Estate and Consigned Items on Hand
As of May 31, 2024, the PulpFest 2024 Estate and Consignment Auction had about 300 lots of material that will be up for bid. We are in the process of cataloging and photographing all of the lots. We will be uploading these lots during the first half of June. You’ll find our photographic catalog by clicking the “2024 Auction” button in our top menu.
The bulk of our 2024 auction will consist of 240 lots containing several thousand science fiction hardcovers, paperbacks, reference books, and art books related to the genre. About twenty of the lots feature science fiction magazines published from the early 1950s through the early 2000s. Some of the titles included are Aboriginal Science Fiction, Fantastic Science Fiction, Galileo, Science Fiction Plus, and Vertex. There is also a substantial run of Locus numbering about 300 issues.
This collection belonged to Charles Danowski, a devoted family man and educator who passed away on August 2, 2023. A former superintendent of schools in Irvington and North Salem, New York, and a professor at SUNY New Paltz, Danowski was known for his infectious sense of humor, incredible compassion, and love of science fiction. In 2025, we hope to offer his collection of science fiction pulp and digest magazines.
The remaining 40 lots consist of material submitted by members of PulpFest 2024. These include several issues of Weird Tales and The Shadow Magazine, the first issues of Unknown, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Jungle Stories, South Seas Stories, The Skipper, and The Ghost Super-Detective, several Edgar Rice Burroughs first editions in dust jacket, and six bound-volumes of Everybody’s Magazine.
Consigning Material to the PulpFest 2024 Auction
If you would like to include something in the PulpFest 2024 auction, we welcome large and small collections, from a single item to thousands of books, pulps, comics, fanzines, and related collectibles. If you’re ready to sell, give our auction service a try.
The convention will charge a 16% commission based on the selling price for anything sold. For example, if an item sells for $100, the seller will receive $84.
Although we will accept any submissions up through the day of the 2024 PulpFest auction, you are encouraged to submit your lots before the start of the convention. This will allow PulpFest to list your lots — including your submitted photographs and descriptions — on our online auction page. They will then be advertised to PulpFest members and the public through our website. Online bids will be accepted for all lots submitted through July 5. Any material submitted after July 5, 2024 will not be added to the online bidding page.
Please write to PulpFest auction coordinator, Mike Chomko, at mike@pulpfest.com or 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104 if you have any questions about placing material into the next PulpFest auction. The PulpFest 2024 auction is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 3, 2024.
Online Bidding
For those who cannot attend PulpFest 2024, the convention accepts bids placed through the PulpFest Silent Auction Bid Page. We will begin accepting silent bids for each currently submitted auction lot in our 2024 auction on June 1, 2024. Silent bidders can place both an opening and closing bid for each auction lot. Further instructions will be available when are PulpFest Silent Auction Bid Page goes live on June 1.
We’ll be updating our PulpFest Silent Auction Bid Page with any new lots submitted through July 5, 2024.
Online bids that are less than $10 will not be accepted. The deadline to place silent bids through the PulpFest Silent Auction Bid Page is 9:59 am Eastern on Sunday, July 28. After that time, the silent bidding page will be shut down.
If no bid placed during the live auction is more than the online bid, the online bidder will win the lot.
Please note that PulpFest does not charge a buyer’s premium.
Bidding Live at PulpFest 2024
All attendees of PulpFest 2024 will be able to bid on the available material. There will be three auction preview sessions offered during the convention. These will occur from 3:30 to 4: 45 pm on August 1, 2, and 3. There will be a brief fourth session from 8:30 – 8:50 pm on Saturday, August 3. During these sessions, all consigned auction lots will be available for examination by PulpFest attendees.
If you will be attending PulpFest 2024, the sessions listed above (and on our programming schedule) will be the only times you will be able to examine the lots before the start of the auction on August 3 at 9 pm.
The auction is open to the general public. You do not have to be a PulpFest member to attend. However, if you want to place bids during the convention’s auction, you must register as a bidder. There will be a $5 non-refundable fee to bid during the auction. Non-PulpFest attendees can register to bid in the PulpFest 2024 auction at the convention’s front desk or immediately before the start of the auction at the stage in our programming room.
The Ground Rules
PulpFest reserves the right to withdraw any auction lot from sale at any time before the auction. All bidders are encouraged to review the lots before placing bids. ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
PulpFest will accept checks or money orders (in U.S. dollars), PayPal, or credit card payments for items won through silent bidding. A 5% fee will be charged for all credit card or PayPal transactions. There will be additional shipping charges for those not able to pick up the lots they have won.
Write to PulpFest auction coordinator, Mike Chomko, at mike@pulpfest.com or 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104 if you have any questions about placing material or bidding in the next PulpFest auction.
The PulpFest 2024 auction is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 3, 2024.
Our featured image is adapted from John Falter’s cover art for The Saturday Evening Post, dated August 5, 1944.
Our lead image is the December 1952 issue of Fantastic Science Fiction in very good condition, with cover by Al Page.
The middle image is the first issue of Ghost Super-Detective, dated January 1940. In very nice condition, the issue features cover art by Rafael DeSoto. The lead story, “Calling the Ghost,” is by G. T. Fleming-Roberts.
Our third image is the first hardcover edition of Back to the Stone Age, published by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in 1937. The dust jacket is by John Coleman Burroughs and the book and jacket are in VG to VG+ condition.
Our final image is The Shadow for May 15, 1939, with cover by Graves Gladney. It is in near fine to fine condition.
