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Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values?
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6,538 posts in this topic

3 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

I've been bingeing on "The Man in the High Castle" on Amazon this week and it's almost like they pulled the cinematography atmosphere right off the cover of "The World Jones Made"

Same here!  Just started season 3.  I keep hoping they’ll include some Nazi science stuff. :popcorn:

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9 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Just for curiosity, what are considered the tricky SF doubles?  I think I listed most of them earlier, but are any others considered particularly hard to get?  I had the PKD books for a while, since I've been a fan for a long time.  I do need to upgrade my The Man Who Japed, though:

D-103.jpg

D-150.jpg

D-193.jpg

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To get back on your question... I don't think any of the Sci-Fi Doubles are "hard"

Sci-Fi collectors go way back and things this recent were always hallowed and well kept by aficionados

They might get "expensive" because certain authors, especially PKD and Harlan Ellison, are so loved that there is always lots of demand but I can't think of any Ace Sci Fi Doubles that can't be found if someone is willing to pony up the cash. The mysterys seem scarcer generally.

Now, "condition", that adds to the equation and if you're looking for copies with no reading crease and sharp corners, that gets much more complicated as all vintage thick PB's got reader creases as soon as the covers got opened. Unread looking Ace's are amazing and not so common.

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22 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

To get back on your question... I don't think any of the Sci-Fi Doubles are "hard"

Sci-Fi collectors go way back and things this recent were always hallowed and well kept by aficionados

They might get "expensive" because certain authors, especially PKD and Harlan Ellison, are so loved that there is always lots of demand but I can't think of any Ace Sci Fi Doubles that can't be found if someone is willing to pony up the cash. The mysterys seem scarcer generally.

Now, "condition", that adds to the equation and if you're looking for copies with no reading crease and sharp corners, that gets much more complicated as all vintage thick PB's got reader creases as soon as the covers got opened. Unread looking Ace's are amazing and not so common.

That's why I called them "tricky" rather than rare.

If you think the mysteries are rare, try finding the westerns!  I don't have any yet, would like to get at least a couple as examples.

I absolutely agree with you that finding the books in high grade is almost impossible.  I only have 1 or 2 D-series I could describe like that.

I'm not positive, but I might call two of the SF doubles rare, personally.  The D-13 took me forever to find a copy, I suspect that's a combo of being a very early book and it not getting flagged as half of it counting as SF until well after the fact.  And I think I've only ever seen the Conan one out in the wild once.  Probably at least partly being early, and a combo of a) some SF readers rejecting it as fantasy, not SF, so a slightly lower survival rate; and b) Conan & Fantasy fans means more copies are locked down hard in collections.

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18 hours ago, OtherEric said:

That's why I called them "tricky" rather than rare.

If you think the mysteries are rare, try finding the westerns!  I don't have any yet, would like to get at least a couple as examples.

I absolutely agree with you that finding the books in high grade is almost impossible.  I only have 1 or 2 D-series I could describe like that.

I'm not positive, but I might call two of the SF doubles rare, personally.  The D-13 took me forever to find a copy, I suspect that's a combo of being a very early book and it not getting flagged as half of it counting as SF until well after the fact.  And I think I've only ever seen the Conan one out in the wild once.  Probably at least partly being early, and a combo of a) some SF readers rejecting it as fantasy, not SF, so a slightly lower survival rate; and b) Conan & Fantasy fans means more copies are locked down hard in collections.

Yeah, I recently posted the nice D-13 I found after a long search, it's not perfect on both sides but as close as I'm gonna get. The Conan is always beat up. I used to have a real nice one in my first collection :(

I posted my Man Who Japes on here a ways back, i'll see if I can find it, it's really sharp.

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Here's my Cosmic Puppets. Both of these PKD books are survivors from my original collection that I sold in the 90's. I sold 95% of what I had, about 7 long comic boxes of very high grade books that I had amassed over 15 years of searching. But there were a bunch I kept for various reasons, mostly authors and/or covers I loved in exceptional condition. Glad I kept these.

Image (420).jpg

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56 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

Here's my Cosmic Puppets. Both of these PKD books are survivors from my original collection that I sold in the 90's. I sold 95% of what I had, about 7 long comic boxes of very high grade books that I had amassed over 15 years of searching. But there were a bunch I kept for various reasons, mostly authors and/or covers I loved in exceptional condition. Glad I kept these.

Image (420).jpg

Those are some sweet copies. I just ran a check on some of the  books I still need, and am finding prices are up in the last year or so, even for books not by PKD. I will have to check but I believe I only have one Ace sci-fi double that appears to be unread. (Posted a while back, but its is D-193 The Man Who Japed) While prices are up these books are quite affordable compared to vintage comic books of the same age.

 

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21 hours ago, OtherEric said:

That's why I called them "tricky" rather than rare.

If you think the mysteries are rare, try finding the westerns!  I don't have any yet, would like to get at least a couple as examples.

I absolutely agree with you that finding the books in high grade is almost impossible.  I only have 1 or 2 D-series I could describe like that.

I'm not positive, but I might call two of the SF doubles rare, personally.  The D-13 took me forever to find a copy, I suspect that's a combo of being a very early book and it not getting flagged as half of it counting as SF until well after the fact.  And I think I've only ever seen the Conan one out in the wild once.  Probably at least partly being early, and a combo of a) some SF readers rejecting it as fantasy, not SF, so a slightly lower survival rate; and b) Conan & Fantasy fans means more copies are locked down hard in collections.

Here's my copy realized I didn't have a scan so here it is.

cry plague! d13.jpg

the judas goat d-13.jpg

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22 hours ago, OtherEric said:

That's why I called them "tricky" rather than rare.

If you think the mysteries are rare, try finding the westerns!  I don't have any yet, would like to get at least a couple as examples.

I absolutely agree with you that finding the books in high grade is almost impossible.  I only have 1 or 2 D-series I could describe like that.

I'm not positive, but I might call two of the SF doubles rare, personally.  The D-13 took me forever to find a copy, I suspect that's a combo of being a very early book and it not getting flagged as half of it counting as SF until well after the fact.  And I think I've only ever seen the Conan one out in the wild once.  Probably at least partly being early, and a combo of a) some SF readers rejecting it as fantasy, not SF, so a slightly lower survival rate; and b) Conan & Fantasy fans means more copies are locked down hard in collections.

I have a couple of the early mysteries... they're very tough in any kind of grade...This is my worst one.. it's real clean but has the crease and the spine is twisted but it is still beaustiful IMO

Image (421).jpg

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2 hours ago, frozentundraguy said:

Those are some sweet copies. I just ran a check on some of the  books I still need, and am finding prices are up in the last year or so, even for books not by PKD. I will have to check but I believe I only have one Ace sci-fi double that appears to be unread. (Posted a while back, but its is D-193 The Man Who Japed) While prices are up these books are quite affordable compared to vintage comic books of the same age.

 

Prices are definitely up, I suspect they will be for very high grade books as they dissapear into collections. I have a few more that i'm pretty sure are unread but i'll have to do some box diving that I haven't done in a while to show them to ya my friends...

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8 hours ago, Pat Calhoun said:

Just wanted to second Hap's sage words on 'Rhiannon'; it's a classic.

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I started reading "The Enchantress of Venus" in the Planet Stories pulp I recently picked up. Although it's a stretch on the science (actually, it doesn't really address the science of breathing and surviving on Venus, the characters just do it) it's a brisk adventure read so far, very pulpy. and fun.

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5 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Loving all these D-series Ace doubles.  There's just something special about them, isn't there?

One of my better copies, although still not perfect:

Ace_D-491a.jpg

Ace_D-491b.jpg

I've have that one too and yours is better than mine. I think Leiber gets read... and well read

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One of you PB collectors may be able to help with this. I have been looking for a copy of a Science Fiction PB I remember as a kid. I have a very strong memory of the cover which featured a man on a raft poling through a ruined New York like landscape inundated with water. His companion was a cat / tiger hybrid creature. I've searched a couple of paperback conventions for this book but can't seem to yet find out. Ring a bell with anyone? I'd love to get a copy and read again.

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2 hours ago, BB-Gun said:

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Some of the pulps have spectacular (or horrible) covers and are a little difficult to find.  All of the early Weird Tales seem to fit that description.  Some of the early Timely pulps are that way too.

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That Mystery Tales is just off the hook! Pigmees whipping a naked babe? Can you imagine the reaction by a wife or mom if you brought that home? 

Now my wife.. she would just roll her eyes and go back to Facebook...:roflmao:

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