• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

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

Started by Reno McCoy,

6,890 posts in this topic

  • Popular Post
Randall Dowling

Randall Dowling

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted (edited)

Recent grabs to add to the Maguire cover collection.  The more I look at vintage paperbacks, the more amazed I am that I’m still finding titles I haven’t seen before.  Just can’t get enough! :headbang:

95EE87FE-22F5-4E9E-87A3-5FC300BC961C.jpeg

Edited by Randall Dowling
Grammar
Link to comment
Share on other sites
OtherEric

OtherEric

Posted
Posted
On 2/3/2020 at 6:47 AM, Surfing Alien said:

There's no doubt that the Good Earth NN Pocket Book is probably the rarest USA paperback. I think in the long haul though, there will be a better market for GGA/SOTI type books like Reform School Girl for the same "titillating" reasons those kinds of books do so well in the comic market.

I do collect Pocket's & would love to have one but I view the Good Earth (and the first 10 Pocket Book 1st Prints) kind of like the more innocent early pre-hero comic books that are historically important and rare but not going to excite cover collectors and so not the same market.

That said, I have no idea what a copy would sell for since they never come to market. 

So, what are the top 10, 20, or however many come to mind paperbacks, anyway?  My knowledge tends to be very spotty, focusing far more on specific writers than the field in general.  I know Junkie is on the list, but like I've said it's neither the rarest or the most valuable... it's just the one that's most famous for being rare and valuable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randall Dowling

Randall Dowling

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, OtherEric said:

So, what are the top 10, 20, or however many come to mind paperbacks, anyway?  My knowledge tends to be very spotty, focusing far more on specific writers than the field in general.  I know Junkie is on the list, but like I've said it's neither the rarest or the most valuable... it's just the one that's most famous for being rare and valuable.

Your question got me thinking.  It’s really tough to say because I think the market for vintage paperbacks is still in a somewhat juvenile state (kind of similar to the market for comic books in the 60s).  Many, if not most, people have no idea that they could even be valuable and so you see some very scarce and valuable titles being sold on eBay amidst group lots.  Here are a couple of links that attempt to tackle the subject:

https://www.abebooks.com/books/features/most-valuable-paperbacks/index.shtml
 

http://www.bookscans.com/Articles/Most Valuable Authors.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

Your question got me thinking.  It’s really tough to say because I think the market for vintage paperbacks is still in a somewhat juvenile state (kind of similar to the market for comic books in the 60s).  Many, if not most, people have no idea that they could even be valuable and so you see some very scarce and valuable titles being sold on eBay amidst group lots.  Here are a couple of links that attempt to tackle the subject:

https://www.abebooks.com/books/features/most-valuable-paperbacks/index.shtml
 

http://www.bookscans.com/Articles/Most Valuable Authors.pdf

Good points all and i've gotten some great bargains in some lots like those.

Those lists are two good stabs at it but here’s some issues:

The first site includes mostly private or specialty books which were not mass marketed. Reform School  Girl and Junkie are both on there and they represent a Jim Thompson paperback but mention the selling price of a signed hardcover book, which is puzzling?

The second one is spot on about highly collected PB authors but very general and most of the books on there are not ones that would bring the highest money in the hobby although high grade copies of any of them are good money and high grade copies of all the early Jim Thompson paperbacks could get up there, certainly in the low to mid hundreds of dollars.

If what we’re talking about is true mass market paperbacks that could fetch $500 or more in high grade, off the top of my head I can think of these:

The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck, 1938 No Number Pocket Book

Reform School Girl by Felice Swados, 1948 Diversey Digest

Junkie by William Lee (Burroughs), 1953 Ace Double

Tarzan in the Forbidden City by ER Burroughs, 1940 LA Bantam w/ Pictorial Cover

Shadow and the Voice of Murder by Maxwell Grant, 1940 LA Bantam w/ Pictorial Cover

Creature from the Black Lagoon by Vargo Statten, 1954 Dragon Publications Paper Edition (British)

Reefer Boy by Hal Ellson, 1957 Pedigree Books (British)

Marijuana Girl by NR DeMexico, 1951 UniBooks Digest 1st Ed.

Sex Gang by Paul Merchant (Harlan Ellison), 1959 Nightstand 1st Print

Any other of the LA Bantam Pictorial Covers

Any of the first ten Pocket Books 1st Printings

I am mostly dialed into the standard paperback world and don't know the market world of the more hardcore sleaze books from the 60's & 70's but I know there are some paperbacks in that field, like books with Bonfils covers, that go for some coin as well but someone else would have to chime in if any of them would get into the top tier. 

Can you think of any others? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OtherEric

OtherEric

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Anybody willing to take a shot at what book is the Action #1 of paperbacks? 

I'm not sure that's the right question.  Comics is actually unusual in that our most valuable book is also our most important book.  Other hobbies, like stamps and coins, the most valuable items are just rare rather than historically vital.

I think the case could be made for Junkie in terms of historical importance beyond just paperbacks themselves.  For a long time it was an outlier in being an "important" book that made its debut as a paperback original, and was key (if slow) in convincing the literary establishment that paperback originals could have literary merit and importance.  I'm close to certain it's the first PBO to do so.  So in that sense it compares to Action #1, as a book that has an impact beyond the hobby itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
OtherEric

OtherEric

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
20 minutes ago, Pat Calhoun said:

The PBO revolution begins a couple of years earlier, in 1950 with Gold Medal. They were almost exclusively originals. And the first John D (they began #s with 100) is an excellent example of how right they were.

img304.jpg

JDM is one of my absolute favorite writers, and there remains a LOT of underrated PBO's by him and others.  I singled out Junkie because it's the one that got the attention from the literary elites.  Not a group I always have much time for... but their recognition of a PBO as an important book at all was a milestone.

 

April Evil.jpg

Murder in the Wind.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, OtherEric said:

I'm not sure that's the right question.  Comics is actually unusual in that our most valuable book is also our most important book.  Other hobbies, like stamps and coins, the most valuable items are just rare rather than historically vital.

I think the case could be made for Junkie in terms of historical importance beyond just paperbacks themselves.  For a long time it was an outlier in being an "important" book that made its debut as a paperback original, and was key (if slow) in convincing the literary establishment that paperback originals could have literary merit and importance.  I'm close to certain it's the first PBO to do so.  So in that sense it compares to Action #1, as a book that has an impact beyond the hobby itself.

I agree about Action #1 being a tough comparable for another reason in that there is very little in the PB/Digest field that has the pop culture rocket fuel behind it that Super Hero Comic Books do.

Junkie is a pinnacle book not just for the literary aspect, it also sports an iconic cover that tics all the boxes of GGA & Drugs/Counter Culture/JD.  It’s surely near the top of the small format paperback pile as far as desirability although I’m pretty sure the Tarzan and Shadow pictorial LA Bantams are rarer and nearly impossible in high grade due to the fragile lamination, as well as very desirable because of their comic/pulp tie ins. 

As i've said before, my gut feeling though is that the Digests are where the most $ potential is. Some of them are truly scarce and/or rare, and their format lends itself to the books getting raggedy really quickly. At any given time you can find 5 – 10 decent copies of Junkie for sale. Not so with Reform School Girl or Marijuana Girl. These two also both have outside juice for the SOTI comic connection and Senate censorship investigations respectively. 

The Creature From the Black Lagoon digest has some back juice as well with its classic movie tie-in but it is British, although I included it because I think it's a book no collector would kick out of his or her collection lol.

Many digests you just don’t ever see copies up for sale. It may be that a rise in prices could shake more out of collections and my gut would be proven wrong but I’m not so sure about that.

Like Randall Dowling said, it’s such a fractured market that it’s hard to know anything. (Other than - if you see something that you don’t see lots of copies of and you want it, pay up and grab it because you may not see another in a long time)
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randall Dowling

Randall Dowling

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

if you see something that you don’t see lots of copies of and you want it, pay up and grab it because you may not see another in a long time
 

These are words to live by.  I can’t tell you how many regrets I have over not stepping up and paying what it took to get a book that I hadn’t seen before and still haven’t seen another copy.  I’d rather pay more and regret less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Surfing Alien

Surfing Alien

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

Couple of scarce digests in. Carnivals are a sweet imprint with gritty "realist" covers. They are a bit browned but present very nicely with minimal creasing.

"Reckless" could put your eye out and i'm not talkin' about her cigarette. "Girl-Hungry" is an unsung Rudy Nappi JD park bench classic.

20200206_200015.jpg

20200206_195958.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
25 25
Go to topic listing