Robot Man

In addition to a collection of about any genre of GA comic, I have many shorter complete runs. I would just get bored collecting full runs of Superman, Batman or Spiderman. I just go for the ones I really want.

I do have a complete collection of EC new trends and many of the pre trend ones. At this stage I am just upgrading. 

Yeah, in the LA area, vinyl is very hot. Classic rock and Punk rock rule the roost. Jazz and Blues stuff is also very hot.

Every garage or estate sale I go to with records are packed with hunters. There is also a local flea market that has a very large record section packed with buyers and sellers.

Lots of audiofiles as well as young hipsters who pay up for it.

As Hepcat stated, there is a warm feel as well as a long bandwith of sound offered by analog recordings that is missing in modern digital recording. A lot of the young folks also like the experience in spinning vinyl.

I play mine all the time. But I have also recorded much digitally in Wave files to reproduce the original sound. I bought a 160 gig IPod to store them on and can take it everywhere. Kind of marrying the past with the present.

I also have a couple of ‘50’s/‘60’s tube amps I play my guitars through. You just can’t get that sound through a modern solid state amp.

And, I won’t get started on carburetors…

On 4/3/2024 at 4:08 PM, manetteska said:

Nice pickups.

Does anyone have a list of the paperbacks/digests Cole did covers for?

Paging @Ryan.

On 4/7/2024 at 6:02 AM, Iksar said:

Top tier Baker

Nice! My favorite in the run and in my top 10 Baker favorites. Ironically, I had a solid copy for sale at what I thought was a reasonable price that just sat for quite a while. Seems like the Baker folks just wanted the romance ones. 

Obviously, not anymore…

On 4/6/2024 at 11:35 PM, biglittlebookfan said:

Hello Robotman! Great books. Do you ever sell or swap? I'm working on completing my Pan Am set of books but missing this Alley Oop. Thanks! 

I’m pretty sure I sold it to someone here on the boards who asked me about it. 

On 3/14/2024 at 5:26 PM, Northwest said:

There are a number of pulps in the Comic Connect event auction ending Monday 3/18 at 7 p.m. PST (10 EST). A few were mine.

https://www.comicconnect.com/browse/session/652?filters=1&stock_type_id[0][o]=E&stock_type_id[0][v]=34

 

Any idea on the final hammer on this one? I can’t seem to bring up the results. 

I had some luck in the flea markets in Paris. Mostly French and British stuff. 

On 4/6/2024 at 3:29 AM, KCOComics said:

It looks like a lot of the big GA books (Bat 1, Cap 1) struggled a little. Which is interesting,  because they've been holding value much better than the SA keys. 

Mask 2 saw a pretty crazy price! That book is reaching unobtainable levels. Same with Mask1. Which is unfortunate. In a prefect world I would have loved to own them.  

The only reason I have copies of both is because I discovered them before the Gerber books. But, as iconic as they both are, high prices seem to keep drawing them out into the market. I really wouldn’t call either “rare” just very desirable. 

On 3/17/2024 at 9:05 PM, lou_fine said:

Was following some of the results for the first day of the CC Event Auction earlier today, and all I can say is that prices on GA books are still rocketing upwards as I was blown out of the water on anything that I was thinking of bidding on.    

Definitely a sign that the market is strong when so many restored books are going for multiples of unrestored condition guide value, with a perfect case in point being this trimmed and Moderately Restored PLOD that was still able to fetch well over 16X Universal unrestored condition value at a rather whopping, but probably not so surprising $9,685.30, especially considering its apparent rarity:    

https://www.comicconnect.com/item/732986

Not surprising to me. That is a super rarity. The kind of book that I chase with futility. I have only seen just a few of those for sale ever. The extreme scarcity of available copies of this and many other similar books keep prices strong on this as well as many other GA books. 

On 4/3/2024 at 9:17 AM, CCEC said:

You are so right.  Given the incredibly shrinking Gold Silver area, you could see everything in an hour or less.  I do agree with you about supporting live comic events.  No amount of online can match the experience of talking face to face with dealers.  

Here is a map of the floor of the show. The “Gold/Silver Pavillion” (comic book dealing area) is shown in the lower right corner in yellow.

It shows 5 short isles with probably 5 dealers on each side. There are a few spillovers in the back and maybe a couple fill overs to the left around the large CGC booth. A fraction of what it used to be.

Now, a lot of folks are mostly “wall gazers”. If so, one could probably get through in an hour or less. But, if you are a real digger, you have to hit the boxes. I only hit the GA ones mostly. This is where the deals usually are. Between that and asking for stuff maybe out of sight, it took me a little over 3 hours. I would say, there were quite a few dealers I rarely buy from. Either they don’t have what I want, have crazy prices or just don’t care for. I usually hit the folks I like or the smaller ones or ones I have never seen before first. Then another trip through just to see if I missed anything. The rest of the time is spent socializing or submitting books to CGC. I covered it easily in one day. To me a con is a wonderful way to spend a day. A day, you forget all the messes of just every day life. 

On 4/4/2024 at 7:23 AM, MattTheDuck said:

A picture from a local Estate Sale I will not be able to attend this morning because I have to work.  @alexgross.com

 

I have been known to have “car trouble” or not “feel well” from time to time…

Although that picture might not movtivate  me much to get up in the dark and wait in line for hours though.

Hopefully someone who did will score something in those piles. 

Enjoying your remberances and collecting history. We are about the same age. I really started seeking them out with the large 10 cent boxes. And to my horror the large 12 cent boxes popped up one day. Had to cut one out of my weekly allowance take. But I would pick up a pack of Civil War or Mars Attack cards instead.

My first Marvel was ASM 3. Blew my mind and I was a Marvel fan which cut back on my DCs a bit.

Then I discovered MAD… about that time I had to scrounge pop bottles, start cutting lawns and eventually get a paper route to supplement my growing addiction.

A great time to be a kid. 

I have always been primarily a comic collector. But, I have always bought cool pulps when I ran into them. Just not my major focus.

In collecting comics, I often feel like I’ve seen them all. Not much left to discover. But when I come here, I find so many pulps I’ve never seen before. This has really revitalized my collecting. A new discovery every day. 

On 4/2/2024 at 4:30 PM, Surfing Alien said:

A recent pickup. I can still find a nice Jungle with GGA here and there for less than 4 figures

 

Indeed. In this cover driven hobby it is nice to be able to still find nice FH pulps for a fraction of comic prices. Even Planet Stories. I even like much of their Western titles.

On 4/3/2024 at 7:29 AM, catrick339 said:

I'll be there with a spankin' new hardcover collection and a good sized pile of new pulps. 
Some nice vintage comics to boot. Paperbacks are thin this year. 

Just hitting Catrick’s booth might be reason enough to go. I have heard nothing but glowing revues of this show for years. If I lived anywhere even remotely close, I would be there with bells on.

I hope to see a couple of revues with pictures.

As many of you know, not only am I into comics primarily, but all forms of vintage paper in general as well as toys and other stuff. I usually mix a little of everything in my sales threads. It kind of breaks it up and offers a variety. I have never had a complaint but instead, have people tell me it makes the thread more fun. I might not do them at all if it was so compartmented. 

On 4/3/2024 at 5:51 AM, gojira said:

Some recent additions.

 

 

All great ones. Congrats. That Wings 94 might be my favorite in the run. Mine is a little lower grade but has blinding color. 

On 4/2/2024 at 3:17 PM, CCEC said:

I went back again on Sunday afternoon.  Both parking garages were closed and I was directed to park across the street in the Disney overflow parking lot outside in the rain.  The convention did not seem as crowded as Saturday, but yet the parking garages were closed.  Go Figure.

Dealers I talked to said the traffic on Sunday was lighter, but the purchases were larger.  In some cases, total take for Sunday outpaced Saturday.  I guess the explanation was the 3 day passes show up in the last couple of hours to pull the trigger.  The Gold Silver area seemed like it had the most traffic in the final hours compared with the rest of the emptying exhibit hall.

Wow, that suks especially in the rain. They probably didn’t want to pay the parking guys holiday pay.

Good to hear the dealers were busy on Sunday. I want them to do well so they come back next year. I can’t imagine walking around that postage stamp on the floor map for 3 days. I easily did the show for what I went for in one day. Just great to have live comic shows. 

On 4/2/2024 at 9:11 AM, Darwination said:

I prefer Chicago as a travel destination (greatly) to Pittsburgh, but the programming looks much better at Pulpfest.  Am I wrong?

It has to be more than about the shopping, but then again I'm curious about what's on offer in that department, too.

I get a little bit cynical about the profit motive driving conventions, but that's easy for an outsider to say.

I think “profit motive” has diminished quite a bit for con promoters at least on the West Coast. Even small shows. Real sad and I sure not a sign of things to come. I really look forward to shows. MUCH better than simply buying “on line”. I think the Torpedo show in LA in July will be a strong indicator. 

On 4/1/2024 at 10:59 AM, Darwination said:

Thinking about making the last minute trip up since Chicago is closer than Pittsburgh.  Programming looks more extensive at Pittsburgh, though.

I'd like to meet some of the other pulp scholars I've corresponded with over the years for certain or people from the pulpscans group, but throwing down for a hotel room and entry costs just so I can throw down for pricey books might not be in the cards right now

Do they screen films all day?  Surely, I'd get board of box flipping and shopping after a few hours, maybe not though

I guess the early bird entry is important?  Lord knows the very idea makes me feel like a Black Friday loon -

How about prices.  High prices on the sweetest items but nice "dollar" bin material?

I think I missed my “window of opportunity” for this show. Should have gone a few years ago. With plane tickets, hotel and food costs and the current “fever pitch” pulp prices, it most certainly wouldn’t be worth a trip from the West Coast. 

On 4/2/2024 at 7:23 AM, johnenock said:

Isn't there going to be a blizzard in Chicago this week? Brrr.

I can’t imagine. I lived through a couple of brutal winters there. Ironically, we got a DELUGE of rain at CalCon a couple months ago and another ton of rain at WonderCon last weekend. Just on con weekends… stay warm gang!

On 4/2/2024 at 8:24 AM, Mr.Fantastic said:

Thanks RM. Wish I had discovered them earlier. Fight and Planet overall are probably my favorite titles as well, but there are a few single copies from some other titles that blow me away too. Hopefully, I can acquire a few over the upcoming months and share them here. 

Oh yeah. Rangers (other than Planet) comes to mind as well. I still need a few of the earlier ones. Keep plugging away at them! 

On 4/2/2024 at 5:38 AM, Bookery said:

Hard to say if it's that, or it's just comic collectors thinking that it should be priced like a comic with a similar cover?  Either way, uninformed buyers leaping into the pulp market are going to likely get burned in a big way down the road, and that's not good for the hobby.

Though as a rule, pulps are harder to obtain than vintage comics, it's not always the case.  A science-fiction pulp from, say, 1942, is probably much easier to come by than comic books from that year.  As for the science-fiction reprint pulps of the '40s and '50s... Famous Fantastic Mysteries, A. Merritt's Fantasy, Fantastic Novels, Fantastic Story... these are among the most common pulps there are.  I'm in a small Ohio suburb, and I've had hundreds of them over the years.  Even in high grade, they aren't all that scarce.  

Very true. Same in LA. These have always been $10. Flea market buys even the great Finlay covers in high grade. They are drying up fast though. A year ago I would get a lot of push back if I put out high grade ones at $50. Folks just didn’t get the reasoning that “what would they go for if they were comic books?”

These prices are crazy. Driven up by newbies and uneducated flippers who know nothing about pulps and smell “blood in the water”. I had a number of these folks clear out my boxes at CalCon a couple months ago. And I had upped my prices in anticipation of it. I have pulled back on selling them a bit until the dust settles a bit. They are just impossible to price right now.