Weird Tales scares up $2,500 on ebay

A March 1924 issue of Weird Tales that contains Houdini's short story, The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt, has sold on eBay for a whopping $2,500. The auction received 43 bids. The story was serialized over two issues, March and April. This issue sports one of the very best Weird Tales Houdini covers.

Touted as a "true" adventure of Houdini, The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt finds Harry trapped in the castle of "Count D---" in Transylvania. I guess that makes this, and not 1991's Ghosts of Dracula, the first Houdini-Dracula mash-up.

Unlike Houdini's other Weird Tales story, Under the Pyramids, Hermannstadt was not ghostwritten by H.P. Lovecraft. Patrick Culliton suggests in his book Houdini's Strange Tales, which reprints this story, that Houdini might have received editorial assistance from his friend and Weird Tales owner, Jacob Clark Henneberger.

As you can see on the cover, this magazine originally sold for .25¢. Nice mark up!