Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Yellow Spine Nancy Drew Aladdin Books

Recently, I was getting some books that were in storage back into some semblance of organization. At one point, I was working on my yellow spine Aladdin Nancy Drew books. I decided to take a couple of pictures to show the design variations that exist for those who wish to get all of them. The yellow spine was the final format before the books went out of print.



Click on the photos to view larger versions.

In the first picture, the books with the red rectangle at the bottom spine are Scholastic book club editions. They are unnumbered, like all book club editions, and I didn't bother to put the books in order. I'm not sure if I have all of the Scholastic editions, but I should have most of them.

Not all of the softcover Nancy Drewbooks were still in print at the time of the Aladdin imprint, which is why not all titles are shown. Some books have the pound sign in front of the volume number, while most do not. Some books were printed both with and without the pound sign.

#127 and #128 were printed with the old Minstrel design but with gold placed on the top and bottom of the spine. I always wonder about that type of oddity. Could someone have been lazy and decided just to put a little gold on those books and call it a day?

#112 has the full yellow spine but also has the gold at the top and bottom of the spine.

11 comments:

Jenn Fisher said...

I too tried to get all of these and compiled a list at this page of my website when these were coming out:

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/sightingsbookclassicnd.html

I also see you found some with the # on the spine that also came without it. I am missing 137 and 143 with the # sign. I never had 104 on my list at the site but since you have it I'll update that and I'm missing that one too. I do have a variant you don't have in your pic--110 with instead of the "Book Title" it also was printed with the correct book title on it so I've got both of those. I also have 135 with the yellow spine which isn't in your pic. If you'll keep an eye out for what I need that would be great--I'll keep an eye out for 110 with the title and 135 for you.

I have all the Scholastics you have but I appear to be missing Emerald Lady and Fiery Chamber so I need to search for those.

Jenn:)

Corey said...

This has been a format I've focused on collecting.

Comparing my shelf to yours:

I have 85 and 112 without # signs.

I have 128, 135, and 165 in plain yellow spines, no # signs.

I only recently came across the 165 with a yellow spine. Makes me think there's a similar 164 out there to complete a long consecutive run of yellow spines.

I'm not that concerned with having all the pound sign/no pound sign variants, but to complete my set I think I'm missing 105, 110 w/real title, 127, and maybe 164. You don't show a 127 in yellow spine either but I think someone reported it long ago on the Yahoo group.

Jennifer White said...

By the information both of you have provided, it sounds like I need either seven or eight different books/variants. It's interesting how many variants exist for some of these books.

I have made a list of the ones I don't have and the ones you don't have. I need to make myself a new list of the picture cover firsts that I don't have and compile it with this list to take with me to stores.

I don't check stores too often, since not much shows up around here, but we do have two Half Price Books. I recall seeing a bunch of softcover books last time. I don't recall if any of them were the yellow spine books.

Shep19624 said...

Hi there,
I have just begun researching into the Grosset & Dunlap Nancy Drew books. I looked over your books posted at Bonanza.com to compare to the ones I have. From what I could tell there were definitely some variants to the ones you had, and there are some elements I am confused about.
Anyway, they are my mom's books,(she got me into reading them as a kid) and we are moving, so they need to go. I have seen some of them on ebay and I could also do goodwill, but seeing as there are some collectors out there I would love for them to go to someone who values them. I was hoping perhaps we could get in touch about this? I have compiled a list.
If you could get back to me, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!
-Stacy

Jennifer White said...

Your best move is to place all of the books in an auction lot on eBay. Most collectors check eBay every single day, so the books will be sure to find a good home.

You would need to show a photo of the spines and photos of the front covers of the books. You would also need to list the copyright dates, and if you have yellow spine books, you need to give the last title listed on the back cover of each book. If you have books with dust jackets, you would need to give the last title listed on the front flap of each dust jacket. If you make sure to give that information, then collectors will know whether to ask additional questions.

Shep19624 said...

Thanks :) I really learned a lot from some of your posts and your website.

Shep19624 said...

Oh! I was going to ask you if you had a recommendation for pricing? I read what you had written about sellers not knowing what they have and that most people do not want the books, however rare they may be. Should I just sell them altogether in a set? or set a generic price for them all individually? They are the yellow spines, and most have the blue illustrations inside the covers. I think 3 of them have the blue colors with silhouette image of Nancy Drew.

Jennifer White said...

One lot would be easiest for you. I have had some trouble lately selling extras in lots, so you will probably have to start the price on the low end. If the books are in pretty nice shape, go with at least $1.00 per book as a guideline to setting your price. You could also look at completed listings to see how similar lots have done.

Make sure you mention the blue endpapers and which books have them, because that will help bring the right buyers. Also feel free to come back here and give the item number once you have the books posted. That might help gain some interest.

Shep19624 said...

Thanks :) So I have officially posted the Nancy Drew books on ebay after debating and finally choosing a price. Anyway, here is a link to the ad:

http://cgi.ebay.com/180705303329?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com%3A80%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp5197.m570.l1313%26_nkw%3D180705303329%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

and the item number is 180705303329

Jenn Fisher said...

I ordered #112 from Amazon the other day--needed something extra to finish using a gift card up and it came without the # on the spine--so I now have that variant. Ordering some of these that are still available to purchase new from Amazon may yield results for the ones we don't have.

Jenn:)

Jennifer White said...

Your tip was very timely. I had an Amazon order which needed around $2 to qualify for free shipping. I hadn't figured out what to add to the order without wasting money. I got free shipping by adding a Nancy Drew book, and the extra Nancy Drew book ended up free because of Amazon's "four for one" deal in children's books. I ordered #112 to see if I would also get one without the # on the spine.