Westy Steve

Take

I’m in too

One nice early Batman and maybe an Avengers 4 or a Strange Tales 110. But there are a few Numismatic items I’d like too.

I’ve put a lot of time and effort into studying collectibles markets. Doesn’t mean that I know a lot, but it does mean I believe what I say. I’ve found markets work like inch worms climbing a tree. The front of the inch worm, which is the first tier material, is always slowly sliding upwards until demographics don’t support it. Sort of like Howdy Doody collectibles, eventually there was no support for it and even the fist tier Howdy Doody stuff dropped. Comics are nowhere near that…5 year olds want their Spiderman stuff from Walmart. The rest of the inch worm is the second tier (banana) and third (banana) stuff. It constantly plays catch-up to the first tier stuff. Second tier stuff moves in little hops more often . Third banana material is the back of the worm that sometimes backslides but when it does move up, it takes big jumps. As an example, inner city “ghetto” real estate does this in my town…the market has to get really hot for it to move, but when it does, there is a period of gentrification and it just jumps. The rest of the time, there are faded for sale signs. 2nd and third banana stuff backslides in accordance with its pecking order 1st banana almost never backslides. It's important to note that first tier material vs. second material isn’t divided up into eras. Some first tier stuff is golden age, some is silver, and some is modern (TMNT 1) These are the items that all of us want, but it’s damn painful to buy, and sometimes difficult to even find, except for times like these when people lose confidence. Conclusion? Now is the time to buy the stuff you always wanted. Get it while you can find it. Your purchase will be viewed as smart when the 5 year old in the Walmart Toy aisle who wants the Spiderman mask grows up. As for me, I’m focusing on buying a few “big” collectibles here and there, as I can afford them, and even using lay away programs…but I’m buying other genres (like currency and coins). And I’m focusing on trying to find the stuff I’ve always wanted before it’s completely out of reach.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-10-10-0310100335-story.html I think this is it He was a ground breaker

I agree. When I found this book, I looked up the artist to see what else he did. I really wonder if there was miscommunication regarding the type of character Betty is/was supposed to be and there was no time to redo it. She is Forward, yes, but she mostly always dressed conservatively, although she could make a sweater scream in pain.

One more…This Pep made me laugh out loud.

Picked up this Jughead. So much cleavage for an early book and innuendo too!

I also believe The Luther first appeared in Superman 4 if you note the timing of the advertisements, but that’s another topic.

Thank you. Perfect. Then follow this. In the next issue, the cover shows Superman tearing apart a wall/portcullis/jail wall to save a woman who is under duress and trapped inside. In the comic (Issue #5) Superman tears down a steel door to get to bad guys and save Lois. My thought is that Superman 5 is the first cover appearance of Lois, not Action 29 which came months later. I base this on the ads for Batman 1 which was in Supes 5 and showed up in an Action comic before #29. I believe the cover artists often worked on the covers without full details of the story and they were inspired by the plot therein. (And yes, she seems to have Blonde highlights, but we’ve seen Supes without an “S” in early issues too…details weren’t their strong suit when they did the covers independently of the stories, IMHO )

I have a question about Superman #4. On the cover it shows Superman wrecking a building or tearing down columns or something like that. Did anything remotely close to that happen in the story?

If this is the behavior of “tasteful people “, then I’m glad to be a troglodyte. I collect modern age, copper, bronze, silver and golden age because I like comic books. There are modern age books older than the silver age books that were, and still are, grails when I started collecting. Many of the collectors on these forums who collect the most valuable books have treasured books in their collection that they bought off the rack. Don’t be so close-minded.

Interesting. And very helpful information. Thank you. I’ve often Wondered about that. I once bought a collection of golden age war books where the previous owner put tape on the spine for prevention rather than cure. It was amazing what damage the tape did to some of those books over time. Since then I have avoided tape like the plague, however I couldn’t say no to the Superman. Still trying to decide what I will do but conservation is definitely an option. For what it’s worth it appears that the market place values conserve books at around 2/3 the value of unrestored blue label books. So I have a lot of thinking to do. Thanks.

Very interesting and worth considering. Do you have an idea what it would cost, excluding grading? And how does that work? I mean if a private firm conserves it, What prevents CGC from just labeling it as restored and giving it a purple label? Is it the quality of workmanship?

Hey guys, I just worked a deal for this. Says it has tape inside and of course on the cover. Looks like the cover has never been cleaned. What would be the end result if I send it to CGC and asked them to clean it, remove the tape on the outside, and then have it re-graded? Is that something they do? Would they do a good job? Anyone have before and after pictures? Are there better options for me? I got a good price on the book so I can justify spending a little money on it Thanks for any advice.

Bump. I’d love to know the answer to the question above.

When I say, “let me take that out of the bag for you”, I mean it!

Thanks for the picture. That’s a modern grail for sure.

Funny you woke this thread up. Because Daredevil’s show is going to be produced again, and She Hulk is due to be released (and both of them are attorney/legal shows), it has ignited speculation that we will see Jessica Jones again on Disney. So the book has spiked. Unfortunately though, I didn’t buy a very high grade, so I didn’t participate in the spike like I could’ve.

So I advertised for some books recently. Someone answered my ad PUBLICLY with a good lead on a couple of books. And of course they quickly sold…but not to me. This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened to me. I feel some people read want to buy ads, or they see someone’s collecting theme and say to themselves, “those are cool, I’m going to do that!” The only way to avoid unwelcome competition is to keep your collection theme secret. Especially when you’re looking for golden age books because often times there are only a few dozen graded examples or less. So without divulging what you’re collecting, do you have a secret collection? A genre or theme of books that you’re collecting that you don’t want to advertise?

Because the Hulk is F-ing awesome. That’s why.

Hey guys, I’m thinking about cracking out this book, having it witnessed/signed by the writer, then having it sent to CGC for pressing and grading. Never done it before. Any recommendations? Does it needed to be signed with special ink? How can I safely crack it?

Do you think their font and color scheme is intentionally reminiscent of the Hulk’s?

Thanks to all who replied. I felt like it was more like an 8.0. Based mostly I’m trying to figure out what would keep it out of at least the VF category.

I fell in love with this cover the first time I saw it in the Overstreet color section back in the 1990s. I love that it’s not trying to imitate 1950s science fiction. Instead, it is 1950s science fiction.