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Pulp sales discussion thread
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357 posts in this topic

I don't have any interesting sales to discuss right at the moment, but we've taken over two or three other threads in the past few weeks discussing various prices realized on books.  I thought we could use a specific thread, similar to the "heating up on eBay" threads other subforums have, to discuss interesting realized prices.  This will leave the selling thread for actual selling and trading.

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On 8/22/2021 at 11:58 PM, waaaghboss said:

1600 on ebay recently, listed as fine+ with tan pages.  I didn't come close, about 1k short on my last bid xD

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This detective mag went for 2175, listed as VG/high grade.  Caught me by surprise, but didn't realize it was the first issue when I threw a much lower bid at it.  Figured it went high because of the strength of Hubbard's writing.  Listed as scarce in Bookery.

 

 

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There is a small pile of mid grade Weird Tales ending on HA tomorrow.  I have bids on a few, but pretty sure I won't get them.  Be curious to see where mid grade weird tales end up, spans late 20's to early 40's with a couple Brundage covers, and the third printed Conan story.

I’ve been getting into pulps slowly over the last couple of years. Is Hubbard really heavily collected? For me that cover is the big draw; there are quite a few Popular Detectives with incredible cover art. I’m curious to see if the pulp market is as cover-driven as comic books (particularly pre-code). I know previous generations collected them for their content, but with CGC slabbing pulps I could see that shifting.

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I have always “accumulated” pulps for their cover art. I have rarely searched out specific issues. My favorites are the “shudder”, “Detective” and girly covers. They mirror my taste in comics. 

At this point, I’ve probably seen every comic of these genres. But, pulps are full of constant surprises cover wise. 

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. 

And yes, L Ron Hubbard pulps are very collectible. Collectors often pay rather lofty prices for them even with very bland covers. 

Edited by Robot Man
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On 8/23/2021 at 8:10 AM, Robot Man said:

And yes, L Ron Hubbard pulps are very collectible. Collectors often pay rather lofty prices for them even with very bland covers. 

Hubbard has commanded a premium as long as I've been collecting pulps, there are a lot of people who want all of his stuff.  As near as I can tell, that group wants the stories and doesn't care about the covers as such.

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On 8/23/2021 at 12:58 AM, waaaghboss said:

1600 on ebay recently, listed as fine+ with tan pages.  I didn't come close, about 1k short on my last bid xD

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This detective mag went for 2175, listed as VG/high grade.  Caught me by surprise, but didn't realize it was the first issue when I threw a much lower bid at it.  Figured it went high because of the strength of Hubbard's writing.  Listed as scarce in Bookery.

 

 

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There is a small pile of mid grade Weird Tales ending on HA tomorrow.  I have bids on a few, but pretty sure I won't get them.  Be curious to see where mid grade weird tales end up, spans late 20's to early 40's with a couple Brundage covers, and the third printed Conan story.

Although skeleton covers are popular, the result of the Popular Detective was simply because it is a harder to get issue with L. Ron Hubbard.  Any pulp that’s a little bit harder to get with Hubbard story will sell for a crazy amount because of the Hubbard Collector’s out there!

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I've been running a sales thread over in Mixed of my friends collection but came across these and was wondering if anyone on here could tell me what kind of prices I should ask for these. Don't have any experience with pulps. Would I be better off taking to a Con and selling them there? Thanks for any advice

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On 8/28/2021 at 11:37 AM, Azkaban said:

I've been running a sales thread over in Mixed of my friends collection but came across these and was wondering if anyone on here could tell me what kind of prices I should ask for these. Don't have any experience with pulps. Would I be better off taking to a Con and selling them there? Thanks for any advice

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The Bookery Guide to pulps would be a help. Check it out. 

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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.

Edited by htp
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Pulps are more accessible now because of the Internet. I don't think I've ever seen a pulp in a used bookstore. They're considered magazines, and for the most part, bookstores don't want to sell magazines. They're not comic books, so comic book stores usually don't carry them. In the old days you had to really make an effort to try to find someone who sold pulps. 

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If I'm reading these correctly, it looks like a few pieces of OA from Finley and Brundage are coming up for auction on HA soon.  

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Way out of my price range, but fun to watch.  

This piece (not in current auction) sold in 2014 for 42k, then resold for significantly less in 2020 for 27k.  Both descriptions describe some wear, so I'm not certain if damage happened after the original purchase which may have caused the drop in value.  If not, that's somewhat surprising.  Looking at other Brundage pieces, it seems they were averaging around 40k in 2014.

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