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Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values?
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6,528 posts in this topic

On 2/27/2019 at 8:42 PM, mstrange said:

Is there any interest for PULPS here on the boards.   I am considering starting a sales thread in G/S/B thread. Have some early HG Weird Tales Brundage covers I am mulling over whether to sale or not.   

There's a whole thread on pulps other than this one. This is not a sale thread either.... just a place to show your beauties... like this Bad Girl...Love me some Bad Girls....

Image (354).jpg

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On 2/27/2019 at 8:42 PM, mstrange said:

Is there any interest for PULPS here on the boards.   I am considering starting a sales thread in G/S/B thread. Have some early HG Weird Tales Brundage covers I am mulling over whether to sale or not.   

Big YES from me.

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14 hours ago, BarristerBaker said:

I’m so, so ready for a grader to start including pulps, if only a few titles at first. Come on CGC. Or Voldy. Or a new player. Would be awesome.

For sure, I would think the Digest Sized paperbacks as well - they should fit right in the TV Guide size holders and have been extensively catalogued already.

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50 minutes ago, Arkadin said:

I do not want pulps or paperbacks graded. Why? Is there a problem with restored paperbacks that I didn't hear about? 

Sorry, it's absurd.

As someone who buys a lot of pulps from people who have no idea how to grade, I respectfully disagree. :foryou:

Edited by RedFury
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On 3/2/2019 at 6:23 PM, BarristerBaker said:

I’m so, so ready for a grader to start including pulps, if only a few titles at first. Come on CGC. Or Voldy. Or a new player. Would be awesome.

I would love graded pulps as well.  But there are a lot of hurdles:

1. Overhang - the most obvious problem, how do you protect the overhangs when slabbing the pulp?  I think it could be done though.  Just done use a square-edged well.  Taper the mylar, like in a mylar sleeve.

2. Page counting - Most pulps are about 120 pages, earlier ones were even more, and many were not evenly cut, so counting pages is difficult and time consuming.

3. Small market - the pulp market is much smaller than the comic book market.  Would it be worth it for a company to start grading pulps?

4. Resistance from pulp collectors - slabbing comics is pretty widely accepted now, but I remember back when it started there were a LOT of people against it.  I think we'd have the same problem from the pulp community.

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19 minutes ago, RedFury said:

As someone who buys a lot of pulps from people who have no idea how to grade, I respectfully disagree. :foryou:

Seriously? You need a grading service to help you buy pulps? After all these years? Sorry, don't believe it.

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6 minutes ago, Arkadin said:

Seriously? You need a grading service to help you buy pulps? After all these years? Sorry, don't believe it.

When buying online, yes.  It would help.  It often happens I buy a pulp that looks great only to find a hidden defect when it arrives.

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10 hours ago, Arkadin said:

I do not want pulps or paperbacks graded. Why? Is there a problem with restored paperbacks that I didn't hear about? 

Sorry, it's absurd.

It's none of that stuff to me. It's all about the fun things like comparing copies, or having a nice uniform display medium  - I look at some of my copies and think there can't be a better one out there or maybe there is, and grading gets people to put their copies up for comparison, look for different qualities like reflectivity and wrap and the whole host of other things that get revealed by grading books, like relative scarcity to value etc. - not to mention the "find" stories and sharing experiences/likes/dislikes. Many people slab their not-so-expensive comics just for the nice display.

You could say that people can scan their copies raw and compare them and talk about them here or on some other such board but there's been no place and no incentive for that to happen quite like the curiosity of sending your books in, getting them back, and then the discussion on these boards that I've ever encountered.

 

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Of all paper collectibles, pulps are pretty much the hardest to grade in my opinion.  Much, much harder than magazines, comics, paperbacks, digests, etc. for a host of reasons.  I can very much see why some would want a shared standard for grading as buying pulps is ALL over the place.  However, it kind of bums me out to think of them sealed up in slabs where you can’t look inside to read the amazing writing and check out really special interior illustrations.  

I know, I know, it’s the same with comics.  But most all of my comic collection is ungraded.  I just like ‘em raw!

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