Surfing Alien

Maybe no one wants to give up that incredibly suggestive sweater shot? Seriously, without having print run/sales information, it's hard to say. It's the first one i've had or seen in hand.

Yeah, I used to only go for the 1st's but there is no doubt that many later printings have cooler covers, Especially books like Signets where the earlier issues have stylized covers and later prints have Avati, Maguire or others in that style. I'll always pick them up if they look good and the price is right

Yeah, the market seems all over the place right now. Remember this is a market for cheapskates who want everything for $5 or $10 lol! That said, some books like Marihuana, most people know what it is so it never goes for way cheap. I bid on a nice one a couple months ago in an auction and am glad I didn't win it, it went really high. I find for the most part that BIN's with make offer, and scouring the various multi-book lots that come up are your best opportunities.

Never tried or thought about re-attaching the laminate. I'd be more interested in that than peeling it off. I've only done that on a couple of wacky books where there was very little left and it was folded over and over onto itself and looked horrible. As you mentioned - it usually leaves some residue and the book looks dull. I'd be interested to know of there was a safe way to reattach it.

Love this one and the Amazing Stories, both with The Woolworth Building in peril. It was the tallest commercial building in the world at the time both of these were printed in 1929 and had been since its completion in 1913 so had reached iconic status.

What's odd is that i've never heard of this book or seen it, but apparently it was one of the biggest selling books of the early 20th century (it was written in 1925) and was "notorious" (banned in Boston according to the WaPo article). It was reprinted in 2012 to a lot of fanfare including a gushing review in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-madonna-of-the-sleeping-cars-by-maurice-dekobra/2012/11/09/3c107f56-1e13-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story.html Maybe there wasn't an appetite for lighthearted pre-WW2 European sleaze and intrigue in 1948 when Dell released it and it didn't sell well?

Some more nice Dell's came into the fold. The early ones are pretty tough looking this nice. The lamination is lifting on Madonna of the Sleeping Cars but it's all there and I've never seen one before. It's a real oddball.

It's ok, that "Cry Plague" cover is too current NOT to post and re-post

Humble 1950 issues but my first pulp pickups in a little while. Some nice bright copies, both with Bloch stories and September with Asimov's only appearance. I think the May cover is one of the better ones by Dolgov.

Ok, after a LOT of searching I found the thread with the comics that swiped paperback covers. It's embedded in a larger thread about comic art cover and panel swipes - a testimony to how much knowledge has been shared (and buried for that matter) on these boards over the years. The paperback section starts at the bottom of page 8. The rest of the thread has a lot of cool swipes as well. Well worth going through, even with lots of broken links. The paperback section is all there though.

Couple more digest pickups Not quite as nice as the one I had years ago but pretty good for now. Always love me some hillbilly romance

Love the swipes. I don't know how to do the search properly but someone, I think Doohickamabob, did a long bunch of posts somewhere in the forums that showed dozens of the cover swipes. It was a treat but I just can't find it right now to give a link.

Yeah, Playboy was December 1953 and this was published sometime in late 1953 so too early for Hef. Marilyn exploded everywhere in 1953 (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire) so I guess I only need to salt 1/2 of my hat The robe had me thinking Hef but I can see George Raft there too

Just got around to examining the rest of a lot I won and took a double take when I looked closely at this. I've never seen one before and Google led to Heritage where the original painting is attributed to George Gross. I'll eat my sombrero if that's not Hef and Marilyn...

Some more of the nice Dell mapbacks I picked up and a couple Avon/Eton titles to boot... Dell #6, definitely the best copy i've seen of this early Dell Dell #21, an upgrade of an early classic cover that I probably won't be able to improve on. A couple of minty fresh mysteries... A near perfect romance... This one is a little worn but such a striking cover, it reminds me of LB Cole's Mask covers... A couple of Avon hard boiled Cain classics, Jealous Woman is one of the cases where the later edition has GGA that is spicier than the earlier edition... Finally, this Eton is a classic cover and one where the later edition is the one to have...

Sweet haul all around. Love that Carr cover with the Femme Fatale. I miss digging around in bookstores but at least the mails will be open for now. I got some more nice mapbacks in that i'll shoot tomorrow. That Rawson title is a classic. I used to have a real nice copy.

Some Ward headlight goodness I picked up. The Private Detective series seem to be really beat up in general. I see very few copies out there that are even legit VG/F.

Eric is right, but for perspective, serious SciFi heads always considered pretty much everything before the Campbell Astounding era to be naive and somewhat wooden, but every collector has always carved out certain earlier niches, whether weird fantasy or space opera or victorian sci fi (Verne, Wells etc) as beloved. The sweet thing is that current taste has evolved around cover art and the pre-Campbell pulps have such wonderful and fun covers, many at approachable prices!

I love the ads in the old pulps, and old newspapers as well, especially some of the medical quackery - they really give you a sense of the times.

Just unboxed these two rare British digests and they're even better in hand than the pictures. This is the same author and series as the elusive "Reefer Boy" The seller had a copy of "Duke" in the same series, which I should've gone for in retrospect, but no copy of Reefer Boy.

Just picked up my Bedrock books. Very sharp and happy all around. The Planet and Aug 33 Weird Tales are upgrades. I'm actually getting to the point where i'll have undercopies to throw on the bay

Looks pretty nice to me

For sure, and the Gerald Gregg covers look even more surreal when they're in sharp condition with minty gloss laminate

Cross posting this here LB Cole digest, i'd include it in my Drug/JD book collection with its dope addiction element...

I'm just gonna post random things to make you feel better while we ride out the thing that must not be named... Another rare digest, probably tougher than the Stork Novels...