Information Needed: Nancy Drew Matte Picture Cover Books with the Yellow Band

Nancy Drew fans keep asking about the matte picture cover books with the yellow band at the top edge.  I think most of us who were collecting in the past were not at all concerned with the books with the yellow band at the top edge.  Most of us don't even like them.

Seen below are all of the Nancy Drew matte picture cover books with the yellow band at the top edge.

People who are currently collecting the picture cover books seem to be quite confused about them and are focusing a lot of attention on them.  They view the books with the yellow bands almost like they are a different cover art variation.  I have finally concluded that the books with the yellow bands need to be added to my cover art gallery since collectors are so hyper-focused on them.

This is the cover art gallery:  Nancy Drew #1-56 Picture Cover Gallery.

I thought I just needed to scan the books with the yellow bands and insert them in.  I did it for Lilac Inn, then I realized that I have a big problem.  I don't know the date ranges.  I began editing the page in an offline file, and you can see a screen capture below, indicating the trouble spot.  By the way, I also plan to remove the "-present" from all of the books and change the year to 1985, since the flashlight editions began in 1986.

The books with the yellow bands are not covered in Farah's Guide.  I know they are from the middle to late 1970s and continued into the early 1980s, but I do not wish to put vague information on my page.  I need the exact years.  More precisely, I need the beginning year for each volume.  I can figure out the rest.

I need your help.

I spent a lot of time today looking at the back cover lists of every single matte picture cover with the yellow band that I currently have in my possession.  I have a lot of extras.  I then went to eBay and viewed every listing for the books with yellow bands, both current listings and sold listings.

I have noted the earliest time that any book was printed with the yellow band based on books I have seen so far.  What I do not know is if all of them changed to the yellow band at the same time.  Sometimes changes were staggered, such as when the Stratemeyer Syndicate revised the books down from 25 chapters to 20 chapters.  The below list shows the volume numbers, the year, and the earliest back cover list that I was able to find for each book with the yellow band present on the front cover.

#4 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#6 1975 Forgotten City
#7 1975 Forgotten City
#10 1975 Forgotten City
#17 1975 Forgotten City
#24 1975 Forgotten City
#25 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#28 1976 Sky Phantom followed by Cookbook
#29 1976 Sky Phantom followed by Cookbook
#35 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#36 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#37 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#38 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#39 1975 Forgotten City
#40 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook
#42 1975 Forgotten City
#45 1974 Glowing Eye followed by Cookbook

I need collectors to look at any matte picture cover books with the yellow band for #6, 7, 10, 17, 24, 28, 29, 39, and 42 and see if you have one that lists Nancy Drew to Glowing Eye followed by the Nancy Drew Cookbook.  For #28 and 29, I would also be interested in knowing if anyone has one that lists to Forgotten City.

I hope you can help so that I can fix the cover art gallery.  By fixing the cover art gallery, I hope to make it easier to answer all of the questions.

Update:  Information I have received indicates that most of the yellow band books were issued in 1974.  The only books where I have not yet received verification are #10, 28, and 42.