Bookery

Yes. Trimming should never be considered restoration since, by definition, nothing has been "restored". Quite the opposite... part of the book has been permanently removed. Restoration is repairing a book in such a way as it appears closer to its original state. A book missing its overhang does not appear as its original state. Tear seals, color-touch, paper replacement is all restoration. Things like tape and trimming are not, since neither makes the book appear as it once was. Trimming (and of course, I mean, post-production trimming, as many pups were publisher-trimmed to begin with) is so common in pulps that if done neatly is not seen as egregious as it is with comics, though it still definitely impacts grade. And to be fair, some pulps had such large overhangs it must have made them annoying to try and read them in their day. In the 1800s some hardbacks were published with their pages still uncut, and it was up to the reader to cut them apart themselves in order to read the book. These were cost-saving efforts by the publishers, at a time when fractions of a penny made a difference. I like that CGC not only notes trimming, but also notes how many sides have been trimmed. This is important, since some pulps had overhang on 3 sides, some on top and bottom, and some on one side only.

D'oh!

If the covers didn't entice readers to buy the pulp, most of those authors wouldn't have had careers. I suspect more time and sweat went into producing some of those paintings then was spent on cranking out some of the stories. I'm also not sure how one goes about so easily dismissing the accomplishments of Norman Saunders, H.J. Ward, Rudolph Belarski, Allen Anderson, etc.. It's like saying "I'd have bought that original Frederick Remington painting, if only it had a decent caption".

Something to consider. Actually, for the most part, the 2005 edition did it this way. For the 2020 guide, I was going for something that could be read in a somewhat entertaining fashion, without just being totally dry data. You would laugh if you knew how much effort I did to try to come up with a different way of wording all of the similar western pulp entries, for instance! Or, the cover art for one title is "collectible", in another "sought-after", in a third "popular" or "enticing" or "in-demand" or "valued by collectors", etc.

Thanks for the kind words. As for the bolded part above, I do caution newcomers about taking auction prices with a grain of salt. Truly expensive and ultra-rare pulps may be more accurately represented at the big auction houses, if for no other reason than this is often the only forums in which they appear for sale. But there is definitely auction-exuberance with more common material. For instance, I'm currently tracking auction data continually for my own uses, as well as in case there is a 4th (and final) guide. I see a number of science-fiction pulps, for instance, going for 2x-5x the guide prices at Heritage and other auction houses. Yet simultaneously, the same books can be bought off eBay or mycomicshop.com for at guide prices or smaller premiums up to 1.5x.

Not entirely accurate. There have been 3 editions under slightly different titles... 2001, 2005 and 2020. Depends on what you mean by accurate. When word leaked out prior to the 2001 guide coming out, there was a general panic in the pulp-convention community. I was some interloper they didn't know (despite having attended several PulpCons) and surely the guide was designed purely to drive up prices (how this was supposed to help me, I don't know, as I didn't have a large inventory at the time). There were a lot of on-line attacks, and "guarantees" the guide would be over-priced. When I premiered the book at the 2001 PulpCon I even arrived to find that my dealer's table has been stuck back in an exit alcove and turned to face the wall. The show-runner thought this was amusing. To my own fault, the advance word of the distrust in the book probably made me overly cautious and very conservative in my pricing (though to be fair... every price in the book was exactly how I priced my own stock). So when the guide actually did premiere, the complaints then switched to how all of the prices were too low! The 2005 guide prices were fairly accurate for awhile... the market had settled down after an initial spike due to an influx of eBay sales. The 2020 guide came out just before CGC announced it would be slabbing pulps. That drove prices up almost immediately. Then the Covid collectibles spike drove everything up even further. That guide was out-dated (price-wise) pretty much out of the gate, which is probably why Heritage didn't keep it in print. However, though I generally don't complain about it, I always take some issue with the books being described simply as price guides. I am a data completist... rather compulsive about it, actually. The books were born of my own extensive note-taking and compilations for years just so I could be consistent with my own inventories. I would have been thrilled if someone else had done it. But no one did. Pricing was always the last thing I worked on before publication. All other information came first. Save for a few errors corrected in each new edition, and the typical typos, the other information contained in them is quite accurate... authors, artists, title-changes, 1st appearances, publishers, format, scarcity indicators, etc. To include all of this information and leave out pricing just to appease a few who preferred to keep that information to themselves, seemed a disservice to collectors, as well as my own desire to be comprehensive. There are a number of different sources where such information can be cobbled together, especially now more than in 2001, but the Bookery guides remain the only sources where all of this is in one place. Yes, pricing in them is dated, though may be useful in terms of relative pricing (issue x is worth twice as much as issue y, etc.), but the rest of the data is still useful, depending upon your collecting needs. Ideally, an issue-by-issue guide would be best... but it would run 1500 pages.

Not sure of your point. You seem to be derisive of trimming (as indeed are most collectors). But I would have to infer from all of your other posts that you are actually pro-trimming, just not sure which kind you prefer. You have (repeatedly) stated that pulps should only be collected for the reading of the stories, not for the art. You also chastised one poster and told him it was not his job to preserve pulps for posterity (so why worry about their original published state?). Trimming (especially "block-trimming") actually makes pulps much easier to handle and read. Thus, based on your other comments, I would have to assume that you trim the pulps in your collection that haven't already been done? Plus, buying only trimmed pulps is much cheaper, and would allow you to acquire much more reading material. If you collect pulps as historical artifacts or for the artwork, trimming is certainly anathema for many. But if all you intend for them is to be read (and re-read), condition should be irrelevant, and trimming would actually facilitate one's ability to do so.

Yep, that's it! I often wonder what happened to some of the items I used to have. Most were purchased while I was gathering final data on the original 2001 guide (probably bought 1998-2000), and I concentrated on issues I felt were scarce. I sold nearly all of them off a few years later during one of the PulpCons back when it was held in Dayton. I had 3 different copies of the "rare" Vice Squad Detective, but I didn't keep scans of them.

A pretty good overview. I would just quibble with a couple of things toward the end. It really isn't correct to put Fitzgerald and Christie lumped in with pulp writers. Christie's 1st publication was a full-blown hardback novel which introduced Hercule Poirot. Her "Miss Marple" short stories did appear in pulps first in America, but presumably had already appeared in England (though I was unable to track down what sort of publication they first appeared in when I researched the guides). Fitzgerald was never a pulp writer. His first publication was in a university literary magazine, followed by appearances in the Saturday Evening Post, not considered a pulp by any means. All sorts of authors were often reprinted much later in pulps, but that's not the same thing. Jack London is a bit of a stretch also, though a case might be made. He appeared first (and somewhat frequently) in the literary magazine The Overland Monthly. The magazine's origins precede anything we now consider to be officially pulp. But London did publish some stories in the pulps afterward, so he's a bit of a crossover.

If people know me, they know I'm not the sort of person who laughs out loud when they are in a room by themselves. But I did when I got to #3....

If you are searching for specific authors, check out Galactic Central ( http://www.philsp.com/ ). You can sort by author or by story, and print off a list of your favorite writer to use as a search/checklist.

Thanks! I appreciate it. But it's not a funding issue, but a practicality one. I've had enough track record to know pretty much how many copies can be sold, so there'd be little risk in self-publishing another one. But I no longer have the time and desire to box up and mail all of those copies out. That's why I went with Heritage Press (Ivy) on the last one... they did all of the production and distribution work. Unfortunately, they only produced 500 copies, which was insufficient for the market (I sold 1,000 of the previous self-published one, and that was without anywhere near the promotional resources they had). I've got some resources in mind. But it's not quite there yet. But in the meantime, I'd be happy to share some data here from time to time. But, as I said... not just me. There are also a number of others here that have lots of experience. Also, I forgot to mention to the OP... there's another thread already in this forum that posts some of the auction sales from Heritage, PulpFest, Windy City, etc. It wouldn't help if you need info on a specific issue at any given time... but is nevertheless a good resource to keep an eye on.

Those two are pretty much your best bets right now. Also you can see what cosigners are asking for pulps on mycomicshop.com. Just be cautious, especially with Heritage. There are obviously some newcomers bidding on there who aren't familiar with the market. (In their big pulp auction a couple of days ago, there were some common '50s digests that can be had for under $20 that hammered for $100+). Your topic title is a good general one that could be used for future reference, if you have questions from time to time I can help, as can others. I'm working on a new guide, and track auctions etc. Don't know if it will ever be published, but I have some updated data at hand if there are occasional questions, which if you post here, I will probably see.

To be fair, 80 years is a bit of an exaggeration. That would mean people began paying collector premiums for comics as early as WW2! I don't think that's true. The earliest ads I've seen promoting back-issues at premiums to cover price is about the mid-1960s. And there were the beginnings of small gatherings of collectors at the time, though I suspect more was traded than was actually bought outright. An actual comic book "market" probably got established with the Overstreet Guide in the early '70s, however. But in those first few years, the Overstreet price increases (which were fairly small year-to-year) were likely more a reflection of the Guide pushing a market than necessarily reflecting it. Regardless, it soon began to take off on its own. So an honest nationwide comic book market is really only about 50 years old... meaning it didn't really get underway until someone like me was in high school. That's not a very long time. Comics are essentially still a young market. Rare books have been bought and sold for 500 years. Coins have been collected for centuries. Stamps have been collectible at least since the 1800s. And those didn't have movies and TV shows hyping them. Unlike fine art, or Ming Dynasty vases, or Faberge eggs, "pop culture" seems to always be ephemeral. It can be "hot" for as short as a few years (Beanie Babies) or last several decades before beginning to peter out (Tarzan ephemera, much of Disneyana, Coca-Cola merchandise, Big Little Books, Bettie Page, etc.). A few "key" or especially rare items are always exceptions, of course, and nothing dies out completely (there are still collectors for "dime novels" -- though both of them are getting up there in years ). But by definition "pop culture" is something that is special to a specific generation, or two, or three. And then, eventually, something else becomes "pop".

No here is a point I hadn't considered, especially for ultra-high grades. I was thinking of the swapped Marvel-stamp books when I posted, but this is definitely a consideration that could affect bid prices, even if the buyers were unaware of the books being switched. Thanks.

Shill bidding is a separate issue, and of course GPA wouldn't want any of those type of sales included, if they discovered them. I was only addressing price vs. book-swapping.

Oh I understand that it's plenty complicated in terms of CGC. That's why I haven't posted previously in this thread. There are others such as you that are far more qualified to discuss the ramifications of all of this. My comment wasn't about the CGC/scammer issue at all, per se. It was simply a comment about if a sale is listed in GPA that later turns out to be a book that was switched, it doesn't really affect the averages because it still represents what a buyer thought they were getting and agreed to pay for. But others pointed out some things to consider in this as well.

I may be misunderstanding this. I guess for tracking specific certification numbers, there may be an issue. But as for pricing, the fact that the books were fraudulent really doesn't make a difference. If someone bought a 9.8, but in reality the book inside had been switched for one missing a Marvel stamp, for example, the price being paid still represents what someone wanted to pay for a 9.8, the actual book inside notwithstanding. Therefore GPA averages for a given period and grade shouldn't be affected.

Yes. Lots and lots of suburbs. That number is for just Dayton proper. What they call the "greater Dayton area" has a population over 800,000. There are also quite a few universities in the region... University of Dayton, Wright State, Wittenberg, Wilberforce, Antioch, Clark State. Add in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas (within an hour's drive) and the population is several million.

It's the same unscrupulous one that kept attacking Sideshow Bob.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. In the "old days" I'd get most of the SA mega-keys in about once each every year. I once had 3 Showcase #4s in the shop at one time (not a big deal for someone like Bedrock, but not bad for here in the Mid-West), and another time 2 Batman #1s. But these have become pretty far-between in recent years. Usually it's an existing customer who has up-graded and sells off his lesser copy. Now the shop has a good mix at any given time of SA-up in the under-$1,000 range, and an eclectic mix of scattered golden-age that changes over the months. I still buy the big books (after 40 years, I have more buying power than ever, so it's not an issue in buying them when they are offered), but these usually sell to existing want-lists, or the several big-$ local collectors that scoop them up as I detailed earlier. I have a lot of dealers who come here, and they can often buy quality books here in the Mid-West and sell them for considerably more when they set up at San Diego or Chicago. The "Big Books" are fun to get in, but there's not that much comparative profit in them (another dirty little dealer secret). Unless you specialize in them (eg Metropolis, Bedrock, others) you get better mark-up on books under $1000, and certainly have a wider range of potential buyers.

Thanks. I love shop talk and it's unfortunate there are only a few shop owners on these boards, and they aren't typically inclined to discuss the details of their professions, which I understand. I've been at this for over 40 years, and don't have anything to be close-to-the-vest about anymore. I'm happy to discuss the ins and outs, anecdotes good and bad, etc. It would be nice to have a separate thread for this, but it wouldn't be very useful just to have me post (there are as many approaches to shop-keeping as there are shops, and wildly different experiences). Anyway... even here the thread is getting a bit derailed, so back to our regularly scheduled programming... Yowza! That issue dropped by how much!!??

I agree with you then, you won't find that sort of thing in shops unless you just happen in shortly after a purchase. And if you do, as you say, a lot of small shops are so impressed with what they've picked up, the book is usually over-priced, or worse, significantly over-graded. A couple of years ago I purchased a nice near-complete mini-run of GA Batman #s 2-20. They averaged a nice 5.0-6.0 in grade, and one even had a double-cover! They sold to a walk-in customer the next day. I also picked up an average but attractive copy of Hulk #1. It sold to the next person who walked in the door 15 minutes later. Now, those examples were at the height of the Covid collectibles-mania, and things have cooled down a bit since then. It's nice to be able to move stuff quickly (and there's not a lot of margin in these big books), but it's a bit sad as well. Most of my customers never saw them and never know this sort of stuff shows up from time to time. Ideally, one would like books like that to sit around for about a month, as it's good advertising for future collections for folks to see them in the shop. But that's rarely the case, and you can't have everything.

near Dayton, Ohio. This area, surprisingly, is quite shop-intensive. There are 6 or 7 shops in the vicinity, and a number of others if you add Cincinnati and Columbus into the mix (less than an hour's drive away). (The Dayton area was also once a hotbed of used and rare bookstores... over a dozen within 30 minutes of each other. Sadly, all but one or two have fallen by the wayside, victims of big-box stores, Amazon, and a general indifference to the product).