lou_fine

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.

I don't understand what the problem is here. The issue date shows February 1946 which usually means that the book must have been on sale around late November or December of 1945. This is in line with the date stamp of December 1945. Books have always been available on the newsstand a couple of months prior to the actual date indicated on the cover. I believe the cover date is supposed to represent when the news dealers were to remove the books and send them back to the distributors. If you check your local comic shop today, you should also find books cover dated for February 2004. Actually, can somebody confirm this for me since I haven't taken a real close look at a new comic in quite a while.

No, that was such a long time ago. I just chalk that up as part of the learning process which I hopefully won't repeat the next time. Good thing is I still have the Cap sitting in my collection.

Reminds me of my first time down to the SD Con in '90 or '91. First day of the con, Jon Warren who was Overstreet's editor at the time had a small box of books for sale. Went through the box and picked out three high grade Golden-Age books. The first one was a bright glossy copy of either Cap #29 or #31 and the other two were mid-20's Marvel Mysterys. Ended up taking the Cap for slightly over guide and left the other two since they weren't quite as sharp. Should have taken all three because the guy behind me proceeded to grab the other two. He then explained to me that the two which I had passed up on were SF copies as evident by the code on the cover. He admitted to me that the Cap was clearly nicer than the two SF's, but that they were still worth more because of the pedigree alone. Ran into him a couple days later and he told me that he had traded one of the SF's for the Larson copy of Exciting #9. To this day I have a sample of all the other major GA pedigrees in my collection, but not a San Francisco. I guess I must have missed my chance. Still, it's alright for me miss on a pedigree at the time since I was still quite new to the GA game at the time. I am just surprised that somebody like Jon Warren would have also missed it.

In full agreement with you here. Batman #1 also contains the retelling of his orgin from Tec #33. Not only does it have the first Joker appearance, it has the first TWO Joker appearances. From a strictly pure "content" point of view, I have always stated that Batman #1 is by far the best book to come out from the Golden Age. I believe the higher supply in relationship to the other key Golden Age books is what keeps this book down in price relative to the other books. I also agree with you that the Superman #14 cover is by far the best and most classic of all the Superman covers. I have not been able to understand the Overstreet pricing on this particular book. Every sale which I have seen for this book shows a SUBSTANTIAL mutiple to guide in ALL conditions, not just high grade, yet Overstreet continues to be very very conservative with the price increases here. Reminds me of other books such as More Fun #56 and Target #7 which shows upper mid-grades going for more than NM prices, yet Overstreet continues to be slow with the price increases. I believe that Overstreet needs to pay even more attention to high demand classic covers to reflect their true market value in relationship to most of the non-classic mid-run mid-grade books which appears to be overpriced in the price guide.

FF; All of the Gold keys were listed for well below $1,000 in the first OPG back in 1970. The following were the four most valuable GA books: 1) Action Comics #1 - $300.00 2) Detective Comics #1 - $275.00 3) Marvel Mystery #1 - $250.00 4) Superman Comics #1 - $250.00 With respect to your other question regarding pending drops in Golden-Age books. I don't believe we will be seeing any significant drops in the GA keys due simply to the limited number of books out there. There could be drops in the mid-run mid-grade non-key GA books due to a lack of interest over time (but nothing comparable to a 96% drop in value). Personally, I believe that the chance of a drop in value should be even higher for the newer books due simply to the higher number of books out there. Especially when you factor in the number of high-grade copies out there. This would even apply to key books such as Hulk #181. In fact, hearing figures of $50,000 for a 9.9 copy of Hulk #181 seems more ridiculous and provides more room for downside risk than an unrestored 9.4 copy of Action Comics #1 at $1,000,000.

Are both of these books priced right in the latest copy of the Overstreet Guide or is the Exciting #9 overvalued at $12,000 and the Startling #10 undervalued at only $4,500 at top guide? Both of these books are from the same publisher with the Exciting #9 coming out in May 1941 and the Startling #10 coming out in September 1941. The Exciting features the first appearance of the Black Terror while the Startling features the first appearance of the Fighting Yank. The only reason I am asking is that both these books were valued at the same price back in the mid-90's (eg. $800 for each in 1994 and $1100 in 1995) when I picked up VF to VF+ copies of both of them. At the time I had to pay more for the Startling because the dealer said that it was a much tougher book to find. This appears to probably be true since I have seen a few copies of Exciting #9 in the marketplace since then while at the same time I have not seen a single copy of Startling #10 in the marketplace. Since the latter part of the 90's, both of these books have taken rather divergent increases in valuation as evident by the latest Overstreet. Would this be due to the fact that copies of Exciting #9 have appear in the marketplace with good turnover. At the same time, no copies of Startling #10 has shown up in the marketplace which has really ended up holding back the price increases realative to the Exciting #9. If this is the case, I guess this shows why scarce or rare comics do not usually have big price increases in the guide and/or marketplace. Maybe I should look to to purchase copies of overvalued Hulks #181 because there is such a healthy turnover on a daily basis even though dealers are still constantly asking me about my copy of Startling Comics #10!