tth2

CGC ID eBay ID 14_of_spades 14_of_spades 143ksk 143ksk aardvark88 aardvark88 Aces aceshigh3 AlexH hedgehog60 all4comics all4comics ArAich nowidriveachevy Ares codeares arexcrooke arexcrooke BILL43 SAMURAI-BILL THE_BEYONDER understreet BradleyX2 brad158 bubbagump bubbagump50 bullet123 bullet123 cavecarson cavecarson ckb ckb42 ColossusComics smortensen comicbookguy superbatman60 comicdey comicdey Currin Comics fuquaycomicdan DARTHDIESEL darthdiesel deathlok moocowcomics DiceX revncaer divadrabnud divadrabnud Doiby_Dickles larryw7 drbanner drbanner drice6900 drice6900 drummy drummy DKB kikirae76 dzminn dzminn flink annebarb52 flaming_telepath gwentleaf FlyingDonut flying-donut Foolkiller ? ft88ft88gman gman9991 goldust40 goldust40 greggy greggy hobgoblin khurst34 Jagull ric-belmont jeffreykli jeffreykli jbud73 ? Jgel re-play klozd24seven klozd24-7 Kramerica marshallluckyscomics MemphisChadBuyingguy55metarog metarog mr_highgrade mr.highgrade mrwoogieman mrwoogieman MyParentsComicsmyparentscomicsnamisgr Namisgr nearmint Action43! nerfherder-3 nerfherder-3 nikos61 brokomics ninanina ? Norinn Radd Dave0126 october_fire october_fire,living_monolith OldGuy OldGuy100 plitch Comixitch r1970d r1970d Red Hook mrsilverage Rhino_Comics Rhino_Comics Rip Grodd Rob Rob9874 rob_react rob_react Rocketeer the_rocketeer! Rube11 Rube11 sborock certifyit shrunkenhead shrunkenhead666 Silver Surfer Orion_orionmystery Solar brettsstuff sterlingcomics sterlingcomics Steve_HOCP Steve_HOCP Stronguy comicbookjeff thanos_oftitan thanos_oftitan tilleycs tilleycs TLC55555 TLC55555 towards2112 towards2112 tth2 tth2 uclapeterg Discountcomics Underdog eredman whomerjay rayp1958 wormboy wormboytt wrcomics wrcollectibles

To avoid that, put the book in a mylite before you put it in, with a board, into a mylar.

All American 16, San Francisco Collection: "NM (except for coupon replaced on back cover)"

Where's the eye rolling emoticon when I need it? Yes Scott, it took me a LONG time to look at the dictionary in my office, look in the dictionary in my neighbor's office, and then to do a google search, scan through the first 2 pages of search results and copy and paste the two items that jumped out at me. 5 minutes? Amazing how much more efficient you get when you're not bilking your clients by the hour.

Keep 'em coming, Harry. I'm just getting more and more blown away by the breadth of your books!

Maybe one of the more technologically adept members can help you out. I'm a real Luddite. How come you can spell "Luddite," but you can't spell " dilemma "? Tim, you are a real enema. Or did I mean to say "enigma"? I can never keep those two straight. Just a tad too much time on your hands, eh? For the first time ever, you may be right. I checked a couple of dictionaries, and then the internet. However, I am not the only person who has been misspelling this word all these years: And from another site:

Thanks for posting these, Adam. You're right about the prices, they must have taken people's breaths away at the time. This is one of the few times I've looked at an old catalogue from pre-CGC times and not cried about missing the screaming bargains.

Maybe one of the more technologically adept members can help you out. I'm a real Luddite.

Beaumonts, great DCs! But I'm having a hard time making out the details, would you mind blowing the scans up a bit more?

I'm like you, I got into SA by reading the Marvel and DC reprints that came out in the 70s. However, although I loved the Marvel stories and was a Marvel zombie for a long time, I loved the DC SA stories too, but never collected them until much later because I just couldn't find them! I guess I really liked the DC stories because they WERE so silly and simple.

Alrighty! I was wondering when some Archies were going to start appearing!

Thanks Harry. And thanks for the MGAs! I've said it before but it bears repeating, the breadth of your collection is really fantastic.

Hawaii, Hollywood, Mexico... These issues bring back some great memories. All of my copies (or perhaps I should say my sister's copies) were reprints, of course, although the Mexico reprint was from the 60s, I think, which we picked up in some second-hand store somewhere. Joe, what are the dates of these travel Giants?

It's where the gas goes in?

Thanks Harry, it's always better having an actual eye witness than just relying on second hand accounts. Your point about FF and the Marvels jumping out at you for being different is really interesting, as it fits in with the accepted history of SA. I've just always wondered whether that was a case of revisionist history "created" by Marvel to fit the facts, or whether there really was an epiphany-like difference that jumped out to readers at the time. From your post, it would appear to be the latter. Although you were never that much into Ironman and Antman, I take it from your post that you DID notice when the "monster" books (AF, JIM, ST, TOS, TTA) switched over to super-heroes. I'd also always wondered whether readers noticed that a change had taken place and went out of their way to buy the "demarcation" issues, or just purchased the first superhero issues as a continuation of their normal buying habits. From what I'm extrapolating from your response, and the fact that TTA 27 (which really was a monster book and not a superhero book) remains so hard to find in HG, my guess is that readers DID notice the difference and as you indicate, started looking for back issues even back in 1961-63 if they had missed a first issue.

Those giant-sizes are fantastic! The Hawaii issue, and the other travel issues, are great stuff, maybe the closest thing there is to a Carl Barks book. My personal favorite travel issue was where he went to Mexico, there was some laugh out funny stuff in there. BTW, is it just me or do some of the covers signed by Hank Ketcham look more like the work of Al Wiseman?

I think at least a few of your early issues would be "investment grade", which historically has been 8.0 and above. I was just kidding. The unspoken part of my joke was that if you slab and sell your books, you should sell them to ME! However, I think it is a chicken and egg thing. Unless some high grade books are sold and generate a splashy price, it's hard to see how a real market would ever develop. This could change if someone came up with a 9.4 early copy, slabbed and sold it at mindblowing prices, which might then cause dealers and such to look deep into the stacks and warehouses. On the other hand, perhaps nothing would still emerge because they truly are rare to non-existent in high grade. Put me in this camp, but I've never picked up any because of the absence of high grade copies. It's a fundamental flaw of mine, I know. I've had a standing order with Mark Wilson for ages for NM early DTMs. He's as good as anyone at finding NM "oddball" books, and he hasn't turned up anything.

Ditto. The goofiness is part of the attraction!

Wow, very cool! Harry, I'm really intrigued by the collecting/buying dynamics that existed at that time and would appreciate if you could try to take us into the mindset of a collector at that particular inflection point. Clearly, you were into SA DCs at that point already, so buying Marvel superheroes wouldn't have been a big jump for you, in terms of genre. Did you already buy pre-hero Marvels, so when FF 1 and other Marvel hero titles started coming out, you were just continuing your buying habits? Or was it something new for you, and if so, what was it that caused you to try out a new title from "that Marvel company"? Or did no one even care about publishers and a superhero book was a superhero book and a cool cover was a cool cover? Clearly you liked the title since you kept buying it for 35 more issues, but did it really stand out to you from DC or was it just another title that you happened to like along with the various DCs that you continued to buy? Inquiring minds want to know! Is my background as a history major showing through? Man, it would be much easier to have asked you all these questions over a few cold ones in SF.

Gorgeous! I wonder if the buyer bought the next issue and kept it in equally good condition?

I think the answer is actually a combination of all of the above. I think there are very few post-GA comics that are truly rare, as long as you don't care about grade. Anyone ever look for early Turoks before Valiant reignited interest in the character in the early 90s? Talk about tough tasks. Then Valiant came out, and suddenly you'd go to a con and find all sorts of Dell and GK Turoks available, although most were relatively low grade. The same thing has happened with Harveys in recent years. I'm convinced that copies of most books exist and can be found, it just takes an economic catalyst. So start with the fact that DTMs are relatively hard to find and are not heavily sought after (currently), so they don't trade very often which makes it hard to determine whether a market exists for them, particularly low grade copies. Then combine that with relatively low prices in the Guide, add the fact that most copies that do surface are relatively low grade, and factor in CGC's slabbing costs and wait time. Looking at it in that context, it's not surprising to me at all that very few get slabbed, because there seems to be little economic incentive to do so. Now, if you were to slab your books, and suppose they came out on average 7.5 or higher , and you sold them and realized prices well above Guide, sufficiently high to compensate for slabbing costs and turn a fair profit, then that might pull some books out of the woodwork as potential sellers realized it was worth it to slab and sell. I guess what I'm saying, Joe, is that in the interest of scientific research, it's your duty to slab and sell these babies! In all seriousness, unless there are a few other pedigree-quality collections out there with Dennises, or there is a treasure trove of file copies (like for Dells and Harveys), there very well may be no or virtually no HG copies. Harvey books have been really hot as of late, but it seems like it was the appearance of HG file copies that really stoked the market. When it was just low grade copies and low prices in the Guide, you hardly ever saw them being traded, discussed or displayed.

Harry, did you buy these at Sid's diner?

With that expression on her face, WW looks like she's doing SOMETHING with that shark, but fighting ain't one of them!

Great books as always, Harry. I love the comment that another forum-ite made, that you're the only one here who actually paid 10 cents for yours!