Westy Steve

I'll edit my initial post to include a spine picture tonight if I get a chance. I know that the book isn't necessarily rare or important, but after seeing that spine, it made me want more like it.

Cool art! Hey, I thought everything you owned is at least a Fine. Does that mean these are hard to find in high grade? I'm figuring out the thicker books like Bantam Giants are harder to find without spine curvature. (Really enjoying the challenge of these PBs)

All erudite, book-collector appreciation not withstanding, My God I Love Women!

Thanks. The spine makes it look unread, so I did order a reprint of this reprint (for less than $5!). I was trying to figure out who did the cover art. Couldn't read the signature. From the seller's picture, I thought it was Bergey until I got it in hand and realized it wasn't his signature. Some elements of the cover art kind of reminds me of the art on the book "Black Opium" from the same period. Wonder if the same artist did both?

I figured I’d buy this one to read and collect. I like the idea of a compendium of short stories since I don’t have much time to read. After I opened the package I realized I will still need a reader copy. I’m conflicted. 🤔

Interesting. I’m kind of a noob. Maybe when I started prices were softer than normal. Could also be that I have a nose for finding bargains. Or perhaps my grading is poor. Book collectors seem to fixate on odd things relative to comic book people and a “fine” book is a high grade. But then, a “fine” is a pretty nice GA book. It’s like their scale needs expansion.

Hey, I was just noticing that some of the cooler books that I track are getting scarcer. Is the market tightening up? A low grade copy of Marihuana used to cost $100 and now they're closer to $200. This is not wishful thinking...I have a long, long, want list and this is going sort of frustrating! Just wondering what you all are observing.

A lot of time has passed since my last entries. At this point, I'm still collecting, but I'm focusing on "stuff" that seems to have a whole lot of bang for the buck. I'm going after Conan's done by Smith in 9.0 or better. Eventually, the keys will be slabbed, but the rest will live out their lives in raw condition in some top-notch mylars and good quality backboards. I'm very passively going after Iron Fist as I run across them in high grade raw. I'm also going after some golden age. Nothing earth shattering, but books that I can get a good deal on that seem very interesting for a less-than-$200 price tag. Lastly, I've moved heavily into paperback books. I just posted this elsewhere, but check out this cover! I love these, and their (still) cheap! Steve

Odd...my post disappeared? Anyway, even though I'm trying not to buy any collectibles right now, this one spoke to me. A nostalgic Bergey cover in nice shape. I tried not to buy it.

Nobody said they had to be comics. 🙂

Cool. Looks a lot like Dr. Manhattan. I wonder if they are somehow related to each other. I’m sure this one came first.

Got these in today. More LB Cole Croydons. Bought sight unseen. Both were pretty cheap so I’m not too disappointed with the filler copy as it was described as a reading copy. The Belle Camille was nicer than I expected.

Yes, very high on my want list. Kind of expensive for its genre too. Even the next version has a good cover and is collectible. Felsen did other car books that are on my want list and look like great reads. He alsowrote some books that were very unrelated to the car culture. Looking forward to reading his stuff! Speaking of authors, I was looking at your copy of the Night has 1000 eyes and I was intrigued by the fact that they used an asterisk to reveal that George Hopley was William Irish. Of course I knew this already but it’s not clear who’s persona they are revealing there with the asterisk . So I looked it up. The original Night has 1000 eyes hardback was done by Hopley. This implies that the Irish pen name was more well respected than that Hopley in that time period...otherwise they wouldn’t have revealed it as such. I doubt the Irish pen name was more respected than Woolrich’s true name. So my guess is he took on Pen names to go after smaller jobs to pay the bills in between larger book deals under his more respected and valuable names...Sort of like when a big actor does a television commercial to tide themselves over until they get another big role. Of course they are all great stuff.

I’m still going 12 different directions with collecting paperbacks...probably not paying enough attention to condition. As a major classic car buff, I find I’m drawn to car covers. I plan to pick up more. But coincidentally I also like references to the devil and the occult. So this one spoke to me and I picked it up today. I’m chasing books that tick a lot of boxes like this one. You guys have any car covers or devil covers you care to share?

I need to pay more attention to condition and snag books like these. They’re beautiful!

Nice! I think my attraction is similar to the comic book guys who like the box format. They really pop in higher grade too.

I love that!

This one ticks a lot of boxes for me. I’d like to upgrade this eventually. This was an affordable copy. At least it’s clean where it counts. I don’t know why but I really like the popular library books. Something about the square box format...Maybe some kind of clever use of the golden ratio.

Yes Sir! I'm sorely tempted to post them in the Golden Age "show your L B Cole covers" thread, but I don't want them encroaching on our turf.

OK, guess what the three books below have in common. Also, check out the title of this Skull cover from 1941. Coincidentally, Gary Lovisi posted a YouTube video tonight showing books with crazy names and this one was on his list. I’m trying to avoid purchasing things in low grade, but this was a screaming deal even for its condition and it was just too cool to pass up. If I was smart I would stop looking at eBay so often. These things are like popcorn! I’m really trying hard to stay disciplined. If I don’t I will run out a room to store these things!

Finally received a vintage version of this book. This Ace book seems to be kind of scarce in the marketplace so I bought it with the idea of upgrading later. Seems that some of the later Woolrich books are hard to find but perhaps they are just not worth listing?

I’m salivating over the condition of those books!

Cool book. When you posted this, my first thought was "I know Surfing Alien knows his stuff, what's the deal with that book?" What I mean is that I know you're chasing only the best stuff, so I was trying to figure out what (besides the better art) sets it apart. So I researched it. The artwork on that book looks so familiar to me because the artist who did it also did covers for Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys! And then the book is rare too. Quite an interesting pickup. Couldn't agree with you more on holiday purchases. I bought so many books that it's not realistic to do "NEWP" posts anymore. I'll probably just wait for them to come in and do a group shot and call it good. Over the holidays, I found that making an offer worked on most everything as long as my request was reasonable. I find that it's not worth looking for things in the wild because I can find as many bargains from my couch due to lack of competition. I can't decide if that's good or bad, but right now I don't care. As I continue to plummet faster and faster down the rabbit hole of the book collecting genre (I think I need help!), I find that my tastes are changing day to day and I'm dabbling in everything. But I'm definitely gravitating toward what's rare. The problem is that the more I learn, the more I see bargains, (sometimes on stuff that's nice to look at, but not so rare). How do you not pull the trigger on a book for $7 that popped onto ebay a few hours ago when everyone is asking $30 or more for it? I really like the rare stuff though...it's so amazing to be able to buy a cool book that might be the only one listed anywhere (that I can find) on the internet for less than $20. It's crazy! I bought a book for $3.75 that has only 5 listed on the internet with the next cheapest one going for $75...and it's a skull cover from 1943. At this point, I'm finding things that I want that aren't available for sale anywhere at all! I'm reluctant to divulge what I'm waiting for because I NEED those books. I've always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, and this is great sport.

A fun looking newp inspired by one of Gary Lovisi’s latest videos. It’s a Bloch story too. I’m not looking for smutty stories that rival modern men’s magazines (defeats the purpose of collecting “sleaze”), but I’m interested in figuring out which of the more well regarded authors of the era (Bloch, Whittington, Woolrich) weren’t afraid to write stories that touched on adult themes. **edit: I just finished reading the story. If I didn’t know that Bloch was a famous writer I would swear it was the pen name if Piers Anthony

So a few days ago I found a modern reprint of Black Angel by Woolrich. I read it in two days which is something I never do. I understand what the fuss is about. There was one plot hole that needed to be smoothed but it was otherwise great. I enjoyed seeing how similar our culture was for people in the 40’s compared to today. I was interested in how “clean” the story was. There was room to make it more lurid, cheap, or dirty, but maybe by 1940 standards it was. This was one of the books that the author wrote in his real name. Makes me wonder if the William Irish pen name books go deeper into the dark side.