Hidden Clues #10 The Hardest to Find Books in a Series
While this is generally true for discontinued series, the middle volumes, while not usually difficult to find, often show up with less frequency. There are multiple factors at play, including how long a series was in print and how often formats changed.
I have noticed a pattern with many series, even the ones that were in print for many years after the publication of the final title or that remain in print to the present day. The middle volumes in the set are slightly scarcer than the early volumes and the volumes well into the second half of the set with the final volumes being the hardest ones to find. It goes something like this:
Most of the Judy Bolton picture cover set is extremely scarce. #5, 6, 8, 9, 11-29, 32, and 34 each went through just one printing. The Judy Bolton picture covers that aren't as difficult to acquire are #1-4. #35 is very slightly less scarce, and the rest of the set is quite scarce in this format. Here's an approximate graph of the curve.
This is not scientific or exact. It is just a rough idea of the scarcity of the volumes in the green spine picture cover format as compared to the rest. The dip in the middle part of the set is likely a good bit lower than my estimate. I didn't attempt to do that since I'm not sure where the truly scarcest books fall in the set.
While #36-38 have always been priced high, volumes in the green spine format closer to the middle of the set are much, much harder to find than #36-38. Collectors don't think about the middle books as valuable in this format since collectors who just want to read the books can settle for other formats.
Those collectors who specifically want this format run into problems with completing their sets due to how uncommon the middle books in the set are.
Nancy Drew Revised Text Picture Cover Books
The first 34 Nancy Drew books were gradually revised from 1959 to 1977. Books revised late in that period didn't go through as many printings, but they still aren't appreciably more difficult to find than the ones revised earlier. This is because the print runs from the late 1970s were much larger because of the high interest in Nancy Drew due to the television series. The massive print runs, particularly in 1978, made up much of the difference for the revised text stories that were revised last.
The revised text books that show up with slightly lower frequency are #14 to #34. In particular, I find extra copies of #22 through 26 less often than the rest. For the entire set of 56 books, #28 is the halfway point. The slightly harder to find revised text books are in the middle of the Nancy Drew set.
Nancy Drew Digest Books
The Nancy Drew Digest series consists of #57 through #175 in the Nancy Drew chronology. The median volumes in the set are #115 and #116. The very hardest to find volumes currently are #100, 114, 121, 122, 123, and 131. Over the years, I have sometimes found #113, 115, and 124 to be scarcer than other books. All of these books are no more than 15 books from the middle of the set, and the entire set has 119 books. Many of the books towards the middle of the set are slightly harder to find than the rest. There's a reason for this.
The Nancy Drew Digest series ran from 1979 to 2003. Simon & Schuster dropped many titles as they continued to release new titles. By late in the run, over half the set was already out of print. Many of the middle titles went out of print much sooner than other titles.
Dana Girls Beige Spine Picture Cover Books
Some books in the middle of the Dana Girls set are more in demand in the beige spine picture cover format than you might expect. I find that #19-26 are in lower demand than the rest of the beige spine set, aside from the very common early books in the set. #19-26 are not hard to find in the beige spine edition, and they were also reprinted in the white spine edition.
#1-16, #17 in the original text, and #18 went out of print when the beige spine set ended. This makes them more desirable. The first six books are pretty easy to find in the beige spine set, then the books get a little harder to find.
In short, #7 through #18 are the beige spine picture covers that are somewhat harder to acquire and may end up costing more than the low-numbered titles or the ones from #19-26.
These same patterns tend to exist for many other series where collectors will find that certain middle volumes are somewhat harder to find than the average volume.
