A worn copy of a 1912 pulp magazine, graded just 2.0, sold for $58,560 this month because Tarzan is on the cover. All-Story No. 94, from October 1912, contains "the First Appearance of Tarzan" — Edgar Rice Burroughs' introduction of Tarzan of the Apes — and this rare U.K. price variant led Heritage Auctions' Pulp Magazines auction. Bookery's Guide to Pulps notes there are "probably fewer than 20 existing copies" of the U.S. version.
The two-day sale totaled $1,864,073, which Heritage calls "the highest-price pulps auction of all time." Consignment director Sasha Fraze pointed out that "it was done without any six-figure books."
Other lots: a color-variant Weird Tales No. 1 from 1923 at $51,240, and Harlem Stories No. 1 from 1932 at $34,160 — "a rare instance of a pulp series focused primarily and positively on Black characters."
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