November’s Heritage Pulp Select Auction included some spicy, weird, and saucy pulp magazine sales. Let’s take a look at this burgeoning segment of the collecting hobby to see what’s moving in the market.
First Spicy Issue
The first issue of what has long been one of pulp collectors’ favorite series made a big splash in the Heritage Pulp Selection Auction held on November 10. A 6.5 graded copy of Spicy Mystery Stories #1 sold for $12,000. It’s the highest graded copy of five that currently exist and the only graded copy to sell in a Heritage auction. Published in 1935 by Culture Publications with a cover drawn by H.J. Ward, it’s widely considered an all-time classic issue of this popular “girly” genre of pulps. It’s not the highest price ever paid for an issue of the series; that would be Spicy Mystery Stories #9 with a $22,900 selling price for a 6.5 graded copy in the June 20 Heritage auction. Of note to comic book fans, Culture Publications’ publisher Harry Donenfeld would go on to be co-owner of National Allied Publications – which would eventually become DC Comics – when Action Comics #1 was published in 1938.
Weird Tales
It wouldn’t be a Heritage Pulp Auction without a number of issues of Weird Tales changing hands. Of course, the top draw was Weird Tales #118 with the famous Margaret Brundage “Batgirl” cover from 1933. A 5.5 graded copy sold in the auction for $7,200. The CGC census for this issue keeps growing, and there are now 31 graded copies, more than double the count from seven months ago. The price is just a little more than the $6,900 paid for a 5.0 graded copy in a September 15 Heritage auction, but down considerably from the $9,600 paid for a 5.0 in a September 20 Heritage auction. Looks to me like the buyer on November 10 used the former sale as a guide and didn’t overpay for a pulp with a quickly growing census.
Other issues of Weird Tales selling in the auction included a 7.5 graded copy of Weird Tales #117 (Conan story and Margaret Brundage cover, 10 graded copies in census, first graded copy to sell) going for $1,110, and a 5.5 graded copy of Weird Tales #151 (part one of Conan “Red Nails” story, 24 graded copies in census, first graded copy to sell) going for $780.
Saucy Pulp
Some of the most popular pulps back in the day were the ones with sexy covers that promised something titillating inside. That’s carried over into pulp collecting as well, and they typically carry the name, as mentioned before, of “girly” pulps. One of the most coveted is Saucy Movie Tales #3, published by Movie Digest in March 1936. There are only two graded copies of this rare issue with an amazing Norman Saunders cover. A 4.0 graded copy sold in the November 10 Heritage auction for $3,960. It’s the lower of the two existing grades and it should be interesting to see the amount that the 5.0 could fetch if it comes up in a future auction.
Pre-Code Horror Before Pre-Code Horror
Pulps often have cross-over appeal for comic book collectors, perhaps none more so than the pulp covers that were precursors to the pre-code horror comic covers of the 1950s. One such is Thrilling Mystery #2, published by Standard Magazines in 1935. The cover by Rafael DeSoto has a little bit of everything: a skeleton, a damsel in distress, and a head in a glass. A 3.5 graded copy – the lowest grade of four in the CGC census – sold for $2,520. It’s a hard-to-find pulp and a favorite of collectors of horror pulps, so the final price for this low grade copy isn’t surprising.
Final Analysis
In total, 47 graded pulps sold in the November 10 Heritage Pulp Select Auction out of 87 pulps sold. More and more pulps are being sent into CGC and they’re selling for much higher prices than the non-graded issues that still make up a significant percentage of pulps sold in Heritage auctions. Keep an eye on the number of graded copies being offered in each Heritage auction going forward. As graded copies rise, it may be possible to get better deals on raw copies... and then send them in for grading.
