RAY F BOWMAN NOTES

Hello. My name is Ray Bowman. My hobby is collecting Science Fiction books and magazines. My primary interest is in magazines known as "Pulp" magazines, published between 1920 through about 1955. Besides these, I collect First Edition hardcover books, and early paperback books. As I unfortunately read only English, my interest is confined to those published in the U.S., Canada, and Britain. If you have any of these to sell or trade, I can best be contacted by snailmail at:

In the process of building my collection over the years, I have accumulated a large number of duplicates. This results from my policy of buying complete collections, and sorting out exactly what I need at my leisure. These duplicates currently fill an entire basement and the 3 car garage of my home. So that I may make room for more of my collection, I must sell some of these extras.

You may wonder why my prices are so cheap relative to others you may have seen for used books and magazines. Where else have you seen large lists of SF paperback books selling at around US$ 1.50 each? The reasons are simple. I have no store to pay rent on. I have no employees - just myself and my wife. And I have a full time job as a rocket scientist (no kidding) to put food on the table, so I don't have to charge enough to live off my books. The truth is, I don't want to make money, I just love books!

Many of you will not find it convenient to buy my extra books, and for this I apologize in advance. I can't take credit cards. The man from the bank came and looked at all my books but went away when I couldn't present a business plan, mission statement, organizational structure, and all the other things he was expecting for a business. Many have suggested that I take Paypal. My brother-in-law has a Paypal account, and I have added links to pay for some items like posters that I will not run out of. But accepting Paypal for the other 40,000 items on my listings would be a real problem. I would have to barcode the items and set up a real time inventory system. This would be justified for expensive items, but not for the cheap paperback books and cheap hardcover books that dominate my lists. It would double the price of most of my items.

So you will have to send a check or money order with your order. I do understand this is an anachronism in these click at will days, but I do not see a good alternative, This also presents a real problem for those of you from outside the USA. Since I travel frequently on business to England, France, and Australia, I can accept currency (by registered mail only) from these countries, but anyone else will have to send a check or bank draft in US Dollars.

press here for an order blank sheet that you may print out

I also don't talk on the phone, (at least not without great difficulty) because of a hearing problem. This means you can't call and check to see if some item is already sold. If you did call, the chances of me understanding the exact title you were interested in is somewhat problematical, so your best bet is to just order by snail mail like everyone else. I usually only sell around 5% of the books from any list in the several months a list is active, so this is not really the problem it would appear.

Have a look at what I have to offer on the links on the right side of this page. You should check these at regular intervals as update them fairly often. I publish a complete listing of my inventory every few months in a magazine format. This allows me to play editor as I publish a few original stories in each issue. Also, my paper listing has a few items I'd rather not post on internet, and a few listings from acquaintences. Send for a free sample to:

Fantastic Collectibles Magazine
Box 167
Carmel, In 46082 USA

As I said before, I am always purchasing full collections of Science Fiction and Fantasy books and magazines. While I mostly need earlier stuff, I will buy collections containing more recent material if there are some earlier items.

One additional point. The cost of providing all my extras on webpages seems to go up all the time. Many people spend hours going through my lists, which is fine. However, my service provider charges for bandwidth, and I am apparently a big user, I suspect the main culprit is people who download pulp covers from my many pages that contain them. I enjoy the covers, and can't blame others who do.

You can help me pay for the web service and keep a low cost site open in a painless way. Just click on the Amazon banner at the top of this or other pages found on my site whenever you buy items from Amazon. This does not cost you extra, and provides credits toward payment of my web fees. Amazon is not just for books these days, although they are hard to beat for new books. I just bought a new computer monitor through Amazon, upgrading from a 22 inch to 24 inches. I shopped Best Buy and Frys and then looked at Amazon. Th Amazon price was $15 cheaper than either of the bricks and mortor stores, and they offered free shipping in this item. I also saved the sales tax. Consider shopping Amazon (through my link) the next time you purchase electronics, movies, home and garden items, or most anything.

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