The PulpFest 2024 Auction will take place on Saturday, August 3. It will begin at 9 pm and feature 240 lots from the Charles Danowski estate and 60 lots submitted online by members of the convention. Additional lots may also be added during the convention itself.
Auction Preview Sessions
We will have daily preview sessions in the Willow and Walnut Rooms at the DoubleTree. Watch for the auction banner in the corner of the hotel’s restaurant and lodge area. We’ll have paper catalogs there.
The preview sessions will run from 3:30 – 4:45 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The times are also listed on our program schedule which you will find on the back of your convention badge. If you plan to bid, please visit the preview rooms during these times.
You can also access our PulpFest 2024 Mobile Schedule at pulpfest.com/schedule/ to find our auction preview times.
You’ll have one last look from 8:30 – 8:50 pm. This session will take place just before the start of our Saturday night auction. But if you’re attending PulpFest 2024, please don’t wait until the last minute. Visit during our afternoon sessions.
You can also view photographs of the first 300 auction lots on the PulpFest website. Click the “2024 auction” button at the top of our home page and scroll down to our auction photo catalog. Click here to download a PDF of our catalog. The catalog includes over 200 lots from the Danowski Estate and member consignments submitted by 11:59 pm on Friday, July 12, 2024.
The items in each lot have been graded by eyeball only. We have attempted to note both exceptional pieces and substantial defects, but are not responsible for anything that may have been missed. If you will be attending PulpFest, you are responsible for looking at the lots on which you plan to bid. It is up to the bidder to decide on each item’s condition.
Consigning Items to Our Auction
All members of PulpFest 2024 can submit items to our auction. All member auction lots must have a $25 minimum value. If a lot is submitted with a reserve price, it must be able to meet that reserve.
If you ask for a reserve price, it must be $50 or more. If the bidding does not meet your reserve price, your item will be passed. There will be a $5 charge for all reserve items that do not meet the reserve and are passed in the auction. This will be deducted from any sales you might achieve during the auction.
The convention will also charge a 16% commission based on the selling price for anything sold. If an item goes unsold, the consigner will owe $4, or 16% of the $25 minimum value.
Pulp magazines, vintage paperbacks, digests, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, genre books, first-edition hardcovers, series books, dime novels, original art, Big Little Books, Golden and Silver Age or pulp-related comic books, old-time-radio shows, gaming materials, and film serials, B-movies, and related collectibles will be allowed in the auction. Sexually explicit material, including Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui, will not be allowed.
To submit your material to our auction while you are at PulpFest 2024, you can get consignment forms from Mike Chomko. An auction banner will be near Mike’s dealer tables to show members where to submit their auction lots.
When submitting your lots, we will need your name, your PulpFest badge number, and a description of the items included in the lot that you are consigning to the auction.
Any PulpFest member will be able to submit auction lots to Mike Chomko on Friday, August 2, from 9:30 am until 4:30 pm. On Saturday, August 3, PulpFest members will be able to submit auction lots from 9 am until 1 pm.
The sooner you submit your material to our auction, the sooner your material will come up for bid.
PulpFest reserves the right to reject any auction material that does not meet its standards, including minimum values and reserve prices.
Bidding in Our 2024 Auction
During our auction, your PulpFest badge number will serve as your bidder number. If you are the winning bidder, the auctioneer will ask for your badge number.
After paying for any lots you win, you can pick them up in the Willow Auction Preview Room. Our auction banner will be there.
People who desire to attend the PulpFest auction — but not the convention itself — are also welcome to attend. If non-PulpFest attendees want to place bids during the auction, they will have to register as bidders. There will be a $5 non-refundable registration fee to bid during the auction.
Non-PulpFest attendees will be able to register to bid during our 2024 auction at the convention’s front desk from 9 am until 4:45 pm on Friday, August 2, and Saturday, August 3. Non-PulpFest attendees will also be able to register to bid immediately before the auction begins on Saturday evening, August 3. You may register to bid from 8:30 – 8:45 pm.
If you win any auction lots, you must pay for them before you depart the auction room on Saturday night. You are also expected to pick up the lots you have won before you retire for the night.
Online Bidding
For those unable to attend the PulpFest 2024 auction, the convention will accept online bids placed through the PulpFest Auction Online Bidding Page. Online bids can be placed on every auction lot in our photo catalog.
PulpFest will bid for our online bidders during the auction. We will continue bidding for each online bidder up to the amount of the person’s bid. If no bid placed by the audience at the live auction is higher than the final online bid, the lot will be won by the online bidder.
To place your online bids, click the red button above the auction lot photographs on our auction page. Our online bidding form will open in a new tab.
When placing your bid, you will need to provide your name, email address, mailing address, and billing address (if different), your method of payment, the lot you are bidding on, and your bid amount. A separate form must be filled out for each bid.
Online bids that are less than $10 will not be accepted. The deadline to place online bids is 9:59 am Eastern on Sunday, July 28. After that time, the silent bidding page will be shut down.
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 who cannot pick up the lots they have won.
Questions?
See Mike Chomko if you have any questions about the PulpFest 2024 auction. You can also reach out to him by email at mike@pulpfest.com or 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope for his response.
Our featured image is excerpted from John Falter’s cover for the August 5, 1944 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
The PulpFest auction banner was adapted by William Lampkin from Rafael DeSoto’s cover art for the January 1934 issue of Standard’s The Phantom Detective.
Lot #157 in our 2027 auction features 3 consecutive 1937 issues of The Shadow Magazone in good to very good condition. The April 1 number features “Washington Crime,” while the April 15 issue contains “The Masked Headsman.” Both were written by Walter B. Gibson. The May 1 issue has “The Cup of Confucius” as its lead novel. It was written by Theodore A. Tinsley. All three issues feature cover art by George Rozen. There is a reserve on the lot. It was submitted by a PulpFest 2024 member.
Our final image is Norman Rockwell’s cover art painted for the April 29, 1922 issue of The Country Gentleman.
