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Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values?
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Started by Reno McCoy,

7,166 posts in this topic

Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

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On 4/7/2024 at 6:44 AM, jimjum12 said:

Actually, after a trip to the driveway for the newspaper, a cup of joe, and a quick nap, they will be vintage.

Wisdom right there (thumbsu I have no idea how my daughter could be graduating college this year :cry: I love how well she is adulting but I sure miss her toddler-hood, it all happens so fast :preach:

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Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

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On 4/7/2024 at 1:09 AM, OtherEric said:

but I do think it was possibly painted as a single piece

But...but ... that's the very definition of a wraparound cover ???

Love looking at this one. I have a nice copy but really want a 9.0 or better. It's very tough to find without wear on those dark spine edges.

I know we've been over this book before, but you don't need a hi-res image to see that the folds of the stage curtains at the left of the top front cover are painted, uninterrupted into the spine panel, and that the floor at the bottom left front is painted over and under the dancing Salome and head of John the Baptist at the bottom spine area. It is  also apparent that the plate protrudes onto the front panel and her dress on the spine protrudes into the front and back panel.  The stage curtain was just an ingenious way for him to create a screen in the middle of the painting to create some separation between the main scene and the other acts in the book.

Now if you want to argue that it's not a wrap around because it does not all depict one scene, that's a different argument imho

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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On 4/7/2024 at 9:49 AM, Surfing Alien said:

Wisdom right there (thumbsu I have no idea how my daughter could be graduating college this year :cry: I love how well she is adulting but I sure miss her toddler-hood, it all happens so fast :preach:

I know ... I remember when Adams books were Moderns ... like GL/GA 76 :preach: GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

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johnenock

johnenock

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So, I was looking at pb values of items sold most recently on eBay this morning. Out of the sold items on the first page of the search there were only 2 "vintage" pb's that made the list:

Orgy of the Dead 699 best offer accepted

The Price of Salt 399

The rest: people really like the Halloween set of books, The Black Awakening(about the rise of the Satanic Super-Soldiers apparently nonfiction:facepalm:), and Goosbumps.

Don't know if it's relevant to what we collect, but thought it was interesting that post 1980 books were the high point of recent sales.

I'll dive deeper into the second and third pages later. What do you guys think? 25 year rule? 

Edited by johnenock
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jimjum12

jimjum12

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On 4/7/2024 at 11:12 AM, johnenock said:

So, I was looking at pb values of items sold most recently on eBay this morning. Out of the sold items on the first page of the search there were only 2 "vintage" pb's that made the list:

Orgy of the Dead 699 best offer accepted

The Price of Salt 399

The rest: people really like the Halloween set of books, The Black Awakening(about the rise of the Satanic Super-Soldiers apparently nonfiction:facepalm:), and Goosbumps.

Don't know if it's relevant to what we collect, but thought it was interesting that post 1980 books were the high point of recent sales.

I'll dive deeper into the second and third pages later. What do you guys think? 25 year rule? 

I enter "paperback" into the search field and then select "antiquarian and collectible" and you can weed out some of the pure reading audience. Another informative search is to choose "Highest price" instead of "best match". Using the highest price search for completed auctions seems to suggest a relative price ceiling of $100 for most PBs. There are definitely ringers in the field that far exceed that.  GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

Edited by jimjum12
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Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

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On 4/7/2024 at 12:00 PM, jimjum12 said:

I enter "papertback" into the search field and then select "antiquarian and collectible" and you can weed out some of the pure reading audience. Another informative search is to choose "Highest price" instead of "best match". Using the highest price search for completed auctions seems to suggest a relative price ceiling of $100 for most PBs. There are definitely ringers in the field that far exceed that.  GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

A few observations/agreements here -

Paperbacks are still dirt cheap compared to other collectibles - I've been buying and selling for years now and the vast majority of cool books can be had between $20 and $100 whether golden age or newer.

There's no one search that can dragnet the field. The listing methods vary so widely, I know of recent sales higher than those but they are still pretty rare, if only because the truly rare never come to market.

The market is highly cyclical/volatile. I've seen collections with the real goods come to well advertised auction/market that caused a plethora of 3 figure sales in a short time, and I've seen droughts of such things so no narrow time period can capture what's happeneing.

That said, there's plenty of 80's books that go for high dollar - the Halloweens included. I didn't even know about those until I happened cross a minty copy of "III" about a year ago and it sold very quickly for $125 in my store. Many books in the 80's had relatively small print runs and there's a ton of fans out there to support them.

 

 

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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On 4/7/2024 at 12:11 PM, Surfing Alien said:

A few observations/agreements here -

Paperbacks are still dirt cheap compared to other collectibles - I've been buying and selling for years now and the vast majority of cool books can be had between $20 and $100 whether golden age or newer.

There's no one search that can dragnet the field. The listing methods vary so widely, I know of recent sales higher than those but they are still pretty rare, if only because the truly rare never come to market.

The market is highly cyclical/volatile. I've seen collections with the real goods come to well advertised auction/market that caused a plethora of 3 figure sales in a short time, and I've seen droughts of such things so no narrow time period can capture what's happeneing.

That said, there's plenty of 80's books that go for high dollar - the Halloweens included. I didn't even know about those until I happened cross a minty copy of "III" about a year ago and it sold very quickly for $125 in my store. Many books in the 80's had relatively small print runs and there's a ton of fans out there to support them.

 

 

...and even some popular titles that get lumped in aren't, like many of the Frazettas came after 1969. It's an emerging market and trying to "figure it out" may actually lead to some costly mistakes. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

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OtherEric

OtherEric

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On 4/7/2024 at 7:01 AM, Surfing Alien said:

But...but ... that's the very definition of a wraparound cover ???

Love looking at this one. I have a nice copy but really want a 9.0 or better. It's very tough to find without wear on those dark spine edges.

I know we've been over this book before, but you don't need a hi-res image to see that the folds of the stage curtains at the left of the top front cover are painted, uninterrupted into the spine panel, and that the floor at the bottom left front is painted over and under the dancing Salome and head of John the Baptist at the bottom spine area. It is  also apparent that the plate protrudes onto the front panel and her dress on the spine protrudes into the front and back panel.  The stage curtain was just an ingenious way for him to create a screen in the middle of the painting to create some separation between the main scene and the other acts in the book.

Now if you want to argue that it's not a wrap around because it does not all depict one scene, that's a different argument imho

I had my next round of argument all ready to go, and was pulling out another book to use as an example.

The problem being, looking at the other book actually convinced me you were right and I was wrong.  Salome is better defined as a wraparound cover, all things considered.

Here's the other book, by the way.  I was going to argue the sharp line separating most of the spine from the back was more important that the slight overlap of image at the bottom on the Salome, but of course this book has an ever sharper line for roughly the same length... and is clearly a wraparound.

Ace D 127 wrap.jpg

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Randall Dowling

Randall Dowling

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On 4/7/2024 at 12:22 PM, johnenock said:

And these weird ones:

34 bids 375.00

image.jpeg.9fd4d6aedaf0cc7fdb6dd08c4d152d22.jpeg

Best offer accepted 399.00

image.jpeg.a507de57e6ca8364794a2071069145c5.jpeg

Here's a high priced vintage:

The Little People 350.00

image.jpeg.de4e00167b86073048d8bcf503e99441.jpeg

Anyway, thought is was interesting what people were buying. The Sexuality of Housewives(nonfiction) went for 350 also!

The Little People is a tough book in high grade.  That was probably a good deal.

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Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

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On 4/7/2024 at 1:37 PM, Randall Dowling said:

The Little People is a tough book in high grade.  That was probably a good deal.

One of those books that I'd get, just for the Hector Garrido cover art - no one cares about the book lol

I've always had other more important things to go after when one has come up though, it's just not an important book to me but one I wouldn't say no to a gift :)

 

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Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

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On 4/7/2024 at 1:22 PM, johnenock said:

And these weird ones:

The thing that puzzles me the most is the thousands of modern trade paperbacks listed on ABE for hundreds of dollars each, I mean there are thousands of them, to the point of being highly distracting when doing a search sometimes. All books that can be had for $10-30 but someone is listing tons of them like this. I keep thinking it's some kind of inventory/tax scam hm

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Darwination

Darwination

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two new ones in today

Four dollar copy of this one John posted recently, horribly twisted spine but still good cover appeal and I plan to read it, so...

ATimeforMurder-RobertO.Saber(1956.GraphicMystery123)coverWalterPopp.thumb.jpg.216a1bbcf9dd73848c7929073e3602b7.jpg

and a freebie Lowell threw in from a recent sale, perfect since I was looking to read one of the Carter Browns, kind of a funny title, Barye Philips, pages are actually totally white inside:

LamentforaLousyLover-CarterBrown(1960.SignetS1856)coverBaryePhillips.thumb.jpg.3ef7ccfd04db9bfee5a9a821c0ff05ce.jpg

On a sadder note, I found exactly zero vintage paperbacks in a fair number of thrift store and antique malls walked through in LA this weekend (LOWER ALABAMA) in the twin metropolises of Auburn and Opelika.  There was lots of vinyl, 99.9% drek comics, and horribly mistreated magazines mostly of far too modern vintage to hold my interest but NO paperbacks.

Edited by Darwination
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