CGC is now grading pulp magazines 2 2

[waaaghboss]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:35 PM, Surfing Alien said:

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...

A lot of graded pulps on HA tomorrow, a good number I wouldn't consider grading candidates.   Be interesting to see where the prices land for the lower grade common books.  On ebay, Dave smith sold a 4.0 startling stories witch book for 250, which looks like the grading helped, where another copy in 2.5 with a purple label sold for 66, which means the seller likely lost money.

 

I think lower grade common books will have been a bad call to get graded, where the nicer books will see a bump. 

[Point Five]

Thanks for the responses. Yep, the question of how robust the pulp market will get in response to professional grading is definitely relevant and valid. It feels like it will trend upwards, but I wonder if it will take longer than comics did to take off except for the very best stuff.

But honestly, I can't even say I'm in wait-and-see mode. I don't foresee buying more than the occasional slabbed pulp, and even then, only if it's a rare one that I'd buy and pay loosely the same price for in its raw state. 

As I said, I might feel different if I had a massive stash of higher-end pulps already... and quite a few of you obviously do, as you show here regularly to quite stunning effect. So I've been curious where you guys land on these issues.

It's also worth saying, the physical space needed to store pulps -- **especially** slabbed ones -- is a non-zero factor for me as well. 

 

[Robot Man]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:45 PM, waaaghboss said:

A lot of graded pulps on HA tomorrow, a good number I wouldn't consider grading candidates.   Be interesting to see where the prices land for the lower grade common books.  On ebay, Dave smith sold a 4.0 startling stories witch book for 250, which looks like the grading helped, where another copy in 2.5 with a purple label sold for 66, which means the seller likely lost money.

 

I think lower grade common books will have been a bad call to get graded, where the nicer books will see a bump. 

I was wondering that myself. Would a title like the Famous Fantastics in high grade be a good example to get graded in high grade? These have always been very plentiful in all grades. There are many out there and getting graded quickly. I have a number of high grade ones and just don’t see them bring the money to justify grading. Maybe in this current frenzy, I am wrong.

[Robot Man]

On 4/28/2024 at 11:40 AM, Point Five said:

Thanks for the responses. Yep, the question of how robust the pulp market will get in response to professional grading is definitely relevant and valid. It feels like it will trend upwards, but I wonder if it will take longer than comics did to take off except for the very best stuff.

But honestly, I can't even say I'm in wait-and-see mode. I don't foresee buying more than the occasional slabbed pulp, and even then, only if it's a rare one that I'd buy and pay loosely the same price for in its raw state. 

As I said, I might feel different if I had a massive stash of higher-end pulps already... and quite a few of you obviously do, as you show here regularly to quite stunning effect. So I've been curious where you guys land on these issues.

It's also worth saying, the physical space needed to store pulps -- **especially** slabbed ones -- is a non-zero factor for me as well. 

 

I was checking out my first submission. I noticed that although the pulp doesn’t move side to side inside the slab it does seem to move top to bottom due to the thickness of the pulp vs thickness of the slab. Seems to me it would move less in a comic slab and be a snugger fit. I wonder if I could ask for this if possible in a future submission.

I just don’t think my limited storage space will accommodate these thick slabs very long. Not to mention, I don’t like the rattle. 

[Point Five]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:36 AM, Robot Man said:

I was checking out my first submission. I noticed that although the pulp doesn’t move side to side inside the slab it does seem to move top to bottom due to the thickness of the pulp vs thickness of the slab.

Huh, that's concerning for shipping too. I received a shipment of comic slabs back from CGC recently, and one GA book must have jostled around in transit (even though the slabs were IMO reasonably well packed) and some top overhang bits got caught in the top inner well. I wonder how much that's a possibility with these new pulp slabs.   

To be clear, since I'm harping on some negatives in this discussion, I actually think it's cool that CGC now slabs pulps. It would also be great to see the market take off accordingly, even if it's largely for higher-end material that I'm not a part of. But it does seem like there may be some issues to iron out and some potential growing pains.

 

[Robot Man]

Anybody know what the highest grades pulps have received from CGC? I have always used the Bookery grades. Just single numbers without .5 grades. 9 is the highest they go. I have yet to see anything above 8.5 by CGC.

As a side note. I saw Fantasy Illustrated list a copy of the Bookery Guide on EBay for $700! Dave states only 500 were printed. Does this book bring even close to that price? 

[OtherEric]

On 4/30/2024 at 9:21 AM, Robot Man said:

As a side note. I saw Fantasy Illustrated list a copy of the Bookery Guide on EBay for $700! Dave states only 500 were printed. Does this book bring even close to that price? 

Not sure on that price, but I'm utterly certain there aren't nearly enough copies of the book out there for the people who want them at this point.

[Darwination]

On 4/30/2024 at 11:21 AM, Robot Man said:

Anybody know what the highest grades pulps have received from CGC? I have always used the Bookery grades. Just single numbers without .5 grades. 9 is the highest they go. I have yet to see anything above 8.5 by CGC.

As a side note. I saw Fantasy Illustrated list a copy of the Bookery Guide on EBay for $700! Dave states only 500 were printed. Does this book bring even close to that price? 

I think I've seen a later Shadow around here (maybe a Doc, too) at like 9.2.  Could be imagining that, though.

 

Edited April 30 by Darwination

[waaaghboss]

There's a 9.2 March 1933 weird tales.

[Darwination]

Speaking of high slab asks -

[comicjack]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:06 PM, Darwination said:

Speaking of high slab asks -

Not big on that cover we will see if they get that or anything close 

[comicjack]

On 4/30/2024 at 12:21 PM, Robot Man said:

Anybody know what the highest grades pulps have received from CGC? I have always used the Bookery grades. Just single numbers without .5 grades. 9 is the highest they go. I have yet to see anything above 8.5 by CGC.

As a side note. I saw Fantasy Illustrated list a copy of the Bookery Guide on EBay for $700! Dave states only 500 were printed. Does this book bring even close to that price? 

I like Dave but sometimes he has wishful thinking  but don't we all 

[Surfing Alien]

On 4/27/2024 at 10:45 PM, waaaghboss said:

I think lower grade common books will have been a bad call to get graded, where the nicer books will see a bump. 

Was busy with my own sale but I just took a look and, at first glance, this looks to be the case, even on HA, which has tended to get ridiculous prices for common pulps. The couple of 8.0 WT books got nice prices, the lesser grade ones more in line with unslabbed prices. Still, I think any pulp worth  "x hundreds" of dollars might make sense for a seller to get graded due the liquidity/grade factor the slab brings.

However I saw things that made me go "hmmm" -  A Planet graded 6.0 Blue with all three sides trimmed, when it was stated before the slabs were released that no book with significant trimming would get out of the VG range IIRC.

[jimjum12]

oops, wrong thread.

Edited April 30 by jimjum12

[Robot Man]

On 4/30/2024 at 2:50 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Was busy with my own sale but I just took a look and, at first glance, this looks to be the case, even on HA, which has tended to get ridiculous prices for common pulps. The couple of 8.0 WT books got nice prices, the lesser grade ones more in line with unslabbed prices. Still, I think any pulp worth  "x hundreds" of dollars might make sense for a seller to get graded due the liquidity/grade factor the slab brings.

However I saw things that made me go "hmmm" -  A Planet graded 6.0 Blue with all three sides trimmed, when it was stated before the slabs were released that no book with significant trimming would get out of the VG range IIRC.

My thought is that a pulp worth “x hundreds” now might be worth “x thousands” soon in this hot market. Now is the time to save grading fees on the right ones. Not just the ones that are hot now but the “sleepers” that haven’t been discovered yet. Especially if unrestored. 

[Point Five]

On 4/30/2024 at 7:41 PM, Robot Man said:

My thought is that a pulp worth “x hundreds” now might be worth “x thousands” soon in this hot market. Now is the time to save grading fees on the right ones. Not just the ones that are hot now but the “sleepers” that haven’t been discovered yet. Especially if unrestored. 

So yes, there's that possibility. Intriguing. 

Then my question is: how do the new grading standards work for pulps? Other than the February press article which discussed a few common pulp flaws (trimming, missing pages, etc), are there any resources for how CGC grades pulps? I'd love to know more.

Every concrete bit of info we have is that CGC's standards for vintage pulps are strongly different (some might say "wildly different") than everything we know about their standards for vintage comics. I'd like to know a lot more about how common defects are handled -- things like overhang wear, edge tears, spine splits, spine wrinkling etc etc -- before I consider submitting or buying to submit.

 

[comicjack]

On 4/30/2024 at 7:41 PM, Robot Man said:

My thought is that a pulp worth “x hundreds” now might be worth “x thousands” soon in this hot market. Now is the time to save grading fees on the right ones. Not just the ones that are hot now but the “sleepers” that haven’t been discovered yet. Especially if unrestored. 

You got that right some rare ones which nobody is looking at now will soon be on fire 

[Robot Man]

On 4/30/2024 at 7:49 PM, comicjack said:

You got that right some rare ones which nobody is looking at now will soon be on fire 

The key to this is which ones? Although I have always been primarily a comic collector but have picked up cool pulps as I ran into them. But I have pretty good instincts. Back in the day when everyone was focused on Timely Schomburg covers, I discovered and sought out his Nedor and other publisher work and bought them up while they were “under the radar”. Same thing with Baker, crime books and other WWII publishers. The same applies to pulps. There is much more than Spiceys, Weird Tales, Shudder pulps and known hot covers.

I am always excited to find stuff I never knew existed. There is just so much out there even in the pretty dead genres like Romance, War and yes, even Westerns that most people are unaware of. And now with CGC grading, condition is becoming very important.

I am really enjoying the water and the thrill of discovery all over again. 

[tth2]

On 5/1/2024 at 2:39 AM, waaaghboss said:

There's a 9.2 March 1933 weird tales.