As of May 31, 2025, the PulpFest 2025 Auction had about 180 lots of books, pulps, posters, and other items consigned. These lots consist of material submitted by members of PulpFest 2025 and a few small estates. We are continuing to catalog and photograph all the submitted lots and will upload them to our auction page as time and availability allow.
You’ll find our photographic catalog by clicking the “2025 Auction” button located on the top menu of our website. The catalog can be found by scrolling through the introductory material found on the auction page.
Included in our 2025 Auction is a nice run of the large-sized Argosy from 1941 – 42; over 40 issues of New Worlds Science Fiction, long the leading British science fiction magazine; the first two issues of The Pulpster from its years as the Pulpcon program book; a complete set of Bantam’s Doc Savage paperbacks and several Arkham House first editions; nearly fifty issues of People’s Magazine, launched by Street & Smith with its July 1906 number; a nice seletion of Shadow pulps; the first appearance of Peter Pan; the ultra-rare LA Bantam Book #13, Children’s Favorite Stories; a run of Who’s Who in Baseball from the 1930s; and other unique items.
If all goes as planned, we’ll also have 26 early issues of Weird Tales in good to very good condition. Dated from December 1925 through May 1930, we currently have nearly all of the issues in our catalog. We’ll post the last one (lot #130) as the consigner supplies us with additional photos and information.
Consigning Material to the PulpFest 2025 Auction
Do you have a piece of art or a pulp collection you want to sell? Wouldn’t it be nice to see your collection stay with people who appreciate what you or your departed loved one has enjoyed? Why not have PulpFest sell it through our annual auction?
PulpFest welcomes large and small collections, from a single item to thousands of books, pulps, comics, digests, fanzines, and related collectibles. If you’re ready to sell that collection, consider using the PulpFest auction. You don’t have to be a member of the convention to participate. If what you have is somehow related to pulp magazines and related pop culture collectibles, we’re interested!
Although we will accept any submissions up through the day of the 2025 PulpFest auction, you are encouraged to submit your lots before the start of the convention. This will allow PulpFest to list your lots — including photographs and descriptions — on our online auction page. Online bids will be accepted for all lots that have been submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday, July 6, 2025. Any material submitted after that date will not be added to the online bidding page.
Lots submitted after July 6 will only be available to bidders who are physically present at the PulpFest 2025 auction. Items listed online often receive higher bids than those auction lots listed at the last minute.
All auction lots must have a value of $20 or more. The convention will charge a 16% commission based on the selling price for anything sold in the auction. For example, if an item sells for $100, the seller will receive $84.
To minimize the submission of what most people term “junk” to our auction, PulpFest will charge $5 for those auction lots that receive no bids.
PulpFest reserves the right to reject any material that does not meet our standards. Sexually explicit material — including Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui — cannot be submitted to the auction.
PulpFest will accept materials submitted by PulpFest 2025 attendees up through 1 p.m. on the day of the auction. These will be sold following the early submissions.
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 2025 auction is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 9, 2025.
Online Bidding
For those who cannot attend PulpFest 2025, the convention will accept bids placed through the PulpFest Auction Online Bidding Page. We will begin accepting online bids for each currently cataloged auction lot in our 2025 auction on June 4, 2025.
Online bidders will be asked to provide contact information, payment method, and their final bids for each auction lot. You can submit bids for multiple lots on the same form by clicking the “+” button on our online bidding page. All information submitted will be kept confidential.
Online bids that are less than $10 will not be accepted. The deadline to place online bids is 9 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, August 3. Afterwards, the PulpFest Auction Online Bidding Page will be shut down.
PulpFest will bid for those who place their bids through the PulpFest Auction Online Bidding Page. We will start with the auctioneer’s opening bid and will continue bidding for the highest online bidder until their final bid price is reached. 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.
We’ll be updating our PulpFest 2025 Online Auction Catalog through Sunday, July 6, 2025. Any material submitted after that date will not be added to the online bidding page. Lots submitted after July 6 will only be available to bidders who are physically present at the PulpFest 2025 auction.
The deadline to place online bids is 9 p.m. Eastern on August 3.
Bidding Live at PulpFest 2025
All attendees of PulpFest 2025 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 7, 8, and 9. There will be a brief fourth session from 8:30 – 8:50 pm on Saturday, August 9. During these sessions, all consigned auction lots will be available for examination by PulpFest attendees.
If you will be attending PulpFest 2025, the sessions listed above (and on our programming schedule) will be the only times you will be physically able to examine the lots before the start of the auction on August 9.
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 2025 auction at the convention’s front desk during dealers’ room hours or immediately before the start of the auction at the stage of 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 2025 auction is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 9, 2025.
Derek Starr is a writer and popular culture enthusiast who began contributing to our website in 2022. He particularly enjoys the Fiction House pulps. One of his favorites is Planet Stories, the publisher’s legendary science fiction pulp. He’s also a fan of their air pulps and Action Stories.
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 October 4, 1941 issue of Argosy, published by The Frank A. Munsey Company, with cover art by H. J. Ward, best known for his covers for Culture and Trojan Publications’ “Spicy” line of pulp magazines.
The second image is Weird Tales for November 1928, with cover art by C. C. Senf, an artist who drew hundreds of black-and-white interior story illustrations and painted forty-five covers for “The Unique Magazine.” Senf primarily worked in the Chicago advertising industry.
Our third image is the April 1, 1933 number of The Shadow Magazine, published by Street & Smith. George Rozen, who painted nearly two hundred covers for the pulp, contributed the cover art for the issue.
Our final image is New Worlds Science Fiction No. 50, dated August 1956 and featuring cover art by Terry Maloney. A UK illustrator, author, editor, and amateur astronomer who saw action in both the Spanish Civil War and World War Two, Maloney contributed several covers to New Worlds, using the name “Terry,” and to Science Fantasy and Science Fiction Adventures as by “Jose Rubios.” In the early 1950s, Maloney also produced book covers for Curtis Warren and other paperback publishers.
