jerome34

Here is some more info on these editions.

(full size)

Action 441 -The cover has a circle for price but it is blank.

The back cover ad lists an ad for what seems to be

Philipino & English editions of Classics Illustrated Juniors.

Numbers are 301 - 364 but they do not seem to be in the

same order as the CI juniors.

BM South East Asia #32 Feb 61 (the copy I had was coverless).

Detective South East Asia 29 Jan 61 (Cover "The Raven & the Wasp")

Superman South East Asia 20 Jan 1960 (also coverless)

The above 4 issues are ones I am sending to a friend.

- - -

The following ones I still have if anyone is interested.

(full size)

Korak 40. Price 20c. Indicia reprints the DC indicia with

reprint info below. Has the house ad shown above.

Tarzan 228. Price circle has "Sale P1.75" as overprint

Unexpected 174. No price on front cover; has UPC box and

Comic Code authority stamp. Indicia reprints the DC indicia with

reprint info below.

(miniature about 7.5" high)

Adventure 22. Indicia is Adventure 266 July 1961. Black & white guts.

This one has a "Sworn Statement" for the "Republic of the Philippines"

It says that the number of copies "sent to paid subscribers 48,721" and

"Sent to others than paid subscribers 635" for a total print run of

49,356. This is for the last issue in March 1961.

Based on the "Statement" given above here, I suspect these may not

have been sold as returnable (as in the US) so stores would order

the number of copies they thought they could sell. That way, almost all

sales could be counted as "subscription copies" and the non-subscription

copies would be the ones going to the chain of stores that were

responsible for publishing these American reprints. There seems to

be no indication as to printer/publisher for this item. There are local

ads but they just give a phone number. The back cover ad is for

the Manilla Chronicle.

Hope you find this info useful.

Additional possible candidates for survey forms include:

Claw 10

Firestorm 2

House of Secrets 151

New Gods 17

and (as noted by others)

Superman 322.

All of these came out the same week as Flash 260,

Jonah Hex 11 and others listed above.

Dratted variants

There are a lot of DC comics reprinted in the Philippines. Some are

full size and some are smaller (about 4" x 7").

The above analysis pretty much makes this item an "after-market" set

of copies (at least as far as DC was concerned). CI was gone before

he was called upon to sign any copies. All CI signatures can be

assumed to be convention signings and the SL signatures were

done over a period of time or at conventions.

It would be nice if someone checked with Stan to see what he

remembers. I doubt he ever saw a copy with CI's signature outside

of a convention. (Also worth asking.)

Agree?

Comic Cavalcade reprints (as giveaways):

"The Twain shall Meet" (from #8)

"Carl Akeley" (from #13)

Heroes in Dungarees" (from #8)

"Hop Harrigan" (from #9)

"!00 Years of Co-operation" (from #9)

"Tomorrow the World" (from #10)

There are two versions of "Tomorrow the World"

one with a large logo, one with a small logo.

I am looking for reasonably priced copies of:

"Twain," "Carl," "Heroes," "Hap," and "Tomorrow"

(small logo).

They are tough to get (especially in complete, unrestored condition). Expect to

spend a lot of time finding them and a lot of money to get them. After 25 years,

and with a modest budget, I am still missing 6. Most of the rest are incomplete

or very low grade. Only 6 are not on my "want a good copy" list which is

defined as "complete, unrestored, not slabbed, and better than good) which

is a bottom feeder collector level.

Currently, to get such a set you better plan on 30 - 50 K and a lot of luck.

(Let me get them instead.)

Times change, scarcities change. Live with it.

Any study of scarcity gives the results for the time frame of the analysis.

A well publicized "scarcity" soon alters the values as individuals owning

"scarce" issues offer them for sale at well above current "market values."

Perhaps the best example of this is "New Adventure" 26. It did not show up

often for years. When it became the last issue Ian needed, it got a lot of

publicity; he got a copy and then other copies became available all at

very high prices. That situation still distorts the "value" of the book --

both in the Overstreet guide and in the perception of most collectors and

dealers.

John Kiester's prices were fairly low in the 1940's. The last time I saw him

(1958), he mentioned that due to the difficulty of getting old comics, he had

to price them at $.50. He told me of a customer he had who bought a lot of

his older books. When told that the price had gone up to $.50, the kid said

(in effect) " No problem, I resell them for $2.00."

In the '40's, most book stores had a table near the front with comics. Typically,

they would pay 1 cent a comic and sell them for 2 cents. They would, naturally,

pass on a low grade Action 1 but happily take a decent copy of Goofy.

Schinder's in the 40's was primarily a place to get new comics. (I was out of

comics from about 1950 - 1983 so have no information about that period.)

From what I heard, Midway got a lot of old comics when Tom bought an older

store. When I started back in comics, I got some from Tom. He started of as

a very obnoxious individual and went downhill from that. In about 1987, I went to

Kansas City and visited bookstores selling comics. At one store, when they

learned I was from the Twin Cities, they went into a lengthy rant about the most

obnoxious book dealer they had ever met; it was Tom.

In about 1946 I was at a used magazine store on Franklin Ave in

Minneapolis. The dealer there told me about a bookstore on

Lake street that had lots of old comics. This was John Kiester's

shop and I shopped there for comics as long as I collected comics.

(Afterwards, I shopped there for science fiction pulps.) He was

one of my best friends. He died in 1960 due, at least in part,

to having been gassed in WW 1.

I have been making a list of such 3 packs. Since, as far as I know, they do not include

variants, I have not been trying to buy them. My list which is build primarily from

e-bay ads currently has 96 3-packs (plus 2-packs, 4-packs, and 5-packs). It includes

the A-10 in question but the third comic remains unknown. Good luck.

So glad you were able to fill in the run. I was sure you got the 24 and have been meaning

to check. Wish I could have been more of a help but, s you know, I am also going for the

same run (and a few more).

Looks great. Congratulations.

48 pages + a cover (counting as 4) = 52.

Comics started as 64 pages + cover (=68). During WW 2, they went down to 56

(+ cover = 60) Some companies did it by shifting to 14 sheets of paper (+ cover).

DC and Classics Illustrated did it by keeping 16 sheets of paper but in the back half

of the book, removing half of sheets 2, 6, 11, and 15 (open the book at the center, lie

flat, and count down from the center sheet of paper). I am going from memory so

this may not be completely accurate. Other companies also cut pages in the back half

of the book. If I remember correctly, Fawcett removed half of the center fold which

often lead to the book missing 2 or 6 pages. Very confusing but, in the case of

Fawcett, it only lasted about six months before they went down to 32 pages

(+ cover = 36).

Then there was a period where most comics were 48 (+ cover = 52). Some Dell titles

had some issues with 48 (+4 = 52)) and some issues with 32 (+4 = 36).

For a brief time, DC went to 10 sheets of paper (40 + cover = 44) before dropping

to the current standard of 32 (+ cover = 36).

1) For the SKU, the useful information is the two 5 digit numbers. I believe the

small leading 1 digit number and the small 1 digit trailing number are for checksum

purposes only. I ignore them.

2) Regarding dates, when a value is obvious, I put the year in my document.

Otherwise, I use a question mark (like 198?) since I am too lazy to always check

all the books.

Checking the date of the ads (primarily back cover, inside front cover, and inside

back cover) will give you the year if they are later than the year of the issue. If they

match the date of the issue, you could get the most recent issue and subtract two

months to get the date the regular book was on the stands. However using

the year of the most recently published issues should be close enough. It is only

important if the reprint in the package came out years after the original issues were

published. Packages of Batman comics issues numbered 397 - 425 are the prime

offenders here.

As part of my attempt to document the thousands of DC variants, I have been

building lists of all DC packs. The packs from 1994 - 1996 are often nothing but

variants. I am not including the Whitman packs since we know which DC comics

had Whitman variants. Some early packs (typically "Walgreens") had "no month"

variants. Other than that, most earlier packs are just the regular issues.

As part of my documentation, I would like to include: the year, the SKU, the

price (often "3 comics for xx cents"), and the books in the package. Could

people posting DC packs please list what information they have? I t is

difficult to read issue numbers and it is not always clear if two conssecutive

pictures are the front and back of a pack.

Thank you.

Like other obscure areas (such as DC variants), bargains exist. There is little

competition. However, the dratted things do not show up often. So what you

save in dollars, you pay for in time and searches.

Like all collecting, to build a good collection you:

a) do it fast with a lot of money and not much time; or

b) do it slow with a lot of time and not much money.

Hard core collectors try to find some middle ground.

Ian:

I have no doubts about the "How You ..." book and I have a copy in my collection.

(Thanks for pointing it out to me.)

My comment referred to my suspicion that most collectors are not familiar

with the item and would be unlikely to consider it a comic or a DC.

I have seen a copy or two of "How You ..." on e-bay in the past couple of years. I

suspect it was fairly widely distributed during the war so I would not be surprised

if extra copies showed up. The fact that it is not normally found among comics and

that you and I may be the only ones who count is as a DC (Thanks again for the info),

may account for it not appearing on comic sites. Issues may show up from

time to time at antique sites/stores.

I agree the Dirt-Minator is very hard to find and again, thanks for finding one for me.

As we both know, you have been extremely helpful in filling in major holes in my

collection of DC promos with a remarkable help in finding the really rare items.

I also suspect Christine has a copy. Making 7.

I got mine at least ten years ago. I already had it when Ian and I first got

in contact with each other. In one of our early contacts, I warned him that it

was believed to be difficult to get. At that time, Ian was missing only about 100

books. I think that when he got the Buzzy 70 he was down to about 10.

Michele Nolan had, and may still have, a copy. That brings the total up to 6

and of the 6 lucky owners, only Ian is a well known, heavy hitter, collector going

after full runs regardless of common/scarce.

I am sure that there are other copies out there; some in the hands of Buzzy

collectors, some in the hands of "Gotta have the scarce books," and some in

the hands of individuals who got a comic lot where the Buzzy was mixed in

with books the collector wanted.

I think it is at least as common as the most common Ashcan (see Moondogs'

lists).

How many copies of Buzzy 70?

I have it.

Ian has it.

Swapto has it.

Gator's customer has it.

If my memory is correct, a boardie found one recently for another boardie.

Note that two (or three) copies have showed up recently.

Scarce, yes. Very scarce, I doubt it.

If you have been hunting for a particular book for years to complete a

title/run, you are temped, and often willing, to pay well over guide just

to get the dratted thing. I have done it and expect to do it again.

What troubles me is books like Buzzy 70 that have a reputation that they

are extremely rare when they are merely rare. Then people pay outrageous

prices to get the one book when they have no interest in any other issue

of the title.

Part of the reason why Buzzy 70 seems so rare is that dealers who do not

know it is supposed to be rare (and Overstreet give no indication that it is not

common) say to themselves "I am going to convention .con and cannot bring

all my stuff; should I bring this group of $10.00 Buzzy's or should I bring this

group of $40.00 Silver Surfers?" We all know the answer to that.

Someone had extra space in his con box and Gator got one for "guide" (more or

less). A "Gotta have any dratted book that is considered to be impossible

to get" collector came by and Gator did well. And, at least for a while, both

are happy with the transaction as is the dealer who sold it to Gator.

In the long term, I do not think such activities are good for the field.

Ian:

The ones you name are (with the exception of

"How You ...") are ones that will never be common. The

woodwork was cleaned out of those years ago.

For you and me, items that we consider "scarce" are ones

the were scarce from when we started hunting until we got

our copies. Then we stop looking but still consider them

scarce. Some of them (due, in part, to our hunts) become

less scarce; some become even harder to find.

There are items we found early in our search and got that

are scarce. Some are documented, some are not. For

example, you got your New Adventure 13 early so, for you,

there was no reason to look and no reason to think, based

exclusively on your own collecting experience, that it is scarce.

So anytime you, or I, or any other collector names an issue

as being scarce it is implied that it was scarce while we looked.

Probably such issues are at a later date "scarce," "very scarce,"

or just "hard to find."

There are many very hard to find items you have gotten for me

and believe me, I appreciate it and will continue to appreciate it.

Were a warehouse find of an issue to appear, it would not cause

any change in my thankfulness for your help.

Many years ago, Michele Nolan published a note on the DC teenage

books and claimed Buzzy 70 was the hardest to get. I kept a special

eye out for it and eventually got one for a reasonable price

(according to Overstreet). Once Ian and I connected, I hunted for a copy

for him but was not able to find one.

Within the past month or so, on e-bay, there was a lot which had a

low grade copy of Buzzy 70 in among a few other books. It sold for

a relatively modest price.

While the book was hare do get in the 1980's, and 1990's, I think that

(partially due to Ian's search) enough copies have come out of the

woodwork that it is no longer a very rare book. It is not an easy

book but it should no longer be considered to be rare.

As a result, there is little reason for it to be marked up to very high

prices. If Overstreet corrects the price to about double or maybe

triple the current price, it would be more sensible.

Isn't it nice that the woodwork can produce these books as soon as

a lot of dealers believe (with, alas, reason) that they can sell them for

obscene prices?

The "Happy Tooth" book is an incredibly difficult book to find. I am still

looking and have been for at least 8 years.