Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values? 25 25

[Surfing Alien]

18 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

Is the story as good as queens gambit?  Also, why not the first Ed hardcover?

It's a different story, but incredibly well done, as was Tevis' way. Well told and full of the human condition. The 1st ed hardcovers have become pretty expensive for us cheapy paperback collectors, especially since Queen's Gambit exploded, plus we collect paperbacks over here in this thread 

[Surfing Alien]

1 hour ago, OtherEric said:

A few books from the local store today.  We'll start with this one, I NEVER find Woolrich in the wild.

That's a REALLY nice looking copy 

[OtherEric]

8 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

That's a REALLY nice looking copy 

Not quite as nice as it looks... the laminate, while there, is peeling a few places, even if the scan hides it.  Structurally very nice other than that, though.  A well spent 6 bucks, I think.

Edited June 19, 2021 by OtherEric

[WolverineX]

43 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

It's a different story, but incredibly well done, as was Tevis' way. Well told and full of the human condition. The 1st ed hardcovers have become pretty expensive for us cheapy paperback collectors, especially since Queen's Gambit exploded, plus we collect paperbacks over here in this thread 

ahh gotcha.  I'll check it out!

[Surfing Alien]

May have some sellers remorse... ever have that? I listed this Avon Giant a year ago, forgot about it, and someone just popped it. It's a Ray Johnson cover that was signed visibly on the art, which is quite rare, and an Avon Giant, which is tough to find in high grade. 

To top it off, the model looks a lot like Ray's wife, who started appearing on his covers around 1953, the year he married. It didn't have the significance that it does now when I listed it because I didn't know any of that a year ago and was generally downsizing.

I'm honoring the sale of course, but just lamenting as part of the 'yatching about how cheap paperbacks are. I know i'll probably never replace a like copy for what I'm selling for.

I suspect he proudly signed it because it was a classic novel by a classic author, published by a major publisher, not just pulp fiction!

[Surfing Alien]

So the postman got me over the sellers remorse today by delivering some minty goodness from the crazy ebay estate auction thats been ongoing

I'll buy any vintage pb with the title "_____ Girl" so these glossy unread beauties were no brainers. I tried to take some angles so you can see the gloss but they don't do these justice, they look wet in hand. You just don't see this every day.

An unread copy of one of the early fantasy anthologies. Blows my undercopy away.

A slightly lesser copy of the 1st SciFi anthology but it'd be tough to find a better one.

An insane copy of this black cover classic. I have a really nice copy of this already but, as I said, this is insane, no reader crease and sooooo glossy. 

Finally, a really nice Canadian edition of this Merritt classic

I have some more gems I need to post up when I get them processed. The colors and gloss on most of these books are top notch. They have varying degree of musty basement odor to them but I stayed away from any that were obviously water damaged and the color and structure on most are uncommon

[Randall Dowling]

1 minute ago, Surfing Alien said:

So the postman got me over the sellers remorse today by delivering some minty goodness from the crazy ebay estate auction thats been ongoing

I'll buy any vintage pb with the title "_____ Girl" so these glossy unread beauties were no brainers. I tried to take some angles so you can see the gloss but they don't do these justice, they look wet in hand. You just don't see this every day.

An unread copy of one of the early fantasy anthologies. Blows my undercopy away.

A slightly lesser copy of the 1st SciFi anthology but it'd be tough to find a better one.

An insane copy of this black cover classic. I have a really nice copy of this already but, as I said, this is insane, no reader crease and sooooo glossy. 

Finally, a really nice Canadian edition of this Merritt classic

I have some more gems I need to post up when I get them processed. The colors and gloss on most of these books are top notch. They have varying degree of musty basement odor to them but I stayed away from any that were obviously water damaged and the color and structure on most are uncommon

Yep, I got mine in today as well along with my winnings from another auction site.  I agree, the quality of these books is pretty impressive.  The copy of Torture Garden that I won is about as clean as I've ever seen.  

I have piles of books to process but should post highlights later this week.

[Surfing Alien]

3 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

along with my winnings from another auction site

Can't wait to see some of those!

[moonpool]

[Surfing Alien]

A post from a FB friend...

Today at Bonhams in London, an astonishing collection of 1,500 mainly British pulp novels was sold for an incredible £64,500 (including commission)! That is over £40 / $50 per book. Yes there were many rare and beautiful copies, but there were many others in much lesser condition. It was a tremendous result for the vendor, who had assembled his collection over more than 50 years, and who had previously had a disappointing experience in selling Boardmans and Hank Jansons (including original art) at a provincial auction house.. One buyer bought the vast majority of lots at Bonhams. Does anyone know who that was?
This sale is a potential 'game-changer' as top auction houses will now be interested in selling our collections.

The books in this collection were astonishing...

Here's a pic of one of the dreamy lots with some key US books...

I don't know if its a game changer but i've seen some strong sales lately and kudos to this collector for getting serious $ without having to individually lot out books over many years. Still, the whole collection went for less than one Promise book 

I'm kinda glad I only found out after the fact or I might be headed to divorce court 

[moonpool]

Out with the staples, in with the square bound.

[Randall Dowling]

30 minutes ago, moonpool said:

Out with the staples, in with the square bound.

Country Girl has one of my favorite George Gross covers.  

[Surfing Alien]

Got in some major league upgrades on these classics...

This one has some spine roll but you never see it with no cover creases and the color strike is incredible:

 

 

Ditto on this one, the colors are just glowing:

 

 

I don't think I've seen a better copy of this Ace. It has no reader's crease on either side, no crease on the flat of the spine and only the tiniest corner wear. My under copy was very nice but it's going up for sale now

 

And finally, this dark cover is impossible to find un-creased, there's a tiny bit of color break on this copy but it's pretty amazing and the colors, like the rest of these, are unreal. Easily one of the best I've seen:

 

 

 

[OtherEric]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:22 PM, Randall Dowling said:

One can never go wrong with Frazetta cover art.  

That was my thought when I grabbed this one.  Same book, it's a stitched together scan followed by just the front and back covers.  Once I found out Frazetta had done this cover I had to find a copy.  Just arrived today and I'm happy for a book I risked grabbing cheap:

[moonpool]

Getting close to the end of my Cameos.  Sorry it's been so long.

[Surfing Alien]

1 hour ago, moonpool said:

Getting close to the end of my Cameos.  Sorry it's been so long.

If its taken this long to post all your Cameo's, I can't wait to see your Venus Books collection! 

[moonpool]

If I found a digest at a used book store, it was almost always a Venus.

[moonpool]

[moonpool]

And the End.

[Surfing Alien]

Couple of Dames with stogies, some very pretty Lions, they're tough in this shape. 

Rudolph Belarski cover, love those greens

 

This cover is uncredited anywhere, could be Al Rossi? Most likely he or another one of the artists from the Martin Goodman sweat mags. Most of the credited Lions are from that group of artists.