NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES #8 - NANCY'S MYSTERIOUS LETTER by CAROLYN KEENE (pen name of Walter Karig), published by Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1932 (original 25 chapters), 1932A-1 TRUE 1ST/1ST per Farah (Guides for $1,100) (format 2 book - ONLY 1ST PRITING PUBLISHED IN FORMAT 2), orange "silhouette" (Nancy holding a magnifying glass) illustrated endpapers, light blue boards with orange lettering to spine & front cover, "thick" book with glossy (not plain) frontispiece illustration and 3 internal illustrations, original "white spine" cover art by Russell Tandy (as distinguished from the "wraparound" or revised cover art found in later books or in revised books from this series). WHILE THE DUST JACKET ISN'T UNCOMMON, THE BOOK IS EXTREMELY SCARCE - I WOULD ARGUE THAT IT'S HARDER TO FIND THAN THE "FORMAT 1" 1ST PRINTING OF CLUE IN THE DIARY (SINCE THAT BOOK IS OBVIOUS FROM LOOKING JUST AT THE COVER) - THIS BOOK IS HARD TO FIND BECAUSE THE ONLY DISTINGUISHING FEATURE IS THE LISTS AT THE REAR OF THE BOOK (THUS MAKING THE BOOK BY ITSELF NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND).
Dust Jacket Front Flap: Nancy's Mysterious Letter (1st printing issue point)
Dust Jacket Rear Flap: Blythe Girls - Helen's Wonderful Mistake
Dust Jacket Back Cover: Nancy's Mysterious Letter
Book rear lists: Clue Diary (1ST PRINTING ISSUE POINT), Outdoor Girls, Blythe Girls, For Her Majesty, Lian Garis, Garry Grayson, Ted Scott, Western Stories
Book has no creased page corners, orange top stain has no drop spots and just slight fading, slight dust soiling/age darkening/foxing to outer page edges, closed tear to internal hinge but no tearing or splitting of page block from internal hinges, no former owner's markings or used bookseller stamps/stickers inside, clean endpapers, no wear to board edges, barest hint of wear to bottom board corners, wear to spine tips, wear to left edge on spine, no foxing to boards or spine, hardly any soiling or staining to boards, no color wear or surface color tears to boards, spine sun fading, no bumped board corners.
Dust Jacket has nick losses at spine tip corners, short close tear at top on front flap crease otherwise no chipping, tearing or creasing, wear to spine tips, hint of wear to front flap crease, hint of edge wear, no soiling or staining, no dust rubbing to white rear panel & spine, no color rubbing to front panel, no spine sun darkening (common defect with the white spine books).
Overall a VG=/VG book in VG/VG+ condition DJ (not price clipped) of a Nancy Drew hardcover very rare 1st printing with its original 1st print dust jacket. I have a number of other hardcover Nancy Drew books up for auction on ebay - just click on the 'see other items' link to the right of the picture.
NOTE - MEDIA MAIL ROUTINELY TAKES 3-4 WEEKS (REGARDLESS OF WHAT EBAY MAY SAY - THEY DON'T CONTROL THE POST OFFICE). For U.S. buyers, both priority mail (3-5 days) and media mail (3-4 weeks) shipping options will be listed in the ebay invoice (or if the book is a paperback or small magazine both 1st class mail (5-7 days) and media mail shipping options will be listed in the ebay invoice) - SIMPLY CLICK ON THE BLUE 'OTHER SHIPPING OPTIONS' LINK IN THE INVOICE TO SEE BOTH SHIPPING OPTIONS/COST.
DELIVERY CONFIRMATION IS NOT TRACKING (despite what ebay and paypal want to call it - again they don't control the U.S. post office). Delivery confirmation is merely what it says it is - it confirms delivery to prevent fraudulent chargebacks of claimed unreceived items (which is why I don't charge for delivery confirmation in the shipping costs). Also, since I print shipping labels from home (as opposed to purchasing shipping at the post office), the delivery confirmation number IS NOT SCANNED BY THE POST OFFICE AT THIS END. Therefore, in most cases, the first time that the Post Office will show anything when you check the delivery confirmation number is when the package hits your local post office/sorting center (basically the day before its delivered to you). Occasionally (about 25% of the time) a package will get scanned at the Federal Way, WA transfer station, but in the vast majority of the cases the delivery confirmation won't show anything until basically the day before you get the package.
I DO COMBINE SHIPPING COSTS FOR MULTIPLE ITEMS WON (if you would like estimates of what combined shipping costs might be for a certain group of auctions, please e-mail me before the auctions close but a very rough estimate is $.50-$1.00 per additional book for media mail, $1.00-$2.00 per additional book for priority mail, and $6.00-$7.00 per additional book for international mail).
As for returns -All items are used (not new) books and therefore are sold as-is, which is why I try to provide a fairly detailed description of the item itself (i.e. what it is and what it is not) as well its specific condition, noting any significant defects (for collectible items). Book grades are provided in the posting, however book grading standards/categories very widely from seller to seller, so please do not rely solely on the grade that I have given a book or ebay's provided "condition" box description, without considering the specific condition/defects described for that particular book. I do, on occasion, miss a significant defect in an item or simply make a cut/paste error in the description (i.e. an error in the description from using a prior posting as the "shell" for this book's description), and for collectible items, if that happens, on a case-by-case basis I do issue a full refund (including the cost of return shipping) depending upon the collectible significance of the undisclosed defect.