BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES

Stan himself gave the books to Heritage (not, as implied some relative or friend labeled as ambiguous "they"). During the years of "him saying he had none" he was also saying he kept books for reference. He gave Heritage fewer Spider-man comics than Ditko's nephews brought forth -- after Ditko's death -- in the first round of books through HA. I've met plenty of people who were influential in their careers who claim to have been much more casual about keeping souvenirs than they actually were. Nothing especially unusual that Lee would do so. And disgruntled Ditko even more so, Ditko see-sawed between disparaging his creations as work for hire, and occasionally letting his actual pride show through. He said he didn't bother to save the comics or even to pay attention to what was going on with Spider-man AND YET -- t he apparently clipped countless articles about spider-man and his part in it. So I believe it's quite possible he downplayed his efforts to keep stuff to make it appear he wasn't as prideful as he actually was. That said, I would feel more assured, if Ditko had acknowledged these himself. But that would be against his nature. It's in keeping with what we know of his nature that any books found would be comp copies that showed up in boxes tucked away with personal items dating back to the 60s And I wonder, however, why these weren't discovered sooner It's been years now since Steve died. Why didn't buyers know about second batch of books when they bid on the first batch though Heritage, which was presented, IIRC, as the only copies Ditko saved, and which were, in addition, one step removed because he'd sent them to his nephews. Now, will people bidding on these do so with the assumption that there are still more to be found? Some clarity from the estate, prior to the auction, would be nice And clarity, here it isL From the auction site: A note on the Ditko Collection: Steve Ditko owned from one to three copies of each of the 41 Spider-Man comics that he drew (comprising Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #s 1-38, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #s 1 & 2). The only complete set of 41 Spidey comics belonging to Ditko is featured in this sale; an incomplete set of 23 Spidey comics was offered last year by another auction house; and a final incomplete set of 19 Spidey comics will be offered by PBA next year.

Books like that do not need to turn to dust if they are conserved. I've heard people say books like that have an incurable disease and in the next breath say but it's not allowed to give it chemo.

The writer's mindset is always important to consider. And this statement leaped out at the very beginning. "Lee's reputation rests mostly on this book. " (He's talking not about Amazing Fantasy 15 or FF1 or the Marvel Universe in general, but one issue of the series. A very good issue, yes. But one that billions of Marvel fans could not name if you offered them a winning Powerball ticket. The writer would be helped by a bit of stepping outside himself.

I do not understand the argument that things purchased at auction are presumed to be worth only the hammer and not the full price paid by the purchaser. Yes, the seller didn't get ALL that money, but the buyer paid it all. And, presumably the seller didn't feel they could get more than they received if they'd sold it on their own, or it was worth paying commission not to have to sell it on their own. Heritage's results are sometimes high but sometimes they're no higher than what you'd get selling it yourself, or they're somewhere between that and you might feel better letting the buyer keep more of their money since you would not get any more selling it at auction for the higher amount. At 10% I never worry about the margin. Usually not at 15% or even 20%. But at 40% it feels absurd for anything but the very low end of consignments.

Thing is that the very high number of minty uncirculated Mantle baseball cards meant there would inevitably be a very high number of dealers touting it as a card that is worth a very high number of dollars.

The only ww2 era comic I know of that has Hitler on the front and back covers.

Some other contenders. Hit Comics 1, first ever horror anthology begins. Character is an Old Witch, nearly identical to the one EC would use ten years later. Pep 39 - Jughead dresses like Hitler (for you WW2 collectors), and one of the very few times that Archie Comics even referenced the war outside of a random "bond rally" reference. If you want more Jughead, there's Pep 81, which was the only time prior to the 60s that Jughead showed interest in women, and in that issue he's a total playa. Marvel Mystery 17 -- a year before Pearl Harbor, depicts a Nazi sneak attack on the US. Young Men 24 -- short-lived revival of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and Human Torch Best 1 -- first minority hero with a cover image of a black guy hero smacking the out of a white guy villain., in 1939 Little Giant Comics 2 (1939) and Uncanny Tales 26 (1954) both published by Timely/Marvel and both featuring villains call "The Spider-Man" Foreign versions of superstar comics with variant artwork. In some cases they show DC and Marvel heroes on the same covers. And some coivers get the characters all wrong, like the AF 15 version from India which has Spidey threatening to torture and kill a guy, or the Mexican cover (can't recall which issue) that has Spidey gunning down a cop. Plus lots of hyper-sexualized versions of women on covers that make it look as if Spidey, the FF and Nick Fury are starring in soft-core porn versions of the Marvel Adventures. Romantic Picture Novelettes 1 -- first romance comic, and Young Romance 1 (first rom series) War Comics 1 -- pre-US entry into the war, a story in this book heralds the Nazis for a victory over the British. Bill Barnes 7 -- story depicts and describes atomic bombs before the existed. Captain Marvel Adventures -- 1946 very downbeat end of the world story many years before any films or TV shows did it.

Don't forget Famous Funnies 27, the first ever "True Crime" comic, thought it was a one-off. OOPS. I see the post ahead of me already said this

Amazing Man Comics #5, first Amazing Man aka A-man, first Timely superhero on the newsstand (before Marvel 1), created specifically to be Timely's Superman.

Could've told you this book would be going up in value 'cause I sold mine last year. Contains a horror anthology debut called the Old Witch, virtually identical in format to the EC character which debuted years later.

Meh. Tell me when you have double digits.

I cam across this series browsing book stores in France and wish I had bought more than a few. I loved the locally drawn covers.

If there's a global catastrophe big enough to make all collectibles worthless, the devaluation of your collectibles should be among the last things on your mind. All sorts of investments and hard property will also be worthless, except for greenhouses, atmospheric water generators, fortified bunkers and crossbows.

Virtually every person who worked in comics dreamed of being able to do newspaper strips instead. Not just Stan but Siegel and Shuster and Romita come to mind. In their day, working in comics was what you did when you couldn't get work on newspaper strips. It was like working in radio and wanting to work in the movies. The poster should know this even more than I do, since he's clearly delved into great details reading bios, etc. I just know it from the few articles I've read over the years and some personal conversations with people who worked in comics in the 40s-60s. It feels like this guy has such a hard-on for Kirby and agin' Lee that he contort any natural predilection and turn it into a glowing virtue or a glaring fault, depending on which person it's affixed to.

NOT saying this guy is doing that, but I have always found it amusing the way a particular breed of scam artists frame their stories, often trying to make the mark feel as if they're the one cheating the poor rube who "doesn't know what he has". Like... "Found these here paintings signed by some guy named 'Pick-a-so'".

I don't know as much about other collectibles but it seems if memory serves that when there's been dips in the market comics have held steady or even increased, at least initially

yes

I have heard this only now. That the words will not be on the label itself; just a grade. But the words will be available via grader's notes. I understand that makes it not as easy to identify the defects (intentional or unintentional), but it's still not the same as when the words were unavailable.

The original problem was not whether something was considered resto and conservation but that people couldn't make a decision how they considered it because they didn't have the information which would lead them to one conclusion or another. CGC put words on labels which controlled that, solving the original problem. Colored labels inadvertently created a new problem because they went beyond identifying what was done to book and imparted an emotional assessment of whether it was good or bad. (eg: pen put to book purposely to fill in crease = bad. Name scrawled on book that inadvertently covers a crease = good) If CGC were leaving off the words describing the work, THAT would make them "part of the original problem". But they aren't doing that.

Steve Ditko 1964 John Romita 1967 Steve Ditko 1965 John Romita 1968

If it WAS a commission it should say "commission" but if it was unambiguously created BEFORE the published book and was intended to be the cover then it's a vintage piece which, to me, is close to being as good as having the OG published cover, but at a very steep discount

For as long as I had one copy or more I was told relentlessly and aggressively that "nobody cares". I sold the last one I had for mid three figures (which happened to be the Jerry Robinson copy), and the dealer who bought it complained he had to sell it for less profit than he expected and implied I should reimburse him.