Only Six More Books to Go...

I am on a quest to build a complete set of Nancy Drew #57 through #175 in hardcover library editions.  I have worked on this set since 2001.  For the last couple of years, I have worked harder at locating the books.  Additionally, a few of you are now keeping an eye out for the books I do not have.

Since I wrote about my search last summer, I have acquired three more books.

115. The Suspect in the Smoke, 1993
122. The Message in the Haunted Mansion, 1994
130. The Sign of the Falcon, 1996

I acquired #130 on August 20, 2018, thanks to a fellow collector's sharp eyes.  I acquired #122 on September 24, 2018 and #115 on March 1, 2019.  These three books were the lowest-numbered books that I needed.

I still need the following books.

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

I don't know if I can complete the set, since Nancy Drew #57-175 were never issued as a set in hardcover.  The hardcover books that I have acquired came from random softcover books that were sent to binderies by libraries to be rebound as hardcover books.  Not all softcover titles were necessarily ever rebound as hardcover books.  The higher the number in the set, the fewer copies that were printed in softcover.  This results in fewer copies that could have been rebound as hardcover books.

I have attempted to build sets of other library bindings for Nancy Drew #1-56.  I have run into problems since sometimes certain volumes were never bound in a particular type of binding.  Consider the binding that I refer to as the Cameo library binding.  On this page, you'll notice that I do not picture #12 Hollow Oak.  The page was put together over a decade ago.  I have far more examples of the Cameo library binding than what I have pictured on the site.  I have still never seen an example of #12 Hollow Oak.  I have all of #1-11 and #13-34 in multiple copies of each in different binding colors, but I have never found #12 Hollow Oak.

That's why I can't be sure that all of Nancy Drew #57-175 were rebound as hardcover library editions.

So now I am down to where it gets really hard to acquire the final titles, if they exist.  #169 almost certainly exists since Amazon has a product page for the library edition.  For the other titles, I consider it likely that #148 exists, somewhat likely that #158 and #160 exist, and possible that #170 exists.  I don't know about #175, but I am ever hopeful that all of the books exist in hardcover.