scenario has happened with many other collectibles since the advent of Internet sales and auction sites has made every desirable article common. Don't let yourself be taken in by clever ads or pretty site booths. Nancy Drew, like Norman Rockwell, Hummels, Lladro, baseball cards, comics, and numerous other collectibles, is pretty much DEAD.
Is this one rare because Franklin W. Dixon is on the cover instead of Carolyn Keene?
ReplyDelete