Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values? 25 25

[Surfing Alien]

On 11/24/2019 at 7:48 PM, Pat Calhoun said:

flip side of D-135 (shown above) is nice too

Popular title

[Surfing Alien]

12 hours ago, comicjack said:

Great cover

sigh... another one on the want list

[Surfing Alien]

A colorful spine shot of some recent arrivals. Love the look of minty vintage pb stacks...

[moonpool]

10 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

A colorful spine shot of some recent arrivals. Love the look of minty vintage pb stacks...

Dead Ringer

 

[pmpknface]

14 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Popular title

What's with the gorilla in the window?!?!?!?!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

4 hours ago, pmpknface said:

What's with the gorilla in the window?!?!?!?!

Should have been a DC imprint with that gorilla cover!

[Pat Calhoun]

great novel: takes place in a carnival with a murderer on the loose who sometimes wears a gorilla mask. my second printing cover isn't as good, but it ain't bad, and I've had it a long time, and this is the copy I read...

[Surfing Alien]

Nice Headlight Cover from Avon... back cover  Is interesting too. Like I said on another post Avon reused their front covers on back covers and this is a nice tie in with house of fury by Felice swados who wrote  the original story for reform school girl..

[frozentundraguy]

Here I go again, breaking up an impressive array of recently posted PB's with GGA.

Only one more PKD novel to acquire in the Ace double "D" series.

 

[Hepcat]

On 1/8/2014 at 3:00 PM, Reno McCoy said:

I've recently been looking more into vintage paperback books. Some of the cover art and text blurbs are incredibly risque, and it fascinates me to consider what it must've been like to peruse the stands of the local newsstand considering the covers that adorned the comics, pulps, and paperbacks of the time.

 

From what little I know about the era, there was a glut of product from each of these types of publications. However, based on the values I've seen in my limited research, it seems that paperbacks have never attained the same level of collectibility of comics and pulps. Heck, it seems that pulps aren't nearly as sought after as the comics, either.

 

Can anyone enlighten me as to why that might be? I know there are exceptions to the rule, but in general, why is it that, in terms of value and apparent interest, it's: comics > pulps > paperbacks? I can understand why super hero comics, which are still in the public eye, have maintained their dominance, but are there any clear reasons why pulps and paperbacks aren't as sought after?

It's simple really. Nostalgia has been the primary impetus behind the price increases we've seen for most such collectibles in the last sixty years and nostalgia is strongest for the items of our formative years. Paperbacks and pulps were never targeted at kids; comics were. Therefore since nostalgia rules, it's comics that have appreciated most in price in the last sixty years.

 

[moonpool]

a couple of pamphlet sized.

[Pat Calhoun]

[Surfing Alien]

21 hours ago, frozentundraguy said:

Only one more PKD novel to acquire in the Ace double "D" series

I think I still need "Vulcan's Hammer" but picked off one of the singles this week

[Surfing Alien]

Sharing mine.. cool mood to the cover art

[Surfing Alien]

Giant insects are always fun

[Hepcat]

Given that pulp magazines have at least a small following among collectors, what really bewilders me is that there's still almost no interest in the sweat magazines. They have great artwork by fellows such as Norm Saunders, James Bama, Charles Fracé, Mort Kunstler, Basil Gogos and Norm Eastman. Here are a couple from my small collection:

Edited December 1, 2019 by Hepcat

[Robot Man]

I like them a lot too. Problem is I NEVER see them out in “the wild” anymore. Like a lot of things and paperbacks come to mind, these used to be pretty cheap and easily obtainable. With comics going so high. It’s hard for me to pay high prices for these anymore. Especially with the fact that there is such a small interest in them.

[Pat Calhoun]

fun art, but for me, I'm a sf & fantasy collector (+ some hardboiled & noir) and a reader (not enough lately) with an emphasis on vintage PBs and hardbacks that reprint all the great pulp and digest fiction...

Edited November 30, 2019 by Pat Calhoun

[Bookery]

57 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

I like them a lot too. Problem is I NEVER see them out in “the wild” anymore. 

Agreed.  I have owned my shop for 35 years... I have had every silver-age comic come through multiple times, thousands of golden-age comics, vast quantities of vintage paperbacks, old movie posters, even pulps going back to the 1920s... but in all of that time I have never had a collection of the sweat mags come in.  One or two might be in with some other stuff, but never a collection per se.  I never see them at shows either.  I recall seeing them on the newsstand racks in the ealy '60s, and they seemed to be everywhere.  So what happened to them?

[lbcolefan]

1 hour ago, Hepcat said:

Given that pulp magazines have at least a small following among collectors, what really bewilders me is that there's still almost no interest in the sweat magazines. They have great artwork by fellows such as Norm Saunders, James Bama, Charles Fracé, Mort Kunstler, Basil Gogos and norm Eastman. Here are a couple from my small collection:

I probably have close to 500 but haven’t bought any for at least 10 years. I sold 1 on eBay a couple years ago for $300, it showed up on a clink auction in a 9.4 CGC slab. They have a small but very aggressive following. I was always competing against the same 4 or 5 bidders.