SOTIcollector

Also subsequent to the publication of SOTI is this fun item. It's a letter from Wertham to the magazine "Antiquarian Bookman." Wertham takes exception to some of the magazine's characterizations of SOTI. This one is part of an "odd coincidence" story. Within the same month, I managed to acquire both this original letter from Wertham, and the magazine in which it was published. I acquired them from different sources, and in the ensuing decade or more I've never seen another copy of this magazine. It feels like the only one available happened to show up right about the same time I got the letter.

Also from 1955, here's the only copy I've ever seen of "Comic Book Regulation", which gives an idea of just what sort of successes the anti-comics efforts had at the time..

Let's start at the end. After the 1954 Senate anti-comic hearings, two reports were produced. One is a transcript of the hearings, and one was a report that indicated the committee's findings. I'm thrilled to have both of those reports to my collection.

I'm thrilled to share (in a bit) my last acquisition of 2023. It's one of historical importance to the comic book industry, and I'm confident there are people here who will appreciate it. First, a bit of backstory and a tour through some other historic items. For decades, I've been fascinated with Seduction of the Innocent and the history of the anti-comic book activities in this country. Back in the 1950's, the entire US comic book business was nearly put out of business by people who said the content was inappropriate for kids. In the late 70's or early 80's, I bought my first comic book mentioned in SOTI. By the mid-90's, I decided to try in earnest to collect all of the comics pictured in SOTI. That turned into an attempt to collect all of the comics mentioned in SOTI, and an offshoot of that was trying to identify the comics that Wertham mentioned but which remain unidentified. From there, I turned to the anti-comics activities in general. Parade of Pleasure, Love & Death, the Senate hearings, the NY State Legislature reports, magazine articles, newspaper articles, pamphlets, books, you name it. I started searching for everything I could find (and afford) related to the anti-comics movement of the 40's and 50s. Over the years, with a combination of luck, persistence, patience and support of my wife, and the kindness of strangers, I've been ridiculously fortunate to pick up some cool bits of comic history. Before I get to the historic item that I added to my collection on 12/31/2023, here's a look back at some of the items I've had the good fortune to add to the collection over the years.

You're wise to ask when the site looks like a scam. There is very little that that looks legitimate about the site you posted. It claims to be a comic shop in Virginia. A search for that address shows an empty lot. The domain is registered to a company in Malaysia. The language used on the site was not written by a native American English speaker, and probably not by a human. The list goes on, but it's very clear that there are issues with that site. Stick to legitimate dealers at legitimate sites and you should be okay.

The good news is that you don't need to select anything special. The not-as-good news is that from CGC's perspective, you're just submitting something with writing on it. In order to qualify as a CGC Signature Series book, the comic would have to be signed in the presence of a CGC representative, and CGC would need to maintain custody of the book until encapsulation. There's one exception to this rule that allows a book to be submitted directly to CGC by the creator who signed the book. Your book would be likely to receive a green (qualified) label with a notation indicating that a name is written on it. Another option is that it could get a blue (universal) label, but the book would be downgraded for the writing on it.

Thread closed. Thanks for looking.

SOTI first edition, second print, with dust jacket $150 +$10 US shipping. The first printing was published in April, 1954. This second printing would have come out either later in 1954, or early in 1955, but I haven't been able to find the exact date. This is a first edition, meaning the contents and presentation are the same as the first printing. It's a second printing, which is indicated by two things: the "second printing" notation inside the front flap of the dust jacket, and the absence of the "R" colophon on the publication page. The jacket has a reasonable amount of wear, some paper loss at the top and bottom, and a sticker on the spine. These things should all be visible in the photos. The book has some writing on the front free end paper, but is otherwise unmarked and in great condition. All typical pages are present, including the 16 pages of illustrations in the center of the book. As with all second printings, this book does not have the bibliography. The bibliography was removed by the publisher prior to distribution; you can see a stub where the bibliography (pp. 399-400) was before the publisher removed it.

Here's a beautiful copy of SOTI for the budget conscious. WHY SOTI? This book was a major part of the anti-comics crusade of the 1940's and 50's, a crusade that nearly killed the entire comic book industry. From 1948 through at least 1955, Dr. Fredric Wertham spoke out against what he perceived to be the dangers of comic books. He asserted that comic books were significant contributing factors to juvenile delinquency in the US, and he told his tale to reporters, legislators and the public whenever he got the chance. The same week this book was released, the US Senate held hearings into the dangers of comic books. It was pressure from lawmakers and the Senate that led to the adoption of the Comics Code and to the collapse of a huge number of comic book publishers. TERMS in thread trumps any other discussions. Payment by PayPal G&S or (if transaction is in person) cash. No buyers from the naughty lists. Returns accepted within 30 days. I am located in the US. I ship only via fully insured methods, so international shipping will be expensive.

The logo is from Dark Horse Comics Greatest World: Catalyst. If I recall correctly, that one was a retailer premium.

Your post indicates that you want to grade comics to protect them and to increase their value. This is the correct place for that. There are several companies that grade comics. Of the three best known companies, one is not taken seriously by 90% of collectors, one is taken seriously but doesn't have as much market acceptance, and then there's CGC. CGC is the heavy hitter in the industry. I say that because comics graded by CGC typically sell for more than comics graded by other grading companies. Also, if you look at the biggest comic auction house (Heritage) and the biggest comics they auction (the comics that sell in the hundreds of thousands or millions, like the first Superman or Batman comics), you'll find comics graded by CGC, not by one of those other companies. If your comic is Giant-Size Spider-man #4, here are some recent sales. Prices have been dropping a lot, so these "recent sale" prices are significantly lower than prices from a year ago. A copy graded Near Mint 9.4 sold for $204 this month. A copy graded VF/NM 9.0 sold for $128 in September. If you're hoping to sell this book at a profit after grading, here's the math. Grading without "Fast Track" would cost you about $70 (grading is $25, plus estimated shipping at $20 each way to/from Sarasota, and there's a $5 invoice fee). If you wanted to sink even more into the book, you could pay to have it pressed. Pressing could remove some defects and increase the grade of the book. However, it could also cause additional damage and devalue the book, so pressing isn't a panacea. Assuming no pressing, you'd be into the book for about $130. That means if your grade was a 9.0, you'd probably lose money on a sale. If it was graded 9.4, you might make a little bit after whatever fees you incur from the sale (e.g. eBay fees, PayPal fees, etc.). If somehow you got a higher grade than 9.4, you could double your money or more. As with many things, the more you put into it the more you can get out. Grading could make you money or lose you money, and the more you learn about grading the better you'll be able to determine if grading is a winning or losing proposition financially. Pressing the book could make you money or lose you money. The more you learn about pressing and "pressable defects" the better you'll be able to determine if it will make or lose you money.

While I was typing my reply, shadrock beat me to the punch. If you bought Giant-Size Spider-man #4, it was dated 1975. There's a picture of it here. https://www.ebay.com/itm/256173779555?hash=item3ba525aa63:g:HgkAAOSwKfFk0YBB&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8O2fJEANj%2BPSaLLOalvmfE%2FeWiqdlmad4uyM5hGkg2hAxtpR0EXR1vTcGQPmGBPo2yZ6%2FvYkYWcvS9caNeNp%2FvyxCmryb7TKrGM4NO4EdDZMA6%2FNdvLp1YrxbDXfBK9u4rfIZ%2BRA6DDk4FPurVDT9sYEvKbx7JsTdKLnuSa130wCHknDInEDsrC4a5tpA014MQDP1NQIk%2FfIfZfk5RWbJ6%2FC8Na49fasw%2FO34N5stkgDaXFlUA%2FXuQiu6%2FJADIc02qfsOyP%2B%2F%2B0Ncq7tWRKVyDo%2FUuk989n3T1dl3vbWFrH9%2BwHGNsDDi1XxXjCyc9hJhg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBMjtaDi_pi A truly near mint copy, unrestored copy of that comic would be a good buy for $60. However, truly near mint copies don't show up all that often. It's also common for somebody less experienced with comics to think something is "near mint", when an experienced collector might call the item only "very good" or "fine". Clear photos of the front and back covers would help determine if actually might be near mint; an experienced collector with the comic in hand would be able to determine if it has had any restoration.

"Common sense" has nothing to do with it. This is a newbie forum, for people who want to learn more. The question was a reasonable question regarding how people make meaning out a feedback tool that has a lot of information.

Absolutely. I treat eBay feedback sort of like Amazon reviews. That is, I start out by completely ignoring the top few percent rave reviews (which could have been left by friends and family) and bottom few percent horrible reviews (which are frequently left by the buyers with completely unrealistic expectations). What remains after I ignore those? Does it give me a picture of a seller or product that meets my expectations? If the percentage of bad reviews is too high, then I move on. If somebody passes muster on that first check, then I look at the details of the bad reviews. I don't need an eBay seller with 100% positive feedback, because I understand that things can sometimes go wrong. I read the feedback to see if the bad things were caused by the seller, and if the seller worked to quickly and professionally resolve problems. If I get that based on the contents of the feedback, then I'm happy to go ahead with a purchase. If I get the sense that the seller regularly creates foreseeable problems, or the seller regularly ignores attempts at resolution, or the seller regularly treats dissatisfied customers disrespectfully, then I typically move on.

This one gets the SOTICollector seal of approval! Behind this comical cover is one of the most notorious images pictured in SOTI. Wertham captioned it with "Children told me what the man was going to do with the red-hot poker". Yes, THAT is what the man was going to do with the red hot poker. Wertham was wrong about a lot of things, but not everything.

… and then there’s the afterword. Can you believe people being such diehard collectors that they would buy a ‘Tec 27 or Action Comics 1 for $50?

Glad to help. Here’s a first page from each character in the book. Perhaps something here will jog your memory.

Was it only the DC heroes? Or were there others? Jules Feiffer’s Great Comic Book Héroes was a common book back then. It had origins of DC and other heroes.

This is really cool. Thanks for the tag, @KCOComics As I was posting that these came from the Russ Cochran set in 1986, in came the response from the OP verifying this. These are very cool, and if they had been from the original run of Mad in the 50's, they'd likely be unique and worth hundreds, possibly thousands. They are certainly scarce or rare, maybe even unique. Really cool items1

Assuming similar eye appeal, the only way the damaged one makes financial sense is if you want to break it out and read it. Since you’ve said you want to re-slab, the choice is clear.

I buy primarily from eBay, but I also buy from reputable dealers and from some other platforms like Facebook and the CGC message boards right here. There are two critical components to EVERY online transaction: 1) trust between buyer and seller, and 2) a method for remedy if things go wrong. That "something goes wrong" can be anything from outright fraud on the seller's part to fraud on the buyer's part to a lost or damaged package or unknown/undisclosed preexisting damage. Never conduct ANY online transaction without carefully considering both trust and remediation, often called "buyer protection". Ebay provides a mechanism to establish trust (their feedback system, which generally works well unless a seller's account was hacked). EBay also provides the ability to file a dispute when something goes wrong, and they typically side with the buyer in a dispute. BUYER PROTECTION To make sure that you are covered in case something goes wrong, always use a payment system that provides a dispute mechanism. PayPal's Goods & Services payment provides this, and I understand their protection is pretty good. NEVER use PayPal's "Friends and Family" to pay for goods, because F&F surrenders all of your buyer protection. Venmo claims to offer buyer protection in some cases, but I have not had any personal experience with the Venmo buyer protection. PayPal charges the seller about 4% to accept a "Goods & Service" payment. Sometimes you'll see a seller who asks you to pay via PayPal Friends & Family. When they do that, they are either trying to save 4% or they are trying to scam you. If the seller asks for Friends and Family payment, then offer to pay 4% extra if they will accept Goods & Services. If they refuse Goods and Services payment with a 4% surcharge, then you know they were trying to scam you all along. For added protection, you may also want to fund your PayPal with a credit card that offers buyer protection. That way, if things go wrong, and if somehow PayPal doesn't cover you, there's another layer of protection that might be available to you. One more important consideration is your location. If you and the seller live in different countries, I'm guessing that consumer protection laws and buyer protection may vary between the countries. Be sure that any protection you're relying on applies to both countries involved. TRUST Now to the issue of trust. Even with buyer protection in place, your safest bet is to avoid troubling sellers. How do you know you can trust somebody on Facebook or any online platform? Here are some ways that can help you figure out if a seller is trustworthy. There's no one thing that says a person is absolutely trustworthy, and there's rarely one single thing that says a person is a scammer. Typically, you need to look at a number of things, and weigh them carefully to determine how much you trust a seller. - Ask for references. The best sellers will be able to provide numerous references. - Look at the seller's online profile. Have they been on Facebook for years, with photos through the year of a spouse and kids and parents and friends? That's a plus in the "legit" column. Did they just sign up for Facebook recently, and their account shows almost no public activity? That's a warning sign that they could be a scammer. - How responsive are they to your questions? The most reputable sellers will answer reasonable questions. Many scammers will block you for asking reasonable and polite questions about their products or their legitimacy. - Have they created a sense of urgency in their posting? That's a tactic that scammers use. - Is the post too good to be true? You can get bargains on low-demand, non-key books. A motivated seller might sell you $100 worth of non-key books for $20 or $10. But if somebody offers you a $5,000 high-demand key book for just $2,000, it's probably a scammer. - What else are they offering for sale? If they have a number of items for sale, and others are buying those items, particularly if you can see a history of recent successful sales, that might help build your confidence in the seller. - How well do they know about what they're selling? Sometimes the scammers clearly know nothing about comics. A person who knows nothing about comics could be an honest person who just happened to inherit a box that had Hulk 181 in it, but in my experience 9 times out of 10 that person who knows nothing about comics is a scammer. - Some people ask for a photo of the person with their merchandise and a note indicating the date and time. Personally, I don't put much faith in those because photos are easily faked and even the merchandise can be faked for a photo. If I really want an extra layer of assurance, and if the book is an expensive one, I'd consider asking for a video. Videos can be faked as well, but not nearly as easily as photos. - Talk to the seller on the phone or with video call. This can help provide some assurances. - What's the risk if something goes south? For a $10 item, I only look for a few assurances that a person is legit. For a $1000 item, I look a lot closer at these things to make sure I can trust the seller. - What is their return policy? If they say, "no returns, ever", I'm a lot less likely to buy from them. Any reasonable seller should be willing to accept a return for a legitimate reason, such as undisclosed restoration or damage. Another thing to consider is smaller transactions before larger ones. If somebody has an expensive book you want, try buying something cheaper from them first, and then as they gain your trust you could buy more expensive items. These are just some of the things to look at. I'm sure others will have more suggestions.

Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham, MD First edition, first print, FIRST state with no interior writing, a small piece out of one page, and with a sharp dust jacket. Price: $1600 shipped in the US. I'll consider trades if you have any cool key comics (GA war covers; crime, or horror) or anti-comics items that pique my interest. BOOK DETAILS In summary, this is a complete FIRST state (with bibliography) book with no interior markings, and with a beautiful dust jacket that I added from a different copy of SOTI. FIRST PRINT There are two indicators that this is a first print. 1) The page with publication information contains the colophon ("R" in a circle) that is present only on first prints. 2) The dust jacket does not have the phrase "SECOND PRINTING" at the top of the inner front flap. FIRST STATE The phrase "first state" refers to the fact that the bibliography is present in this copy. All first and second printings of Seduction of the Innocent were printed with a bibliography on the leaf that makes up pages 399-400. Some copies of the book were released with that bibliography intact. However, the bibliography page was removed by the publisher from nearly all first prints and (as near as I can tell) all second prints of this book due to fear of lawsuits from the named comic book publishers. If you look at other first or second printings, you'll typically see a stub where pp. 399-400 used to be. If it were without the bibliography, the book would be referred to as "second state." BOOK CONDITION All 16 pages of illustrations are present. One illustration page has a piece torn off of the corner. All of the 400 other pages are present, including the bibliography. DUST JACKET CONDITION The jacket shows minor wear and looks great. There is some fading of the red text on the spine, which is common with this book. FULL DISCLOSURE: When I bought this book, it had no dust jacket. I took the first print dust jacket from a different copy of SOTI and added it to this one. Because the jacket is not attached and was manufactured completely separately from the book, there is literally no way to know whether particular book and jacket have been paired up for their entire 70-year history. I don't think that a "swapped jacket" would matter to a buyer, and at the same time I feel that disclosure is important. I welcome input on the subject, particularly if your opinion differs from mine.

Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham, MD First edition, first print, second state without dust jacket. Price: $200 + $10 shipping in the US. I'll consider trades if you have any cool comics (GA war covers; crime, or horror) or anti-comics items that pique my interest. BOOK DETAILS This is a complete second state book with extremely minor interior markings, and no dust jacket. A few words are underlined on the second page, and otherwise the book is unmarked. Photos to come, most likely later today. FIRST PRINT The page with publication information contains the colophon ("R" in a circle) that is present only on first prints. SECOND STATE The phrase "second state" refers to the fact that the bibliography is not present in this copy. All first and second printings of Seduction of the Innocent were printed with a bibliography on the leaf that makes up pages 399-400. Some copies were released with that bibliography intact, but the bibliography page was removed by the publisher from nearly all first prints and (as near as I can tell) all second prints of this book due to fear of lawsuits from the named comic book publishers. If you look at this book or other first or second printings, you'll typically see a stub where pp. 399-400 used to be. BOOK CONDITION All 16 pages of illustrations are present. All of the 400 other pages are present, with the exception of the bibliography as noted above. A photocopy of the bibliography will be tipped into this book for your enjoyment. This book was marked by a previous owner with underlining on the page 2.

I have a couple copies of SOTI to offer. WHY SOTI? This book was a major part of the anti-comics crusade of the 1940's and 50's, a crusade that nearly killed the entire comic book industry. From 1948 through at least 1955, Dr. Fredric Wertham spoke out against what he perceived to be the dangers of comic books. He asserted that comic books were significant contributing factors to juvenile delinquency in the US, and he told his tale to reporters, legislators and the public whenever he got the chance. The same week this book was released, the US Senate held hearings into the dangers of comic books. It was pressure from lawmakers and the Senate that led to the adoption of the Comics Code and to the collapse of a huge number of comic book publishers. TERMS in thread trumps any other discussions. Payment by PayPal G&S or (if transaction is in person) cash. No buyers from the naughty lists. Returns accepted within 30 days. I am located in the US. I ship only via fully insured methods, so international shipping will be expensive.

A mystery box is virtually guaranteed to have some stuff in it that you don’t like, don’t care about, and don’t want. There’s also a small chance it could have something worthwhile. My math says “no way”, but you’ll also find collectors who view it differently.