jlee

A few random giants:

I love this book. And try to find a copy!

 

 

Here's one. And the only one other than yours that I have seen...

 

Great copy Robot Man. It was nice meeting you at Terry's convention.

I have one. Purchased at a NY con several years ago. Right place at the right time.

 

 

 

Very nice John. Definitely right place!

I love this book. And try to find a copy!

 

This is such a great cover and very tough to find. How lucky you are to have found a copy!

Now compare my previous list with this one: my personal Baker Top 10, ranked. Hardly in the same universe.

 

1. Teen-Age Romance 45

2. Cinderella Love 25

3. All Picture All True Love 1

4. Teen-Age Romances 14

5. Giant Comics Editions 15

6. Going Steady 12

7. Pictorial Romances 5

8. Pictorial Romances 17

9. Wartime Romances 12

10. Blue Ribbon 2

 

and, I'd put this St. John Warren King cover over many of the above - Adventures in Romance 1

 

 

Hard to argue with many on the list, but in terms of my 10 favorite Baker romance covers ignoring scarcity and $$ value:in no particular order:

Pictorial Romances 17

Teen-age Romances 11, 13, 18, 33

Cinderella Love 25, 27

Going Steady 11

Wartime Romances 18

Teen-age Temptations 8

Yikes! We left off the list Seven Seas 4, which I think may be my favorite Baker cover.

 

Such a stunning cover and a gorgeous high grade copy. Thanks for sharing!

Have completed a few deals with Brian. He is great to work with and is always fair and honest. Highly recommend him as both a buyer and seller.

What a beautiful looking book. The 4 and the 6 get most of the glory, but I have always appreciated the 5 with the prototypical Baker female pose.

In case anyone happens to be in the area. I myself have never been as it's on the other side of the country, but it is about the only one there is just for paperbacks.

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like it will be a great show. I remember attending one many years ago and seeing some good stuff.

Only 4 !!! St. John in 9.6+ (There seems to be a lone signature 9.8 but that's misclassified in the data).

 

http://cgcdata.com/cgc/search/publisher/:St:John:/label/all/census/160216/censusprior/160216/

 

Canteen Kate # 1

Laurel & Hardy # 2

Texan # 13

True Love Pictorial # 3

 

and only 26 in 9.4.

This is a great view of all the St. John titles. Thanks so much for sharing.

That makes two of us! If we were talking about only Baker romance titles excluding Giant Comics Edition, it would be interesting to see which issue would have the best shot of breaking the 10K barrier.

 

Interesting point. I think both GCE 12 and SS 4 benefit from crossover interest from non-romance collectors. I'm not sure that a Baker book that is strictly romance would break the $10K barrier unless it was, say, an uber-high-grade copy--like a 9.6 or 9.8--of a very scarce book. Even then, I'm not sure how the auction would go.

I haven't checked recently, but I don't recall if there are any CGC 9.6 or 9.8 Baker romance books. I have a CGC 9.2 as my highest graded Baker romance book. My guess is you would need the ultra high grade combined with an iconic cover like a Cinderella Love 25 to break 10K.

I was very surprised at the final price -- maybe I am a little out of touch with the going rate on Baker books.

It is possible that this Heritage Auction was a unique situation as many books went for astronomical prices. I guess folks just love owning the best existing copy and have little price sensitivity for that honor. Of course, that price might encourage a few additional CGC submissions on that book.

Surprised, but not shocked! shocked I say! A great book, unique actually in terms of theme for Baker, and very very very tough to come by in anything approaching grade. I've always considered it a minor grail, along with TAR 45. And after all these years, none on the census till this showed up, and that club is getting smaller and smaller.

 

If I'm not mistaken both Rick Starr and Sqeggs have lesser copies, shall we say, and I wouldn't put it past either of them to go for this one. Nor would I say it's a bad move. If you were committed to a world class Baker collection, this book would be a must have.

 

A bit out of my budget, but expenditures are very relative. These days 2K ain't no big thang.

 

I got my copy many years ago and have seen a few available over the past 15 years. But agree very tough in Fine or better as my copy is definitely not as nice as the Heritage copy. It will be interesting to see how Baker romances do in future auctions as there are many other ones that I could see threaten the 5K barrier like Teen Age Romances 9 and Giant Comics Edition 12.

 

That barrier has already been broken: A GCE 12 CGC 7.0 went for $9,300 in a CLink auction in August 2013.

 

Thanks for the reminder on that one. I guess I should have said 10k!

 

There's a CGC 8.0 copy of GCE 12 out there that would presumably blow through the $10K barrier if it were auctioned. The Seven Seas 4 CGC 9.0 might do the same. There are probably some high-grade copies of other issues as well that would sell above $10K. I wish I owned them!

That makes two of us! If we were talking about only Baker romance titles excluding Giant Comics Edition, it would be interesting to see which issue would have the best shot of breaking the 10K barrier.

Curious if others were as surprised at the final price for the Going Steady 14 in the Heritage Auction. It was a CGC Blue 6.0 and sold for $2270.50 including BP.

 

I know this is a tougher Baker romance book, but I figured this issue would top out at maybe $800-900 as this is not as highly sought after as some of the Cinderella Loves and late issues of Teen-Age Romances.

 

Given some of the crazy prices realized in this auction, is this an outlier or a sign of things to come?

 

 

I considered this issue as an ok, middlin', issue. However, my copy was one of the last Baker romance issues I needed to help nearly complete my Baker romance collection. I am shocked at the final price of this issue. I am happy with my VG+ copy.

John - Sounds like we are both in agreement on this one as not Baker's finest moment. But definitely not the most common book either.

Surprised, but not shocked! shocked I say! A great book, unique actually in terms of theme for Baker, and very very very tough to come by in anything approaching grade. I've always considered it a minor grail, along with TAR 45. And after all these years, none on the census till this showed up, and that club is getting smaller and smaller.

 

If I'm not mistaken both Rick Starr and Sqeggs have lesser copies, shall we say, and I wouldn't put it past either of them to go for this one. Nor would I say it's a bad move. If you were committed to a world class Baker collection, this book would be a must have.

 

A bit out of my budget, but expenditures are very relative. These days 2K ain't no big thang.

 

I got my copy many years ago and have seen a few available over the past 15 years. But agree very tough in Fine or better as my copy is definitely not as nice as the Heritage copy. It will be interesting to see how Baker romances do in future auctions as there are many other ones that I could see threaten the 5K barrier like Teen Age Romances 9 and Giant Comics Edition 12.

 

That barrier has already been broken: A GCE 12 CGC 7.0 went for $9,300 in a CLink auction in August 2013.

Thanks for the reminder on that one. I guess I should have said 10k!

Surprised, but not shocked! shocked I say! A great book, unique actually in terms of theme for Baker, and very very very tough to come by in anything approaching grade. I've always considered it a minor grail, along with TAR 45. And after all these years, none on the census till this showed up, and that club is getting smaller and smaller.

 

If I'm not mistaken both Rick Starr and Sqeggs have lesser copies, shall we say, and I wouldn't put it past either of them to go for this one. Nor would I say it's a bad move. If you were committed to a world class Baker collection, this book would be a must have.

 

A bit out of my budget, but expenditures are very relative. These days 2K ain't no big thang.

I got my copy many years ago and have seen a few available over the past 15 years. But agree very tough in Fine or better as my copy is definitely not as nice as the Heritage copy. It will be interesting to see how Baker romances do in future auctions as there are many other ones that I could see threaten the 5K barrier like Teen Age Romances 9 and Giant Comics Edition 12.

Got a Startling 49 and Brenda Starr 14 from Roger. It was a great pleasure to work with Roger as he was very friendly and fair. He also has a great eye for comics and I look forward to many future deals with Roger.

Curious if others were as surprised at the final price for the Going Steady 14 in the Heritage Auction. It was a CGC Blue 6.0 and sold for $2270.50 including BP.

I know this is a tougher Baker romance book, but I figured this issue would top out at maybe $800-900 as this is not as highly sought after as some of the Cinderella Loves and late issues of Teen-Age Romances.

Given some of the crazy prices realized in this auction, is this an outlier or a sign of things to come?

Bought a Strange Tales 110 and a Fantastic Four 5 from Casey. It was really a great overall transaction. The books were packaged extremely securely and the shipping was super fast. Everything went very smoothly and all I can say is that I am looking forward to more transactions with Casey!

Here's another Avon Western "headlights" cover by Jack Kamen I believe.

 

I have always loved this cover. Cow Puncher is definitely an overlooked GGA series with fantastic covers.

I've been sorting through my paperbacks and decided to update some photos. These are digest books: Diversey, Broadway, Exotic, Ecstasy, Croyden, Cameo, Quarter Books, Venus, Rainbow, Leisure Library, and Archer publishers. Here are some pics. I love these covers.

 

 

Awesome photos. Many thanks for posting them. Unlike a lot of the sci fi guys here, I like these the most. I used to have many of those but sold a lot when they were real hot. I collected them strictly for the covers. I doubt many people here know how hard it is to find most of those...

I definitely understand how hard it is to find them. I have been collecting digests actively for the past 20+ years and the really great covers are super tough to find. And finding them in decent shape is a huge challenge.

I've been sorting through my paperbacks and decided to update some photos. These are digest books: Diversey, Broadway, Exotic, Ecstasy, Croyden, Cameo, Quarter Books, Venus, Rainbow, Leisure Library, and Archer publishers. Here are some pics. I love these covers.

 

What an amazing picture. I love those digests! So underrated and underpriced in my humble opinion.

Here's a weird St. John digest. It appears to have a Baker story inside. Is this a Baker cover? Only one I've ever seen.

 

 

Haven't seen that one before, so I did some poking around. Grand Comics Database has it listed with the cover and a majority of the stories as being by Matt Baker. http://www.comics.org/issue/319820/

 

Interesting. First one I've seen.

 

Added: Just looking at the checklist in The Art of Glamour and they don't list it.

Wow. Never have seen this one before! I believe that is Baker. At a minimum, he contributed some pencils to that cover in my opinion.

"Nancy" sig

 

That is an awesome cover. I have never seen it before. Another one to add to my wantlist.

This one was probably already posted but I cannot remember seeing too many copies of this giant.

 

 

I believe this is the first copy I've ever seen.

 

I've got one too...

 

Great to see another copy. In the last 20 years, I can't recall seeing too many of these.