Phicks

Hey guys - I just picked up this mid grade key for what I thought was a pretty nice price. I would appreciate your opinions on its grade. Thanks in advance for any input.

Background music is fine. But I have been driven out of comic stores by: 1. Angry metal music. I understand the sole employee in the store might like it. But most customers do not. 2. Even angrier rap music with lyrics about gunning down white cops. This was being played in a Graham Cracker Comics store in Chicago across from the art museum. Not only unpleasant music, but reverse racism. 3. Staff talking down to other staff. I have no desire to hear your "I know more than you do" speech belittling your co-worker, particularly when the topic is just comic books.

You are very welcome, and I am glad to hear you have not read any of them before. BTW , the Black Panther TPB contains "Panther's Rage" from the md 70s. Based on the trailers so far for the Black Panther movie, it looks like they are using some of Panther's Rage as source material for the movie.

The owner of my LCS once commented on the important difference in wording between "I saw Hulk 181 for $1,300" and " I bought Hulk 181 for $650". Some shops are indeed more museums than stores when it comes to wall books.

My Secret Santa was nickwire from Niagara Falls, Ontario. In my wish list, I said I wanted ( but had little of ) DC silver and bronze war or horror. I received a nice reading selection of those. But my wish list also said I was interested in70s Star Trek magazines. And my Santa gave me a sci-fi newspaper from 1975 that I had never even heard of! Thanks Santa!

Mine arrived today, all the way from Niagara Falls.

When Christmas shopping, I often see box sets of CDs, with the "COMPLETE COLLECTION" of Prince, or Tom Petty, or whoever. And I wonder...who would you buy these for? Or who would buy it for themselves? Who would want EVERYTHING an artist ever recorded, but they do not already have most of the CDs? Same idea with comics. Who would want 100 issues of Flash, that did not already have a bunch of issues of Flash? "I have never been interested in this character before, but suddenly today, I am all over Flash! I want every issue!" I do not think such a collector exists. If you are going to sell 100 Flash issues as a package deal, then you are directing the sale towards other dealers. They will only pay a price that ensures they make a profit re-selling the books individually later. So the most you might get will be 1/2 of Overstreet. So you would only want to pay your seller 1/4 of Overstreet. And in this scenario, I do not see the use of buying additional issues to complete the run. If you truly have nm issues that are 1974 and earlier, put them on ebay individually with no reserve. That gets buyers' attention, and most will sell for close to Overstreet. Post 1975 Flash are dollar books. And some of the silver age issues you posted photos of have obvious wear despite the small size of the pictures, so I think they will retail for $5 at best. Just my humble opinion. Good luck.

Mailed mine out today. Should reach its destination in 3-4 days. Getting pretty excited as a newbie!

Just signed up, for the first time. Thanks for organizing this.

Could you post a second photo of the GL cover without the flashbulb reflection on the spine? Maybe just a photo in natural sunlight?

We grade on a scale up to 10.0. Low, medium, and high grade should divide that 10.0 equally. 0-3.0 = Low Grade 3.5-6.5 = Medium Grade 7.0-10.0 = High Grade Some collectors will protest that a 7.0 is not high grade, but regardless of whether we increase that lower limit to 8.0 or even 9.0, there would always be a group of collectors who would say that isn't really high grade because they collect 9.6 and above. And it is easy for collectors of modern books to say 7.0 is not high grade, but not so easy for collectors of silver and golden age.

Is there a link to the sort of gifts received when they unwrapped them? I would like to participate ( for the first time) but would like to see what sort of caliber of gifts is customary?

I don't sell books, but when this new website was setup, I could not get my old account to transfer over. So based on my number of posts one would think I am a newbie. But I have actually been here for many years. Maybe some of these perceived new sellers are in the same boat?

From Astonishing Tales #1, The Black Widow with art by Gene Colan:

6.5, IMHO.

Interesting article, written by your future self: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/12/learned-7-years-comic-store-owner/

My understanding is that cleaning dirt from a cover with a soft eraser or Wonderbread cannot be detected by CGC, and hence is not considered restoration.

There is a website called Penciljack for aspiring comic artists. You can post an invitation there and see if you get a volunteer to draw you some pages.

Metropolis

Sinnott, followed by Royers.

FYI - Avengers 10 is listed in the text, but the corresponding photo is Avengers 57.

I would like to hear more about Forest City Coins. I was walking by them about two years ago, saw old comics among all the other stuff they have, and went inside. But I was, shall we say, "dismissed" by staff telling me they only did email auctions and internet sales on comics. If that has changed, I will happily return.

Ironically, I saw the bound book of these pin ups for the very first time last week at my LHS. I had never before heard of its existence. The copy I saw was heavily water damaged though. In answer to the question about who drew the Avengers pin up, it appears to be a cut and paste of various images by a variety of artists. The Beast for example is by Gail Kane, but Giant Man is by John Buscema.

"GCD says there's very little, if any, Jack Kirtby in these covers. It's too bad the King didn't continue on the title except for a couple more covers. " Some have speculated that X-Men become a third tier title for Marvel specifically because Stan and Jack both left after only about 15 issues. There was nothing magical about Roy Thomas and Werner Roth.