FINE 

A fine copy may not be newsstand fresh but it should be close. The spine should be near 100% with only the most minor of edge flakes allowed. The book should have nearly all of it's original cover brightness, and the pulp overhang should display only those tiny tears or bends as would likely have occurred the day it was placed on the news rack. One or two very small tears may be present, or a small (less than a half inch) corner crease or two. No tape or edge trimming permitted. Pages may not be their original white but should be creamy or only slightly yellowed.

In the picture, you can see that there are a few small flaws but not to many. Flat, clean and bright.

VERY GOOD 

Covers should be reasonably bright. Pages may be lightly tanned, yellow or off white but should be mostly supple with only a hint of edge flaking here and there. Tape may be present but in small amounts, such as the spine corners or a small interior tear. The cover may be slightly separated from the spine edges, but should not exceed an inch or two, and the overall book must be solid. A vertical reading crease near the spine is common, as are small corner creases. The overhang may be chipped or have tears but should still be present. The spine should be well over 50% intact. No pages can be missing. Although a very good pulp may have one or more of the above defects, this does not mean it should have an abundance of them, or should have an accumulation of defects as to mar the pulps general attractiveness. In particular, the main body of the cover should not be damaged so as to detract from the art. When someone says that a pulp is in "Good shape for it's age" they should be referring to this condition. When you look at the pulp, you should be impressed with it's condition but not in awe. 

This pulp has some minor reading crease as you can see. There are some edge tears but none are large. The cover is bright but slightly dulled. 

GOOD 

Typical used but not abused pulp. A number of cover creases and/or reading stress lines. Pages may be tanned but should have only minor flaking. Spine lettering may be flaked or chipped but the spine should not be completely damaged or missing. A taped spine or taped interior pages are not uncommon, as long as the tape is unobtrusive and any glue repairs have not seriously damaged the book. The overhang may be heavily chipped or trimmed altogether.

This picture shows a pulp with Paper tape on the top and bottom of the spine that overlap onto the covers. There are some small edge chips and tears. 

FAIR - 

Generally considered below collectable grade unless rare or in high demand. A "fair" copy may be missing a back cover or a title or an advertising page but all story pages must be intact. Outer pulp edges may be brittle in places, but the overall pages must be solid enough to turn without undue risk of tearing or breaking apart. Pages might be especially darkened, or exhibit damp-staining. Numerous cover stress lines or tears, heavy chipping or trimming may be present.

The picture shows a pulp with a large chip. This alone makes it a Fair copy. There are also creases and pencil marks.

POOR - 

An incomplete copy, coverless or missing pages, or brittle or otherwise dammed beyond reasonable readability. 

The picture should require no explanation.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: (OPINION)

ZEN AND THE ART OF GRADING PULPS

OR

A RANT ON GRADING PULPS

As I mentioned before, grading is in the eye of the beholder. There are dealers of greater or less repute in their grading. Auction houses may use Booker’y Guide to Pulps to give their value estimates and then make up their own rules on grading and not use the grading outlines from that book. CGC is in the works of grading pulps. Even with them, their accuracy and adoption is and will be based on their reputation. So, here are a few points that I try to adhere to (but sometimes fail at) regarding the task at grading.

1) Grading is first and foremost a means of communicating the current state of the item in relationship to its original state when created. Grading must facilitate communication.

When I first started collecting pulps, I thought Good and Fair must mean that their in decent shape. I learned that lesson pretty quickly. I would love to meet the man who decided on using the word “Good” to describe a pulp, comic or coin that is in bad shape. In my opinion, the term does not facilitate the core purpose of grading.

2) Be deliberate in your grading.

Say the grade as you see it or do not assign a grade at all. When in doubt, leave it out. Instead, describe the condition and or use photos.

3) If breaking grading rules better assists in communicating the condition, break the rules. (This mostly applies when grading just for yourself)

(Example 1) - Let’s say you have two copies of the same issue in your collection and you want to keep the one in better shape and sell the under-copy. Side by side, you are examining both pulps. One has a big crease going down the spine side of the front cover. Other than that, it is in great shape. The other one has only a 3” crease but it goes right across the eyes of the hero (focal point of the cover). Which one do you consider to be more desirable? Which do you keep? I think the one with the large crease on the side is in better shape.

(Example 2) - Same scenario as before but this time the entire cover is sun faded making the cover generally muted in color. The other has a noticeable demarkation where half of the cover is sun faded and the other half is bright. In a way, I would prefer the copy that has continuity as opposed to a demarkation. I can’t ignore the color bleed if it has a demarkation line.

(Example 3) - Would you rather have a 2” chip on the back cover or a 1” chip on the front?

In any of the above situations, you need to grade in a way that best communicates the state of the pulp in the context of collecting / investing / flipping or any other context depending on the accuracy of your communication.

BETWEEN GRADES:

When grading, I will often give a (+/-) grade, i.e. Very Good Plus or Very Good Minus. I am more inclined to do this over giving a mix of two grades, i.e. “Good / Very Good”. The reason for this is because when giving a pulp a G/VG style grade, it is still open to interpretation. Is it more of a G or a VG? If it is more of a G then say so by grading it as Good Plus (G+) and so forth.

GRADING BOUND PULPS:

Bound pulps are heavily modified. They are normally deeply trimmed and may have had the spines of the pulps removed to facilitate the binding. At this point, one might as well give the bound volume a book grade as opposed to a pulp grade. Bound pulps are less valuable.

TRIMMED PULPS:

(DISCLAIMER: This has become a controversial topic in recent times so please keep in mind that this is just my opinion, for what it’s worth. Trimmed pulps in this context implies that the pulps where trimmed after market. I am not talking about pulps that where trimmed during their production.)

In any collectable, a modification from it’s manufactured state is a detractor in value. In some collectables it can be quite significant. Let’s use guitars as our example. Say you have an early 1960’s Fender Stratocaster with it’s original paint. However, the edges are chipped, the back has been rubbed by a belt buckle etc. To improve it’s condition, you get it a new, professionally done paint job. Now it looks fantastic. One might say it is in a better grade now. In appearance, you are right. In value, you have potentially reduced the value of your guitar by half because it is unoriginal.

So how bad should the grade of a pulp be reduced by trimming? The drop of the grade should be representative of the drop in the value. A deep trim is a G at best no matter how nice the rest of the pulp is. A slight trim is VG at best no matter how nice the rest of the pulp is. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a trimmed pulp that is VG+ or better.

Giving a pulp an “Apparent Grade - Trimmed” without also giving it an actual grade is misleading and an unethical practice. It omits the actual grade altogether (Violating the entire point of grading) and is not deliberate grading. It is deliberately something else.

For example “Apparent Fine - Trimmed”. This implies that trimming is not part of the grade but should be factored in almost as a foot note.

I have seen major auction houses do this as common practice recently. It saddens me as they are setting a poor example for the community and other dealers.

RE-ATTACHED COVERS:

It should be graded as if the cover was still detached. Fair at best. Glueing a cover back on does not warrant and entire grade bump.

MISSING COUPON:

A missing coupon is no different than a chip of the same size. Do with that as you will. I am inclined to grade it similar to how I would grade a trimmed cover. Small coupon from an interior page is like a light trim. A large coupon would be like a deep trim. Back cover coupon clipping? Well, that is just a large chip out of the back cover in my opinion.

I might be going easy in this area by relating clippings to trimmings but remember, I am not a fan of trimming.

VERY FINE

The highest grade used to describe pulp or pulp-related publication condition. A "Very Fine" is in the same condition as the day it arrived at the newsstand, regardless of the issue's age. The only allowable flaws would be a few very small tears on the overhang of the covers but the tears can not go beyond the overhang. There should be no tears if the pulp was originally published with trimmed covers. Pages must be as white as when the issue was published.

As you can see in the picture, there are no reading creases or tears that are going into the cover. There are some tiny overhang tears but this pulp has covers with an overhang.