All-Story No. 94 Leads Pulps Auction at Heritage to All-Time High of $1.86 Million

Selections from the Dr. Richard Meli Collection and more than 20 other consignors average $3,346 per book, with Edgar Rice Burroughs stories and Saucy and Spicy titles commanding especially high prices at record-setting auction DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (June 10, 2026) — If there were still skeptics about the possibility of a multimillion-dollar pulp collection after Heritage Auctions’ first pulp Signature Auction in December 2025, the record-setting results ofthe June 5–6 Pulp Magazines Signature® Auction should erase their doubts. After the auction, the total take from the legendary Dr. Richard Meli Collection of top-condition pulps — one of the finest in the world, if not the finest — is now over $3.75 million and will likely surpass $5 million before its last book has sold. The Dr. Meli lots and a robust selection of books from 20-plus other consignors realized $1,864,073, making the event the highest-price pulps auction of all time, edging out the Dec. 4–6 The Dr. Richard Meli Collection Pulps Signature® Auction’s $1,841,591 for the record. Sasha Fraze, Heritage Auctions Comics & Comic Art Consignment Director for Pulp Magazines, was thrilled by the results, especially considering the highest-priced lot, a CGC 2.0 copy of The All-Story No. 94, went for $58,560. The December auction had five lots that sold for more than that, including two that surpassed $100,000. “What makes this record-breaking auction especially impressive is that it was done without any six-figure books,” she says. “We are seeing slow and steady growth in an already strong market, which is especially exciting.” Fraze offers a few other figures that indicate the growing strength of the pulps market and Heritage Auctions’ dominant position therein: Even excluding lots from Dr. Meli’s collection, the $500,000-plus in sales from more than 20 other consignors would have made for Heritage’s highest-totaling multi-consignor auction featuring only pulps and magazines. The average price of the 557-lot event was $3,346. And Heritage Auctions has done more than $4 million in sales of pulps since the beginning of December across its Signature, Showcase and Select auctions. This auction had 32 books realize $10,000 or more. By contrast, she says, 66 pulps achieved $10,000 or more at Heritage from 2002 to 2024: “What was a decade’s worth of five-figure pulps in days past, we can now do in one auction.” A rare variant of one of the most sought-after pulps in the hobby, All-Story No. 94 from October 1912, which introduces Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character Tarzan of the Apes, led the auction at $58,560. This CGC 2.0 copy of the U.K. price variant is nearly identical to the U.S. version except for the “sixpence” price on the cover. Bookery’s Guide to Pulps notes there are “probably fewer than 20 existing copies” of the U.S. version, and the U.K. price variant is even rarer. Fraze was impressed the CGC Restored 0.5 copy of the U.S. variety achieved $29,280 considering it is trimmed, missing its back cover and restored, with slightly brittle pages. An exceptionally rare color variant of Weird Tales No. 1 from March 1923 took in $51,240 to finish as the second-highest priced book. It’s a 5.0 copy of the debut issue of the iconic title and the only CGC-certified copy of what is traditionally considered the “second state” edition. Almost all copies of the issue are from the “first state” edition, in which the black and orange tones were mistakenly reversed on the front cover. The “Ooze” title’s orange typeface and the creature’s black tentacles differentiate the second state from the more commonly found version. The $34,160 price for Harlem Stories No. 1 from May 1932 was the third highest of the auction. One of the scarcest pulp titles of all, this two-issue series represented a cross-section between the girly pulps of the 1920s and the ongoing Harlem Renaissance. It’s a rare instance of a pulp series focused primarily and positively on Black characters. To demonstrate what’s trending in the current pulps market, Fraze points to the 4.0 copy of Saucy Movie Tales No. 10 with off-white pages realizing $23,180, handily beating the $15,600 achieved by the CGC 8.5 White Pages Meli copy in December 2025. “Saucy and Spicy titles have long held major appeal for pulp collectors, but their collector base has grown significantly over the last couple years,” Fraze says. “This auction’s results clearly demonstrated what’s hot in pulps. Of the 32 books that realized more than $10,000, 10 of them featured Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, nine came from Saucy and Spicy titles, and seven came from Weird Tales. These are the biggest hot spots we are currently seeing in pulp collecting. The Burroughs results have been especially strong recently, with record-breaking numbers being realized across all grades, featured characters — not just Tarzan — and even with restoration or trimming.” The next Pulps Signature® Auction is set to open at the end of November and end in early December. “There are some great books already scheduled for it, but there is still plenty of room for more,” Fraze says. Images and results for all lots in the June 5–6 Pulp Magazines Signature® Auction can be found at HA.com/7484. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 2 million registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 7,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Jesse Hughey, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1376; JesseH@HA.com