The Mystery of The Secret of Phantom Lakes

In order to make sure nothing was slipping by my grasp, I thought I would take a really close look at all of the Three Investigators books listed on eBay and AbeBooks. There are many book dealers who obviously sell large quantities of books on ebay who don’t feel the need to add a picture or describe their books in any kind of detail, even more so on AbeBooks. For example, one dealer will say that his books are in “good” condition and that this means that it has all of its pages but may show some wear. Anyway, I came upon this listing for a copy of Phantom Lake:

The strange thing here was that the item specifics stated that the book was a paperback:

but the auction listing details show it as a Hardcover:

Well, folks, it was fairly obvious what needed to be done. At the price of £2.70 including postage, if the book was in paperback, it probably wasn’t worth it. If, however, it was a hardback, then the old saying, “BITE HIS FUCKING HAND OFF” springs to mind. Really, £2.70 for any hardback, in almost any condition, is a bargain, but a hardcover Phantom Lake?? My god, it wouldn’t get any better than that.

So I emailed the seller and he replied that it was in fact a hardback. I immediately “bought it now” and am currently awaiting its arrival.

I then had a trawl through Abebooks and found another interesting listing. Co-incidentally, another Phantom Lake in hardback, offered at a sale price of 63p plus postage (a complete rip-off at £3.30). The publisher was listed as “HarperCollins”, however That can’t be right as it was, of course, Collins that published these books, HarperCollins didn’t exist until the after the Three Investigators hardbacks had all been published. It’s this kind of thing that makes you worry a wee bit that the seller doesn’t have a fucking clue. Anyway, I bought this book as well, not knowing if it was a large or small hardback. It could even have a dustjacket for all I know, I suppose I will find out soon enough, as will you, dear bloggers. So that’s the situation I find myself in, folks. Two Phantom Lakes are winging my way, and I won’t know what editions they are until they arrive. The ideal scenario, is of course, one large hardback with a dustjacket (hey you never know) and one small one, but frankly I’ll be happy with whatever turns up, even if I have to stick one as a doubler on to eBay. In my experience, the small hardback Phantom Lake is a much rarer beast than the large one, even though the large one normally commands a higher price. When did you last see a small hardback Phantom Lake? Hmmm? I think I’ve only ever seen one in my whole life.

Sorry to keep you all in suspense guys, I know you are all choking to find out about these books, obviously you will be the first to know what happens when they arrive. WATCH THIS SPACE!