Fiction House

[helionaut]

I was at a show this weekend and a guy had a few issues of "Planet Comics" along with a couple othe Fiction House titles. I fell in love with the covers and from what I read on the interiors the stories were about as pulpy as you can get. Interior art looked pretty good, too. I was wondering about pricing on them. I don't have an Overstreet, never having really been a big collector of the books where you'd look them up. He had some issues I'd say were about G/VG, some that were solid VG. He also had two CGC graded 7.5s #41 and $59. The ungraded ones were about $125, and the CGCs were $300 each. After the first day of the show, I of course checked ebay and found that maybe those prices were a little above the going rate, though naturally that was a small sample and not identical issues. I also checked these boards and found several references to Fiction House, but I want to know more. What can the sages tell me about Fiction House in general and how the pricing on these copies compares?

[rob_react]

Fiction House books are amazingly cool.

 

From my experience Planets sell the best out of the Fiction House titles. Rarely can you get a super discount from guide even in low grades. Depending on the numbers $125 might be okay pricing on them in those grades. Much later numbers and that would be expensive.

 

The prices on the CGC copies seems to me to be pretty fair.

 

I collect Jumbo and Jungle myself - many cool covers to be found there.

[dgillock]

I'm a FH fan as well. I have a nice set of mid to later 40s Jumbos, and some early issues of Wings. Great publisher for fans of "pulpier" material.

 

The prices you mentioned seem pretty average for Planets at a convention. Planet generally seems to be the highest demand Fiction House title (with the exception of very early issues of all their titles and the SOTI books) and nice solid copies almost always command some sort of premium.

 

Remember that Ebay prices might seem a bit lower but bidders are taking a little grading risk into account when deciding what they will spend. This is a bit different then how the same buyer might consider a book they can hold in their hands and inspect personally. Also most convention label prices are set with a bit of room for a discount. It never hurts to ask, especially if you're considering buying multiple comics from the same seller.

 

Great title to collect, but you should assume that their will be some competition and therefore higher prices.

[Jeffreykli]

This is my only Fiction House, but when I start actively collecting GA again, I'll be on the look-out for more of these. I prefer Sci-Fi to jungle comics, but Jumbo has some great covers as well.

 

[PUNYHUMAN]

Nice!!!!

[seank]

Fiction House books...

 

Planet is definitely the cream of the Fiction House crop. I have one issue and the stories in it are generally better than in other books. Jumbo is the flagship title, for Sheena, and probably #2 after Planet. I recommend Jumbos between 69 and 130 for Matt Baker's Sky Girl, which is always fun and always well drawn.

 

Condition-wise, look out for fading on Fiction House books. For some reason, the covers fade easily. I've seen otherwise VF Fiction House books that have drab, washed out covers. I've also seen some vibrant eye-popping covers. There's enough mid-run Jumbos, et al out there that you can pass over the drab stuff.

[gozer]

Hi Helionaut -

 

BTW, you have PM turned off, so no one can send you a private email. Is this

on purpose? I tried to PM you but could not, so here's the public version.

 

I think that I am "the guy" you mentioned in your post. I was set up at

the Austin show last weekend, and was over in the farthest corner from the

entrance. I had two CGC Planets, and we talked briefly about golden age

comics.

 

As far as prices go, I thought my pricing was a little high but not outrageous.

At those kind of shows you expect people to offer you less and then haggle

a bit -- although I sold 2 of the Planets at their marked prices.

 

Planet comics are very desirable. This is one of the most highly

collected (I think) of the golden age science fiction titles.

 

Also in my defense, I saw a Planet (CGC 7.5) sell on ebay just last week

for $288 (auction 2257871520). So asking $300 at a show is not out of

the ballpark.

 

Planet is my absolute favorite of the GA comics. The only reason I'm

selling is to upgrade (I've decided to go for a bit of quality rather than

quantity) some of my collection.

 

Anyway, if you're still interested in any of the Planets, PM me and

perhaps we can do a deal.

 

cheerio,

gozer

---------------------------------

Dad, thanks to television, I can't remember what happened eight

minutes ago.

[helionaut]

Gozer, yes, that was me, and I do try to maintain as much anonymity as possible on public boards, so no PMs, emails, etc. I'm glad you're on here though as I forgot to get your contact info at the show. I have no idea about pricing, and I know ebay is so much a crapshoot to use as a price-guide because of reasons already mentioned. I'm mainly looking for general guidance in a new area that I may or may not get more into. I was also looking at a recent ebay auction where an 8.0 went unsold at $300, but looking at it again, I just noticed the auction was ended early, so who knows where it would've gone. Anyway, thanks for posting and hopefully we can do some business when I get things figured out.