Incredible - VINTAGE - Paperback Sales - On eBay - Spring 2024 - A Hot Market!

[@simonprocter5505]

Given some of the prices I can only presume a few paperback collectors are prepared to pay a premium for the shabby chic distressed look. 😊

[@JulesBurt]

Ha! You could be right. I try and be objective but I can't help but think there is money laundering going on🙂

[@davidhyman7566]

Another great round-up, Jules! I always get depressed when I see the prices that the Signet Rage goes for as I sold my copy ridiculously cheaply at a UK Vintage Paperback Fair several years ago. However, I console myself with my NEL copy picked up for a few quid from the late and still lamented Fantasy Centre; so, it's not all bad! The Last Shaft price is insane, particularly given the shape that copy was in, and the fact that the book is not that uncommon. The Lung is an interesting one, as it's an interesting, dark and offbeat novel which for some reason seems to command high asking prices online and, on the basis of that sale, occasionally sells at that kind of level. And who knew Guy N. Smith is so highly coveted? Fascinating - and often startling - stuff!

[@JulesBurt]

Thanks David, I feel your pain with the Signet Rage but also envious that you have the NEL edition. I'd love that one in top condition. The Last Shaft seems to be a suspected money laundering scam, I kid you not and The Lung, another revelation to me. Guy N. Smith just seems hot in general. Glad you enjoyed this one my friend 🙂

[@ShaneNixonFamily]

I was watching this enjoying seeing some really interesting paperbacks selling for fascinating prices and I was shocked to see one of mine pop up - the Daw Dick. When I first saw it I thought, I have that. I'd forgotten I'd already sold it. 🤣

[@JulesBurt]

Well, I guess you got a good price🙂

[@OmnivorousReader]

Fascinating! And Margery Allingham! I have a couple of hers, though not that one: Hide My Eyes and More Work For The Undertaker. It is so great that these older books are being respected. And Lobsang Rampa too! This is a real walk down memory lane, my parents had several of his. I spent one full summer trying to astral travel following his directions in one of those books!

[@JulesBurt]

I'm so glad you enjoyed this one. Filled with nostalgia if you remember the books as well🙂

[@raresaturn]

I have an unread 1st edition of Guy N Smith's Thirst. picked it up for a dollar because i liked the cover. I had no idea they went for crazy money

[@JulesBurt]

Looks like you got an amazing bargain!

[@UraniumMilk]

Thanks for this interesting market report Jules. I suppose I should put some of my paperbacks up but I don't want to give eBay the 13% cut.

[@JulesBurt]

Understood, Facebook Marketplace is a popular location to sell books or post on the dedicated groups.

[@UraniumMilk]

@@JulesBurt Yeah, thanks for the reminder of that. 🙂 Another reason I don't sell is that right now I just have my cellphone. I hope to make a home office and get a desktop before I get involved in all these various forums and secondhand market sites, a "sales HQ" as it were.

[@reading_MOVIES]

Some of the prices can be insane, but patience pays (or rather saves) because copies show up a couple of years later for cheap. I think some people are unable to wait. I recently picked up a couple of novelisations I've coveted for years but were too much. Then suddenly, a seller on Amazon just lists them for postage and pennies. So glad i held out.

[@JulesBurt]

That's absolutely true. Recently I was holding out for the last Edge paperback I was after, volume 60. I had seen it sell for £99 on eBay but a realistic price is about £35. They just weren't showing up. Eventually I snagged one on buy it now for £25 and was over the moon. It'd taken two years to track that down. Three months later I get one, even better condition, in my local second hand bookshop for 3 for £5. I sold the inferior copy back on eBay for £25🙂

[@sylvanyoung]

Jules , the condation of the books and the prices . Leaves me feeling " what am i missing " is this the norm . Are the buyers readers . Look ever since i started reading/ collecting , i have paid a " pound & a crown " including my lunch money 😂 . But the prices here are insane....its like the poor condation gives it some type of retro/art value. . The Rampa books were an item in my time and location .They were all over the place. Still i can see some good deals here .

[@JulesBurt]

It's true, lots of confusion here and some seemingly random sales at crazy prices. I'm sure not all is as it seems....

[@Christian-qu9ml]

Bloody hell! Half the country can't afford heating...was the buyer Richi Sunak? 😮

[@JulesBurt]

You never know!

[@MichelBasilieres-i5e]

Those Clark Ashton Smith "Other Dimensions" are pretty scarce, at least in Canada. While I've got all the others in that matching set, I've never seen those. Perhaps that explains it.

[@JulesBurt]

Thanks for the extra information, appreciated. It's often tricky to know or even speculate why something sells for what it does.

[@KiwiExpressCream]

I dunno, there's something strange going on. There's still bargains to be had on ebay if you look hard enough, but prices definitely seem to be creeping up these days (or galloping up in some cases!) I don't understand people paying top dollar for a ropey old copy of a paperback unless it's a tax dodge or something. Weird.

[@JulesBurt]

You know, I'm beginning to think it's a weird tax dodge/money laundering operation as well!

[@reading_MOVIES]

You could be right, I suspect some people just don't have the patience to wait or even visit a used book shop these days.

[@JulesBurt]

@@reading_MOVIES Quite possibly.

[@Ian-lp1pr]

Rampa was Cyril Hoskins a plumber who was hit on the head by a swing then decided he was a reincarnation of a Tibetan monk. Early ones are quite entertaining, then he writes one dictated to him by his cat lol. His first foray into nonsense was entitled My Trip To Venus and usually appears in plain larger yellow format and is missing from this collection.

[@JulesBurt]

Great information, thanks. I had to look him up after seeing these. Evidently, he still has his fans 🙂

[@Ian-lp1pr]

@@JulesBurt yea, although the cover art now tends to be their collecting point.

[@JulesBurt]

@@Ian-lp1pr Understood.

[@garylovisi357]

Great group of books. Amazing crazy prices, and many off condition too! But i think none of them are often available in any condition at a decent price. I think some people just want a certain book and damn the cost. I wonder if some of these books are bring bought as last minute gifts for collectors. Good video and informative.

[@JulesBurt]

Thanks Gary, certainly some interesting price points to note. Quite possibly some of these purchases were just on impulse. Condition is supposed to be key but there were some awful condition books sold!

[@zamiadams4343]

I recently got the Pierce Nace paperback "Eat Them Alive " for £28, total bargain from ebay, copies on there now are over £100.

[@JulesBurt]

Looks like you did well!

[@SFVintageCollector]

Interesting perspective and summary Jules, favourite is the Bond collection - great jacket livery and more in the budget. Finding copies of some nice editions hard to find in AUS. Recently picked up a haul of near mint Agatha Christie (the first for my collection - will be on the channel soon). May go back and get some more while available.

[@JulesBurt]

Excellent stuff, I'm in the process of creating a paperback Christie guide, for thecmsij publishers pre 1970. It's already over 80 pages! I too love the Bond books, they're just so great to look at and read👍

[@JerryPascoe-i4n]

Also it's always possible that someone could be producing fake sales on one account to try and bump up the price of the same stock on another account, or another site. Impossible to prove of course.

[@JulesBurt]

It's true, but how could it be proved?

[@reading_MOVIES]

Regarding the Pan "Thickie" of Live and Let Die, has anyone checked the printers colophon at the bottom? as they may have had different printers (I see one is Clays of Bungay, Suffolk) using different paper stock.

[@JulesBurt]

I've not got a copy to check but I do have at least one other Pan which is a first printing but one is thick paper and one is thin. I'm sure it must have been documented somewhere, since it's Bond.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Some completely hatstand prices there, people are nuts. Tanith Lee is very collectable now, I, Bookpilled and others have mentioned her on out channels and I think that's made quite a difference, but she was always culty anyway. The Bob Shaw is arguably my fault- or so people tell me - as I mention him a lot and an overview of his work I posted a year or so back is one of my most viewed clips. T Lobsang Rampa was a British plumber who claimed to be a reincarnation of some eastern variety and was very in vogue for about ten years (1970s).

[@JulesBurt]

Thanks Steve, I guess we should officially call you the The Outlaw Influencer 🙂 Great information there mate. Yes,I researched the plumber in the end, crazy 🤣

[@JerryPascoe-i4n]

Well you've cost me a few quid over the last few years.😉

[@neildaniels18]

The DS9 one has always held its value. I've yet to find one on my travels.

[@JulesBurt]

It's true, I sold this in my shop when it was published. We took six copies as a new title as standard, sold them all but couldn't get any more from Pocket. There appears to be just one printing. I have had two through my hands, one is signed and that's in my collection, the other I sold last year for £65. Met Andy Robinson at Destination Trek in 2019. Really nice guy🖖

[@veinsofman]

@@JulesBurt I remember buying a copy not long after it came out. Now I've got to decide if I want to part with it, when something is that high it's easy for me to let it go.

[@johnnyfortycoats2219]

Prices on eBay's sold listings can be misleading. According to Terapeak, that Guy N. Smith Bats books sold for £6.99.

[@johnnyfortycoats2219]

And if you look at the seller's feedback, it says it sold for £7.19.

[@JulesBurt]

That would be a bit more realistic!

[@reading_MOVIES]

Now that explains why i can't find Guy N Smiths "The Ghoul". But i wonder if the completist collectors of Smith are aware of his four other novelisations he wrote for Disney? Then again, they are probably horror fans so dont care!

[@JulesBurt]

Ah ha! He is really hot at the moment it would seem but the copies need to be in top shape👍

[@mysteriousoul]

Now do Warhammer books! 📚 💸

[@JulesBurt]

I shall try and remember for the next one.

[@Ian-lp1pr]

'BATS' at £699 lmao there's a copy on better than that for £17.00.

[@JulesBurt]

I'm sure there is. I suspect money laundering, for real.

[@JerryPascoe-i4n]

I wonder if people are using eBay to do a bit of cheeky money laundering.

[@JulesBurt]

More than one person has suggested this🤣