Surfing Alien

To play along nice the earliest mainstream "gimmick" cover I can think of was 1976's "Two Much" by Donald Westlake from Fawcett, which had fuzz applied to the painted book cover art. I believe I read somewhere that that the fuzz was hand applied, which, if true, must have been quite a job. Not my copy, courtesy of Steve Wallace https://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/30411818470

I don't avoid books with pull back altogether, sometimes that may be the best you can find and the book is otherwise solid, but overly dried out glue can be a hidden problem.

I apologize if that came off dismissive Jimbo, I didn't choose a dollar as a diminutive, but meant it as an economic difference.

Streets to Easy Street...

Crazy to Devil

Not sure, but I don't think any collector cares about those distinctions enough to make a dollar difference

Nice copy. Tough to find without a hard reader crease.

This is not trimming, this is common shrinkage of the cover paper. Trimming has never been a problem on vintage pbs, but the glue shrinkage on the spine causes everything from cover "retreat" usually on the right side, to brittle spine glue cracking and related falling apart of the entire book due to dried out glue.

C'mon BitterOldMan, you gotta make the connection 😂 No skating by 🤪

Turner to Crazy Turner

Confederate Grays to Jail Grays

Very early wraparound

Irish to British

City to Sand

Solid Gold to Strictly Cash

Slay Ride to Hay Ride

Zola to Zola

Violent Virgin to Violent Night

Copeland cover to Copeland cover

Flower to Seeds

We could do an entire thread of boardies lamenting the structural flimsiness of Lancer Books

Savage Pellucidar to Luana

Saber to Saber Tooth

Raymond Johnson painted this one

Raymond Johnson cover to Raymond Johnson cover