I have several more obscure eBay searches set up to send me e-mail alerts. I was asleep at a ridiculously early hour last night and therefore missed the alert ("beverly gray" burt) for the following auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140335782117&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
I'm dying here, folks. When I saw the original thumbnail in the e-mail, with all those distinctive gray covers, I tried to tell myself there might just be multiples, maybe if I was lucky, they'd have In the Orient, which I've yet to find in a Burt edition. But no.
Someone got every Beverly Gray title ever printed in Burt editions. Including At the World's Fair. For FIFTY DOLLARS. *dies again*
What kills me about it is that the seller knows enough to say that it's a hard to find title, but not enough to have any idea of the value. When you add in World Cruise and In the Orient, both hard to find in Burt printings . . .
To end this on a more personally positive note, I acquired my Burt edition of World Cruise in dust jacket when a seller sold multiple Burt copies in djs of the series, including World's Fair. Sometimes when a seller is selling off a collection, it helps bring more attention to the individual listings than it might when selling only one. If the collector is known to other collectors, this can be especially true.
In this case, though, I believe so much attention was focused on World's Fair that buyers overlooked the other hard to find titles. I also acquired at least one other title--I think Senior? --very reasonably. If I'm not mistaken I paid between $20-25 for World Cruise and about $15 for Senior. While there's not uncommonly a couple of copies of a Burt Senior in dj up for sale on Abe or sometimes Amazon, at that time, this was the only Burt copy of World Cruise available online, with or without dj. I've had my Burt alert set up on eBay for over a year now, without another copy turning up, so I'm pretty pleased. In fact, I was contacted by another buyer almost immediately after the auction closed, wanting to purchase it.
While I generally like to cheer on a fellow collector instead of a reseller, I'm hoping these titles show up again. I don't have much hope for World's Fair, but I would definitely have some interest in In the Orient, although I would prefer a title in dust jacket. When you think about it, there almost has to be fewer Burt copies of this title than World's Fair, as they printed it for a much shorter time before Grosset and Dunlap acquired the rights to the series.
Worry not, I should have a decent review post up for Pemberton Ginther's The Secret Stair eventually. Unfortunately, my primary computer has finally drawn his last breath, so I've been getting by on a decade old clamshell iBook, which is painful in the extreme to use.
It is SO painful to see a Buy It Now like that *after* someone else gets it! Arggh! I'm still kicking myself over missing that Bungalow Mystery auction (not like I would have won it but you never know). That Beverly Gray lot was quite a good deal for somebody!
ReplyDeleteOne time a couple of years ago, someone got a complete set of Nancy Drew books with dust jackets for around $50 in a Buy It Now. That was ridiculous!
Sometimes I wonder how these sellers come up with their Buy It Now prices. They have no idea... I mean, if they would have just googled World's Fair, they would have known to set the price higher.
I agree that World's Fair is not the most difficult to find Burt title. Additionally, all of the Beverly Gray Burt titles are easier to find than some of the obscure Burt titles like the last two Linda Carlton books.
I guess it's not surprising that there were probably more/larger printings of Beverly Gray titles than other Burt series. Since Grosset and Dunlap bothered to acquire the series (and Blue Ribbon chose to print them, etc.), I assume that Beverly Gray sold better than most, if not all, of Burt's series books.
ReplyDeleteI've not attempted to collect the Linda Carlton books, but I have been working on getting the Adventure Girls (and to a lesser extent, the Mexican Mystery Stories for Girls) in Burt editions. They do seem much harder to find than most of the Beverly Gray titles. I've only gotten one from each, the middle title, albeit very reasonably.
I hate that....I'm still kicking myself for not bidding on a Buy It Now for a fairly cheap copy of the last Marjorie Dean book months ago....curses!
ReplyDeleteThe Beverly Gray lot has surfaced again, minus World's Fair. I can only assume the the buyer of the original lot just wanted World's Fair. I would have taken all of them and sold the rest.
ReplyDeleteBeverly Gray lot
World's Fair is in the picture but not listed in the description. I questioned the seller about the discrepancy but only stated that a book in the picture is not in the description and a book in the description is not in the picture. He said it looked fine, that eight books were in the picture and eight books in the description. Sigh.
I tried again, stating that World's Fair is in the picture but not the description and Junior is in the description and not the picture. The seller finally understood and said that he was changing the picture. I viewed the lot again, and the picture is the same. A second picture is now up without World's Fair. Double sigh. I don't know that I should bother communicating with him again. He needs to delete the first picture. I fear that someone will bid high on the lot and think they are getting World's Fair. Anyone else want to have a go at it?
I was hoping they'd be split up, but clearly this is someone trying to do this with as little effort as possible. Does NOT make me want to bid.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he must know the value and the potential for misleading, considering he has specifically removed that title from the lot.
This type of thing annoys me to no end. He isn't new to eBay, and he has to know how to delete a photo. It is not hard. Most people (including me) assume that the pictured books are the offered books. I only contacted him because I recognized the books as the ones you mentioned before. I knew that the books had already sold, so something was up.
ReplyDeleteIt does not even make sense that he is trying to pull something. Sellers cannot leave negatives, and I'm sure a buyer expecting World's Fair would have a fit if it is not included. Geez. Maybe he is trying to pull something, but he is foolish if this is the case.
I notice that the seller finally removed the first incorrect picture. I wonder how many other questions he received after mine?
ReplyDelete