Dr. Richard Meli spent over 50 years collecting pulp magazines, hunting for the highest graded copies of popular, rare titles. On December 4-6, 2025, Heritage offered the Dr. Richard Meli Pulps Collection in a signature auction that totaled $1.84 million.

The auction set multiple records, including the Spice Mystery Stories #1 CGC 9.6 with the H.J. Ward lingerie cover and “Fangs of the Bat” cover story by Robert Leslie Bellem. This is the highest graded copy of the book and it set a new record when it sold for $156,000.

Weird Tales #118 CGC 9.2, the highest graded copy featuring the iconic Margarat Brundage “Bat Woman” cover, realized $105,000. That total set a new record for the book, besting the $31,200 achieved at Heritage in January 2025 for a CGC 7.5 copy.

Those six-figure sales were followed by a Weird Tales #1 CGC 6.5 that went for $90,000. It was followed by Weird Tales #2 CGC 8.0 for $66,000, Snappy Mystery Stories ashcan for $66,000, and Weird Tales #114 CGC 9.8 Frank M. Robinson Pedigree for $40,800.

“I’m thrilled to see so many collectors appreciating these incredible pulps,” Heritage Comics & Comic Art Consignment Director for Pulp Magazines Sasha Fraze said. “Compared to a pulp magazine showcase auction from late 2023, this auction had nearly twice as many unique bidders. That combined with the impressive prices realized in recent weekly auctions shows interest is only growing.”

“I was honored by the treatment I received from Heritage, thanks largely to Rick Akers and Sasha Fraze,” Dr. Meli said. “They put together a pulp auction for the ages, and I will look back on this auction’s catalog fondly for years to come.”