lou_fine

Hey Tim; Remember you sold me a copy of Sgt. Fury #64 or some issue around there a few years ago. It's the one with the nice red cover and I believe it might have been the Golden State copy. Would you be able to confirm this for me and if the book was raw or slabbed? Just want to make a mental note for myself. A beautiful copy, but I just can't seem to remember the details and I have no idea where it would be in the house. Hi Dean, yes, it was the GS copy. I bought it raw and slabbed it as a CGC 9.6 and then sold it to you. Hey Tim; That's just fantastic to know that you are keeping track of all your books, even after you long sell them off. (thumbs u Maybe I should hire you to keep track of my books for me since I usually lose track of them after I receive them in the mail. Maybe I should come up with a unique system of storage such as filing them in order of title and issue number, as opposed to just tossing them anywhere in the house in some loose FIFO order of when they were purchased. Do you think a unique idea like that would work since it's certainly thinking outside the box.

I've also owned a run of Golden State Sgt Fury's, and they consistently graded out as 9.6s and 9.8s, and were very fresh. Slobodian, Golden State, Toth, Edenwald and Janowicz would definitely be in my list. Hey Tim; Remember you sold me a copy of Sgt. Fury #64 or some issue around there a few years ago. It's the one with the nice red cover and I believe it might have been the Golden State copy. Would you be able to confirm this for me and if the book was raw or slabbed? Just want to make a mental note for myself. A beautiful copy, but I just can't seem to remember the details and I have no idea where it would be in the house.

You're a funny guy! Check out Metropolis Comics... And for your information, this is a project that I'm doing on my time, not yours. Apologies if this thread is not revolving around your world. It sounds as though you are referring to the Mighty Marvel Maniac Collection which Metro is hyping in their latest email newsletter. Sounds as though this collection will be available in time for its unveiling at the Wizard at the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con next week. Now, if this was truly a pedigree worthy collection, do you really believe that Metro would be dumb enough to sell them off as raw books with only a select few of them to be slabbed by the new company? Maybe Tim is right in his indirect assessment of this collection and its place on the so-called pedigree totem pole.

Thanks! I think a couple hundred each with #2 being the one to look for... High grade goes for 400 or so... I always advance search sold ebay sales to get an idea for the market! I think the magazine first prints are my favorites 1-4 I don't think I'm alone(started a thread on that topic no replies yet)... I held onto these for awhile luckily Eastman came In to town! I guess those must be graded prices you are talking about as opposed to raw prices. Either way, I probably did okay in the end then as the vendor said the issue #2 was $100 and must have raised his price after I expressed interest in all 3 books as he said the cost would then be $250 for the set. This was after I had made him a slightly lower offer for the set based upon the initial $100 price for just issue #2. And this was all in Canadian dollars which trades at a 30% discount to the US greenback. Seriously thought about turning down his counter-offer since it did not include a #1 issue as I always like to collect from the key first and then outwards from there. Changed my mind when I thought back to the uber HG run of Spidey 2 through 10 for only $1,000 which I had turned down from a very well-connected comic broker back in 1988 just prior to the awakening of the Marvel SA books from their decade long slumber. Had no intention of repeating the same mistake twice, albeit to a much lesser extent since it would appear that even early TMNT virtually exists in nothing except high grade.

Yes, if I remember correctly, there was a lot of hype about these books even before they came out. As a result, there were a ton of copies that were printed, sold and hoarded by both collectors and stores at that time. Must look for an uber low grade copy of this book which would be a true rarity in the marketplace!

Beautiful looking set of books there! (thumbs u Any idea what a high grade set of #2 to #4 first prints would be going for in today's marketplace since TMNT is really not part of my collecting bailiwick? Just asking since I was at a local con last Sunday and the vendor had a minty fresh off the newsstand looking set of these 3 books on top of his boxes. No copy of #1 which even I know from the boards here is the book to get for the Copper Age. Vendor was really much more of a DC SA Big 5 war collector as evident from all of the long boxes on his table. Went with my gut instinct and picked up all 3 of them since the price appeared to be reasonable in relationship to guide after we checked Overstreet. It's also just so hard for me to turn down minty fresh looking books that are now 30 years old.

Yes, definitely not being helped with headlines renaming it as Fantastic Flop, Fantastic Bore, Craptastic Four, etc.

Maybe it's coming full circle! Remember it wasn't that long ago when DC was seen as the ones making the great movies while Marvel was literally a laughing stock with all of their turds of a movie which ended up going straight to video.

yeah, crooked ones did. i can't say what the world was like in 1985, however, as that was not part of my thought process, and I think that was probably more the thinking 30 years ago, but in 1995 I was aware that sealed tears, color touch, etc. devalued the book at least from the "apparent" grade...a sealed tear would NOT make a book VF! I did not know that the PLOD would further enlarge the spread between minor resto and no resto, however. Not necessarily unless you are also calling most of today's collectors and dealers crooks. How soon we forget how the marketplace has changed over time. Yes, back in the late 70's and early 80's restoration was indeed seen as a positive activity which added to the monetary value of a unrestored book by improving its overall condition and appearance. This was so engrained in the hobby to the extent that Overstreet even had an entire section in the price guide to help determine the added value of a restored book as compared to its prior lower value unrestored state. Needless to say, the mood of the marketplace changed towards restored books over the years. Unfortunately, it would appear that we have not learned from our past mistakes as we continue to manipulate books and foist them without disclosure upon unsuspecting buyers all in the pursuit of more money. Or maybe we did learn from our past mistakes by simply selecting more subtle and hard to detect activities and rebranding them as non-restorative now. Will the marketplace still think the same way 30 years from now if there are more cost effective techniques developed to detect these more subtle non-restorative activities by then? Yes, the initial purpose of the PLOD was to help facilitate the identification and differentiation of restored books from unrestored books for the marketplace. Unfortunately, the use of the PLOD not only facilitated the identification of restored books, but unintentionally facilitated the stigmatization of restored books in the marketplace through its 2-color labelling system. This unintended consequence of the PLOD was probably the primary reason why SB himself did not adopt a similar labelling system when he started his new company. Certainly not one to repeat a mistake and you can bet that it would be in place if he had thought it was a good idea.

Probably more like 30 years ago, and we all know the verdict on restored books in today's marketplace. The question is what will the verdict be 30 years from now on the sanctioned manipulation of books for the sole purpose of enhancement and maximization of value in today's marketplace. Restored books fell out of favor when CGC put them in different labels, and that wasn't even twenty years ago. Where the market is on restored books thirty years from now is irrelevant when examining a deal done twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, non-disclosure was pretty much the norm. Restored books fell out of favor long before CGC even came onto the scene. I remember dealers and collectors were already trying to avoid restored books when I first started collecting GA and that was back in the latter part of the 80's. Try telling collectors that getting their books back in a PLOD label today is irrelevant just because they were purchased 20 years ago. Yes, although non-disclosure was prevalent back then, unfortunately this situation has not improve at all as this has now become the new normal in today's market, albeit with different restoration activities.

There are no confirmed Reilly Nedors. CGC has never graded one, Metro has never sold or seen one. I literally asked everyone about it years ago, and no one but Bob believes they exist. I suppose it's possible, but if so, they've been locked away in someone's collection since the Reilly books first came to market. But you do have a killer book there. Of course it's a killer book! What more can you expect since after all, it is the Tom Reilly SF copy!

Mitch; Are you implying that there is possibly another early GA original owner collection still sitting out there that is nicer than the SF and has yet to hit the marketplace? If so, could this copy of Action 1 then be equivalent in condition or possibly even nicer than the Church copy?

Mitch; Can you confirm if you saw any of the Nedor's in the SF collection?

You mean a bit like Jim Cramer on his Mad Money investment talk show!!!

Remember, 20 years ago, many dealers considered tear seals and slight restoration as enhancing a book, not hurting it. Probably more like 30 years ago, and we all know the verdict on restored books in today's marketplace. The question is what will the verdict be 30 years from now on the sanctioned manipulation of books for the sole purpose of enhancement and maximization of value in today's marketplace.

One major correct in your post from above: the never to be released Pedigree book shows about 70 identified from '44, 10 from '43 and '15 from 45. Unfortunately, the Pedigree book that everybody has been waiting for will never see the light of day. well then I dont feel bad about occasionally leaking info from the Okajima chapter! Maybe we should all try to piece the various chapters together since I got the 9-page initial draft on the Allentown Collection that was done back in 2006.

One major correct in your post from above: the never to be released Pedigree book shows about 70 identified from '44, 10 from '43 and '15 from 45. Unfortunately, the Pedigree book that everybody has been waiting for will never see the light of day.

What is the approximate time period that we are talking about with regards to the Okajima camp books portion of the collection?

Gives me the impression of a fast talking used car salesman whereby your Spidey sense would be tingling like mad every time he opens his mouth. Sometimes, too much passion sends the wrong message.

Am I missing something here as this appears to be an absolutely astronomical price to to be paying for a mid-grade mid-run non-key book with a long forgotten GA lead character? I could see the Church copy going for that kind of money since it should be high grade as Chuck had it listed as a NM+ in his Mile High catalogue. Actually, the Overstreet value for a F/VF is only $107 since the VF pricing for issue #33 is set at the $142 price. Maybe somebody should tell Heritage.

They would have gone bankrupt decades ago if they had done this!!! From the Heritage auctions, it looks like they were smart and stayed far away from the books and picked up the original art instead.

I believe the key to its value is really about the timing of the book's publication. If it is published and on sale at the same time as it's American original counterpart, then I see this as a lower print variant which could have higher potential value in the same vain as the more popular $0.30 and $0.35 Marvel variants. If it is published and on sale after it's American original counterpart, then I would place it in the same vain as a pence copy with significantly lower relative resale value. I believe the Canadian marvel annuals were on sale at the same time as their original American counterparts.

You are most welcome, COMICKINGS! (thumbs u Glad to hear that you enjoyed the interviews. It looks like Jay is still alive and kicking based upon doing a Google search on him. I guess the wonders of modern medicine was able to help him overcome whatever medical condition he was having around the time of the interviews. Although he was definitely a market maker in the early days of comic book collecting, it looks like he has kept to his word that he would never buy or sell another comic book. Especially since he felt that he could have made so much more of his life if he had never gotten involved with comics in the first place.

Don't we all when it comes to books that were once stone cold, but are now scorching red-hot! Looks like you picked it up at a good time when it was going for something like $300 under condition guide price, but unfortunately, probably sold it off too early. Interesting to note that with this year's guide it looks like Overstreet has increased the 5.0 valuation on this book by 140% in the interim. Still nothing compared to the 275% valuation increase at top of guide from 2010 to 2015.

I'm interested in listening to the interviews but I don't see them on this site...could you point me in the right direction. thanks! Joey Yes, the above link also didn't work for me. You should probably try the one below which came from the Sparkle City thread in the GA Forum where all of the good stuff is (let's hope it works): http://www.comiccollecting.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=362 The first 2 interviews, although longer, are better than the last 2 interviews from a collector's point of view. You must admit the man was able to research and hunt down the collections and distribution warehouses. Especially at a time, when real investigative work and pounding the pavement was needed since surfing the internet was still a couple decades away. (thumbs u Enjoy!