Surfing Alien

Just unboxed this 212 page fattie with a classic cover. If this was a comic book I probably couldn't afford it.

Great stuff! You get a flavor from these and other 30's pulps, especially the aviation ones, of life where world war was on the horizon, even though it was not yet on our shores. I remember my father telling me about life in that decade and the sense of foreboding in the air.

Maguire time again ... These show how broadly Maguire could achieve excellence

Welcome to ComicCondom

I use a folded Mylar sleeve, you can hold the spine in your hand and flip through easily without your sweaty little palm laying a glove on that cover, or lay it on a surface to read - same concept as a book jacket.

In today: My appreciation for the later Avons has grown since the old days. Avon from the 400's on got much grittier

Score The stuff of nightmares & looks better than clean to me, especially with that all-black cover.

Mail call.... Which would you prefer? Sex? or some Heade?

Safe to say, that is a safe-worthy collection

I just started again a few minutes ago and I'm filling buckets up already I'm reminded quickly that they do take up more space than comics or paperbacks

I know "about" a lot of titles because of the listings in the old catalogs (Hancer, Warren etc.) but the catalogs had few pictures so it's different seeing a good scan or holding one in your hand. I see books I hadn't seen before all the time and there are some amazing ones (that Dell Maguire you showed for example). Berkley's are fertile ground. I never had a lot of them, probably because I didn't consider them really as vintage in the 80's when I first collected but they seem very much so now and there are a ton of great covers, including reprints that have much better covers than the original paperback editions (Like those 2 Clarke's you just showed. The first Avon paperbacks of those two seem quaint compared to the Berkley editions)

I'm kind of amazed at the prices run of the mill 60's soft core books bring, especially if they have Bonfils or some other sought after artists covers. $10-$15 minimum it seems on a lot of them and they go way higher for some outrageous titles. I don't purposefully buy them but every once in a while there are a couple in a lot and they sell quickly when I list them. I don't collect that stuff - I have a teen age daughter so my barometer is "what would my kid think if I croaked and she had to sell my stuff" But if it's sexy "and" classy I'm all over it, like those Maguire's Randall Dowling just posted, or the Schaare and DeSoto Monarch covers (or Heade, or Belarski or....)

I look at it this way now - a brand new paperback book costs $10 these days. A nice clean copy of a 70 year old book has to be worth $10, both intrinsically and for it to be worth it to do the work of finding it and listing it. And today's $10 bill ain't 1985's $10 bill. If it has a cool cover, especially GGA it should be $15-$20. Keys obviously are more. I'm like you guys, I love finding stuff for $1 to $5 a pop like the old days - but times change and circumstances vary. I usually only find those prices in lots, and even those are hard to sneak up on. I've thrown many a "solid" bid at a lot and gone down in flames and it sells for more than the collective value of the lot (to me at least). I still sell a ton of books for less than $10 (in fact, probably the vast majority of my sales) but I like to actually sell stuff. I see many folks listing every book or digest for $20 - $40 and they sit and sit and sit. On average stuff I just want to get my money back and a little profit for my time and expertise. I'd rather have $ sittiing in my paypal account, ready so I can pounce when I see something that I really desire. I've "manned up" for the stuff I really wanted plenty of times as well as lucking into a classic for cheap. When you think about the relative values for other collectibles it's pennies but everybody has their brackets they're willing to enter into.

Nice! Don't get started on Monarchs... you might regret it 🤣🤣🤣

I think several of the Anderson space babe pulp covers are swipes or semi-swipes of the comics . At least the poses.

Pretty much only feebay. Buddha63. I've been a seller since '98 on and off - lately they're giving a lot of free listings so i'm taking advantage and clearing out lots of doubles and trying to whittle the holdings down to a more focused accumulation. The struggle is real though because every time I go to list stuff I end up getting distracted and buying more

These in the mail today. Two of my favorite bizarre Howitt Spider creations.

Besides the 2 above, a couple more arrived in yesterdays mail. Some scarce JD, another minty Dell, another pulpy Avon classic and a Peeping Tom Pocket Book - pretty racy for a Pocket.

Pretty much where i'm at, especially picking up lots that have a few I want for the permanent collection and selling off what I can live without. I'd call it a targeted accumulation. Here's a new pickup you may appreciate.

That's crazy good... damn now you're gonna make me go hunting Maguires again

Nice - it's a very cool, moody Maguire cover and def scarcer than the Avon reprint.

Here's a few Ace's with hardcore SciFi Rockets & Rayguns covers

Interesting thought. The cover is unattributed in all the price guides but if it could be traced to Wood it would be amazing. I don't think there is any record of it or one of the cataloguers would've found it out. Hancer and Warren guides were both put out a lot closer to the time period than today.

Gorgeous. Don't think i've seen this before. You're on fire Pat!