Point Five

"It's a bargain!" I think 4.0... great pickup. From my duck collecting days, always really liked this cover.   

On 5/4/2024 at 10:06 PM, AJD said:

Do it now, and bump it when the next contest starts. Whatever you choose, thank you!

Agreed. I know I bombed this one so let's pull it off like a bandaid as quickly as possible.   

On 5/4/2024 at 10:39 AM, Robot Man said:

This one also moves around in the slab due to the thickness. I contacted CGC and they noted that the process is new and they are working out the kinks. [...]

Cool, cool. No hurry. 

On 5/3/2024 at 12:23 PM, comicjack said:

All thing skulls are the new craze with the collector population and has been for sometime now

...And look at your avatar, Jack. You got in early!   

Whoa!

Front cover looks sweet! Back cover appears to have a long staple tear... 4.0 seems right, maybe a shot at 4.5.

These are great grades for this book... it sells extremely well in the 2.0-3.0 range.  

On 12/1/2023 at 5:34 PM, PopKulture said:

How predictable and mundane that people moving from comics into pulps are going to chase skulls.  

That's me. Right here.   I LOVE the better skull covers on pulps. Absolutely love them.

On 5/2/2024 at 1:08 PM, marvelmaniac said:

Restoration: IMO...Save your money and buy a nicer copy if that is what you want. 

Having The Book Graded: IMO...If the book is as fragile/brittle as you say, what is the point

This.  

On 5/2/2024 at 9:18 AM, AJD said:

Huh, what kind of twisted weirdo would be able to help with that request? Oh, never mind.

Hey, come on now. Steve just reads it for the articles. 

Try to make it look like a horrible accident and they'll go easy on you. Maybe dab some blood on the edge.

Grades submitted!

Thanks Mike for all the hard work. 

On 5/1/2024 at 3:55 AM, fifties said:

On 4/30/2024 at 6:11 PM, thewritestuff said:

This is such a brutal cover, it must've terrified children who saw it on the stands. I love it.

The comics that terrified me in the early '50's were the ones depicting supernatural creatures, ESP skeletons, overpowering PPL.  Atlas and Story Comics come to mind.  LB Cole never really did skeletons.

Today I find his Frisky Animals covers the most terrifying. Some of those animals are seriously messed up.

^ Looks great!  

On 5/1/2024 at 9:56 AM, johnenock said:

OK, I bought an Amazing Stories CGC 7.0 as a grading reference and plan on getting a 5.0 and 6.0. Will post a pic when I receive it. 

Great! Nice idea and please do post them up when they roll in.  

I doubt I'll be buying or submitting any 9.0s of 1930s/1940s books anytime soon, so 5.0-7.0 is exactly the sweet spot I'd like to understand better.  

Sure, makes sense.  

On 4/29/2024 at 2:45 PM, LadyDeath said:

Low grade Baker collecting is a dirty game but somebody's gotta do it 

Awesome pickup on the Diary Secrets BTW. I saw that up on ebay and knew it would go quick. Presents really really well for a 2.0!   

On 4/30/2024 at 7:41 PM, Robot Man said:

My thought is that a pulp worth “x hundreds” now might be worth “x thousands” soon in this hot market. Now is the time to save grading fees on the right ones. Not just the ones that are hot now but the “sleepers” that haven’t been discovered yet. Especially if unrestored. 

So yes, there's that possibility. Intriguing. 

Then my question is: how do the new grading standards work for pulps? Other than the February press article which discussed a few common pulp flaws (trimming, missing pages, etc), are there any resources for how CGC grades pulps? I'd love to know more.

Every concrete bit of info we have is that CGC's standards for vintage pulps are strongly different (some might say "wildly different") than everything we know about their standards for vintage comics. I'd like to know a lot more about how common defects are handled -- things like overhang wear, edge tears, spine splits, spine wrinkling etc etc -- before I consider submitting or buying to submit.

On 4/30/2024 at 12:32 PM, Captain Canuck said:

I assume a restored complete issue goes for more than an unrestored incomplete issue (blue label)  

Just flagging this statement too. I'm far from an expert, but I can definitely see sales data on GPA that runs counter to this, particularly with the extensive nature of restoration that would be needed. (A pro restorer would be able to speak to this too.)

On 4/30/2024 at 2:17 PM, Darwination said:

I saw this at Heritage a couple times in this last year.  Truly a WTF cover

I'm wondering if it's a Belarski.

The Heritage auction description says cover by Earle Bergey.