sfcityduck

Strange question. The obvious answer is that the best time to invest in GA comics was 1938. Back then 10 cents ($1.68 inflation adjusted) would buy you an Action 1 worth potentially $3.3 million (a profit factor of 1,964,285x. BUT, you would have had to have held it for 75 years or so. So what if you'd bought the Action 1 in 1965 for $250 (inflation adjusted $1,881)? Today, you'd have made a profit factor of 1755x. In fact, you'd have made more per year by buying an Action 1 in 1938 and selling in 1965 (27 years) for $250 then you would have by holding it from 1965 to 2015 (50 years). And if you'd bought an Action 1 in 1995 for $137,500 (inflation adjusted $213,844) and held to 2015 (20 years), you'd have made a profit factor of only 15x, way less per year of increase. So what do you think the chances are that the record setting Action 1 is going to be worth 5x its record setting price in 2025 (ten years of holding the comic)? I'm guessing not many would bet the changes are high. So, at least for Action 1, the profits to be made are diminishing each year as the book increases in value and the multiples of expected profits shrink.

This is not hard. Not sure why there is any confusion at all. To use your example, NM 87 is the story featuring the first appearance of the character. That info is denoted by the phrase "first appearance." But, this copy of NM 87 is a reprint. That is denoted by the phrase "Second Printing." So this NM 87 is clearly denoted as a reprint of the first appearance.

You must live in the Northwest.

The success of WDC&S was matched or exceeded by DC and Capt. Marvel. But, the best of Disney was really not until the late 40s to 50s. We all love Barks, and he's one of the pillars of the GA, but I don't think he's the epitome.

I tend to agree with you Cat, and I agree with all in this post BUT not the above bolded statement. Horror, SF, and Western pulps pre-dated their comic counterparts. And romance books were around forever. Where comics made their pop culture mark was superheroes. So I think the founding fathers of fandom got it right by originally calling it the Golden Age of Superhero Comics. (Which is not so say there are super-cool comics of other genres, just that they aren't the epitome of the GA. Heck, the GA of horror and SF is the 1950s!)

Can't believe someone revived this thread. Now I've got to correct myself. The first comic book with Scrooge on the cover was Vacation Parade 2 (he's a partial figure in the crowd). The chronology is this: * Vacation Parade 2 (July 1951) - 1st Cover Appearance (cameo crowd shot) * FC 353 (Oct. 1951) - 2nd Cover Appearance (a literal cameo), 1st by Barks * FC 379 (March-April 1952) - 3rd Cover Appearance, 1st time featured on Cover * FC 386 (March 1952) - 4th Cover Appearance; 2nd by Barks, 2nd featured * WDC&S 140 (May 1952) - 5th Cover Appearance, 3rd by Barks, 3rd featured, 1st on title,1st by Barks on WDC&S Which just goes to illustrate that you should be skeptical of what the auction houses say. For example, Heritage states: "Only a Poor Old Man is the first Uncle Scrooge solo story, Scrooge's first cover appearance, and the book that counts as Uncle Scrooge #1" https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/four-color-386-uncle-scrooge-dell-1952-cgc-nm-94-off-white-to-white-pages/a/825-44210.s?ic4=OtherResults-SampleItem-071515&tab=ArchiveSearchResults-012417 The first two representations are both wrong. FC 386 is also not the first Scrooge solo story or even the first story without Donald Duck.

I need one of these. I have sold very high grade Barks Duck books for well over guide.

It's a great book!

We've been there for about $500K in bids or more. But, now we've got a new member of the very small $1M club: Action 1, Detective 27, Amazing Fantasy 15, and Marvel Comics 1.

Windy City MC 1 now at $975K w/ BP.

You mean like "No .1" vs. "No 1"? Not so far, I think (but it should).

What misspelling? Edit: Suburbs? You must be an English teacher.

Continuing that heresy: Captain America was not even the first patriotic hero (Shield), was not the Marvel hero who appeared in the most comic issues of the GA (Subby), was not the Marvel hero who was published for the longest timespan of the GA (Subby), was not the first Marvel GA hero by S&K to debut in his own book (Red Raven), was not the first anti-Nazi cover (Amazing Man), and was not the first anti-Nazi cover on a Marvel/Timely comic (look at MMC 11 as one of many examples). So CA 1 brings nothing new to comics, but a character, and he's not one of my favorite characters. And for me the cover to CA 1 is not in my personal top 10 favorite covers for GA Marvels (I much prefer Schomburg). So I'd much rather have an MC 1.

Don't know what to make of this one. Foreign? Remaindered comics? But, I'm guessing its unique. You can find it on eBay:

The marketplace has long made clear that in the new era of comics as baseball cards, pressing and related techniques are expected not frowned upon.

It's now hit $630K (w/ BP).

I was in it. We'll see if it matters in this market - after all, look at what happened to the Action 1 (CGC 9.0 W) that was "upgraded."

The Windy City MC 1 (CGC 9.4 OW) on Heritage has now officially entered into record price territory at $492K (with buyer's premium). Five days to go. How high will it fly? I continue to think it should top the San Francisco/Reilly CA 1 (CGC 9.4 W) that hit $915K in August. But will it beat out the All Star 8 (CGC 9.4 W)? Can it become the eighth example of a comic book and fourth issue (with Action 1, D27 and AF 15) to top $1M? You tell me.

Someone got a nice rack on eBay:

Motion PIcture Funnies Weekly 1 is owned by several board members and the Subby story can be found on the internet. But, I don't think that MPFW 1 is even viewed as desirable as Marvel Comics 1, and there is reason to question whether it ever made it to a movie house (almost all copies came from publisher files and the provenance on the final copy is a bit uncertain). Here's the thread the highly esteemed Mark Zaid started on this topic:

There can be no rationality to this debate. Ultimately, the question being asked is what comic book will someone want so badly that they will pay more for it than anyone would ever do so for a comic? The easy answer is to say that some ultra-rich collector out there would rather own the best Action 1 in existence (DA's MH probably) of the best D27 in existence (DA's Allentown probably) over any other book. The auction prices already paid for Action 1 and D27 would probably bear this out. BUT, imagine this scenario: Someone brings to light a 9.8 Superman 1. Right now the highest graded copies are two 8.0, followed by 1 6.0. Could a 9.8 Superman lead to a crazy bidding war between a guy like Hariri and someone else (maybe DA) that yields a price that would not be topped even for the best Action 1 or D27? Yeah, it might happen. Because the rarity of high grade examples of Superman 1, the third most valuable book, far exceeds the high grade rarity of Action 1 and D 27. Should a Superman 1 be the most valuable comic? Not in my view. But, I'm never going to be part of the bidding wars for those multi-million dollar books. And in the heat of the moment, if there's a fresh to the market chart topping stunner, you never know what would happen. After all, we live in a world where a book like Suspense 3, which has zero historical significance, has garnered crazy numbers at auction simply because of the hype surrounding its cover. We are not in a rational world here. We are in a world ruled by irrational impulses.

Turns out that Dave Wigransky went to NY in the Summer of 1948 and met with S&K on that trip. That's probably when he got the S&K cover. And that's after his article rebutting Wertham appeared. So S&K did probably give the cover art to Dave as thanks for his defense of comics.

Someone scored a really nice Marvel rack topper on Hake's this week that I'd never seen before: Hake's also sold a generic rack that this topper would have fit. I wonder if the lucky winner got both and now has a nice Marvel rack?

I just want to encourage everyone here to buy Greg Sadowski's "Brain Bats of Venus" book about Wolverton. https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Bats-Venus-Wolverton-1942-1952/dp/1683962141/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Brain+Bats&qid=1573195714&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-1 It's a great book and Greg is a great guy. He has kindly shared with me some of Wigransky's letters to Wolverton and I hope to incorporate information from those letters into my eventual article on Dave. What I've seen so far includes some astounding info that until this year I would have thought unbelievable. I've also tracked down some great info on Dave from the Jolson collecting community, and am now in contact with one of Dave's friends from the time period of 1963 until Dave's death. I'm hoping this contact solves the mystery of when Dave stopped collecting comics (if he did). I may sound more than a bit obsessed by the Dave Wigransky story, but the more I learn, the more I know this is a story that needs to be compiled and shared. Dave was so far ahead of his time as a collector that it defies belief. But so out of tune with the world, that it is heartrending.

Fantastic photo! I've always thought it dated to the early 50s based on House ads though. Maybe that one had lived outdoors for a decade - like my rusty version of that rack (the sign not the body):