Surfing Alien

I suspect it's a little of all of the above ^ Our little main thread has always had interest but there's definitely been some enhanced spirit lately with great participation by new folks (to these parts of the board) I've had an Ebay store since 1998 but ramped it up quite a bit when I started actively collecting pb's again, around 2017. I sell very steadily out of the store but hadn't thought to do a board sale until I saw Randall Dowling sell some vintage pb's early last year and quite a few got "takes" so I decided to do one and sure enough, people bought books. Part of the perception of what makes something "hot" is what you see. With no visible sales here, no one saw these pretty things unless they came nosing around the pulp section. I'm positive the sales threads we've been doing has created some interest, just by their happening and folks seeing cool looking books. There's no doubt that tons of vintage pb's have the same cool cover appeal to comic collectors, and then there is the crossover appeal stated above that everyone has favorite books, authors and topics like Science Fiction or Noir, that would spur them to buy books regardless of how cool the cover is. But if they don't see them, they don't know what they are or might not think to acquire them. It isn't just here though, there has been a ton of interest spurred by Facebook and Instagram groups that have orders of magnitude higher participation than these boards. I see people of all ages in those groups - plenty of young writers who love noir, for instance (though plenty of us old codgers too ) The competition for high grade books is palpably higher these days, whether on the bay or elsewhere on the web. Many books that used to be of the variety that there were always 5 or 10 copies for sale are no longer that way. But it is always highly variable in the pb field. You can see three copies of a tough book surface in a month, but then not see another for a year. All that said, they're still dirt cheap compared to so many other collectibles, so I think it's pretty easy to hit that "Take" when you see something like a great Belarski or Maguire GGA cover for $30 or $50 or even $100. There's a pretty big sweet spot between $20 - $100 where so many great books lie.

Pick Up and Just Friends are definitely Ward. I'm not any expert on the others but I agree that Bilbrew and maybe Stanton are in there. Screen Test and Dealer's Luck look like Bilbrew to me Nice "Pickups" Mark - a little late reading eh

This later print of "The Amboy Dukes" is a "Stone Cold Classic" IMHO and a great asset to historians due to the incredible info inside... Although not indicative totally because it may have been Avon's biggest seller ever, but this book is still a pretty thing to acquire in high grade... The Brooklyn Bridge over the classic "Clinch" pose hits every button for this kid.

Problem is, gear takes up a lot of space. We're comfortable right now but not rich, have a fair sized house but guitars are like wimmen, they have things attached to them Like 20 medium to large amplifiers, boxes of pedals, cables, footswitches and every other imaginable appendage. The Lady of the house is an elementary school teacher and, unless you know the breed, you'd be amazed at the footprint of 20 odd years of teaching gear

30-ish I thought I had gotten it below that but we recently re-carpeted the house and had to pull everything out of every closet and I had to sheepishly confess it had crept above 30 so been selling a couple off. GAS is a tough habit to kick

*Update* Blazed through the second half yesterday. "Wow" is the word. Seldom do these noirs sustain such an even pacing throughout. Lots of tough turns of phrasing and memorable truths about life, death and love. All the elements of great plotting are here. The climax (perfectly captured by Copeland on the second paperback edition) is quite memorable and the fall and resolution not the usual throw aways. Highly recommended.

I was out of the house most of the day yesterday so didn't have a chance to respond to this. An epic post and no derailing done. I do have to say, the more cards that boardies reveal about their life away from collectibles, the more I like just about every one of y'all. And yeah I do have more than two guitars but just having one makes you cool in my book

That cover is by Raymond Johnson

Thanks Douglas. You know I collect any vintage pb with "Girl" in the title and this one has kept eluding me. I'm never not amazed at how many suitors show up to bid for her charms when she's available

Starving artist, a concept as old as time itself

Can't resist... cannot believe... 💞

Those Chartered Mysteries are tough in any kind of decent grade. The cover paper used was thin and brittle

Anywhere from 50-200k by the late 1940's. Most second and later printings of "Round Circle Avons" had printing information inside. Incredibly, "Neon Wilderness" by Algren, with the famous Ray Johnson prostitute in red dress cover, sold a million copies in its various printings, but it's very hard to find today.

Some killer books in that spread

Cool, did you ever get to doing illustration? In the 80's I was pretty well entrenched in the New York City Death Metal/Hardcore punk scene. Played at CBGB's & L'Amours and quite a few other legendary local spots. I was in mosh pits that would disintegrate me now

Now that is the kind of copy I could see asking that kind of dollar for these days, although similar can still be found for a little less.

There and ebay are definitely the largest aggregators of sellers but much top material exchanges without the public getting a whiff

Very nice. I'd bet @moonpool has these as well

I have an entire box of Black Lizards, the first real noir revival, which started when I was still piling up my first collection in the '80's. Those were all filtered properly through author estates when published as far as I know, but the UK stuff I have no idea.

One reason it's so rare and $$$ is there were no modern printings for 60 or so years so anyone who heard the buzz about it had to dig up a 1st or 2nd. The modern noir renaissance is your friend Now a nut like me, since I'm really liking it, is going to have to go all out to find a real nice copy of the 1st, because I have to have nice 1st pbs of books I love

Books on music

Friday Fun today is this reader copy that I got for the reading as well as the collectability. Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze. Gold Medal No. 296 Cover artist unknown. I got lucky with this as a beater can run you $100 easily. It's a really tough book in any condition... and tough in the tough noir sense as well, on many "best noir" lists. I picked it up this afternoon and blazed through half of it already and it lives up to its reputation so far. Although it's a rare book, it's one of those that is far rarer in its second edition, "One For The Money" with the Charles Copeland cover, which I posted the other day I don't much of an excuse to post that one again

Pretty sure I posted this one waaay back but none of the keywords are coming up ... but "Hell Yeah"