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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 10/4/2019 at 6:05 PM, Randall Dowling said:

Just picked up this little gem and found a very cool dedication inside. :)

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I saw this post yesterday right before I headed to a new book fair down at LAX with about 200 rare book dealers from the US and Britain. It's a new venture and was pretty fun. It was held at an old restaurant called the Proud Bird where you can watch the planes land and take off. Nice location.

Anyway in a funny twist of fate the very first dealer I saw on the way in had the display below in his case. I chuckled thinking what are the chances of that. I likely wouldn't have paid much heed had I not seen your post!

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3 hours ago, PopKulture said:

Yesterday I picked up three nice paperbacks that had previously eluded me (meaning that I haven't chanced upon them before: I wasn't actively looking or anything, mind you). Pretty good finds at an antique mall and sensibly priced. They had a Campus Town too, but you could see someone traced over the cover leaving all sorts of indentations. :frown:

In any case, I'm pleased to add these to the pile:

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Sweet trio! I've had the top 2 but never The Kidnaper.

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15 hours ago, PopKulture said:

This brings back memories for me. It's one of maybe my first twenty or so vintage paperbacks that I picked up across the street from me as a kid from an older lady's garage sale. The Chinese Parrot (Avon 344) and Double for Death (Dell 9) were also among that early batch. An influential day in my young collecting life to be sure, all these many bankers' boxes of books later.  :cloud9:

It’s funny how you remember this stuff. The first books that I recall considering “vintage paperbacks” as such, were copies of Avon 54 “See What I Mean” by Lewis Browne with the Nazi propaganda cover and Cardinal C-187 “The Blackboard Jungle” by Evan Hunter, both in my mom’s basement which was filled with old books. The first I can recall buying in the outside world when I started seeking them out were dead mint copies of Croydon 13 & 14, “Reckless Virgin” & “Shadows of Lust” with the LB Cole covers. Those were at a yard sale a guy advertised in the local paper as having “vintage paperbacks” He had a medium box full and these were the best and most striking to me. I think I paid $1 each. I wish I still had them as you never see Croydons without creasing.

 

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2 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

It’s funny how you remember this stuff. The first books that I recall considering “vintage paperbacks” as such, were copies of Avon 54 “See What I Mean” by Lewis Browne with the Nazi propaganda cover and Cardinal C-187 “The Blackboard Jungle” by Evan Hunter, both in my mom’s basement which was filled with old books. The first I can recall buying in the outside world when I started seeking them out were dead mint copies of Croydon 13 & 14, “Reckless Virgin” & “Shadows of Lust” with the LB Cole covers. Those were at a yard sale a guy advertised in the local paper as having “vintage paperbacks” He had a medium box full and these were the best and most striking to me. I think I paid $1 each. I wish I still had them as you never see Croydons without creasing.

 

Yeah, those are great Cole covers for sure. Did you find yourself needing to downsize at certain points in your life, or did you sell things along the way to make way for new things?

I've sold a few things along the way at flea markets or shows, but often regretted letting go of those things later (like a Hopalong Cassidy board game I still have never replaced). I'm lucky to have kept all my comics, pulps and paperbacks, except for the occasional double.  

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22 hours ago, PopKulture said:

Yeah, those are great Cole covers for sure. Did you find yourself needing to downsize at certain points in your life, or did you sell things along the way to make way for new things?

I've sold a few things along the way at flea markets or shows, but often regretted letting go of those things later (like a Hopalong Cassidy board game I still have never replaced). I'm lucky to have kept all my comics, pulps and paperbacks, except for the occasional double.  

I’ve actually sold a lot of stuff over the years (and plenty of regrets lol). I did a lot of Greenberg and smaller local shows in NYC through the 90’s buying and selling mostly silver age and pre code horror back then (lot's of regret there :pullhair:.)  I did pretty well at those shows for the time.

When Ebay and then CGC started I got most of my Golden Age stuff graded and gradually sold it off as the market rose through the 2000’s. I’d love to have much of it back to sell at today’s prices but I really can’t complain too much, because I got pretty much top dollar at the time (okay, I really regret selling my Human Torch 12 CGC 6.0 for $900 doh! but that was about 2-3x guide when I sold it). Before Ebay, if you were small time, you were really at the mercy of dealers and/or whoever would walk into a show if you wanted to sell anything. 

I never had too many pulps, for whatever reason they were not around too much in the world I traveled in back in those days, even though there were a ton of book shops and shows in NYC.

My paperbacks were another story, I sold nearly my entire vintage paperback collection to Jon Warren when I needed money in the early 90’s before Ebay. It was 5 or 6 long boxes, including a pristine copy of Reform School Girl and tons of 1st ed mystery stuff, Jim Thompson etc.. He gave the best bid out of a couple dealers I contacted, but I did keep a box of my JD stuff and science fiction that I still have today.

A few years after selling I started to buy paperbacks again and I’ve reacquired most of what I really wanted back, including a very nice copy of Reform School Girl that is only slightly lesser than the one I had. I don’t think I’ve ever posted it here, maybe I’ll dig it out.

I'm still picking up paperbacks when I find the right price/desire ratio and i've been buying some pulps because the posters on this board have ratcheted up the temptation levels, and they're a cool substitute for the Golden Age itch at a price point I can live with (meaning keep my marriage intact, lol) 
 

Edited by Surfing Alien
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