Westy Steve

Payment by Paypal, check or money order. No International shipping. No probation/HOS members. Payment within 3 days please Shipping via USPS X-Men 97 grades out as a VF+ And should press to a 9.0. $90 also X-Men 99 in VF...maybe VF plus. $65. Pages look white to me but I'm no expert. Standard terms apply. First firm commitment in any format takes it. Shipping is included so if you take both books I'll knock $10 off. Pictures follow

Sorry you're baffled. There was no room in our curriculum for Economics...at least not the kind you're referring to.

To answer a question, the Copper books I like are Spidey 300 and TNMT. When I first got back into collecting after a long period of time, those were reasonably priced cool books to seek out and that stuck with me. (Ok,TNMT #1 wasn't cheap). The suggestions put forward are good. I guess I could go for lower grades. I like seeking out eye appeal in lower grades. I've done that with coins, but hadn't considered it for comic books. FWIW, yes, I'm shell shocked, but I don't expect something for nothing. My mode of operations has been to buy things when I get a good deal on them, but when I sell them, I also sell at a good price to facilitate the sale...and it usually evens out OK. When I sell, if I were to have the time to sell for top dollar, then I wouldn't sell. In a way, I have changed genres. I used to collect silver age keys almost exclusively. Now I'm buying Bronze keys. But I have to tell you, seeing the price of certain issues of Bronze Age Batman based almost entirely on the cool cover (not key, not a great story) boggles my mind. You want HOW MUCH for a 7.0 copy? I once bought a nice X-men #1 for that kind of money! Thanks for letting me vent. I enjoy reading your responses. Steve

True fact though...I knew a Mechanical Engineer who ended up getting a Master's degree and working for NASA. Couldn't work on her own car.

Well now you have

Hey guys, Just venting. I like collecting keys, with the exception of accumulating a nice stock of worthless stuff that I like to read. So traditionally, my acquisitions were either $1 or $2 books or nicer key items. I've been doing this a long time, but (dope that I am), I sold off stuff every once in a while to fund other collecting genres. I'm finding I can't afford to collect anymore...at least not the way I used to. I used to collect silver age keys. I enjoyed owning first appearances because it made me feel more connected to my favorite characters. But now, those books are so insanely expensive that I had to shift my focus to bronze age keys, which is the era I grew up with. That's been pretty satisfying. Now it's getting to the point where I feel I can't really afford bronze keys. At least not the books that are important to me in grades that I don't find objectionable. And I feel if I sell something, I can't afford to replace it later. As an example, I put together a nice run of Giant Size X-men 1 to X-men 101. The harder books are more like VF, and the rest in the low 9's. Now that "short set" is worth over $4K. WTH!!! My God, man, I could buy a pretty cool vintage car for that kind of money. Yet, I dare not sell them. Today I'm a 50-something professional engineer, and I find I can't buy books as nice as the ones I was buying back in college. Back then, I felt that I'd be able to buy better books once I got established in my career. Ha! Joke's on me! So, I guess there is copper and modern, but...with no offense intended, with the exception of a couple noteworthy copper books, I just don't connect to that era very well. I'm frustrated! Here's the thing...there isn't a hobby as cool as ours. Our keys are so much more interesting than...say...a key from a coin collection which might be only distinguished by a different date. Our keys are uniquely cool. Trying to figure out what to do next. Sacrifice grade expectations? Steve

Thanks for the opinions. I'm going to press it so I'm really focusing on the paint removing errors. I agree it's a little rough around the top. I was personally thinking 8.5 myself (after the press) I think if my presser works magic maybe it could go 9.0. But I don't think that any higher than that by any stretch. I'd be happy with an 8. I bought it for the cost of a fine so I am happy with the purchase. It's on its way to me now.

I'd like to see them make "variant" issues that were old school comics made from pulp paper and simpler cover art at a reduced price. I'll bet they'd sell a ton of those. Call it a "pulp variant".

Thanks in advance for any opinions. It's a pig in a poke...seller's photos.

On my bigger items, I put price stickers on the back of them.

Going to the bay

That would be a real issue in an earthquake prone area. Alternately, I once had a tree fall on my house and it knocked pictures off the wall everywhere. As for me, I've taken nice color copies and wrapped them around cheap comic books and they were nearly indistinguishable from the originals. I'd personally never hang an expensive original, UV light nor not.

Agree. My God, people here are hammering this film. I'm not a big DC fan personally, but I liked the movie. Didn't know anything about Superman's mustache and didn't notice anything either. I thought Flash provided good comic relief even if it was a little much at times. Loved some of the framed shots of Wonder Woman...a sexy strong character. But the biggest pleasant surprise was Superman. I've never liked Superman because he was always so perfect. But their portrayal was cool. First, genuinely scary, then a hero worth cheering for. I think that's the first time I was moved/interested/happy to see a Superman appearance since I was about 8 years old. We can dissect this movie to death, but to me, it was entertaining. I've seen movies that were more entertaining in the genre, but it got my money and I'm not unhappy I paid to see it.

Saw the movie tonight. I wasn't expecting much based on the ads...I figured it would be very dark and gritty. But two of the characters kept it light, so I liked it more than I thought I would. My conclusion is that the ad campaign was poor, and this film will not fade as fast as most because word of mouth will keep it in the limelight.

This is my 16 y/o daughter's book she is looking to sell for $550. She bought it and had it slabbed herself. PayPal only. CONUS only. Harder to find in higher grade. First "I'll take it" trumps any ongoing private message discussions. First appearance of Hela, Sif, and Balder. Thor gains full use of hammer. FREE SHIPPING

Wish I had the money. I'd be all over this. This book is so seldom found at a decent price.

Yes, yes. Mini Runs. I am putting together a set of Giant Size X-Men 1 through X-Men 101 in higher grade. Yes, there are keys in there, but I was trying to get the core issues of the series when the "New X-Men" were still new and full of possibilities. I like that the series runs from key to key. FWIW, I also collect coins. Mini runs are common there, and are even tracked as accepted registry sets by the slabbing companies. A neat one is the set of silver nickels made during the war years. Mini-runs are awesome. I've considered doing a run of Conan 1 through Conan 10 in 9.4 just for the heck of it. No need to obligate myself to collecting all of them when I can get the TPBs, but still challenging and satisfying to gather them in high grade. Other ideas would be a "best of Neal Adams" set or other artists.

Dang, didn't know. Hope it turns around for you.

Hey guys, I have a friend who has a girlfriend whose Mom has a big Archie Collection. The collection dates back to the late 1950's, and it's original owner. The lady that owns it is well in her 70's and is a completest with the runs organized and cataloged. Anyway, my friend has been selling comics lately with my help, and they are offering the collection to him. All of them are seeking my guidance because they know I'm into comics. My question is about the market for Archies. I know how to identify the keys, and I'm thinking I can look at some Registry sets to get a feel for what's rare in high grade. I'm looking for recommendations here. What's hotter in books from this era? Pep? What else, other than the keys, like first Cheryl Blossom, First Sabrina, etc. should I pay close attention to? I know to look for "sexy" covers and covers that have sexual innuendo. I have a dirtier mind than I should have, so I'm sure I'll be able to spot those. Also, I've heard some of these are in real high grade....read once and carefully filed. How does one make a collection a pedigree? Last, what's a fair price to pay for a collection like this? I am guessing something like 1/3 of ebay prices of individual books? I would think it would have to be low enough to make some money wholesaling portions of the collection to dealers since it's supposed to be a very large collection. I want to be clear that I want to be fair to the seller....very fair. No, I don't have pictures. Only descriptions of the collection.

Cool stuff!

IMHO, you'd want something in high grade, but also something key. So in that price range, I'd recommend something like X-men 101 in a 9.4. While it's true you could get a nice X-men 94 for that money, it wouldn't be as Minty. People forget that a comic that is "Minty" essentially is key because some collectors will only consider high grade specimens. There's a lot going on with that kind of book. I would not go after a comic that is enjoying movie hype because that will dry up. I'd also avoid specific "darlings" that everyone is talking about right now (flavor of the month) because that "conversation hype" can also die out. Buy something minty and well-liked over a long period of time.

Ok, I know that the focus of this thread is about how rare Newsstands were later. And we all know Whitmans are pretty rare. But based on what Marwood is saying (above), book like....say....Spiderman #166 should be hard to find as a Direct (non-Whitman) edition. FWIW, this corresponds to the 30 cent cover price era.

So just to be devil's advocate here, isn't there some kind of solvent that could potentially take off the color touch without ruining the book? Has anyone ever used rubbing alcohol?

Hey folks, Check out my latest pickup. I do love this book! Sellers photo, though I inspected the book in-hand. I think a press will improve it, and I bought it cheap, (which suits me because I'm cheap). My question is how the spine is misaligned. It's like it has spine roll....but more on one side than the bottom, causing the top corner of the front cover and the top corner of the back cover not to meet up properly. Staples are original and haven't been molested. Will pressing re-align this thing? (I promise it's not trimmed). Assuming it will, how do you think it will grade out? This is another one of those books where the back looks near perfect but the cover has issues. I should say that is a marvel chip that is folded under on the right side of the cover. And the left side of the cover is only normal spine stress and wrinkling...you're not seeing any tears in this photo. Thanks, Steve

I hadn't thought of Whitmans. I'm familiar with them, but I was talking about the era where they had the UPC window which was blank or had a character icon in them. Even those were relatively rare. Emphasis on "relatively".