Mr. Zipper

Of course, The Vincent's Collectibles on the bag is the same Vincent Z who is now with Metropolis. I used to buy from Vincent when he was doing the monthly shows at a Holiday Inn in Rockville Centre Long Island. He was a good dealer then (as well as now).

A few more Sgt. Furys. The purple on the 44 really pops. In my collection recently thanks to the good Captain...

I posted this in a western thread, but it was kinda buried. Got this from Metro last month. Gunsmoke #1 Boston Copy. Currently vacationing in Sarasota...

Apparently, mine was the reader copy, and this one was the file copy.

Just arrived yesterday. 2 Green Rivers... not high grade, but nice books.. A BIG thanks to Shin for the fair price and fast shipping! I love the Superman Annual covers No stamp on this one, btw... Thor had a great run of covers in this period

I was going to check this out, but June 5th & 6th Mighty Mini-Con Postponed Mighty MiniCon

My copy of FF 2 had a strong musty smell when I first received it from the dealer, but the smell has dissipated somewhat now that it is being stored under better conditions. I suspect that it was stored in an old box in a damp cellar previously. Despite the smell, it has gorgeous bright inks and soft W/OW pages.... so go figure... I was thinking of sealing it in an air tight box with a bunch of cedar blocks for about a month... perhaps the cedar will absorb the remaining musty smell and leave it cedar fresh. If I do my experiment, I will report back.

I think what you are referring to is what I call "spine crack." (As opposed to crack ) Spine crack is when there is a light crack down the length of the spine where the spine was scored (folded) at the printer. This typically happens on coated (glossy)paperstock. It's worst on thicker weight paper. I don't know how CGC handles this, or if there is a maximum grade allowable - but it is a printing defect and not the result of handling. IMO, it's almost impossible to find certain issues without the crack.

The color touch on my book was powdery... almost like someone took black crayon or pencil dust and lightly rubbed it into the color breaks. It actually looked good at arms length, but at an angle, the reflectivity is different. I rubbed my thumb over the spot, and sure enough, some black easily came off.

Yup. I wish I had know this 10 years ago. Unfortunately, he, his mylars or his prices did not indicate there was any restoration on the books I bought. Both were 7.0 - 7.5 range. So obviously he thought color touches and tear seals weren't worth mentioning on books in these grades.

I have 2 warnings - Rich Muchin - I bought 2 books from him on separate occasions at shows about 10 years ago. Sgt. Fury 1 and Hulk 6. Years later, my more knowledgable eyes have detected that both books are restored with color touches and tear seals. The Hulk 6 is a very sharp 7.0 - 7.5, so I sent it to Matt Wilson to see if he could remove the resto so I could get a blue label. Unfortunately, because it was amateur touches, he could not remove the color touches. Of course, no restoration was disclosed at the time of purchase. Samco1 - I recently bought a few books from him on ebay. Out of 2 books, one book had color touches (a $25 TTA). He accepted a return with no problem, then found another comparable copy and sent me that as a replacement. I can't tell for certain, but I strongly suspect there is a small color touch on this comic as well. Too bad, because it's a gorgeous glossy VF+ otherwise. Not really worth sending to CGC to find out for sure.

I have a large collection of autographs.... believe it or not , I am well known in autograph circles and often called upon to authenticate certain autographs. I have been published in several autograph collecting magazines. My Autograph Website