Administrator CGC Mike Posted February 7 Administrator Share Posted February 7 CGC Now Grading Pulp Magazines Posted on 2/6/2024 Pulp collectors, rejoice! CGC Comics is now grading the short-story prose fiction novels published in the early-20th Century. CGC is thrilled to announce that pulp grading has officially begun! Closely related to comic books, pulps have been seriously collected, researched and written about for many decades. They were one of the primary forms of entertainment during the first half of the 20th century, impacting American pop culture by influencing movies, radio, comic books and eventually television. Even though the format and target audience of pulps differed from comic books, the two have several things in common. Pulps played a key role in the genesis of comic book superheroes during the 1930s, and by the 1940s several pulp publishers were producing their own comic books, such as Street & Smith, Fawcett, Fiction House, Timely, Nedor/Popular and Ziff-Davis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator CGC Mike Posted February 7 Author Administrator Share Posted February 7 Here's a link to the full article! https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/12186/pulp-grading/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waaaghboss Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Hi Mike, I was curious how you determine value on the books. Do you go by the bookery guide, or look at HA sales? I have a book I bought from a non HA auction a few years ago that hasn't had a HA listing, and am curious how it would be valued in regards to your pricing tiers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator CGC Mike Posted February 7 Author Administrator Share Posted February 7 On 2/6/2024 at 9:00 PM, waaaghboss said: Hi Mike, I was curious how you determine value on the books. Do you go by the bookery guide, or look at HA sales? I have a book I bought from a non HA auction a few years ago that hasn't had a HA listing, and am curious how it would be valued in regards to your pricing tiers. I do not know the exact wording to properly answer your question. In a case like this, I am supposed to refer you to customer service. I would recommend the Ask CGC section on the forum. You could also call, text or e-mail us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJCohen Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 (edited) Hi Mike! Very excited for the news and I think it will be very interesting to watch as the collection of pulps grow. My question is now that this is official will we soon see a pulp selling section in Tyler Comics Market? Fingers crossed! Thanks Edited February 9 by AJCohen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Robot Man Posted April 1 Popular Post Share Posted April 1 Well, I finally popped my cherry and took the plunge. I actually submitted a few pulps to CGC. Not that I haven’t already. I had Joey press a couple of comics and he submitted on my behalf. But I have yet to actually do so myself. I attended WonderCon on Friday and they were taking submissions. I figure now is the time to do some pulps. The market is wide open. A lot of unknowns, prices on most are still low and there is good potential until they eventually go the way of comics. Showed up with the goods and waited in a short line for a computer. I had no idea of the process and had a lot of questions. The nice young lady was very pleasant with me but probably figured I was some clueless old guy with no computer experience. Actually, I am a graphic designer with decades of experience in photo shop and in-design. Just had a lot of questions. I was submitting a Yakima with a copy of Dave’s COA, a file copy bought on line from a well known dealer with papers and couple more. I was assured they would be considered although there was no space on the form to indicate “notes”. I was also submitting in two different tiers. I stumbled through the first one thinking I could do them all on one form. But no, was told each had to be submitted on a separate form which meant seperate mailing costs and service fees. FedEx only which I don’t like in my area. But Ok… After the second one it let me put the rest on one form (with additional postage and service fees in addition to the regular fee). I then put in my credit card which I winced at in a situation like this. Although, they didn’t tell me to, I then made sure I was logged out. They then took my books and handed me the forms. I was told I would be billed in a few days. Probably to check I didn’t lie about values? How they are going to know is beyond me. And I handed over my precious books to some nice young kid making minimum wage. I noticed some fool next to me with a full short box of moderns and wondered how much of his day would be spent entering them in one by one and how much it was going to cost… So now, I sit and pray. Will they come back with the info I wrote on the back boards and the COA proof I had put in the back of the boards? Will they all come to me in seperate packages? Or one box? I will see how it goes. I am not really much of a “slab fan” but in the case of pulps, I mostly only collect for the covers anyway. Maybe do it again, maybe not. Not a cheap experience. Money I would normally think better spent on more books… Pray for the newbie… I will report back when I eventually get them all back. asimovpulps, Yorick, frozentundraguy and 9 others 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kemidov Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Robot Man, I did the same at WonderCon this past Sunday, but I started with just one pulp: dropped off my Weird Tales 10/33 "Bat Woman" to test the new CGC waters. Had a similar experience with the very friendly and enthusiastic young staff at the booth... We'll see how it goes! Good luck to you. jimjum12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator CGC Mike Posted April 2 Author Administrator Share Posted April 2 I have created a poll to see if a for sale section for pulps is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 On 4/1/2024 at 9:01 PM, Kemidov said: Robot Man, I did the same at WonderCon this past Sunday, but I started with just one pulp: dropped off my Weird Tales 10/33 "Bat Woman" to test the new CGC waters. Had a similar experience with the very friendly and enthusiastic young staff at the booth... We'll see how it goes! Good luck to you. Same to you. Good choice! That is a great one. I had never done a submission before so all new to me. I figured I had better do some before the prices go up and I am bumped into higher tiers. There are a lot of documented sales on the classic ones but not as much on the “undiscovered” ones yet. Most of the young workers had no idea about pulps since it was so new to them. Very helpful though. Kemidov and jimjum12 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibou Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Is there a different way to access the Pulp census or do you use the same search field as with comics? I'm not having any luck so far. RarePulps 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator CGC Mike Posted April 3 Author Administrator Share Posted April 3 On 4/2/2024 at 11:49 PM, Hibou said: Is there a different way to access the Pulp census or do you use the same search field as with comics? I'm not having any luck so far. You can search the same way as he would for comics. For instance, search “Weird Tales” and choose the Popular publisher. The issues we have graded so far will pop up. It’s possible you are searching for titles that we have not graded yet, which will return no result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibou Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Thank you - that makes sense. On 4/3/2024 at 9:06 AM, CGC Mike said: You can search the same way as he would for comics. For instance, search “Weird Tales” and choose the Popular publisher. The issues we have graded so far will pop up. It’s possible you are searching for titles that we have not graded yet, which will return no result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AJCohen Posted April 4 Popular Post Share Posted April 4 I also used the weekend to drop off some pulps and comics at WonderCon on Saturday. I populated them on the online sheets in the CGC grading section and then it gave an option to mail or drop off. Once I chose drop off it put the forms into PDF and I printed them and brought them with me. It was a smooth process and it was fun to go to WonderCon with the whole family. I used the kids as mules to help me bring in 3 backpacks full of books. I dropped off 51 pulps and 43 comics, I know it was a lot but I’m leery of sending them through the mail and also thought it would be best to get a bunch done now before prices start jumping further. tth2, Kemidov, comicjack and 7 others 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tth2 Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 On 4/4/2024 at 12:54 PM, AJCohen said: I also used the weekend to drop off some pulps and comics at WonderCon on Saturday. Good luck with the grades! Let us know the results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJCohen Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 On 4/4/2024 at 7:23 AM, tth2 said: Good luck with the grades! Let us know the results! Will do! Thx! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Robot Man Posted April 4 Popular Post Share Posted April 4 On 4/3/2024 at 9:54 PM, AJCohen said: I also used the weekend to drop off some pulps and comics at WonderCon on Saturday. I populated them on the online sheets in the CGC grading section and then it gave an option to mail or drop off. Once I chose drop off it put the forms into PDF and I printed them and brought them with me. It was a smooth process and it was fun to go to WonderCon with the whole family. I used the kids as mules to help me bring in 3 backpacks full of books. I dropped off 51 pulps and 43 comics, I know it was a lot but I’m leery of sending them through the mail and also thought it would be best to get a bunch done now before prices start jumping further. WOW! That is a LOAD! A lot of work not to mention a lot of money. Makes a lot of sense though. Mailing them would have been even more expensive and risky. I only submitted 4 pulps. My first submission even though I only have maybe one box of slabs in my collection. I am a reader and collector and don’t see much use in something I can’t read or handle carefully. It certainly wasn’t cheap and I just don’t have the space to store many slabs anyway. Since I am not selling, I have always felt I’d rather spend my money on more books than slabs I don’t have space for. But that’s just me. Nice load by the way. Some great pulps in those piles! I hope the “grading Gods” smile down upon us both. jimjum12, Randall Dowling, Kemidov and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Point Five Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 I'm at a funny place with pulp collecting and grading, and would love to hear where you guys come out on this. I dove into pulps heavily years ago (2015-2016 or thereabouts), bought and sold lots of them and more or less moved on and went back to comics. In recent months I've slowly gotten pulled back in. It's been great fun exploring new-to-me covers, and it will be a major but potentially fun challenge to try to land some of the ones I want. I've bought a few and have more on the way. But at least at this stage, I don't care about slabbing pulps... at all. I'm happy with any decently presentable raw copy and I doubt I'd pay even $50 more for a graded Universal slab copy. I care minimally if they have minor restoration or maybe even fairly serious condition issues, as long as they present reasonably well and don't break the bank. And at least at this stage, I'm not worried about values or protecting my investments. (I dunno, maybe I'd feel differently if I had a major stash of them already?) It's weird, because I regularly get comics CGC graded and definitely see the value that CGC brings to the table, and slabbing has become part of my collecting process... maybe a small part compared to some folks here, but definitely not an 'insignificant' part. It almost literally feels like I'm using a different part of my brain when I collect pulps. Anyone else feel this way? How much slabbing or buying of slabbed copies do you foresee doing? Darwination 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnenock Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 I have been on the fence, but I will buy slabbed pulps eventually. 1 factor for CGC: Old grading of Fair G/VG and fine doesn't say enough about the grade for me. Like anything, all pulp seller's grading is not created equal. Tired of buying fines that don't seem/feel fine to me. 1 against: Just because it's graded doesn't mean it's a 600 dollar pulp. I have seen too many "common" pulps immediately go to 300 and higher for books you can get(if you can find a reliable seller) for 50 to a hundred bucks. So, if prices start adjusting to reality, I will probably buy graded books just so I can "rely" on the grade. If, everything gets graded, I will probably quit pulps and stick with paperbacks. asimovpulps, Surfing Alien and Point Five 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwination Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 (edited) I've never bought a single magazine, pulp or comic in a slab and feel like I navigate the waters just fine in terms of condition. The very same magazine on eBay might be listed as "good" by an amateur or conservative grader, VG by actual grade, and Fine by those who don't know better or volume dealers who know they can get away with calling a book that. There are girlie pulp sellers I buy from regularly that will call a book Fine or even VF that I don't think gets too far past good. I just don't pay more than my estimate of a book's grade (exceptions will be made, ha!). That's what pictures are for. And a lifetime of looking at books. And, hell, you often actually get 10 or 20 pictures of a bunch of different aspects of a magazine on eBay instead of just the front and back cover like you do with a slab. Comics are graded a little tighter, but I'm sure we all know eBay sellers that are consistently over by one if not two whole grades. I've been around this place long enough to know that 9 out of 10 of our members can look at 2 or 3 pictures and have a great sense of what they are looking at. Personally, I don't feel like I need to give agency to a third party or pay fifty or one hundred bucks more for some supposed security about what I'm getting. If I bought higher priced books I probably would, though, and I get that people like to feel safe in a transaction with a seller they don't know. Getting into paperbacks lately I will often contact a seller for a picture of a front cover of a "VG" on Abebooks to get a better feel which makes me happy you at least get mandatory pictures on eBay. When it comes to pulps, any grade of fine is automatically suspect, especially very fine. When the books are actually that grade, though, they tend to have this color and freshness that's a whole 'nother cut above. Anyways, I do see CGC coming to the game likely leading to more grading accuracy in pulps and more disclosure of restoration (even if it's not going to be as much of a factor outside of maybe color touch) which is great. Since I've been on the forums here, I've gained more of an appreciation about the exactness and nuances of grading standards, even as I see that the best graders around this place can be way off in their guesses from an actual grade in the PGM area or the grading contests. What I don't see happening is people wanting to pay multiples of what a book is worth because it's been graded once the initial thrill wears off. Seriously, there are books I'm seen in a box in not even very good grades that you can do just a tiny bit of searching for and still find at a good price. And for those who are new to the pulps and want to explore them, how do you even do that when they are in a box anyways?? Just like with the comics, I've got a lot of appreciation for presentable beaters. I do see certain upsides, though. A truly valuable presentation only copy should be pretty secure in a slab and face less handling damage, overhang loss, etc. Weird Menace and Spicy Detectives etc. are a natural for it and probably a lot of higher end Weird Tales, too. There are cases where you aren't told (or shown pictures of) rusty staples or moisture damage or brittleness (even by the reliable auction houses) and maybe CGC will help some of that go away. I dunno, I still wouldn't trade any of it for a bunch of good pictures and especially the ability to handle a book myself before buying which you lose when graded I can see myself buying graded girlie pulps, but I can't see myself paying 600 dollars for a 200 dollar girlie in a box. And I sure the hell aren't sticking any of my PC gals in there. I haven't even been willing to do it to my golden age comics that I've been selling even if there's upside on the resale just as a personal matter. Maybe I'll get over it one of these days Edited April 26 by Darwination johnenock, Point Five and waaaghboss 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing Alien Posted Sunday at 02:35 AM Share Posted Sunday at 02:35 AM On 4/26/2024 at 1:20 AM, Darwination said: I've never bought a single magazine, pulp or comic in a slab and feel like I navigate the waters just fine in terms of condition. The very same magazine on eBay might be listed as "good" by an amateur or conservative grader, VG by actual grade, and Fine by those who don't know better or volume dealers who know they can get away with calling a book that. There are girlie pulp sellers I buy from regularly that will call a book Fine or even VF that I don't think gets too far past good. I just don't pay more than my estimate of a book's grade (exceptions will be made, ha!). That's what pictures are for. And a lifetime of looking at books. And, hell, you often actually get 10 or 20 pictures of a bunch of different aspects of a magazine on eBay instead of just the front and back cover like you do with a slab. Comics are graded a little tighter, but I'm sure we all know eBay sellers that are consistently over by one if not two whole grades. I've been around this place long enough to know that 9 out of 10 of our members can look at 2 or 3 pictures and have a great sense of what they are looking at. Personally, I don't feel like I need to give agency to a third party or pay fifty or one hundred bucks more for some supposed security about what I'm getting. If I bought higher priced books I probably would, though, and I get that people like to feel safe in a transaction with a seller they don't know. Getting into paperbacks lately I will often contact a seller for a picture of a front cover of a "VG" on Abebooks to get a better feel which makes me happy you at least get mandatory pictures on eBay. When it comes to pulps, any grade of fine is automatically suspect, especially very fine. When the books are actually that grade, though, they tend to have this color and freshness that's a whole 'nother cut above. Anyways, I do see CGC coming to the game likely leading to more grading accuracy in pulps and more disclosure of restoration (even if it's not going to be as much of a factor outside of maybe color touch) which is great. Since I've been on the forums here, I've gained more of an appreciation about the exactness and nuances of grading standards, even as I see that the best graders around this place can be way off in their guesses from an actual grade in the PGM area or the grading contests. What I don't see happening is people wanting to pay multiples of what a book is worth because it's been graded once the initial thrill wears off. Seriously, there are books I'm seen in a box in not even very good grades that you can do just a tiny bit of searching for and still find at a good price. And for those who are new to the pulps and want to explore them, how do you even do that when they are in a box anyways?? Just like with the comics, I've got a lot of appreciation for presentable beaters. I do see certain upsides, though. A truly valuable presentation only copy should be pretty secure in a slab and face less handling damage, overhang loss, etc. Weird Menace and Spicy Detectives etc. are a natural for it and probably a lot of higher end Weird Tales, too. There are cases where you aren't told (or shown pictures of) rusty staples or moisture damage or brittleness (even by the reliable auction houses) and maybe CGC will help some of that go away. I dunno, I still wouldn't trade any of it for a bunch of good pictures and especially the ability to handle a book myself before buying which you lose when graded I can see myself buying graded girlie pulps, but I can't see myself paying 600 dollars for a 200 dollar girlie in a box. And I sure the hell aren't sticking any of my PC gals in there. I haven't even been willing to do it to my golden age comics that I've been selling even if there's upside on the resale just as a personal matter. Maybe I'll get over it one of these days Graded pulps are starting to pour onto the 'bay, many with crazy prices. A look at "sold" listings shows very few greater fools so far from what I can see. I guess we'll see if fear crushes greed as happens in exuberant markets from time to time, or vice versa... Darwination, asimovpulps, tth2 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
