Goosebumps (original series)/Printing differences

The first printings of the Goosebumps (original series) often had cover ads for things such as the TV series, contests, and the Goosebumps Fan Club that later printings (if they existed) eliminated. This page contains a list and gallery of these ads, as well as an explanation of different editions (both of which are technically first printings) which have different ISBNs and tear-outs or ads.

First printings vs. later printings
To find out what printing a book is, look at the number line on the copyright page. There will be a number line in descending order, and the last number shows the printing of the book. For #17 shown in the left picture here, the number line 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 indicates the first printing. For #17 shown on the right, 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 41 13 indicates the 13th printing.

Note also that the cover on the left has an ISBN and price on the left spine, while the one on the right doesn't. For Goosebumps, the price and ISBN were printed on the covers of the first printings until book #36, and were not present (except for "special" editions) for books #37 and later. This also held true for later printings - #37 was first published in November 1995, so any book published after November 1995, whether a first or later printing, would not include the price and ISBN on the front cover.

"First Printing" and "First edition" are often used interchangeably colloquially, but technically a first printing goes down to 1 on the number line on the copyright page, while a first edition has a cover with the original cover design, regardless of the printing. In the case of the original series of Goosebumps, the original series could be considered the first edition, while the 2003-2007 reprints and Classic Goosebumps are second and third editions, respectively.

List of First Printing cover ads
These ads can be for contests, the TV show, the Goosebumps Fan Club, or tear-outs included in the book. Books not in this table had no ads on the first printing covers.

#59-62: Regular vs. School Market Editions
Books #59-62 were published in regular and "Scholastic School Market Editions." For these books, the text "This Scholastic edition is only available through the school market" appeared on the back covers of school market editions when an ad for the Goosebumps Collector's Club could be found inside. Other differences were sometimes present as well. For #59, the regular edition had a preview for #60, while the school market edition had a preview for Goosebumps Triple Header #1. For #60, the regular edition had an ad for the "Terrifying Werewolf Mask" on the back cover and the TV show on the front cover, while the school market edition had an ad for the "Terrifying Werewolf Mask" on the front cover. In addition, the school market editions had different ISBNs shown on the back cover. For #61 and #62 the only difference was the ISBN and the presence of the Collectors Club ad.

In-book ad differences
While other school market editions had the same in-book advertisements as the regular editions, for some reason they are slightly different in book #59. It appears that the school market edition was published slightly earlier, because its preview ad says "Coming in September", includes TV book #16, and uses the working title for #60 'I Want to be a Werewolf for Halloween', while the regular edition has a preview ad that says "Coming in October", includes TV book #17, and uses the final title for #60, 'Werewolf Skin'. Book #60 was actually published in October 1997, so the regular edition ad is the accurate one. In addition, the ad for the More & More & More Tales to Give You Goosebumps Book and Stocking Pack is slightly different.

2015 Target Editions


In 2015, presumably to coincide with the Goosebumps movie release, Target released several original series Goosebumps books, with the same front and back cover style as the originally published 90s books. Most books have an "Only at Target" sticker on them, but sometimes this sticker isn't present. These books have the same spine thickness and nearly the same height as the original series books, which distinguishes them from the Goosebumps Retro Tin books which have thinner spines. They can be distinguished from originally published books because the Scholastic logo on the front cover is in the middle rather than on the left. Around 2003, Scholastic changed the location of their cover logo from the left to the middle on pretty much all published books regardless of series. The Target editions do not have raised bumps on the Goosebumps logo on the cover.