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Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values?
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6,527 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, ThothAmon said:

I’m such a noob when it comes to paperbacks. I’ve bought hundreds over the years with no cLue as to rarity. All about opportunity. Here’s a few I bought off eBay from one seller.

I can't fault any of those choices. For a self-described noob, you have fine taste.  :foryou:

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1 hour ago, Randall Dowling said:

On another note, I finally took the plunge on this little gem, on it's way to me! Tough book in decent shape... 

No wonder why that's recently disappeared from my watch list...   :whistle:

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14 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Strong action on a book that has always been rare. Does anyone know this seller? I wish I could get these prices...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264747103784

I know that Covid has increased prices on a lot of collectibles.  Nothing to do but stare at the walls and shop on-line.

 

Edited by Westy Steve
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17 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

Those Avon Murder Mystery Digests are really volatile to me.  I've bought a few books from this seller.  Pretty much what you see is what you get.  And yes, that's a very strong price.  The crazy thing is, it's like 5 people going strong on that book!  Not just 2 guys slugging it out.

On another note, I finally took the plunge on this little gem, on it's way to me! Tough book in decent shape... 

Screenshot 2020-06-07 22.41.24.png

 

Thanks, i've bought a few off him too, including a few decent deals. He seems to have a large supply of interesting stuff but i've seen a few of these auctions go for more than what other available copies on the internet are priced at. Note - Not this one - it is pretty rare and likely one of the last needed for anyone trying to collect the MMM's. I guess he has a dedicated following on these auctions and some people aren't scouring for other copies sometimes.

 

Nice pickup on the Big Sleep - it's a must have Avon. I'm glad  picked this pretty clean one one up a while back.1248623801_BigSleep.thumb.jpg.314acb605dc05d3471783bfef80dff0e.jpg

 

 

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On 6/6/2020 at 10:27 PM, ThothAmon said:

I’m such a noob when it comes to paperbacks. I’ve bought hundreds over the years with no cLue as to rarity. All about opportunity. Here’s a few I bought off eBay from one seller.

 

image.jpg

Loving the Fright

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2 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

I know why these are fodder for when my heat gets turned off. Can you imagine more boring cover art? Top left only kind of cool one imho. 

F549E8F1-DB1C-4660-8490-0BBBE98B56B1.jpeg

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Yeah, Analog, Fantastic, If, and many other digests have rough cover periods and then there are really cool cover periods.  I've always loved the Jeff Jones covers of that time (not my copy, taken from internet although I own a few copies, just too lazy to dig them out and scan :blush:).

Fantastic_Jeff Jones.jpg

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17 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

I know why these are fodder for when my heat gets turned off. Can you imagine more boring cover art? Top left only kind of cool one imho. 

F549E8F1-DB1C-4660-8490-0BBBE98B56B1.jpeg

536E06D1-414C-44AE-82CB-E2F96A95267E.jpeg

Once Campbell took over as editor, Astounding/ Analog tended to very... shall we say, sedate covers, compared to most of the other SF magazines.  They made up for it by having a pretty much uncontested reputation as having the best stories by a mile.

Even their classic covers tend to be fairly quiet compared to most pulps.  (Feel free to debate which ones you consider "classic", while I think some of these do qualify there's certainly nothing that's on the level of, say, the January 1950 Startling Stories).

Astounding_1953_10.jpg

Astounding_1954_09.jpg

Analog_1965_03.jpg

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18 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

Yeah, Analog, Fantastic, If, and many other digests have rough cover periods and then there are really cool cover periods.  I've always loved the Jeff Jones covers of that time (not my copy, taken from internet although I own a few copies, just too lazy to dig them out and scan :blush:).

Fantastic_Jeff Jones.jpg

Jones was amazing.  I believe I remember Frazetta calling Jones the greatest painter he had ever seen.  That is pretty high praise coming from FF.

 

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15 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

Mail Call!  I'm having some success buying larger lots of books but the net effect is similar to that Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"!  I've got many, many, many books that are not in my collecting focus.  May have to donate a bunch to half price books or something.  First off, a couple of cool covers, one by the great Mort Kunstler.

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And I'm particularly fond of this period of Avons

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And last, my continuing junkie-like addiction to all things Robert Maguire needed satisfying so...

IMG_4801.thumb.jpg.eb1b9f719496f3cdfe32592893cf5f21.jpg

At first I thought that some guy named Robert Christie thought he'd put his name under the authors but it turns out Alexander Bolton is a pseudonym.

Great picks. Kunstler is very high quality. When I started collecting in the 80's those Avon T series were considered too new to be really interesting but time passes and many of them are more interesting now than a lot of books in the earlier series.

I remember seeing the lot with Ladies of the Dark and wondering what the name was for - I figured it was the owners name but pseudonym makes sense.

I've won some nice lots from that seller and others but you've hit the snag, which is the pile up-of unfocused books. I've done fairly well lately selling those off to fund more purchases...which leads to more unfocused books which leads to sales which leads to...doh!

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Hypothetical Question:

Some of these books are pretty rare...even on the internet.  Once in a while, I'll be surfing the internet and I'll run across a book I already have for a deep discount...like less than half of what it's worth.  Sometimes the book is really rare and isn't really an upgrade from what I already have. 

What do you guys do?  Do you buy it because it's rare and at a discount?  Or do you keep shopping?  Does your answer depend on the grade of the book?  Does your answer depend on the size of the discount?

Just curious how you handle it.  I've got my eye on a book meeting that description right now.

Steve

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