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

[n2wdw]

4 hours ago, PopKulture said:

 

I warned my friend similarly when he was going after a complete set of the original Tom Swift's in fine-ish dust jackets. He observed that prices were rocketing up as he was acquiring the bulk of his, and I casually suggested that, to some extent, he was the market. When he stopped buying them, prices came back down observedly. 

 

I agree completely with this.  We have a few threads here on comics with covers by Matt Baker.  People (including me) love Baker.  Prices have risen incredibly over the last few years.  And I've always wondered if WE are the market.  That the people on the board are driving up the prices.  We are feeding off each other and driving up the prices on self inflicted hype.  I'm sure it's more complicated than this, but I've wondered about it.

[n2wdw]

4 hours ago, PopKulture said:

Same thing happens every few years with antique cigar boxes, which I collect.

 

This is too cool.  But I'm forcing myself not to think about it, because I can't deal with collecting anything else.

[PopKulture]

3 hours ago, n2wdw said:

This is too cool.  But I'm forcing myself not to think about it, because I can't deal with collecting anything else.

They're space wasters, but I'm hooked. I figure 50 or so boxes take up the space of nearly 1000 comics, so you really have to be a devotee. I also collect space-wasting pop bottles and other junque, so space is always at a premium, and display space even more so.   

[Westy Steve]

Dang you guys and your compelling thread!  I went into a 2nd and Charles thinking I was going to find a bunch of these.  Out of approximately 500k to 1 million books they had a dozen “vintage” PBs and I bought the best two.  Yes, mine are common issues among the rare, but I liked the recognizable author name on the Queen book (edit: maybe both books to those more literate than I) and the Barbie with a gun  and they both seemed to be in nice shape.   I almost missed that the white stripes form the letter “A” on the Queen book.   

I’m hesitant to post in this thread because I don’t want to throw gas on a fire that I want to continue to smolder.  I have so many questions but I’m intentionally keeping my post count low.  Every time I get into a new thing it takes off and I don’t want that at all.  

Edited December 3, 2019 by Westy Steve
I’m the Columbo of writing

[Surfing Alien]

8 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Barbie with a gun

Nice pickups  They're getting tougher to find in the wild.

Barbie more often has a cigarette than a gun in these but when she has one she's deadly...

[Randall Dowling]

8 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Dang you guys and your compelling thread!  I went into a 2nd and Charles thinking I was going to find a bunch of these.  Out of approximately 500k to 1 million books they had a dozen “vintage” PBs and I bought the best two.  Yes, mine are common issues among the rare, but I liked the recognizable author name on the Queen book (edit: maybe both books to those more literate than I) and the Barbie with a gun  and they both seemed to be in nice shape.   I almost missed that the white stripes form the letter “A” on the Queen book.   

I’m hesitant to post in this thread because I don’t want to throw gas on a fire that I want to continue to smolder.  I have so many questions but I’m intentionally keeping my post count low.  Every time I get into a new thing it takes off and I don’t want that at all.  

If you just like the cover art, there’s a lot of great territory to explore.  But if you’re interested in reading as well, there are so many awesome stories from this period that became templates for future movies and tv shows.  Hal Ellison’s early work is particularly cool.  Also, the wealth of writing by Phillip D I c k, Fritz Leiber, and many, many others is nearly endless.  The best thing about paperbacks, is there’s a lot of incredible material and it’s much less money than comics, pulps, and other magazines (hence the title of this thread).  If you haven’t had a chance to do so, I highly recommend going through this thread from the beginning.  A lot of the board members here have incredible collections and have been very generous in sharing some very rare gems.

P.S.  Maguire covers are the best of the best.  

Edited December 4, 2019 by Randall Dowling
Format problems

[PopKulture]

1 hour ago, Randall Dowling said:

P.S.  Maguire covers are the best of the best.  

Next to mapbacks.

And Belarskis. Maybe Bergeys...  

[Westy Steve]

OK, outside of what a map back is, everything else was Greek to me. I’ve ordered a text book to study the stuff and I’ve been watching YouTube like a fiend.  This gives me more to look up. 

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

OK, outside of what a map back is, everything else was Greek to me. I’ve ordered a text book to study the stuff and I’ve been watching YouTube like a fiend.  This gives me more to look up. 

Feel free to ask questions here, we're happy to share info, particularly when it gives us an excuse to show off scans as well.  And I wouldn't worry too much about posting here, I don't think one more would make things too much trickier to locate.  While there are obviously exceptions, most paperbacks are relatively common (relatively being a key word there), and one more person won't throw the market out of control.

[Westy Steve]

On 12/4/2019 at 3:51 AM, OtherEric said:

Feel free to ask questions here, we're happy to share info, particularly when it gives us an excuse to show off scans as well.  And I wouldn't worry too much about posting here, I don't think one more would make things too much trickier to locate.  While there are obviously exceptions, most paperbacks are relatively common (relatively being a key word there), and one more person won't throw the market out of control.

Thanks.  Ok, there’s the rub.  The PBs are scarce enough that I’ll likely snag every one that I see IN THE WILD.  So with limited storage space, unless I want a collection of nothing but common stuff, I need to be judicious about my online purchases. Trouble is I don’t know what the better material is.  I know some basics like some of the crown jewel titles to look for but sorting the pearls from the peas is hard.  So far I’m looking at higher grade stuff, early Avon’s, Avon Doubles and early Dell mapbacks.  But what else should I keep an eye out for?

I just pulled the trigger on a seemingly higher grade copy of Madwoman (Avon, 1943) because it has a cool cover with GGA, a syringe, and the back cover is pretty neat too (reminds me of Hitchcock’s Vertigo).  But I wonder if I should have saved my funds for something else since there are 4 listed on EBay.  The low price of these and the desire for sellers to unload creates so many options that it’s somewhat overwhelming. 

(Sellers Photo with 3 feedbacks-yikes!)

Edited December 5, 2019 by Westy Steve

[PopKulture]

6 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

Thanks.  Ok, there’s the rub.  The PBs are scarce enough that I’ll likely snag every one that I see IN THE WILD.  So with limited storage space, unless I want a collection of nothing but common stuff, I need to be judicious about my online purchases. Trouble is I don’t know what the better material is.  I know some basics like some of the crown jewel titles to look for but sorting the pearls from the peas is hard.  So far I’m looking at higher grade stuff, early Avon’s, Avon Doubles and early Dell mapbacks.  But what else should I keep an eye out for?

I just pulled the trigger on a seemingly higher grade copy of Madwoman (Avon, 1943) because it has a cool cover with GGA, a syringe, and the back cover is pretty neat too.  But I wonder if I should have saved my funds for something else since there are 4 listed on EBay.  The low price of these and the desire for sellers to unload creates so many options that it’s somewhat overwhelming. 

The best rule is always to collect what you like. 

It's natural to want to grab - as you mention - everything you see in the wild, and certainly there's little harm in it. At some point you may run out of space, but since you're probably buying on the cheap in the wild, you won't have any great dilemma, I'd wager. If you were collecting investing in silver age keys, then I'd advise that you be selective, and buy the highest affordable grades. With something like paperbacks, immersion is one of the best ways to learn within a new hobby. Sure, you can find a tremendous amount of information online and in the old guides (Hancer, Warren, etc.), but handling and leafing through as many copies as you can will bring you up to speed nicely. 

Happy hunting!! 

[Surfing Alien]

Pop beat me to the punch but here's my 2 (or 3) cents - 

Madwoman is a great cover so you’re showing good taste off the bat! Rule No. 1 is always to get stuff you like – then you’ll be happy no matter what. You could pick up one of the old price guides by Jon Warren or Kevin Hancer just for picture references and to see what (was) considered break-out material.

Since many books do have multiple copies availabe and are relatively inexpensive, I’m always looking for the best copy I can justify at the price. The prices are all over the map with some of them so I’ll often wait for another copy to become available at a lower price if I can’t find the right combo when I first look.

4 copies of a book is not that many if demand ever picks up, although many collectors won’t sell unless they have to when prices are low so it’s actually very difficult to get a feel for how many are actually out there. There really is no organized market with stats like there is for comics.

There are some books that I see dozens of copies of (mostly best-selling authors of their times) and many books never come up. Lesser known authors or authors’ first books before they became famous can be scarcer.  I find that the Digest sized books are much less common and I feel they have the most potential to increase in value in the future (if they ever do) because they have larger more displayable covers and CGC for instance, already grades the same sized TV Guides. Maybe someone will grade them some day. Quite a few sellers of more expensive Digests include the small number for sale in the world in their listing.  

That all said, you really just need to scan around a lot and decide what you love and how available it is. I love the looks of mint Avon’s (especially the later ones with the lamination fully intact).  Many can be found for $5-$10 fairly regularly on ebay but some of them are very tough. I Married a Dead Man by William Irish comes to mind – a great cover, a cult followed author, and no one seems to sell their copy.

I’ve paid up for books I really wanted even though I am cheap, cheap, cheap but after a while of searching you start to get a feel for those books that you never see or never see in nice shape (Overboard by George Worts comes to mind) and when they pop up you just have to pony up or you may not see another one for a long time.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Surfing Alien

[PopKulture]

5 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

I’ve paid up for books I really wanted even though I am cheap, cheap, cheap

Me too!!! 

6 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

but after a while of searching you start to get a feel for those books that you never see or never see in nice shape (Overboard by George Worts comes to mind) and when they pop up you just have to pony up or you may not see another one for a long time.

So true, and that's a good example. That handful of Popular's that were the break-out books in the 1980's are still tough in grade - less so in my experience The Many Lives of Helen of Troy, but true of Campus Town, Doll's Trunk Murders, and Overboard.  

[PopKulture]

[PopKulture]

[PopKulture]

[PopKulture]

[PopKulture]

One more for now:

[comicjack]

10 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

One more for now:

I'm feeling like that title 

[Surfing Alien]

17 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

That's an incredible copy if it's yours. I've never had a nice one. I'm pretty sure that one was a pulp cover also, as many of the Popular Library mystery's were.