Spied ‘Er on eBay

What an absolute cracker this one is folks! A large hardback Silver Spider from eBay has just arrived. In close to perfect condition, with no stains or tears to pages and very tight spine. No wear or major bumps to boards. Best of all, I got this for the maiden bid of only £2.50 plus £2.50 p&p. Over the moon, I am, this is a great result and frankly dirt cheap. Fuckin magic.

Monstrously Good Deal

The other book I bought from Amazon was this one: An absolute cracker, this, a large Monster Mountain with DJ that is not an ex-library copy. A rare beast indeed. There is a small tear at the top of the spine, where it looks like the book may have been dropped, however, this is disguised to an extent by the dustjacket, so it looks pretty good on the shelf. Another excellent large hardback for the collection, days like this you are glad to be alive.

On Reflection, a Great Buy

Check out this little beauty that has just arrived, courtesy of an Amazon dealer. It was described as an ex-library copy in plastic jacket. Once I removed said plastic jacket I found the dustjacket underneath to be in cracking condition. The book itself, well, it has a bit of a cocked spine, as can be expected, however the usual library stamps and torn pages are not in evidence, I can only assume that this has possibly been from a school library that treated its books a little more kinder that public libraries do. Anyway, it is a topper, this book, and actually better that the Haunted Mirror I used to have all those years ago. Not bad at all for £10 plus postage. My large hardback collection is taking shape.

The Case of the Bookcase

One of the questions that must be addressed when amassing such a collection as this is where will you keep the books? Some kind of excellent bookcase is going to be required, as I already have piles of Three Investigators books cropping up everywhere. So out I went to look for one. At the antique centre in Doune last year, I spotted a really nice sectional bookcase with glass front. It was priced at about £400. Fan me I hear you say, that’s a fucking lot, but after watching Cracking Antiques on BBC 2, I now know that, like buying Three Investigators books, buying shitey old furniture is an investment. So I nipped up to Doune to check out if they still had it. Alas, the barn that it was displayed in was closed with no sign of re-opening, so I left empty handed. Empty handed that is, after looking through the part of the antique centre that was open. Frankly, the stuff they had was exactly the same as what they had the last two times I was there. If you are reading this, Doune Antique Centre, CHANGE YOUR STUFF! Actually I had a nice scone and jam in the café. This Three Investigators collecting lark has its benefits.

On the trail of a decent bookcase, I also went to the antique centre at Garrion Bridge. They didn’t have anything decent either, so I nipped down to the Clydeside Antiques centre. They did have exactly the bookcase I was after, but it had a big sticker on it declaring it had been “SOLD”. So I had a sniff around and I found this:

A Three Investigators Sized bookcase if ever I saw one. Complete with classy glass doors. And at only £35, surely the best bargain I’ve found since I started this collection. It smells a bit like old furniture, which goes well with my Three Investigators books, which smell a bit like old Three Investigators books. I reckon it will hold a full set of hardbacks and about a third of the set of paperbacks, so I will probably need something else at some point, but this will do for now. I actually bought a cheap bookcase for £20 in Argos last year for my flat. It’s shelves are already buckling under the strain. This one has been kicking around since the 1930s by the looks of things, so I know what was the better deal.

Here is what my collection now looks like:

Here it is in all its glory:

Nice, eh?

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!

Jackpot!

This most awesome parcel has arrived: I know what you're thinking. Same as me: FUCKING JACKPOT! Check out the contents of this box of delights: What a beezer, folks!! This is the first big collection of Three Investigators books I have bought since I started this new collection. It was an eBay auction (naturally – what isn’t?) that I managed to get for a ridiculously cheap price. I’ll tell you just how ridiculous and cheap in a minute. The cream of the bunch, of course, these quite magnificent large hardbacks: Some minor fading to spines if I’m being hypercritical, but really the first three are in really excellent condition. That Moaning Cave is an absolute dillion. The remainder of the parcel contents were all paperbacks: Condition of the majority of these leaves a lot to be desired, especially the older ones. Condition improves the higher the book number, and although some are ex-library, there are some acceptable books here. The majority will probably need to be upgraded, though, however I reckon I won’t have too many problems finding better examples. There were also a couple of boxed sets present:

These had random books just stuck in them, so I’m not really sure what the original contents should be. If anyone has an idea, please let me know. Both boxes are in VG condition.

So, what did this lot of 39 books set me back? Believe it or not, £20.50 including postage! Fan me, how much cheaper do you want books to be? Those hardbacks would surely fetch around £15 each without any problem on eBay, so I reckon that this lot is worth at least £60 without even bringing all those paperbacks into the equation. The moral here, bloggers, is that bargains are still to be found out there, it’s just a matter of tracking them down.

Big Tiny's Excellent Donation

I received a most excellent email from blog follower big tiny recently, rather cryptically, it contained no text but only this picture: I asked him if he was trying to tease me with some hardbacks..His response? “Oh yes”. The next time I saw him, he presented me with these: How about that folks, not only four hardbacks, but a dustjacketted hardback Dead Man’s Riddle to boot! This constitutes the first dustjacket in my collection. The condition of some of these is, frankly, awful. The Silver Spider is heavily worn and taped and the ex-library Dead Man’s Riddle has come away from the spine at the front hinge: That Green Ghost, however, is really good; as good a copy as you could probably expect. These are all books that Big Tiny picked up when we were both on a Three Investigators collecting spree several years ago. I remember giving him a huge bag of Three Investigators books years ago, the idea was that we would swap any doubles or upgrades we got. Hopefully one day I will be able to upgrade that Silver Spider, however in the meantime, it counts as a book, so I can tick it off my checklist. Nectar, Jeeves, only 189 books to go.