Hidden Clues #7 Judy Bolton Picture Cover Scarcity

Picture cover editions are a favorite format among current series book collectors.  The Judy Bolton picture cover books are particularly difficult to acquire.  It is believed that most of the Judy Bolton picture cover books went through just one printing, which is why they are so exceedingly hard to find.  Also, a bunch of remaindered picture cover copies were turned into library editions, which reduced the number of surviving picture covers.

#30, 31, and 33 were never printed in the picture cover format, so it is impossible to get a complete set of Judy Bolton picture covers.

I rarely ever see Judy Bolton picture covers in stores.  I have seen #1, 2, and 3 multiple times.  I have seen all of #36-38 at least once and some of them at least twice.  I have also seen #11, 18, and 23 one time each.  I have never seen any of the other Judy Bolton picture cover books in any stores ever since I began collecting series books in 1991.

Judy Bolton did not switch to picture cover until 1964, two years after Nancy Drew and the other Grosset and Dunlap series made the change.  The series ended in 1967, so the picture cover format was only in print for around three years.  That is a very short amount of time and is why most all picture covers likely had only one printing.  The Judy Bolton series had low sales during the 1960s, which is what led to the demise of the series.  It is quite unlikely that the majority of the titles had more than one printing in the picture cover format.

Some Judy Bolton titles were printed later during that three year period than other titles.  Grosset and Dunlap would have continued to use existing stock in the dust jacket format before printing any picture cover books.  The picture covers that are the most scarce, which is unfortunately a large number of them, probably were not printed until towards 1965 or 1966.

Grosset and Dunlap must have had sufficient copies of #30, 31, and 33 in the dust jacket format to avoid ever needing to print any picture cover editions of those titles.  That is why those three do not exist.

As I began this post, I wrote the following paragraph going by memory of what I remembered seeing for sale over the years.

#1 had at least two printings, since it has two different cover art and text versions.  #2, 3, and 4 might have gone through more than one printing since they aren't as hard to find as all later titles.  #5-29, #32, and #34 are quite hard to find, so I believe that they all had one printing each.  For some reason, I find that #35 through #38 are just slightly easier to find than most picture covers, but they almost certainly would have had just one printing each since they were printed late in the set.

I then decided to see if I could find evidence of multiple printings of any titles, in particular #1 through 4.

Below, I give the list information for the picture covers.  In red, I indicate the list information given in Clarke's Guide to Margaret Sutton's Judy Bolton Mystery Stories for variants that I do not own.  In blue, I indicate the list information provided by collectors who own the books with those lists.  All lists in black are from books that I have actually seen.  Notice that many of the books list to #36, which means that they were probably not printed in the picture cover format until 1965.

 #1 1932 text - to #34 back cover and no interior list
 #1 1964 text - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
                        to #34 back cover and #37 inside
                        to #34 back cover and #38 inside
 #2 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
        to #34 back cover and #36 inside
        to #34 back cover and #38 inside
 #3 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
        to #36 back cover and #36 inside
        to #36 back cover and #38 inside
 #4 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
        to #34 back cover and #36 inside
 #5 - to #34 back cover and no interior list
 #6 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
 #7 - to #34 back cover and no interior list
         to #36 back cover and #36 inside
         to #34 back cover and #37 inside
 #8 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
 #9 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#10 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
         to #34 back cover and #37 inside
#11 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#12 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#13 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#14 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#15 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#16 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#17 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#18 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#19 - to #34 back cover and no interior list
#20 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#21 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#22 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#23 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#24 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#25 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#26 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#27 - to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#28 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#29 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#30 - does not exist
#31 - does not exist
#32 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
#33 - does not exist
#34 - to #36 back cover and #37 inside
#35 - to #34 back cover and #34 inside
         to #34 back cover and #35 inside
#36 - to #36 back cover and #36 inside
#37 - to #34 back cover and #37 inside
#38 - to #34 back cover and #38 inside

This information reveals that #1 had at least four printings.  #2, 3, and 7 had at least three printings. #4, 10, and 35 had at least two printings each.

This information confirms what I suspected.  I find it especially interesting to confirm two printings of #35.  I have always considered #35 to be more common than the other high-numbered titles and have wondered about it.  Now I know that #35 did have more than one printing.

I completed my set of Judy Bolton picture covers in the early 2000s.  I spent at least $30 each for 19 of the books.  7 of the books cost between $20 and $30.  Most series books have gone down in value since that time.  The Judy Bolton picture cover values have not gone down, for the most part, due to the extreme scarcity of the books.  The value of #34-38 has decreased substantially due to reprints, but the titles that exist from #4 through #32 still retain value that is close to their historical value.  People who want a set of Judy Bolton picture cover books must be willing to pay high prices for some of the books in order to complete the set.