lou_fine

Banner; In full agreement with you here. This is certainly one of Cole's best covers even with all the clutter and words in there. Best thing is that it is still very reasonably priced in the OS guide. Bad thing is that you virtually never see it for sale in the marketplace. Been looking for a high grade copy for several years now without any luck.

Well, from my point of view,you are probably looking only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to low OS value bronze. There are probably a lot of raw HG copies still sitting out there in collections. Due to the low OS value, there is really no big money to be made from slabbing them at this pojnt in time. You have to remember that if these books are guiding at $6.00, then 15X guide only means $90. Collectors with HG copies probably bought them off the newsstand or as back issues in the 70's. The demographics of these collectors are probably such that selling a HG BA book guiding at $6.00 for the outragous multiple of 15X only means selling it for a lousy $90.00. To these collectors, they are probably looking at the absolute dollars after taking off the cost of slabbing, the risk of low CGC grading, the hassle and time involved for packing and shipping, etc. and saying the heck with it. It's not worth the $50 profit and I'll just leave it in my collection until it becomes worthwhile to sell. I know I certainly wouldn't go to all this trouble for a measly $100 or $200 profit even though it might represent 15X guide and I know a lot of other long-term collectors who feels exactly the same way.

Nice pickup for Halloween! That looks better than VG/F to me. Hey Bat_Fan; Let us know what you think about the grading once you get the book. I also agree that from the scan, it definitely looks better than VG/F to me. I have seen other GA books from CGG in the 5.0 to 6.5 range and they tend to look nicer than books in the same grade from CGC. Maybe an opportunity to buy cheaper and resubmit through CGC for a higher resale price!!

I also would like to see the rest of Timely's run, but I don't think this is realistic any longer given that he is now a CGC grader. Unfortunately, I don't believe we have seen any new cover postings from Timely ever since he started with CGC. I guess this is for very obvious reasons, but it sure makes you miss the good old days.

As I have stated before, I consider this to be one of Raboy's classic icon covers with the patriotic cover image against the deep reds and black shadows. Unfortunately, I only have this issue plus #33 in the run. Never was able to find the others in high grade at a reasonable price. With respect to the interior art, I believe you are absolutely right. I don't have the book in front of me to check, but is this the issue with the dark moody story which almost looks grey-tone in appearance? Well, either this issue or #33, but absolutely stunning pages for GA interior artwork.

Jon; An absolutely wonderful and well-researched article. It clearly shows your love for these type of comics. It was great rereading it a second time even though I had already read it back in CBM. As an aside, I used to read every single article in CBM back in the days of Gary Carter. With the new administration, I've found myself selecting only certain articles to read and bypassing the others. Lately though, CBM seems to be heading back in the right direction with wonderful articles such as yours.

While I do have lots of the Silver-Age pedigrees, I agree, there is nothing like a GA pedigree. Basically, GA pedigrees seem to have a uniqueness to them, while I'm not sure that I really could tell the difference between the SA pedigrees. And the Spokane books look extremely nice. Metro has a lot, and they put a big premium on them (and I can see why). You've got a very good point here. Since GA books are so rare in high grade, you can usually reconize a GA pedigree book right away because they stand head and shoulders above the other GA books. With the SA books, there are a lot more pedigrees and HG non-pedigree copies around, it makes the SA pedigree book look like just another book in the high grade branch of the tree.

Two points: [*]You CAN see the interior cover--just open the book! If your response is "but not while it's in the slab!", then my rebuttal is that grading with the idea that the book will always be left in the slab is not the way it oughtta be done; the entire book should be taken into consideration[*]More importantly, CGC grades based upon the higher-graded cover simply because the book could be transformed into that grade by removing the extra cover. If the outer is a 9.0, and the inner is a 9.6, then the book could easily be made a 9.6 by removing the 9.0. I fully understand these arguments since I've seen it countless times, but I just happen to disagree with them to a certain extent: 1) Based upon your argument, CGC is NOT taking the entire book into consideration. They are basically ignoring the outer 9.0 cover when they claim that the book is really in 9.6 condition. Well, just glad that they acknowledge the lower grade outer cover in their small print label notes. 2) May not be that easy to remove the outer cover without incurring some spinal damage to the inner cover which would then reduce it from it's current 9.6 condition. Doesn't really matter anyways. Just that I would never pay 9.6 prices for a book displaying a 9.0 cover. I would probably split the difference and go halfway if I was in a good mood that day. To each their own, I guess.

As a collector, I have never been that impressed with double covers since I always tend to go by the outer cover. To me, it's really nothing more than just another novelty or printing error. I would be a lot more impressed with a double cover if the outer cover was in the same condition as the inner cover. Does anybody have an example of a book such as this. So far, every double cover book that I have seen has the outer cover grading lower than the inner cover. As a result, I have always focus on the outer cover grade (in small print) as oppossed to the larger inner cover grade which I personally view as misleading. I believe the official grading should be based upon the what we can see (i.e. the outer cover) similar to all other graded books. The grading for the inner cover can be placed in the notes where they currently have the grading for the outer cover. In theory, collectors should be willing to pay the same price for the book since it is still the exact same book after all. And doesn't everybody buy the book, and not the label.

If you think the Disneys have a low count in the CGC census, you should check out the census on the GA Archie books. Virtually all of the early Archie books do not even have a single copy graded. I believe that teen books such as Archies were basically bought by readers and were never really highly collected. This has resulted in virtually no available supply at the high-end. Since Archies is only one of three publishers that have been in continuous print since the early 40's, it would not surprise me to see demand picking up on these books. This in turn will result in dramatic price increases due to the extremely low supply of books in existence.

You've got some nice looking books in your collection. Where in the world did you find this copy? What type of grade is this in and when did you picked it up? Also, as you said, this book is definitely MUCH TOUGHER to find than the Exciting #9. Congrats on being able to find one.

Since nobody else has brought up this topic yet, I may as well start: What's everybody's opinion of the latest CBM with the Horriffic #1 cover? This issue of CBM appears to be devoted entirely to the horror genre. Covers everything from GA horror through to BA horror with separate full page full colour cover spreads for books such as: Tomb of Terror #15, Strange Tales #16, Spellbound #4, Black Cat #50, Horriffic #7, Weird Mysteries #4, DC 100 Page SS #4, Weird Mystery Tales #1, etc. If you are a horror fan, you are going to have to take a look at this mag.

Good news for you then. That's actually a copy of Wonderworld #7 which is worth only 40% of what WW #3 is going for. That means you can now afford to pick it up without any problems. Right?

Sterling; I believe you missed my point here. I was trying to be sarcastic here since there appears to be a lot of new speculators paying outragous amounts of money (eg. > $1K) for brand new 10.0's right off the newsstand which has nowhere to go but down. Yet, at the same time, beautiful CGC 10.0's from 1982 are available at only $200 which in my mind is a much better buy in both the short-term and long-term.

I just can't believe these speculators! Imagine paying nearly $200 big ones for an CGC 10.0 all the way from 1982. Could have made a much better investment by paying 4 to 6 times more for a rare CGC 10.0 right off the newsstand from 2004.

- I seem to remember reading that in the first OSPG, newspaper reprint comics from the 30s & early 40s were more valued than GA Superhero books for the most part - can anyone verify this? No, the superhero books were still the most expensive with Action #1 coming in at $300; 'Tec #27 coming in at $275; Marvel #1 coming in at $250. I do know, however, that the newspaper reprints such as Famous Funnies, etc were also valued rather highly and more than the next tier of superhero books. For example, More Fun #52 came in at $100; Adventure #40 came in at $75; Green Lantern #1 at $60; and All-American #16 came in at $50. This $50 was a popular price since it also apply for books such as Comic Cavalcade #1, Hit #1, Looney Tunes #1; Mystery Men #1, National #1, Planet #1, and Sensation #1. Other genres were also more highly valued than now as evident by Four Colour #10 (Flash Gordon) which was the most valuable FC at $125; Mickey Mouse Mag #1 at $125, Adventure #1 & More Fun #1 at $100. I can't remember for sure, but I know that the Prince Valiant book was one of the most expensive books at the time. Oh my God, Ian......the Big Book of Fun was grossly overpriced at $2.00 in Mint. Can't blame you for not picking one up back then for that outragous price. In fact, the collectors were all so upset with the first guide that they started referring to it as the Overprice Guide stating that nobody in their right minds would ever pay these kind of prices for comic books. Maybe Joe C was around even back then hyping the coming crash of the comic book market even before we had the internet in place.

Based upon your Centaur collecting experience, which series do think is the rarest of the Centaur runs? In addition, off the top of your head, what do you consider to be some of the rarest individual Centaur books? Looking forward to your input!

Nice book here. Only other nice copy which I saw was the one at the Diamond Gallery opening. Fishler and Showcase thought it may have been the Larson copy. Also saw a super nice copy of Mystery Men #1 at the opening which was listed as the Denver copy. If this is the case, then the Denvers appears to be a pretty nice pedigree. Timely; do you have any listed conditions for the Larson copies of Adventure Comics #41, Thrilling Comics #1, and Wonderworld Comics #3? Thanks in advance for your help.

I assume you must mean the early Excitings since they featured the Black Terror. The early Startlings featured the Fighting Yank. The Startlings appear to be a better value right now since they are priced quite a bit cheaper in guide in comparison to the Excitings. In fact, I still remember not long ago when both Exciting #9 and Startling #10 were priced around the same in guide. Now the guide has the Exciting #9 at the lofty price of $12K with the Startling #10 falling substantially behind at only $4.5K. I guess this explains why copies of Exciting #9 have shown up in the marketplace quite often and yet no copies of Startling #10 have shown up for the past several years. Anybody have a high grade copy for sale at around the guide price!

The following is my story with respect to my past dealings with Danny boy. I guess it shows that he can be beaten at his own game if you are patient and careful enough. Please skip to the next post if you have read this story already since it is a copy and paste from a previous thread: Hate to admit it, but I was also one of those collectors who was taken in by Fantazia and their so-called Eastern Colour File copies back at the beginning of the 90's. Only thing I can say about it is that although it was a very long and dragged out frustrating experience, it was also a very enjoyable experience. Enjoyable in the sense that it was always hilarious to talk to Danny and listen to another one of his imaginative stories and also enjoyable in the sense of finally being able to beat him in the end. Actually, I miss talking to Danny and hearing stories as to why he couldn't talk to you on the phone anymore and that you would have to call him back another day. Some of his stories included a water pipe breaking in his storage room with water leaking all over his books, his brand new car in the process of being towed away in front of his shop, sexual emergency related stories, etc. My story started with me purchasing a NM/Mint Eastern File copy of Amazing Spider Man #1 for $4,000 back in the early 90's based upon an ad in the CBG. Needless to say, what I got in the mail was nowhere close to being a NM/M copy. It was more closer to a Fine book. Hard for me to tell, since I generally collect high grade books. Called up Danny and voiced my concerns since $4K was a lot of money for me at the time. Danny, as usual, was very nice on the telephone and offered to exchanged a super high grade EC File copy of AF#15 for all of my troubles which was worth a lot more money. Sent back my Spidey #1 and true to his words, received a copy of Fantasy #15 in the mail. Only trouble was the AF #15 was in even worse condition than the Spidey #1. Called up Danny again to listen to some more of his amazing stories and he offered me an early GA Cap (either #1 or #3) for all of my troubles. Having learned my lesson, I declined and asked Danny for a full refund instead. He agreed and said that he would forward it to me once I sent him back the AF #15. After doing this, what I received in the mail was not my refund cheque, but the original Spidey #1 which I had already sent back to him. To make a long story short, ended up phoning Danny over the next several months to listened to more of his amazing stories without ever getting my money back. Whenever I needed a good laugh, I would give him a call to see what kind of story he would come up with. Summer eventually came and it was time for the SD Con. Packed up my bags for SD including the EC File copy of Spidey #1. First day there, I took my book to the CBG booth and asked Maggie Thompson for her professional opinion on the book and whether it was the "best existing copy in the world" as claimed by Danny. I related some of my hilarious experiences with Danny and asked how somebody like this was not only allowed to advertised in CBG, but also given CBG Customer Service Awards for several years in a row. Maggie stated that she thought Fantazia was no longer allowed to advertised in CBG. I opened the display copies on her table and pointed out the current ads from Fantazia with their CBG awards. She said she would get in contact with the advertising dept. once she got back. To my complete surprise and shock, the usual weekly Fantazia ads were gone from the pages of CBG within a few weeks after the convention. A month after the convention, I received a phone call from Danny who was very cordial and more than willing to refund my money in full. I strunged him along for a few weeks talking about my postage fees, long distance charges, etc. Eventually, he agreed to reimburse me in full (inc. most or all of my fees) as long as I returned the book to him. I refused Danny and told him that he had to return my money to me first in the form of a certtified cheque. After more phone calls from Danny, he finally agreed to send me the money in the mail. When I received the cheque in the mail, I was tempted to keep the book or to write EC File Copy in felt pen on the front cover. After several desparate calls from Danny, I decided to take the high road and returned the book to Danny after a couple of months. Never did send back a favorable response to CBG which Danny was requesting as a condition of the refund. Never did see another Fantazia ad in the pages of CBG again. Am I bad or not? One more twist to the story. Approx. a year later, I received a letter in the mail from the Office of Lane Evans (Senator or Governor of Illinois) requesting info from customers who had prior dealings with Danny. Gave them a phone call and they expressed extreme interest in my story and requested that I forward them a written statement. Took me a while, but I came up with several pages in my statement which I forwarded to their office. Does anybody know the result of this congressional investigation into the dealings of Danny Dupchak and Fantazia? Although most collectors lost out on their dealings with Fantazia, I guess I was lucky to break even with him. I ended up getting all of my money back and my frustrations in the beginning were more than offset by his amazingly hilarious stories in addition to getting the upper hand on him in the end. I still missed his stories since he's actually quite a nice guy to talk to on the phone. I still smiled whenever I think about him. In fact, I can't stop laughing as I am typing this. Am I doubly bad or do I deserve a star for my bad treatment of Danny in the end?

That was my copy of Archie #2, until I sold them all in November! I have about 10 golden age MLJ books left, and I'm going to get a couple of thousand dollars worth next month, including the elusive Zip #34 and another Pep #27. Shawn Extremely surprised to hear that you've sold off virtually all of your MLJ books. How many did you have to start with? I assume the 10 which you have left are either key copies or high grade copies. Must have been a hard decision on your part to sell them off.

Don't have a scan of one, but I've always considered Archie's Pals 'n Gals #1 to be one of the classic Archie covers of all time. Beautiful cover showing the love triangle between Archie, Veronica, and Betty in solid bold red and blue colours. Also consider this to be one of the more undervalued Archies since it is an #1 issue from the early 50's which is extremely tough to find in grade. Squarebound 120 page book which is still valued at only $850 in the OS guide. Anybody have a copy which they can scan in for me.

Timely; I am in complete agreement with you here. A larger supply of books should always result in a lower price and vice versa. I would always be willing to pay more money for a rarer book as oppossed to paying more money for a more common book just because it has a lot of competition with itself. I am willing to bet that an 8.5 copy of a rare book would be selling for over guide whereas an 8.5 copy of a common book would most likely be selling for under guide.

This theory will only work on the assumption that ALL of the existing high grade copies have already been graded. Right now this is not very likely since CGC is still relatively new. Most of the long-term collectors with high grade books have not even given any thought to getting their books CGC'd yet since they don't have any current intention of selling.

Long-time collectors know this book has a classic Solomon Grundy cover and is highly sought after by collectors. Virtually impossible to find in high grade. I don't believe that I have seen one show up yet in any of the major auctions. Not only will you end up paying mulitples of guide for a high grade copy, even major dealers have this book on their want lists and have been willing to pay over guide for it in grade.