PopKulture

Any insight as how these managed to avoid an obvious thumbing-through??

Yeah, Cap was thoughtlessly ranked. I guess they forgot about the super-soldier serum. He didn’t just do push-ups and lift weights.

You’re discounting legacy. You can’t take a period of two weeks in 2012 (if he ever had them!) where Tom Brady played bad and somehow declare he wasn’t an a-list quarterback.

No chance. A-list all the way. Through the Byrne era and a bit of lingering afterwards. They were the First Family. It’s myopic to think otherwise.

Playboy has been crashing hard for years now. Various issues of Time have held their value solidly, with many new “key” issues arising because of society and technology, like the now-valued Steve Jobs or Bill Gates early covers. The 40s and 50s celebrity and sports star issues are still in demand. At one time, many magazines were treasured for their ads, which were commonly framed and used as decor, and that has definitely fallen by the wayside. I haven’t been in anyone’s house for years and seen an Old Dutch ad.

It is a pretty epic post. It’s thoughtful and covers a lot of ground. I’m sure there are people who disagree with various points, but its tone and candor invite no vitriol in kind.

It’s funny you mention National Geographic. When I was a kid looking for other stuff, even junkyards knew to ask a lot for National Geographic. I recall prices for generic 40s issues being $3 to $5, and double that if they had a Coke ad on the back cover. The earlier all-text covers were $10 and up. The first issue was a holy grail worth $10,000 and up. It’s just remarkable what that same money spent on comics or pulps could’ve bought.

Keep going! Now that you’ve gotten a taste… they’re so affordable. They give some of the best “pop” for your pulp dollar. Thank goodness those old-time science fiction fans treasured them and saved at a rate sufficient to keep prices comparatively low today.

Any day that you can pick up something as cool as a “nickel weekly” tends to be a good day.

Thanks. It’s in nice shape for a triple. I had most space-wasters like the Popular Giants and the Bantam Giant A-series books in storage, but because the covers are so noteworthy, I’ve brought a bunch home lately - so much so, that even my wife noticed the new boxes lurking about.

I was in one of my banker boxes of tall-format books today and thought it would be fun to take a group shot. When these are mixed together, it really is like opening a present Christmas morning. The trouble is, as I’ve recounted here before, you do start to lose track of what you have. Mind you, when I was younger, I had a sharper memory and I didn’t look at books here, the Bay, BookScans, etc. all the time, so if I had a clear recollection of the cover, I knew I probably owned the book. These days, I can’t always recall correctly if I actually have a book or I just see it frequently on my eBay watchlist! As prices continue to rise, I don’t want to keep buying doubles, unless it’s a vast upgrade at a sensible price. I already have too many copies of all the Erskine Caldwell books…

I know it’s in large part a perception issue on my end. I just always thought D-15 was the rising tide that lifted a boat - or book - like D-1. I mean, we don’t get that excited over Elmer Gantry or Death in the Library, and even less so for Saint Overboard and pitifully so for Life On The Mississippi. Of course, those aren’t PBO’s, so that’s part of it…

I like that one a lot as well, but it does verge on pin-up, so compare that to an Elvgren or Buell: it's not even in the same league. That’s less a knock on Saunders and more a nod to the top-tier pin-up artists.

I agree, but I have seen paperbacks on the Bay go for more than ever before. I have a suspicion it’s a variant of the same FOMO that struck comics and then pulps. I think seasoned collectors are paying more and scrambling against a few new collectors (keyword “few”). Those insane (FOMO) prices didn’t hold for most comics, they won’t hold for pulps, and I hope they don’t even happen for paperbacks.

Me too. I never really liked Saunders women. His looser, more kinetic style works better with action scenes rather than seduction.

You’re welcome - sort of. I saw that listing right away, thought about upgrading my lower grade copy, and saved it in my watchlist knowing it wouldn’t last long. As you alluded, it was probably something I should’ve popped on, but I don’t want to get into the habit of justifying those sorts of expenditures. I’ve always enjoyed collecting on a budget, and I have an innate aversion to the hundred dollar threshold. Pretty irrational, I know, since it’s something I’ve carried from the late 80’s! I should probably update the threshold… I'm glad it went to someone who will appreciate it.

A very ambitious treatment of inter-tangled anatomy.

Can we see them still??

Pretty affordable way to get into a Church copy….

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Messing around in the boxes a little… The first twenty-one Bantam books:

That Strange Barriers spells it right out. Some interracial offerings of that period were comparatively more subtle: this one veers towards the outright exploitive camp. The sub-genres in paperback collecting are fascinating, just as in book collecting in general. I bought some nice hardcovers from a gentleman at a show whose father collected and catalogued many early sci-fi books, including “lost civilizations“ of which I purchased a few. Two main arteries of that lost civilization genre seemed to focus on Meso-American societies and the lost tribes of Africa (think Cecil Rhodes era). As a kid, I thought ERB was sort of the spark that ignited the genre, but it was apparently already well established.

That’s a super haul!! Those 10c and circle-12c Marvels are great books. Count me in the minority, but I actually like Charltons from that period, especially the books they continued from Fawcett like the Lash LaRue and Rocky Lane pictured.

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