Saturday, June 16, 2018

Continuing the Search for Hardcover Nancy Drew Digest Books

I have written of my quest to find the hardcover library editions of all of the Nancy Drew Digest books from #57 up through #175.  I have been working on this set for over 17 years.  My earliest hardcover Nancy Drew Digest books were acquired on May 21, 2001.

Building a Set of Hardcover Nancy Drew Digest Books

13 More Nancy Drew Digest Hardcover Books Left to Find

On August 8, 2017 and December 22, 2017, I acquired three more of the books taking the total I needed down to just 10 books.


I continually tell people that eBay should be checked every single day.  Even if eBay has nothing of interest for 30 or more straight days, keep checking.  eBay is my primary source for these books, since typically all sellers photograph their books.  They can be spotted easily.

By the way, I do not have memorized which of these books that I need.  I know I need #175, but I do not know the other titles offhand.  I have to look at my list or check my shelf.  So...

In the late afternoon of June 13, I was checking eBay and spotted a hardcover library edition of Nancy Drew #114 The Search for the Silver Persian.  It had just been listed.  As I stated, I do not have the titles that I need memorized, but this one seemed like it might be one of them.  I dashed to the other side of the house to look at my books.  Sure enough, my books skipped from #113 to #116.  I dashed back to make the purchase.

This seller only accepts credit cards, so I had to enter a credit card number.  Annoying, but whatever.  The card failed due to an eBay glitch.  On June 13, eBay had glitches everywhere.  I could not even look at many of my own listings because of errors.  I tried again, feeling a bit stressed because I did not want someone to get the book.  The card failed again.  I then tried another card.  Yay!  It worked.  I got the book purchased.

The book arrived today.


I now need just nine more hardcover Nancy Drew Digest books.  The following books are the ones that I still need.

115. The Suspect in the Smoke, 1993
122. The Message in the Haunted Mansion, 1994
130. The Sign of the Falcon, 1996
148. On the Trail of Trouble, 1999
158. The Curse of the Black Cat, 2001
160. The Clue on the Crystal Dove, 2001
169. The Mistletoe Mystery, 2002
170. No Strings Attached, 2003
175. Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland, 2003

Here are all of my books.  Click on any image to see a larger version.




Even though I am building a set of the Nancy Drew Digest books in hardcover, the books were not issued in a set.  In fact, not all of the books may even exist in hardcover.  Notice that my books are an eclectic mixture of different types of bindings.  Binderies rebind books that libraries send them.  There is no guarantee that a softcover copy of every Nancy Drew title from #57 up through #175 was sent to a bindery to be rebound as a hardcover.  That is why I do not know if I can ever complete the set.  I do believe it quite likely that the lower-numbered titles that I need were rebound as hardcovers.  I am not so sure about the higher-numbered ones, but I will continue my quest.

1 comment:

Jack Cleveland said...

I have joined you on the journey. I have a nice beginning, but a long way to go!!