Ghost Town

Why not name names? It wasn't a secret when it happened and was talked about quite a bit here You know, you are right, but lately I feel like I am walking on eggshells around here. There is so much trolling going on with the Boards lately, lots of nastiness too. Just playing it cautious. BTW, Dave Kapelka is a great guy ! He's one of the true gentlemen of the hobby, that's for sure. Very true. And Dave seems to do a great job finding sweet collections and has for as long as I've been paying attention. When I've been lucky enough to make it into conventions before the general public, I've seen other dealers swarming around his booth many times. It can get pretty messy from what I understand.

I bought the FF #14 and 16 from that list. I remember having to dial in with my 14.4k baud modem to PCE's bulletin board system to see the listings. It was still the Stone Age back then. Shockingly, I still have a copy of the session: Enter the Item Number (or X to Exit) : 15335 Item#:15335 Pub: MVL Sym: FF Title: FANTASTIC FOUR No: 14 ORIGINAL OWNER, SUB-MARINER X-OVER Trade Date: 06/18/99 Publish Date: MAY 1963 Pedigree: OO Restored: CGSA Grade: NM/M 90 Bid:$630 Ask:$700 Sts:BAK MD 1.Off-Center:0 5.Ink Contam :0 Post Manuf Defects (0-5) 2.Spn Split :0 6.Int Pgs Cut:0 9.Arrv Date:0 3.Creases :0 7.Trimmed Pgs:0 10.Dist Mark:0 4.Stpl Place:0 8.Misc :0 Handling Defects: Rng(0-10) Description 11.Tan Cvr (ins/out) 0.0/0.0 12.Tanning Int Pgs 3.0 13.Crs/Impr(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 14.Tears (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 15.Pcs Miss(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 16.Writing (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 17.Stains (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 18.Spine Roll 0.0 19.Cover Detached 0.0 20.Spine Wear 0.0 21.Tape 0.0 22.Original Gloss 0.0 23.Miscellaneous 0.0 << hit any key >> ...hit RETURN for menu... Select an option (1,2,3,4,5,X or ?): 1 Available "Search" Views ------------------------ 1 ==> All Comics 2 ==> Search By Publisher 3 ==> Search By Comic Symbol 4 ==> Search By Title 5 ==> Golden Age (1933-1955) 6 ==> Silver Age (1956-1969) 7 ==> Search By Condition 8 ==> Detailed Info for 1 Item# 9 ==> Specific Comic or Range L ==> Recently Listed Comics T ==> Search By Title/Condition X ==> Exit to Browse Comics Menu Select a view or "?": 8 Enter the Item Number (or X to Exit) : 15337 Item#:15337 Pub: MVL Sym: FF Title: FANTASTIC FOUR No: 16 ORIGINAL OWNER, 1ST ANT-MAN X-OVER Trade Date: 06/18/99 Publish Date: JULY 1963 Pedigree: OO Restored: CGSA Grade: NM++ 88 Bid:$475 Ask:$575 Sts:BAK MD 1.Off-Center:0 5.Ink Contam :0 Post Manuf Defects (0-5) 2.Spn Split :0 6.Int Pgs Cut:0 9.Arrv Date:0 3.Creases :0 7.Trimmed Pgs:0 10.Dist Mark:0 4.Stpl Place:0 8.Misc :0 Handling Defects: Rng(0-10) Description 11.Tan Cvr (ins/out) 0.0/0.0 12.Tanning Int Pgs 3.5 13.Crs/Impr(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 14.Tears (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 15.Pcs Miss(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 16.Writing (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 17.Stains (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 18.Spine Roll 0.0 19.Cover Detached 0.0 20.Spine Wear 0.0 21.Tape 0.0 22.Original Gloss 0.0 23.Miscellaneous 0.0 << hit any key >> ...hit RETURN for menu... Select an option (1,2,3,4,5,X or ?): + Pacific Comic Exchange, Inc. + 1 ==> Browse Comics 2 ==> Want Lists 3 ==> Review My Bids 4 ==> Seller Utilities 5 ==> Buy/Bid/Cancel Bid X ==> Exit (Quit Pacific Comic Exchange) Enter your selection: 1 Available "Search" Views ------------------------ 1 ==> All Comics 2 ==> Search By Publisher 3 ==> Search By Comic Symbol 4 ==> Search By Title 5 ==> Golden Age (1933-1955) 6 ==> Silver Age (1956-1969) 7 ==> Search By Condition 8 ==> Detailed Info for 1 Item# 9 ==> Specific Comic or Range L ==> Recently Listed Comics T ==> Search By Title/Condition X ==> Exit to Browse Comics Menu Select a view or "?": 8 Enter the Item Number (or X to Exit) : 15439 Item#:15439 Pub: MVL Sym: JM Title: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY No: 88 ORIGINAL OWNER Trade Date: 01/01/80 Publish Date: JAN 1963 Pedigree: OO Restored: CGSA Grade: NM++ 88 Bid:$0 Ask:$475 Sts:BAK MD 1.Off-Center:0 5.Ink Contam :0 Post Manuf Defects (0-5) 2.Spn Split :0 6.Int Pgs Cut:0 9.Arrv Date:0 3.Creases :0 7.Trimmed Pgs:0 10.Dist Mark:0 4.Stpl Place:0 8.Misc :0 Handling Defects: Rng(0-10) Description 11.Tan Cvr (ins/out) 0.0/0.0 12.Tanning Int Pgs 3.5 13.Crs/Impr(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 14.Tears (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 15.Pcs Miss(cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 16.Writing (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 17.Stains (cvr/int) 0.0/0.0 18.Spine Roll 0.0 19.Cover Detached 0.0 20.Spine Wear 0.0 21.Tape 0.0 22.Original Gloss 0.0 23.Miscellaneous 0.0 << hit any key >> ...hit RETURN for menu... Select an option (1,2,3,4,5,X or ?): x ...Exiting Pacific Comic Exchange... Please select a letter (P,E,A,X, or ? for menu): x You are about to terminate this telephone connection! Are you sure (Y/N, or R to re-logon)? y Ok, thank you for trading with the PACIFIC COMIC EXCHANGE. Have a nice day... NO CARRIER

Some of the earliest Pacific Coast books might have gotten a "meh" reaction from you too. Some of the earliest books were 8.0s, 8.5s, and the AF #15 was a 6.5. I think that pedigree is still well regarded in the collecting community. I don't know how the rest of the collection will stack up with some other nice Silver Age pedigrees. But I think it's off to a pretty solid start.

For example:

It's a reprint. It's the same situation with some of the Our Love Story books.

Really sharp books, Mitch! And by the way, fellow Picture Frame fans, Mitch (MasterChief) used his powers of persuasion to get this thread stickied to the top of this forum. Now we never have to look far for some Picture Frame goodness. Nice work.

Thanks, I like 'em too.

hard to distinguish between his mistakes and his hits Don't knock this sub. This is one of my best one in years. Your time machine seems to be fully operational again. Sweet, sweet books.

Killer books, Greg. Joe, since Greg got the leftovers, when are we going to see the results of your feast?

You sold some PF's I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say undercopies. Jim I should have known, Only Barton has 9.6 under copies. Hoarder! (Amazing books!)

Beautiful copy of a tough book. There's still not a 9.8 in the census.

You sold some PF's I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say undercopies. Jim Bingo. And it was cash and trade. I scored the sweet 9.8 Subby Annual. And Thomas got a decent replacement copy along with the other books.

Glad they finally got there, Thomas! (FedEx had a hiccup and they were M.I.A. for about 5 days - 5 very kind of distressing days. I know they're just comic books, but still.)

Here you go, Rob:

Some of my favorites:

Wow, Mitch. You've been holding out!

Yup. Same book. You have a good memory. It sat on eBay for months – sky high price and all. Finally took a stab at an offer. Hope to forget the final cost soon. It's not that I have a good memory, I was watching that books on eBay for maybe 2 years. I made what I thought was a very healthy offer through eBay and the seller countered with the tiniest fraction off his list price. I don't think I'm particularly frugal when I see a PF that's on my want list. My offer was still above what I've paid Metropolis for similar Suscha books. And it's not like Metropolis is shy about their pricing. But I kept watching the book hoping the guy would lower his price to just a slightly insane amount. Then the listing ended after all that time. At least I know the book is in good hands and keeping company with a lot of other sweet Picture Frames.

Great books, Mitch! That WMD #14 looks amazing. And if that's the MOTP #20 that was listed on eBay for a long time, I'm glad you got it. And I hope the seller budged on his price some. Even if he didn't, I'm sure you're happy to have the book.

It's interesting how often Stan or whoever had an artist replace the face or head drawn by another artist in this era. Marie Severin replaced Drac's face on this cover. The Dracula cover isn't too terrible, even though I wish they had left it alone. But here's another one with Romita over Colan. It looks like it's Frankensteined together.

Or $4.33 on Amazon.com.

Some keys or semi-keys in your price range in 9.0: Marvel Premiere #1 (Origin Warlock) Tomb of Dracula #1 (First Dracula) Marvel Spotlight #2 (First Werewolf By Night) Avengers #144 (Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat) Avengers #93 (probably not a key or semi-key, but a great book, Adams art, and start of a classic story)