fantastic_four

If you rank the big four using these criteria: 1. AF15, X-Men (but ONLY due to the strength of the title due to the new X-Men, the concept of mutants, and the strength of Magneto and Professor X as characters, the actual original team members aren't highly relevant today), Fantastic Four, Hulk 2. AF15, Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men 3. (not going to rank the key covers, too subjective, people tend to pick their favorite title or character instead of objectively comparing the artwork) 4. Hulk, Fantastic Four, AF15, X-Men 5. (err...they're all Stan Lee and Kirby/Ditko) 6. AF15, Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men (I'm ranking the origins here--Spidey is most iconic, the gamma accident is popular, "cosmic rays" is a bit hokey as are the powers that Stan mostly ripped off from past DC and Timely characters, and being born with powers is the easiest cop-out origin possible, Stan admitted as much, which is why he went further in developing mutant relationship to society in casting Xavier as Martin Luther King and Magneto as Malcolm X, which turned out to appeal to very few comic readers). If you mix GSX1 into that list, the X-Men are directly trailing AF15, but it's too readily available to approach the Silver keys in price. Had Marvel not lucked out with the new X-Men, then X-Men #1 would be by far the least of the Marvel keys trailing Daredevil, as the early characters and stories weren't popular, which is why the X-Men has the dubious distinction of being Stan Lee's only major title that eventually got cancelled.

I'm missing the DC equivalent of Fantastic Four in this comparison. I can't think of any title that used to be more popular than Batman that it eventually passed, which would have to be the case for it to be comparable to Spidey/FF/X-Men. Having said that, about a decade ago when the first X-Men film came out, I used to think just like you are now. I used to collect X-Men before I ever collected Spidey and FF, it was the first run I ever completed. What I was missing in my thinking is that the original X-Men series wasn't terribly appealling, which is why they eventually cancelled it in the early 1970s. You can't totally hitch the popularity of the new X-Men from the late 1970s and beyond to X-Men #1 from 1963...many collectors don't even buy below X-Men #94. And it's impossible to use the lower market prices on GS X-Men #1 or X-Men #94 as any comparative measure of popularity with the earlier X-Men #1 and think that #1 is far more popular than GS1 or 94 given the comparatively HUGE populations on those mid-Bronze books. If there were as few copies of GS X-Men #1 and X-Men #94 as there are of X-Men #1, then GS1 and 94 would greatly exceed the price of #1, and if that were true, then yes, GS1 and 94 would likely be second behind AF15 and Spidey 1.

Low grade is low grade regardless of title, issue, desirability, or availability.

Yea the scan shows like a 9.0/9.2, I'm guessing there's something not easy to see from a scan. GREAT COPY!

Probably less than when tth last sold it for around $6K...didn't everyone notice after the last ComicLink auction that the Silver market has now crashed?

AAAHHH nice!!!! (thumbs u You get that from the last ComicLink auction? If so, how'd YOU get yours in so fast, paid for with store credit as well?

Ah, the younger "immediate gratification" generation. If me contacting them didn't make stuff all of a sudden get unstuck at least a third of the time with ComicLink, sometimes after weeks of inaction, I'd have given them two weeks...so offa my back, YOU!

They haven't even cashed my check yet, mailed it last Wednesday, actually just sent them an email asking WTF.

Whoa, ultracool Surfer painting, grats!

GRATS! I bet you could have gotten more within a month or two, but hey, you've got a great AF15 to fund.

Neither, until I've done something else first--attempted to place the CGC grade into the context within which the graders themselves weigh the defects. To even start the process, I'd need to see the grade-lowering defects on the lower-graded, higher eye appeal copy; we can't come to a conclusion on the example 6.5 AF15 because we can't see the major defect you described in that scan.

A dark, low-res scan is a far, far cry from a whole. By the way, we're derailing the shinola out of this thread.

Based upon the scans, the bottom copy. Based upon your description, the top copy.

When I mentally compare this book to the Pacific Coast AF15 CGC 6.5, CGC's weight on chipping is consistent; the Pacific Coast book's chipping is definitely twice as bad as this 7.5 on ebay.

I'm about 95% sure CGC doesn't ignore chipping, I think they just didn't weight on it enough on the AF15 we're talking about. The biggest example of this is the Pacific Coast Amazing Fantasy 15, which without chipping would be 9.x, but with it, CGC gave it a 6.5. Here's another bit of evidence, my FF #4; it's got a chipped tear on the right edge to the right of the Thing's knee where the piece is still intact, as well as a second tinier 1/16" tear to the right of his foot. Without it, that book is a 9.4/9.6, but with it, just an 8.5

Put me down for hating chipping, unless it's quite minor. Anything where there are 1/4" or more chunks missing from the side is a book I don't bid on. That AF15 CGC 8.0 that sold on Heritage for a relatively low price recently had a bunch of small chips missing from the right edge, NO idea how that one got 8.0. I can't really tell how many chips the FF #1 in question has, the scan is quite small and VERY fuzzy, but it does appear there's a 1/4" chip missing to the right of the fire hydrant.

I picked up copies of 1, 24, 106, and 114, I'll post scans when they arrive.

Nice book! (thumbs u That's one's tough to find in grade.

What was the apparent grade? Where'd you buy it from?

Call it now--before you actually know the grade!

Got a chance to scan my recent Spidey acquisitions besides the #1:

At least tell us what you THINK it is!

Who doesn't love Hitler dressed up like a smurfy member of the Klu Klux Klan?

Finally got a chance to scan my FF scores from recent months:

This was the first CGC slab I ever bought back in late 2000. Note it's not only an old-style slab, but it's OLD-OLD-style--one of the original CGC cases before they introduced the inner well.