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htp
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Posts posted by htp
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On 8/20/2021 at 2:55 PM, Sarg said:
Has anyone ever read "The Ghost Table"?
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.
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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.
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On 7/11/2020 at 8:40 AM, RedFury said:
Weird Tales, Sep 1934
One of the 9 Conan story covers. I think this is one of Brundage's best. I just love the composition and bright colors, and especially the black, draping cloak.
"The People of the Black Circle"
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":
- asimovpulps and Sarg
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On 8/23/2021 at 8:10 AM, Robot Man said:
For as long as I can remember, there are tons of collectors that actually buy them to read the stories as well and have their favorite writers.
Pulp collectors have always been pretty secretative about them much the same way as 78 RPM record collectors. They want no publicity so they can still buy them cheap. I imagine most are none to happy about the prospect of grading and slabbing.
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.
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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.
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On 6/11/2021 at 3:01 PM, OtherEric said:
On a personal note, my run of the Arkham Sampler remains one of my all-time lucky eBay wins. The whole run turned up for auction in nice shape as a set, I placed a bid of $100 or so that I knew had no chance at all to win, but I would kick myself if it somehow went for less that. Then the final price was only $51, to this day I have no idea why only one other person bid.
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!
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On 9/14/2019 at 1:38 PM, OtherEric said:
Also, a lot were shelved like books,
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.
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Wow those Strasser’s are incredible. Congratulations!
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11 minutes ago, RedFury said:
Up until about a year ago I thought they often under-graded, especially in lots. But lately, I don't know. They seem to be slipping. I'm not expecting them to continue to under-grade, but they should try to accurately grade and avoid over-grading. And at least try to look for resto.
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+".
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4 hours ago, RedFury said:
It was sold through Heritage's book section, not the comics and pulps section. And the listing focused on it being Tennessee Williams' 1st published work, and as an afterthought mentioned Solomon Kane. So it was definitely aimed at book collectors, not comic and pulp. I get that sometimes things are hard to detect and are missed, but this was really bad.
You just have to be careful. Here are some recent pulp sales at Heritage that have undisclosed restoration issues or are significantly over-graded based on visible defects in the scans.
- Doctor Death #1 - Graded VG/F. Heavy color touch to the black areas, trimmed on the right and bottom edges. Sold for $1,140
- Doctor Death #2 - Graded F-. Trimmed on the top and right sides, and probably the bottom too. Sold for $660.
- Doctor Death #3 - Graded F-. Has pretty significant water staining at the top. Overgraded, should be no higher than VG. Sold for $720
- Weird Tales Batwoman cover - Graded F-. I'm not sure what's going on in the lower right, but that sure looks like a lot of bluish color touch. When you zoom in, it looks like scratches that were filled in. Sold for $1,260.
- Weird Tales 1st Conan - Graded F+. But there's pretty significant spots of paper loss on the cover (the white areas). Overgraded, should be no higher than VG+. Sold for $3,120.
- Captain Satan, Lot of 3 - Graded Avg VG. They're all slightly trimmed, and one has a piece filled in. It's hard to tell from the scans, but it looks to me like there are tear seals and some color touch as well. Sold for $264.
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...
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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?
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20 hours ago, RedFury said:
I love this Conan cover, and I've had at least 5 copies over the last few years, always upgrading. You get to a point where you think "that's it, that's the best I'll find", but then a book like this comes along. This copy has a tiny little ding on the top edge, and a "W" stamped on the back cover. Other than that, it's pristine. Whoo-hoo!
Weird Tales, Sep 1924
The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard
Cover by Margaret Brundage
Awesome! This is probably my favourite Weird Tales cover.
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Anyone else checking HA today?
That Doc Savage issue is sitting at over $13k with BP right now...
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7 hours ago, OtherEric said:
Does anybody know if there's a meaningful difference between an amateur magazine and a fanzine? At least, in terms of production and circulation... there are fairly clear differences in content and objectives.
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.
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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..
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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.
- HRCostigan, OtherEric, RedFury and 5 others
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14 hours ago, OtherEric said:
And today's book: Amazing Stories for April-May 1953. This is the first digest size issue; and it is in the classic Amazing Stories tradition of announcing a new direction and getting some big names for the first issue or so before going back to the cheap. I'm pretty sure this was Heinlein's only contribution to Amazing, for example.
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.
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11 hours ago, OtherEric said:
Found at a local store today. Would normally not post it here as too late, but I thought the marking over the logo was interesting, and others here would find it interesting as well. As near as I and the store owner can tell, it's an overprint, not a stamp:
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?
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2 hours ago, RedFury said:
A recent pick-up with a great Bok wraparound cover, Who Goes There? by Shasta Publishers (1948). Collects 7 Campbell stories from Astounding, including Who Goes There? (Aug 1938), the basis for the films The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Thing (1982).
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.
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13 hours ago, Hap Hazard said:
The Astounding # 1 Jan 1930 is a recent pick up looks nice with my Amazing Stories # 1 April 1926
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.
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16 minutes ago, RedFury said:
Thanks!
I haven't gotten around to reading any CA Smith yet. Any suggestions?
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.
The WEIRD TALES Thread: Collecting The Unique Magazine
in Pulp Magazines
Posted
At least I finally had the "I told you so" moment that I kept promising my wife.