Nancy Drew Green APC Library Editions with Smooth Texture Covers

This is from a Facebook post that I wrote in 2020:

I collect library bindings, and the green Nancy Drew APC (American Publishers Corporation) library binding is one of my favorites.  APC actually issued the binding in multiple shades of green with varying texture to the cover.  The five books pictured here have varying shades of green, varying texture, or a different highlight color.

I have never cared for the bright green books seen at the top. The only [bright green] ones I keep in my collection are the few titles that were done in the bright green with the yellow.  I think most or all of the set was done in the bright green with white, but I don't have those since I don't like them that much.

The bottom row shows three shades of green, each book with a different texture.  My very favorite type is the style seen with 99 Steps.  I love that shade of green the best, and the cover is smooth.  The bottom middle book is probably the type seen most often.  The green is darker and the texture more rough.  The bottom right book is slightly darker than the one in the middle, and the texture is even more rough. 

I love the smooth green APC covers so much that I have kept my copies of those even when in worse condition than other green APC books that have passed through my hands.  Most of my smooth green APC books came from a December 2002 bulk lot purchase.  I don't know how obvious my preferred binding style is to others, but I know it well and can recognize it easily in online photos.  

I recently saw a couple of the smooth green APC books up for sale online and purchased them.  I was pleased to be able to upgrade my Crumbling Wall from the more rough green cover to the smooth green cover.

Remember to click or tap on images to see them better.

The smooth green cover is on the left.  It has the revised text, while the more rough green cover on the right has the original text.  I've noticed that many people who collect the library editions care which version of the text is inside the book.  I don't care at all which text is inside any given Nancy Drew library edition.  I have plenty of copies of the original text of every Nancy Drew book, so it doesn't matter to me.  I collect library editions for the bindings.  I have no problem letting go of the original text library edition and keeping the revised text library edition.

I noticed something that I had noticed before and had forgotten about it.

All of the smooth green covers have the blurb "FOR PEOPLE WE LIKE TO DO BUSINESS WITH" added to the back cover company logo.  That blurb is missing from all other green APC books that I have.  

I believe that the smooth green APC covers were the final incarnation of the green APC library binding.  The smooth green covers are more likely to have the revised text, since they were issued during the 1970s.  The earlier green APC books are more likely to have the original text.  Either style can have either version of the text, simply because the bindery rebound whatever books they had on hand at a given time.  Any books that existed during the era that books were rebound could have been rebound.

Even though I used the word "set" to describe the green APC books, library editions never came in sets.  Each title was rebound in a one-off fashion.  Sometimes a stack of certain volume number books might have been rebound all at once, and other times, just random titles were rebound and in varying quantity.  This means that certain volumes might be vanishingly rare while others are extremely common. 

The same is true for whether the books have the original text or revised text.  It has to do with how many copies of each version ended up at the bindery to be rebound.  While the bindery might have obtained books from the publisher to rebind, libraries also sent books to the bindery to be rebound.  There is no definitive pattern as to what might exist or in what quantity.