htp

At least I finally had the "I told you so" moment that I kept promising my wife.

Yeah. I force myself to read all my magazines cover-to-cover to justify the ridiculous prices I pay for them. It's about what you'd expect. I find the language and setting in stories like it mildly interesting. Contrast with "The Beasts of Ban-du-lu" (Wonder Stories, May 1931). That was a hard one to get through.

I love them, but I don't really consider them collectible. The prices generally seem to reflect that, which makes them perfect reading copies: cheaper and hold up better. I once passed on a nice set of bound early Astounding and really regret it, it would've made a great keeper. All my bound volumes are ex-library copies, but I suspect that's a coincidence and not representative.

One of my favourite covers as well, wish I had a copy that nice. Does anyone know anything about the apparent variant? I've seen two versions of this, one with a red "ink stain" on the bottom left, and the more common one without. The first time I saw it I thought it was literally just an ink stain, but I've now seen a few others and it almost looks intentional (or not..?) With "stain": https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/c0oAAOSwhSdg8vyV/s-l1600.jpg https://comics.ha.com/itm/pulps/weird-tales-september-1934-popular-fiction-condition-fn/p/7248-24001.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/pulps/weird-tales-robert-e-howard-the-people-of-the-black-circle-group-popular-fiction-1934-condition-average-fn-total-3-items-/a/7084-93474.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/pulps/weird-tales-the-people-of-the-black-circle-group-of-3-popular-fiction-1934-total-3-comic-books-/a/7166-93217.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

Agree with all of this, except the part about keeping it secret. We've been having conventions for decades and raving about pulps to anyone that'll listen on here too. I'd guess pulps are just a bit more niche: they're not books and they're not comics so they don't fit into a major sale category. I've heard the term "discovered" used a lot by pulps collectors when referring to how they got into their hobby, and I think it's quite apt and definitely describes me. If you're a Hubbard/Howard/Heinelin/etc collector, to you seek out their books, but I think most people discover pulps more by accident.

Is trimming really that common? It sounds like that's the reason to blue label them, but in my experience, I see maybe one trimmed issue for every ~5-10 with overhang in various states of decay. That might just be because the trimmed ones aren't (weren't?) traded as much, or my specific experience, so I'd be curious what the pros think. I can definitely see the argument for just not wanting to deal with it though. This is always #1 in the list of reasons why CGC will never slab pulps.

I remember this one, and I can at least tell you why I didn't bid. The same seller had been listing a bunch of pulps in the weeks before, and I scored a few good deals early on, but at some point people caught on and all the auctions were drawing significant bids. I couldn't keep up, and when the Arkham Sampler set came up I didn't even try, and I've been kicking myself ever since. I was happy when I saw a boardie got it though, and I've been enjoying it vicariously through your posts. Thanks!

And maybe still are. As someone guilty of focusing on the spine, I would say my main reason is because I want that blood red shelf of Weird Tales and the crisp white row of early Astounding. I didn't care at first, but once you add a nice spine to a row, it really draws attention to the ones that aren't. I have issues that probably grade near Fine, but look like Good when on the shelf, and vice versa. I'm guessing most comics aren't really collected in that way.

Wow those Strasser’s are incredible. Congratulations!

Exactly what I was thinking. I've bought several pulps there over the years, and until about a year ago I would say they graded things "professionally conservative" - rather go a bit lower than risk buyer complaining later. Now it seems they've gone more towards "great for it's age"... There's another #1 Conan listed now, and it's a nice copy, but I doubt that anyone that collects Weird Tales would consider one with yellow spine and cover creasing to be "FN+".

Is it just me or have HA pulp grading standards been slipping recently? It seems like they slap some kind of FN on just about everything these days. Just for example, that 1st Conan one you mentioned was graded "FN+", this one was a more appropriate "VG". I don't see any significant differences, certainly not enough to jump by a grade and a half...

Wow, so much incredible stuff being posted here lately. Congrats on those hauls everyone! I wish I didn't live on the other end of the continent... Out of curiosity, anyone know what the bound set of Fantasy Fan went for?

Awesome! This is probably my favourite Weird Tales cover.

Anyone else checking HA today? That Doc Savage issue is sitting at over $13k with BP right now...

I'm not a pro at this, but I think you basically have it. A fanzine is a type of amateur magazine with a more specialized subject. I don't think there's much difference in production, although in my experience fanzines tend to be less consistent (their market is established fans, not fiction readers in general). I've been unsuccessfully trying to find out more about circulation numbers myself. Wikipedia claims 60 for Fantasy Fan, which, given its prominence, may be fairly representative of the period. Curious if anyone else has more info on this though.

Thank you, it was a really once in a lifetime luck. I've never seen one before or since, and I doubt there are more than a handful in existence. These early amateur magazines didn't have the greatest circulation. Still hunting for that Call of Cthulhu issue though..

Almost in time for halloween, I finally managed to put together the first year (1919) of Der Orchideengarten. It's not really a pulp in the usual sense, but it was printed on pulp and is generally considered to be the first fantasy magazine. Bound "collectors editions" are easy enough to find, but the individual issues rarely come up.

Nice! Been looking for that one myself, though more for the trippy H.L. Gold story. Cool Collier's find too. Quite a few good stories published in there over the years.

Nice find. A bit earlier, but I always like to imagine that one of my copies of Astounding was sitting in the lunch room at Los Alamos in the 1940s. Good score on those Arkham Samplers too. Don't suppose there's any hint as to what was defective?

Nice score, been looking for that myself. It's one of my favourite stories from the pulp era, and definitely my favourite Campbell one. I have the magazine version, but the book is a bit harder to get.. The '82 movie follows the book very closely, almost scene for scene, worth a read if you liked that.

Not a bad author either, just picked this up today:

Congrats, I had the bid just below you How did it turn out? It actually looked pretty solid if you can overlook the water damage, with a nice overhang.

And it's a pretty good story too. Definitely an issue worth getting.

Not to derail more, but I had a really lucky find this summer: entire 1926 run of Overland Monthly, notable for the first appearance of Smith's Abomination of Yondo, and Wandrei's Emperor of Dreams. Never seen them before.

I have to admit to being pretty ignorant about his Weird Tales contributions. I just don't have enough of those. I do have most/all of his Wonder Stories though. Of the top of my head, I'd suggest (all in Wonder) The Eternal World - March 1932 Master of the Asteroid - October 1932 Dweller in the Martian Depths - March 1933 The City of the Singing Flame - July 1931 (and the sequel Beyond the Singing Flame - November 1931) The Light from Beyond - April 1933 They're all pretty short reads, so not a big investment if anything. Some of those from my collection (in need of upgrades...): They all have nice interior illustrations too.