OtherEric

I may need to look for a copy of this issue... that's a beautiful cover!

A first issue to a first appearance:

Was very happy to get them. 7 has been a classic cover for a long time and 15 is, as you say, heating up. I jumped on them fast.

Very interesting... I suppose this could be a prototype of some sort as well. Alternately, they could have run a small number of the original press run with laminate as a whole. Which doesn't explain the color shift on The Big Four... Or it may just be a reminder that, at this late date, we may never figure out exactly what was going on during the start-up of paperback printing! Awesome pick-up, in any case.

Almost done picking up this title from the local store:

And the most expensive pulp of the day, but still only $15: Argosy again, but this one has an early Zorro story and a story by Erle Stanley Gardner. Either one would have been worth getting the book for just to have an example of either in my collection; both is great. Super white paper on this one is a bonus; other than the marks around the price it's in amazing shape for an 87 year old book:

Next, a trio of Argosies, also cheap. The common author across all three: Cornell Woolrich. We've been discussing him a lot over in the paperback thread and I figured he would be worth checking out:

A handful of pulps in today. First up, a Triple Detective. Selected because it was only a few bucks and I thought seeing what a non-Doc Savage story by Lester Dent was like would be interesting:

Like I said, I've been looking to get some Woolrich to read recently. The Pocket 257 is a 5th printing, the 570 is a 1st. The Hard Case is obviously a recent book, but I do love the Hard Cases for trying to recreate that vintage feel. I also got in a few Argosies with Woolrich that will show up over in the Pulp forum:

Just in today: The Shuttered Room. This is the fifth Lovecraft collection from Arkham, published in 1959. Stated print run 2500 copies, actual 2527. Unlike Marginalia, my copy of this one has an unclipped dust jacket. To me, the most interesting thing is that this is the last book that had any previously unpublished fiction by Lovecraft. There are five pieces that were first published in this book. Old Bugs is the most important of the new pieces; it's not considered major work by any stretch of the imagination but it's on the list of actual Lovecraft stories. The other four are all juvenilia. The title story is one of Derleth's "posthumous collaborations".

A pair of beat up readers in today... but they're both complete, paper isn't brittle on either, and they were less than $100 total. Only six more issues of Shock Suspenstories to go... the 7 isn't nearly as hard to get as the 6, but it's up there among the other issues of the title, and I think the 15 has been heating up a bit recently as well. I suspect 5 and 12 are going to be the two hardest of the six I still need to get:

What's the book between the Christmas with Archie and the Star Wars? It looks like Conan from the logo, but it's not a normal Marvel book...

Actually, looking at the book as a whole and considering what sort of condition 1930's books are normally in.... I think you could honestly get away with calling that a "higher grade" book than typical of the era, by a fair margin. This is not to be confused for one instant with "high grade".

I assume those are, naturally, all uncolored... I haven't been able to track down a completely uncolored Spider-Man.

Found in the wild yesterday. I’ve already got the marvel version, but couldn’t resist the Whitman variant for $10:

The Letterman issue would have less individuals, I would think, so might have a better chance. It looks like that one HAS been reprinted a couple times. They may have reached an agreement with Letterman and Paul Shaffer when they did those so future reprints will be easier; if still slightly less likely due to additional costs. It doesn't surprise me that at least some of the SNL people of that era were big Marvel geeks; the comic book parodies from National Lampoon just a few years earlier were spot-on. And SNL was what a lot of the NatLamp crew did when they left NatLamp.

Just out of curiosity, why is Crow 1 considered the key over Caliber Presents 1? Just because it gets the cover, or is it notably rarer? Or am wrong in thinking it gets priority? I should dig out my copies; I have a 2nd print on #1 but at least one or two of the books are signed...

Not familiar with Moonchild, but loved his work on E-Man and Michael Mauser. He wrote some fun stuff.

Grabbed at the local book store today, because of this thread. Actually got all 3, but 1 and 2 have already been shown:

Always. Your collection remains something very, very special here on the boards, Marty. And every time you like one of my posts I feel like I'm doing something right even if I didn't show up in person until the early bronze age.

Also, while trying to track down some Woolrich to read (since people here are praising his work so highly), realized I had this hardcover from 1968. Mostly reprint, but there are 5 new stories; including stories by John D. MacDonald (the reason I had bought the book originally), and Cornell Woollrich. I've also got a few Argosies with his work:

Found in the wild today. The scan doesn't do the book justice; it looks much better in person with great page quality:

Found in the wild today. I have the Super Special, but had no idea that there was a paperback as well. Love the Steranko cover:

That Strange Adventures 110 is still a great cover. Not sure what Iron Man is doing on the cover of 112, though... Agreed that a cycle of 12 on the stamp seems more intuitive. Maybe for some reason they were trying to deliberately avoid associating the number with a specific month? That's one of the answers that seems likely lost in time... Maybe they got a good deal on stamps with a single digit changer?

Holding the stack of the gold key/ Whitman Buck Rogers, you can see where they dropped the color when they went to the non returnable bags. Sorry for spreading the posts out, side effect of using my phone to take pics. But it shows where the dealers didn’t go by cover info like normal people would expect.