RICK STARR

Thanks for that interesting story. I am sure there are many, many more interactions that took place with this guy. Would love to hear more, if anybody has them.

Thanks, It took many years to find nice copies that I was happy with.

Fresh back from Sarasota. Colors, colors, color my world. This one not newly slabbed. One of my favorite Cole covers.

That is a very "perty" book!

I have very little knowledge of what transpired with Mr.Dupchek. The list I posted above, did he sell all those books? Those prices seem cheap today, but were top dollar back then. I cannot imagine all his books were altered?? Like I mentioned, one book of three (yikes) was not messed with.

Back then, other than attending local or major comic conventions, you had Comics Buyers Guide which you could subscribe to for a weekly source of books. Continental Comics would have auctions via phone calls every few months. Some well known dealer mailing lists such as Ken Mitchell, Claude Held and Calvin Slobodian gave us a pretty good variety. Grading was always subjective, of course. I learned to make allowances from each source on how they graded. I loved Mr. Slobodian’s mailing lists. He would have deep runs, with multiple copies, of pre code horror/sci-fi books. But, his grading was atrocious. There was a lot of frustration ordering from mailing lists. Usually, 90% of everything you want is already sold or on hold. Some of us old timers wish for the old days. But, collecting and finding that grail book is easier today with many,many more sources and if you have the bucks and a little patience.

They offered me discounts on some of their other books, after I complained about the trimmed books I received. I returned the JLA 1 and did get a refund.

COPY A COPY B This copy came from the late Phil Kaltenbach's collection. He had amassed a terrific Atlas collection. I was lucky enough to pick some nice issues from him.

While digging through a box of old comic catalogs, I came across this mailing list from Sept. 1991. It's a little marked up from notes I made. For you old timers out there, you may remember this scandal. Reading over the list just blows you away for the amazing high grade examples advertised. BUT, what was not made public was the extensive trimming, color touching and fake stamps to the inside splash page of most of the books. I keep two books I bought from them and one book was not messed with. My Sea Devils # 1 which slabbed out a 9.4. The other was heavily trimmed and at first appearance looked near perfect. Anyone else have a stories to tell or books to share about this scam back then?

Beautiful book. What is it’s provenance?

Oh my, Richard did you hold back on us from your recent Atlas sale? Beautiful examples of each.

I really like this one. The blending of the blues and greens is striking. The macabre figure emerging from the water definitely gives it a very creepy feel. Everett was such a master.

Those are some sweet books. I missed out on Richard's sale, could have used a few to fill in some holes in my collection. Well, I decided to have these two slabbed. They both have a somewhat interesting providence from my collecting stand point. They were picked up early in my "new start" collecting period. I had collected books as a kid up until 1964. After a stint in the military and shortly after I married, I picked up the collecting bug again in the late 70's. I would drive up to Baltimore to Steve Geppi's comic store on occasion. This one trip he showed me the JIM 1 that he had just picked up in a collection. I could not get the money out of my pocket fast enough. A tremendous sum of $90.00. The TTA 1 I acquired at a well known book shop in Wheaton Maryland known as the Barbarian book shop again in the late 70's. It was almost an hour drive for me, but on this one occasion it was worth the trip. looking through the owners box of GA books I came across not one, not two, but 4 copies of TTA1!!! They were all nice copies. The owner indicated they came from left over stock from a then defunct book shop. I carefully examined each and picked out the best copy (needless I should have bought them all). But, $35.00 bucks back then was a chunk of change. I was expecting a 7.5 or hopefully an 8.0 for the TTA. Both have great nostalgic value for me.

Hello, Mollie I would like to bring to your attention concerning Tales To Astonish #13. The 2 recent Guardians Of The Galaxy movies have elevated the status of this issue quite significantly. This issue featured the first appearance of Groot. Currently, 6.0 to 7.5 and higher are selling for 5 to 10 thousand dollars. The points now assigned are 127 for 6.0, 143 for 6.5, 200 for 7.0. The TTA 27, the first Ant-Man, has drastically higher point values. For example, 5586 for 6.0, 6300 for 6.5, 8820 for 7.0. I feel that the point values for issue #13 should be at least 1/3 or more in relation to issue #27. I believe that any individual who has paid those thousands of dollars for TTA #13 would agree. Thank you. John Scores updated. Thank you for your patience.

Nice one! This issue has been evasive for me in higher grades. Nice collection of PMH you assembled, Mucheee1.

Take

Yeah, buddy!

This title's covers and art seemed like a labor of love for Maneely. The detailing on the armor and the clothing is amazing. This is the Bethlehem copy of #4