Andy J.-migration

Couple of recent purchases, all Norwegian reprints. The "Young Romance" #181 reprint and the "Metall-Klanen" 1968 issues are very scarse The Walking Dead issue is a limmited giveway (handed out at stores selling the Dead Island game).

Congrats!! Fun to see these two making their way into your collection (thumbs u I'm still looking for a highgrade of that FF #1. Good job tracking one in any quality, tho. Interestingly, that "Edderkoppen 12/1979" was the 2nd Punisher apperance in Norway, the first being this one from 1978:

That hulk#181 Spanish edition is fantastic! Love the orange Couldnt be bothered to post, so I'll just throw a link. My slabbed Norwegian edition collection so far: Photobucket More comming when I get around to slabbing another batch. I have a thing for scarse romance books

Awesome article Define999. From my point of view, its intriguing to see the increased interest for these foreign editions among American collectors. Being a Norwegian, I've been collecting Norwegian books on/off since the late eighties. Much of what your article describe in regards to lack of proper storage and overall rarity, rings true. Not only do you have the obvious low print runs in tiny countries like this, but theres been a general lack of "high grade" driven collecting. You always had the readers, the hoarders and the niche collectors - and the more common blend of all of these, but few if any would store their comics in bags and boards - even today theres some impressive high volume collections just sitting around without as much as a polybag in sight. The influence from US based culture in regards to comicbook collecting have been more noticable the past few years however, with both an increased demand for high grade and escalating prices. One have to realize tho, that the scale of eager, broad area collectors in this country is probably only in the few hundreds. The first prolific collectors with sizable collections surfaced during the late sixties, early seventies. Since the early eighties we've had price guides, and we had a pretty established community from the late seventies till the early ninties - the peak years for the Norwegian comicbook marked. Theres been a second wind the past 10 years as far as collecting is conserned, much thanks to online communities breathing new life, and the added avilability of books that follows through various online auctions. As a result of books being stacked straight into boxes and shelves without added protection, much of the "high grade" material you can track down linger in the 9.0 - 9.2 area at best. Despite these odds tho, one can find some true gems - even entire runs that miraculously survied the above mentioned mentality since the fifties. To find a 9.8 graded book from the eighties is no easy task however; push it back to bronze age and your really talking scarsity in said quality. Thanks to the high quality prints tho, its possible to track down and collect high grade over here, but its pricy and require lots of patience. Another pestilence that have made it even more impossible to track high grade the later years would be the inclusion of hard plastic toys wrapped tight with almost every publication, making them look like they went through the grinder as they come off the rack. This horrific exersice (from a high grade collectors perspective anyway) is a futile attempt by the publishers to increase sales in a dying marked. Price range and change is another interesting topic when it comes to the Norwegian marked. As an illustration, online auctions boosted the value of any high grade Norwegian 1968 ASM edition from 90$ average to a 400$ average just the past five years or so. Compared to our neighbouring country Sweden, and I would guess much of Europe infact, we had a very agressive increase in pricing on high grade issues. Another very noticable development as far as pricing goes would be the increased value and appreciation of scarsity, despite otherwise appeal of a book. Romance books from the seventies indexed a few years ago to a price range of about 90$ in "near mint condition" have landed 850$ or more a piece, much because of the realization of how rare they are, thanks to the disinterest from collectors when they were readily aviable on the marked. Its pretty odd how a quality magasine sized print run, which ran 11 issues during 1972 (with nothing indicating extremely low sales or low prints), can all but disappear. Said run now only exist from zero to three or four known copies per issue. The novelty of collecting such runs have become much more appreciated the past few years, and the price range indicates it harshly. "Donald Duck" is the most popular and beloved run we've had over here. With its first publication in 1948 it peaked in the eighties printwise - and its still going strong after nearly 3000 issues. The first issue is also highly priced, despite not being all that impossible to track down for the right price. Record sales have reached above 17.000$ for books in the 7-8.x range. "The Katzenjammer Kids" is the longest running title, with a yearly publication since 1911 (the first edition widely recoginzed as the first Norwegian comicbook print, only known to exist in two copies and also the highest priced book by a fat margine). American prints avilable through specialized shops and online trading have certainly eaten a fair share of our marked today. Alot of younger readers prefer the original American editions over the Norwegian ones, particulary TPB's. Personally I prefer the original for reading material (unless we're talking ducks, which just seems odd to me in any other form). From a collectors standpoint, I try to focus primarily on Norwegian books, but every so often some other foreign variant sneaks in there, most often American editions. My main goal is to put together an exclusive Norwegian collection of CGC certified high grade (or rare) books however. Having submitted some 60 books thus far, my experience have been mostly good as far as CGC's work on these editions goes. I cant expect them to know all the standard Norwegian print defects that shouldnt pull a particular book down as much gradewise for a particular issue or run, these are things I can live with. I did hope that they would elaborate the publishers on the labels however. Simply putting "DC comics" or "Marvel comics" on the label removes some of the identity of the particular edition (I tried to submit detailed information in regards to our publishers, but this was disregarded unfortunately). I have yet to submit books with posters, stickers and such, but I would hope these things are included on the labels when I do - naturally theres a completely different value tire and desirability involved there. Communicating this to CGC should be doable I suppose. Forgive my ramblings tho, I just wanted to pitch in and outline another slice of comic culture on this side of the ocean as represented by a tiny country. Its great to see that theres an increased interest for these reprints / editions / originals (the definition can be argued I guess). Major props to the threadstarter, highly inspiering to read your research and the following discussion. I attach one of my favourite editions of a wellknown book. This 1968 print is a fairly scarse one albeit far from the truly difficult things one can track. A quick comparison with the original will certainly yield some amuing visual differences beyond just the colouring scheme. I'll also include a 9.8 supes print from 1978 just for the heck of it. I was pretty ecstatic about this one. To think it survived all those years w/o as much as a polybag to protect it (before I got my hands on it some two years ago) is perplexing. I suppose one would have to collect foreign editions for a while to realize the big deal about a random bronze age 9.8 tho (PS Liaton, belive it or not, I havnt forgotten about those issues I promised to send you. Life completely sidetracked me however - I've even wrapped them and everything, just never got around to shipping it. I'll redeem that before disappearing again )

Another batch of Norwegian books, these are all from 1953-1979, a few rarities inbetween:

A returned batch of Norwegian books. Nice grades, not exactly the usual 9.8 run of moderns as common around here - but the print run of these are very low in comparison, and not many people have been storing comics in a good way over here. Add to it a different thickness and binding, and its really hard to come by 9.4 books and up. Sorry about the glare! (Next one got hammered for a production flaw that is present on the entire run, but theres no way CGC coulda known : ) (Toystore giveaway with a production flaw on the backcover present on all copies)

Batch of Norwegian comics I received recently, all magazine slabs. Pretty much graded as expected, and CGC did a great job with the labels considerings these are obscure Norwegian prints! First, a Creepy 44 cover swipe edition, only lasted for one thick black and white issue over here. Following an uprage from various ends, the series was deemed too grusome for Norwegians and discontinued. Very tough issue to find in good quality, actually a hard issue to find at all. This one is a beauty, photo cover on the back as well. Movie adaption. Also very hard in good quality, scarse overall: Missed a piece of tape on the cover on the next one, but it graded ok still. These have terrible paper quality, leaf thin and extremely fragile. You rarely find them above the Good to VG area. First and fourth issue from a series of 8 in total: Now for the real rarities of the batch, these are next to impossible. The xmas themed issue is only known with two copies overall. No great monitary value on them, but very hard to track down. I should have photoed the back covers as well as theres some neat full size pinups there from various Norwegian rockbands and artists, in all their seventies glory: Not for everyones taste these and cant compete with the awesome gold & silverage stuff thats posted on a daily basis here, but its a change of flavour at least

Now thats something... eye candy!

Thanks! I'm not too worried about bleaching these, keep the room in complete darkness unless I'm in there, but just to make sure I placed some cheap books up front : ) I'm not femiliar with Volstor boxes, but I use something that might be similar, acid free albums intended for postcard storage, each page is a thick acid free plastic bag, and I stuff those with thick mylars for extra protection. Album slides neatly into a box. Excellent protection. Sample pic

Love the DC romances' Greggy Aquired a few Norwegian gems from the same genre myselfe, this weekend. Extremely scarse prints over here, "Stjerne magasinet" or "Star Magazine" if one would want to transelate it. I suppose there might be less than five known copies left of this 1953 print: Wonderfull content too, pink/red print alternating the regular colorpages. Anyone recognize the source material here? Also got these after finishing a downpayment, extremely scarse 1972 prints, not as striking contentwise, but got to love the hippy spiced coverart:

Spent last weekend rearanging the comicroom, before this it was mostly stacks all over the floor. Finally I'm able to enjoy a quiet hour in the "comicbunker" w/o feeling like I'm at some tsunami recovery site.

All recent pickups, Norwegian editions from 1968. Very hard to find in this quality

Fantastic colors on that book. Stunning cover. Congrats!

Bet you've seen this already but, ugh... thats painfull. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZJ4VwFHSp4 Have anyone gotten the wrong comic back from CGC yet? Talk about screwup.

That cover is stunning. Love the sunlit lining in the reflection.