• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Pulp Selling/Trading Thread Only
8 8

92 posts in this topic

On 8/4/2021 at 5:42 PM, asimovpulps said:

A workaround - you can change the drop down option in the search bar from "Comics" to "Sold" and then search by title/title + year/etc. That will show you all recent sales, but most pulps are just from this auction. Not quite as intuitive as Heritage, but it'll get you what you need

Thank you, looking at some of the results now, to see what's jumping out at me. 

The Nov. 1940 Marvel Stories going for $1,063.75 seems nuts to me...  until you compare it to every other 1940 Human Torch story, perhaps.  Glad I've got my copy already.  Same with $575 for the November 1938 Marvel Science Stories.  And at $1450.15 for the April 1939 and $891.25 for the August 1938 Marvel Science Stories, I'm just going to have to be happy with the issues I already have, I think.

The Operator #5 prices seem pretty healthy overall.

Fantastic Story September 1953 at $143.75 for a 2.0 seems insane, even if it is a nice Schomburg cover.   Particularly since a 4.0 of the same issue only got $29.90.  Future Science Fiction March 1954 for $77.05 for a 4.0 is almost as crazy. 

Very healthy prices on Famous Fantastic Mysteries; we may not be able to call it a good entry level pulp for much longer.  $178.25 for the June 1950 issue in 4.0 was the one that surprised me the most, but others were nearly as impressive.

The Doc Savage prices actually seemed lower than I might have expected in a lot of cases.

$1,335.15 for the first issue of The Avenger in 4.0 is pretty impressive.

The Astounding SF prices are all over the place.  I think some of the Hubbard collectors went a little crazy, but I'm not sure all the high prices were on his books.  The Lovecrafts issues seem to be fairly sane, particularly compared to the Heritage auction a few months ago.

Similar to the Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Argosy had a lot of strong sales.

Amazing Stories looked like it was going relatively cheap, with a few exceptions.  $496.80 for the March 1944 issue, with PKD's first published work (a letter), is impressive, though.  $626.75 for the September 1927 issue (Lovecraft's Colour out of Space) in 4.0 is quite respectable.

Anything else jump out at people?  To be fair, most of the most interesting lots end tomorrow.

Edited by OtherEric
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/5/2021 at 1:21 AM, OtherEric said:

The Astounding SF prices are all over the place.

You can say that again. I wish I was able to follow them on tuesday because I would have been a bidder on a few that went for pennies. None of the 1st appearances went cheap but a couple of the Heinlein covers did. This pretty copy went for $25 :frown: Granted it's not a bound up space babe but I really wish I was online for this and a couple others. 

Screenshot_20210805-093751_Chrome.thumb.jpg.263cc338550cbe0ca1ff7556a9e38ab3.jpg

 

I think the sheer volume of books might have been hard for bidders to digest, especially if there were new buyers in the pool who are still sorting out what to go for. There were 4 VG Planets, 3 of them sold for $25-35 but one went for $270 and it wasn't the one broken out in the guide? Just some odd results (shrug)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/5/2021 at 9:06 PM, Surfing Alien said:

That was interesting hm

 

I certainly though so.

A power blip wiped out my initial thoughts, so recreating them in slightly less detail:

Shadows seemed somewhat soft, other than the first Shiwan Khan, which was crazy.

Spiders ranged from solid to insane.

$756.70 for the January 1950 Startling Stories is impressive, but it's such a classic cover that I suspect that might look like a good price before too long... there are enough copies out there, unlike some pulps, that I suspect there will be semi regular sales and it will get a lot of attention.

$523.25 for the May 1940 Super Science Stories is one of those prices I would not have believed 6 months ago.

Some of the Weird Tales prices are unreal.  $1897.50 for the July 1941 issue is 20x guide.  $1,811.25 for the November 1941 is similar.  Over 17K for the Batwoman issue.  $7,820 for the first Conan.  Over 6K for first "Call of Cthulhu".  10K for the bound volume and 25K for the first issue.  Lots of other impressive numbers.  The one thing I will note is it seems like Weird Tales prices were far more impacted by condition than the other titles.

I can't seem to pull up all the results for last night; I only found the Weird Tales sorting by title. 

So any other reactions from people?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/6/2021 at 12:52 AM, OtherEric said:

I certainly though so.

A power blip wiped out my initial thoughts, so recreating them in slightly less detail:

Shadows seemed somewhat soft, other than the first Shiwan Khan, which was crazy.

Spiders ranged from solid to insane.

$756.70 for the January 1950 Startling Stories is impressive, but it's such a classic cover that I suspect that might look like a good price before too long... there are enough copies out there, unlike some pulps, that I suspect there will be semi regular sales and it will get a lot of attention.

$523.25 for the May 1940 Super Science Stories is one of those prices I would not have believed 6 months ago.

Some of the Weird Tales prices are unreal.  $1897.50 for the July 1941 issue is 20x guide.  $1,811.25 for the November 1941 is similar.  Over 17K for the Batwoman issue.  $7,820 for the first Conan.  Over 6K for first "Call of Cthulhu".  10K for the bound volume and 25K for the first issue.  Lots of other impressive numbers.  The one thing I will note is it seems like Weird Tales prices were far more impacted by condition than the other titles.

I can't seem to pull up all the results for last night; I only found the Weird Tales sorting by title. 

So any other reactions from people?

Agree with all of this - although it was still erratic and there were a few bargains to be had here and there. I tried to get a Spider or 2 but they were too strong. Condition was all over the place on the Startling and Thrilling Wonders, so were the prices. Other strong Weird Tales were:

Jan 1934 8.0 $5175.00
July 1950 6.0 $616.40
Sep 1949 4.0   $299.00
May 1947 6.0 $385.25
Sep 1945 6.0 $1,335.15
Sep 1940 6.0 $563.50
March 1936 4.0 $1552.50

A bunch other of the late Weird Tales did pretty well too but the September 1949 and July 1950 were crazytown.

Wonder's got a little love, especially July 1931 City of the Singing Flame by CAS in 8.0 for $1,468.55!

I ended up picking up 3 decent WT's on the upper-lower end of the spectrum for very decent prices and won 2 of the Galaxy Sci-Fi Novel lots yesterday for a song, that was my big bargain :)

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The prices realized in this auction explain why three pulps I've had sitting on ebay for months got snapped up early this morningxD

The price on that Spider pulp is insane, even for this auction, though it broke out in a bidding war early. It sold for over $6600 (does that include premium?), and it's not even high grade. Sure it's a classic cover, and a case could be made for it being the most classic in a run full of them, but other than the first issue, the next highest price realized for a Spider pulp was $891 for another classic cover in better shape, and that was a strong price. While sellers will no doubt try and use the $6600 price as benchmark, I'd be willing to bet when another copy comes up for auction it will realize a price far lower than that. I'd be shocked if there were more than two people bidding on it after it passed a few hundred dollars considering how early it jumped out in price.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On 8/7/2021 at 1:07 PM, detective35 said:

Re:  Spider pulp:

I don’t think any sellers will go by that price if they have any experience in pulps.

That was two people completely uneducated  in the market.  That cover is no better than a few of them around it and I’ve personally sold 8 to 10 copies of that book in better condition for $200.

Therefore someone paid $6000 for a $200 book simply because they had no clue in the market.  This is the proverbial I’ll sell you some “swampland in Florida” scenario.

 

Even with the more lurid covers getting a premium, some of the more macabre Spider covers seemed a bit undervalued when compared to the prices of some of the contemporary shudder pulps from Popular with similar cover appeal. The price on this book was clearly an auction fluke, but I won't be surprised if it's days as a $200 book in VG are in the past.

What was strange about this auction, is that the book had already been bid up over 3K a week before the auction ended, at a time when most of the other Spiders in the auction had fairly nominal bids on them, below FMV, including many with very lurid covers. It's like two bidders with more money than sense, decided they wanted a copy and they wanted it ASAP, and were daring each other to bid ever higher. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/8/2021 at 1:47 PM, buttock said:

Coming back to point out that the prices are even more unreasonable when you look at some of the grades.  2-3 grade off in some cases.  

Some (though clearly not all) of their "8.0" books appeared to go for a little less than one might have thought, possibly because some high grade pulp buyers didn't trust their grades. In a few cases the books clearly weren't VF, but even when they might have been, the doubt may have been there. On the flip side there were some books graded 4.0 that had nice front cover eye-appeal that were bid up aggressively.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/6/2021 at 4:47 PM, rjpb said:

The prices realized in this auction explain why three pulps I've had sitting on ebay for months got snapped up early this morning

I'll confess to going on ebay and buying one or two affordable copies of pulps that went for high prices in this auction. They were books i've wanted anyway. Even if some of these sales are outliers, if this is inexperienced new collectors breaking out classic covers independent of the guide, then it may be a canary in the coal mine that these covers have broad appeal as "classics" and will be moving up, even if not at the level of this auction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In case you missed it, I have this pulp related mag currently for sale in my Mixed thread-

Twilight Tales #1 F- $50 1963 Contains multiple reprints from 1930-31 Ghost Stories pulps

sh358.jpg.e36b947008d8dba56e8c663a170aa915.jpg

 

Contents (per The Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/19/2021 at 11:27 AM, detective35 said:


That was a one time occurrence only.

I just bought a nicer copy with a blood red spine and white pages for $600

 

FC89E822-1C81-43C9-8E59-52FA6B158FC5.jpeg

 

Nice copy (thumbsu  And I'm sure that sale was an outlier but there's no doubt this book has gone way up from where it was. I'm still looking for my copy at Bookery guide price :tonofbricks:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
8 8