Surfing Alien

My assessment, as well as most of the dealers I spoke to was that it was "vibrant". From open to close there were more people coming in and the variety of people was much greater than at Windy City for pulps. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that there's really something for everybody in paperbacks and the affordability factor. There were rows and rows of 4 for $10 and 1/2 price and just generally inexpensive vintage pbs from the 40's through the present of every genre. Exactly the kind of stuff that has general appeal to folks of all ages and budgets. I bought all I could carry, as I've mentioned, I wish I had a truck (or brought a carry-on at least ). For someone who loves vintage pbs it's kinda like heaven to be around so many As mentioned above - great overall selection - I didn't find a few particular grails I was looking for, but I'm used to that I was kinda hoping there would be a whale there with copies of RSG and other big books on the wall, but no RSG, not even a copy of the Ace "Junkie", which was somewhat surprising because it's relatively common, if expensive. Kayo and Terry had some bigger books, but I already have the ones I want of those, although I would have bought Kayo's "Marihuana" if it was still there went I did my second round. Prices ranged from dirt cheap to fair market. Everyone gave good discounts on a stack. I've already posted some standouts in the pulp section, here's a couple more: I did get one Cole (that has become impossible to find lately) These you don't see every day: It was worth the trip for sure. Everyone had great attitudes and the conversations were fun. It is definitely dizzying to look at so many spines. I'm not used to seeing so many pbs displayed that way. I literally did not know which way to turn at certain points of the day

There were unicorns, mostly of the sleaze and British variety, but unfortunately, not a single one of the books I had on my small "dream list" that I put together to look for there. The dealers who I spoke to (and showed pics of my collection to) were mostly of the opinion that I was going to have a tough time finding those books since I was a pretty good "finder" and the fact that I don't have them yet means they are truly rare books. But I did feel very satisfied picking up a few books that were not on my "list" but were unicorns, either generally or in grade. These Victor Norwood Scion books are really tough to find and with the incredible Ron Turner covers, they get snapped up. I was very far up the line to get in at 9AM and got to the British Dealer's table first and grabbed this bad boy "The Coming of the Rats" can be found but it's scarce and the black cover is brutal on defects. It's a book I've always wanted to get but wanted to wait to get one with nice corners. When I saw this copy I almost fell on the floor and had to pick myself up to grab it before it was gone

Kayo was great, Maria and I were best buds by the end of the show. I bought a big enough stack from them that they are going to mail it to me free of charge They had some great deals on a side bookshelf with unbagged pbs. Of course, I bought plenty off their main table as well. They know their pbs and values but were all very fairly priced and they gave me a good chop off the price of my stack My only regret is that I didn't buy the real nice copy of "Marihuana" they had. It's not as nice as my copy but one of the better ones I've seen. I was at their table for quite a while and I needed to move on to see what else was around the room and when I came back later some smart person had snapped it up. I could tell they sold a lot of books as their stacks were well thinned by my second go-round.

It was a “crime of opportunity”. I’d never seen it before. PBs and Digests are SO much cheaper than the comics I usually buy. And, although I don’t have the patience to look through endless rows of spines, Digests usually pop out easier when you can find them. It's a great drug book and great cover. When you look at the copyright page, it says "Second Printing" but it's actually the Second Printing of "Beyond Desire" with a new title and same cover art. That used to confuse the heck out of people who went looking for the First Printing of "Dream Club" and thought it was a unicorn (well, Beyond Desire is a bit of a unicorn )

Take at 20% off FYI, this sweet cover art is by Robert Stanley, who did all those great Dell Mapback covers. My buddy Brian Emrich owns the original art

@jimjum12 The Sleaze Force was strong at this show. I always say that I don't collect sleaze per se but when the wind is blowing your way, you set your sails with it, not agin' it I bought a ton of high grade, high class sleaze at this show, all I could possibly carry. One dealer had such a sumptuous spread that I would have bought the table If I had a truck. I picked off a lot of the books with very high quality cover art and catchy titles. Who could resist?

Great minds think alike I picked up a minty copy of "Country Girl" from Kayo along with a great high grade Two-Fisted digest and the Gil Brewer classic PBO "Nude On Thin Ice" Tough books all around. I ended up buying a big enough stack from Kayo that they are shipping them to me Super nice folks with more of the higher end stuff I like than most sellers there.

There were 1000% mo better looking wimmen at this show than I saw at Windy City the last two years. Cali got the goods as far as PB Grrrls

Nice picks - I saw those others but not "Raging Passions" or it would have been a duel

Hey, I'm a noob That Robot guy is ooooold

Had a great chat with Terry and found a few things to buy. He shared some of his beer on the down-low, which, if you're from Brooklyn like me, means you're friends for life He showed me some incredible commissions he's had done over the years by Frank Brunner, Pablo Marcos and Mike Ploog - just wow kind of stuff Dug these high grade digests out of his boxes Very different from each other but both my kind of stuff

Wish I knew, I would have sought you out - it was great show by all the vendors comments. Lot's of $ changing hands & it was not all middle aged men. I spotted a fair number of 20's-40's younger men and women! buying lots of horror and sci-fi. I had to elbow battle a few of them for Lesbian themed pb's with the painted covers, which is a collecting focus

That is really nice. Super tough without corner creases

Man you are bringing out the guns tonight! Falcon digests are so tough. I just recently got one of these after 7 years of looking

Nice shape for these! Incredible Carl Pfeuffer bondage/torture cover

Taking a lunch break so will kick up a few photos and give a bit more splainin' later There were probably 50 people lined up at 9AM when the doors opened. Mostly middle aged men but there were some women and younger men as well. As the show went on, I was pleasantly surprised to see a fair amount of 20 and 30 somethings and more women throughout the day. The dealers I spoke with all are saying it's a good crowd for this show

Many good points, but it's too easy to slosh the years around. From what age are the books you've hauled around? Boomers were born in the late 1940's - 60's. They weren't buying 1940's or even 1950's pbs. Those were bought by folks born in the 1920's and 30's, who are 99% not of this earth any longer. Those estate sales are mostly long past and the paperbacks associated with them deemed low value at the time. I suspect there's very few copies of golden age paperbacks in Boomer attics. Maybe there's 1960's & 70's pb's since that's what Boomers bought but even those, again, were only sentimentally valued, unlike (maybe) hardbacks, which were considered to have prestige.

That's a proud copy. Any copy without a lot of creasing is tough

All Love Jim I know you weren't knocking anything as common. I just think your reasoning is a little skewed because you see lots of vintage pbs out there: "What I meant was that I have seen many yard sales and estate auctions and they almost always have paperbacks and other books, while comics are typically non existent." - this is because every grandma knows her Dippity Duck #392 in VG is worth $55 and she pulls it and puts it in a mylar, it doesn't make it to the estate sale. Old paperbacks are junk thrown in a box. I remember back in the early 1990's hanging around in my LCS and fathers buying multiples of Valiants and saying they were putting them away for their kids college fund. "Used paperbacks were plentiful enough that an entire industry based on buy/sell/trade emerged in almost all decent size cities." - so were comics and comic book shops, including many hybrid pb/comic shops. PB's were 50 cents loose and getting beat up on shelves and comics were in bags and boards and $1 > the moon and the proprietor would throw you out the store if you were bending them (and kept the good ones behind the counter) "My point was mostly that PB's targeted adults who often keep and care for things, while vintage comics(before 1969) are less represented. Judy still has tons of her paperbacks from her whole life, mostly well read, and she even introduced me to some of my favorite authors with those very same well loved copies." - think about what you said there - adults keep things better but Judy's are well read. Not knocking Judy I have the same books from my life of reading, but adults didn't care for pbs, they were stuck in jacket pockets and purses, they were worth the words and paper printed on. I think what is happening is that you have a perception that vintage pb's are more common because you can still find them relatively inexpensively, while the truth is that there just hasn't been, and there isn't anywhere near the demand, especially from condition conscious collectors, so they are not all scooped up into collections or sitting in high end comic shops so you can still find some in the wild or on the web at decent prices and even find awesome classics at cheap prices if the seller has no clue. We've had this discussion on the main thread a few times in the past - that it would only take a very small increase in demand to dry up the supply of really good vintage pbs. I hope it doesn't happen until I find the rest of the stuff I'm looking for

Thanks I got my set of Army Romances in other places. I NEED an upgrade of No. 3, mine has a sub crease but it's just rare as hell. One of the type things I flew to the LA show to look for. When no copies show up anywhere, for years, you know you gotta get what you can get when you can get it LoTR sets are fairly plentiful, but they are very high demand. I consider them a bell-weather set for the hobby, kind of like AF15 for Silver Age comics. Plenty of them out there, but everyone needs a set and the higher the grade the price keeps inching up. The set pictured is my 4th set, always upgrading each individual book. I don't think a higher grade set could exist but I could be wrong, there's virtually no flaws and they are very thick books and were highly read so very difficult to get (and keep) nice. I sold my undercopies to these recently for $650 on the bay. They only lasted a couple of days on there. That's nothing $-wise in comic world but I remember when you could get a real nice set for $100. I probably shouldn't have sold them but I keep telling myself I can't keep everything and will use the money to fill other holes. The Hobbit is the Ballantine file copy. The centering is so tough on that book, my heir will have to sell that one

I wouldn't advise anyone to "bet the farm" on any collectible, you might wind up the proud owner of crates full of Beanie Babies and no food As James mentioned, I don't see any chance of a meteoric rise in prices for pbs, but there has been a steady uptick since I started buying again 7 years ago, moreso recently. As with most things, it's the higher grades and better books for the most part. I don't agree that pbs were saved more than comics were though. They were passed around and were throwaways when printed as well and, unlike comics, never had word out in the non-collector world whereas comics have been hoarded by condition conscious collectors at least since the 1960's and by the 1980's, as my friend RD says, (paraphrasing here) every grandma in an antique stall in Podunk had her VG copy of Dippity Duck #392 in a Mylar and priced at $55. Whereas old paperbacks were just that. Junk, thrown in a corner of the stall where the brittle spine glue dried up further until it cracks when you open the cover and the pages flutter unfettered about the stall Not saying there haven't been plenty of die hard collectors all along. Just nowhere near the preservation base due to lack of value and knowledge. I've only ever bought pbs with side money, steadily though, and over the years you can put together some nice runs of things.

They're in Bookscans, but tucked away along with other Pocket side projects https://bookscans.com/Publishers/pb/pbASE.htm I think there's something about them in the early pb history books I have back home but were always known as Pocket produced. Reader's League was a hardcover book club so this was likely some collaboration with them that didn't last too long. I'll look in those books when I get back to see if there's any back story mentioned.

So I get to my hotel in Glendale and on the wall behind the Customer Rep is a sign for "The Paperback Brewing Company" which is down the road from the hotel https://paperback.la/ Doesn't seem any relationship to the show but I may have to go down a can of "Hollywood Hellcats"

I think the small cadre nature of these little board threads blinds some folks to who is out there buying. Having been going after high level books for several years now, there's a lot more competition for nice books everywhere I look in the last couple of years. Very few bargains slip through the cracks unnoticed and I think it has to be the thousands of people on FB and Instagram groups that have crowded the doorways.