What else is in here?

In order to raise some cash to buy some more Three Investigators books, I sold some stuff on eBay. While I was in the garage getting my packing materials to mail some DVDs, I had another quick look in one of the boxes that live in there. I found this beauty:
A nice little Diamond omnibus. It got me wondering just what else is lurking in that garage. I seem to vaguely remember having at least one large hardback left over from my previous collection, possibly Crooked Cat or Shrinking House. I think I may have a really good root through the boxes next weekend, which is of course a bank holiday and what better a way to spend it than adding a large hardback to the collection.

Clever Box

This really nice boxed set has arrived in the post: It is the same as the one I already had, however I can assume that the contents of the box are as originally supplied. Anyway, the books are in pretty good condition and I quite like this. Also means that I have a boxed set in my doubles pile to put on eBay. That stack is growing quite a bit, so I will probably do some auction listing shortly. Check them out, folks for some Three Investigators bargains. At least my auctions will state whether the book is a paperback or not.

Cranky Collector

Remember that other hardback Phantom Lake that I bought from a dealer on eBay? If you recall, I was a bit wary as to whether it would be hardback, as the advert listed it as both paperback and hardback, published by Collins. Anyway, to be sure I was getting the right thing, here is the email I sent to the seller:…and here is his reply: Got that? Good. On the basis of this emailed reply, I went ahead and bought the book. Guess what arrived:This really does undermine your faith in the ability of eBay sellers to give anything approaching a decent standard of service. This must go down as quite the most fucking useless arsehole I have ever had the misfortune to deal with on eBay. What the fuck was he thinking of? Anyway, the plot thickens. I emailed him and told him he was a fucking useless dick and that I wanted my money back. Here is his reply: Did you notice that? EXACTLY THE SAME EMAIL WORD FOR WORD AS THE ABEBOOKS SELLER WHO ALSO SOLD ME A SO CALLED HARDBACK PHANTOM LAKE LAST WEEK! Clearly, I haven’t found two useless twats dealing on the internet, just the one useless twat, operating under two different names. Well, folks, I will live and learn. Since this happened, I have asked several Abebooks and Amazon dealers to check if books they had listed as hardbacks were in fact hardbacks. Only one has replied, to tell me that unfortunately, it was only a paperback. Not that he updated his advert though. What a bunch of useless arses.

And there we have it folks, the two hardback Phantom Lakes were in fact not. Back to the old drawing board, that hardback Phantom Lake must be there somewhere…

One to Treasure

Check out this lovely small hardback Vanishing Treasure: This was an AbeBooks purchase that has just arrived. Nice and clean with some of the usual bumping to the corners of the boards, it is in otherwise VG condition. That’s a nice run of small hardbacks I have amassed, including numbers 1-5 inclusive. Now where is that small Skeleton Island….?

The Mystery of the Secret of Phantom Lakes – SOLVED

Remember those Phantom Lake hardbacks I ordered recently? Well, the first one has arrived in the post:Eh?

It just goes to show how utterly useless some of these book dealers are on the web. The old saying, “they couldn’t run a bath” appears applicable here. Anyway, I emailed the Abebooks seller and asked for a refund. Here is his reply:

So fair enough. After all, I didn’t check with him that it was a hardback before I bought it, so at least I got my money back. The other one that is on its way is definitely a hardback, as I asked the seller before I placed my order, so fingers crossed for that one.

A Smashing Book

Here’s a little smasher that has just arrived: There was only one edition of this one, and it was never reprinted. It did, however, find its way into an omnibus edition that was put out by both Armada and Diamond. I don’t think that any of the paperback editions are what you would really describe as being “rare”, but I would say that along with Creep Show Crooks and Wrecker’s Rock, this is about as close as you can get to it. This copy has a bit of a worn cover, but is otherwise ok.

Crystallized Methamphetamine

Normally, my tactic for putting this collection together is to concentrate on the hardbacks and let the paperbacks accumulate naturally, via the acquisition of collections or through charity shops. Some of the later books in the series are a bit tricky to come by, however, so I picked up this nice Cranky Collector paperback this week. Cover is a bit rough, but otherwise a good addition to the collection, and not bad at less than £3.00 including postage.