BassGMan

That's great Andy, surprisingly over the last few months I have also received several undergraded orders from Ebay dealers. People like to complain about overgraders, but if you do your homework, ask some questions, and with a little luck on your side, there are just about the same number of times you can be surprised on the upside as the downside. Some dealers ARE learning out there.

No offense taken Sterl, but I don't really see any of the "we are better collectors because" kind of talk you are referring to. I agree that any kind of comic snobbery or "my way is better than your way" or "my comics are better than your comics" is completely annoying and I'd rather not hear it. BUT, all we are talking about are our own personal buying strategies, what we like to do and not do, how, where and etc. Although I wouldn't buy books like some others buy books, I'm glad there are all kinds of buyers out there. Reason being, that IF you are in it to make money you can weave in and out of the buying low and selling high dealers/collectors. With that said, yes it sounds like I'm doing this for the money. Not so, I'm not getting rich and I'm not paying my mortgage or bills with flipping profits. But I am making enough money to buy more comics. And I buy more comics 'cuz I really love those dang things. Buying them is half the fun and I never turn right around and sell them anyway. They get sold when I move on to new interests and genres. So yeah, making a few bucks is cool, but it is more about the love of comic books than the profit, just nice when you can have both (and easier to justify to the wife all this time and money I spend ).

From Bobcat? I remember that one... Many of bobcat's 9.2s have been 9.6s when coming back from CGC...depends on the defects. My Ghosts #9 9.2 from bobcat should come back from CGC 9.4 or better.... But I agree that's a wild gamble. I used to take overwhelming odds against me years ago; now I am more discerning before pulling the trigger. My wife and pocketbook thanks me. I have never had the opportunity to buy stuff off him. His grading is well known and his auctions always seem to bring CGC prices for raw issues, which I am not going to pay. That's the thing. You can buy for close to slabbed prices from reputable well know accurate grading dealers or you can take your chances and buy from the smaller guys for fractions of FMV and hope to get lucky. I just can't fathom paying FMV slab prices (or anywhere close) for a raw book. Taking into account the overgrading that I have received, I'll stick with the little guys selling books for cheap anyday as I have been lucky many times with that.

Yes, they were a bit better than expected actually. The seller graded the #359 at 6.5 due to some tracing around Batgirl. But that tracing is extremely light and not even noticable unless looking right at it at an angle. I'd grade it a 7.0. Yeah, this first overseas Ebay purchase for me worked out quite nice. Also bought a 'tec #363 from the same guy but I already have a few copies of that issue (2nd B-girl).

Thanks Sterl, I have to say that late Silver/early Bronze Batman rivals my interest in BA horror. I'm getting really pumped on Batman again, and no, not from the movie as I am one of the few that didn't care for it.

And how could I do without this one from the same seller? An impulse buy, great deep purple cover and nice Joker-building.

I've been wanting a nice affordable copy of this book for a while. First Batgirl. Just arrived today.

Nice book John, so it that Swamp Thing or not? Or what came first, the chicken or the egg?

You did make one of the biggest mistakes a modern-day collector can make. If you are buying HG books from a dealer who is not aware of CGC multiples for 9.4 and above books. KEEP QUIET!!! Some people may think this is taking advantage of the dealer. I don't. If somebody wants to sell something and are unaware of it's potential value, why should the buyer be the one to tell him? BUT, this is much different than lying to some old lady and telling her that her old 1940s books are worthless and that you'll buy them for a buck a piece. Apples and oranges. I know somebody would have brought that up.

Sounds like you are collecting many of the same books that some of us are. Check out the BA Batman thread too. Yeah, it's great when you can find dealers selling 9.4-9.8 quality books at the Overstreet 9.2 grade. Unfortunately though these days most dealers are becoming aware of the multiples of that 9.2 grade, so you got lucky in finding that old-schooler. Going to the San Diego or Chicago cons?

Hey, welcome to what many others here would also agree with as the best thread around. Hopefully some computer whiz around here can help you post the scans. It took me a while to figure it out and the FAQ was no help. Certainly if the file is too big it will get rejected. And don't feel as if you have to say something "worthy". Much of what we banter about is just small talk anyway. Any opinions or ideas are cool. What runs or books do you collect and what books are you still looking for?

Definitely. But why can't they be more forgiving on MY books? People on these boards love to pisss and moan about how CGC is tough on their books, but CGC really DOES seem tougher on your stuff from what I have seen. A lot of the 9.0-9.2 books you have posted have baffled me as to why they did not grade higher. Bizarre. Bad luck I guess. That's one of the reasons that I bought so many of Sterling's books including many of his 9.0 pre-grade rejects. Obviously Sterling is only going to be sending in nice looking books, and if they don't make the 9.0 grade for whatever minor reason, they are still bound to have nice eye appeal at the 8.0 or 8.5 grades.

Very interesting Zonk. Thanks for putting up those numbers. It would have been interesting to see how TOD and WBN did in the early 70s as well. At least those books stayed with a consistant page count and only increased in cover price with the rest of the market. Yeah, those thick 100 pagers and Dollar books really screwed up total copies sold. Which is surprising as they are actually a much better value page for page. But to kids in the 70s it was harder to scrape up two quarters, a dime and a few pennies for a 100-pager than it was just a quarter and a few pennies for a 36-pager.

Thanks Zonk. I'm not surprised by that actually. Even though we are only seeing Ghost Rider from Marvel, I'm not surprised that a character driven book outsells horror anthologies. Even today, compare a 2nd tier Marvel or DC character with any kind of anthology by Marvel or DC. I think the character would win in sales in most cases.

Cool, I just won this auction. Not really familiar with it but the price was right and heck.... it's Frazetta! Sorry that this is technically late Siver, but it looks BA to me so here I am. Anyone know anything about these books? Too bad #1 wasn't in the deal. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6542644941&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Thanks to Esquirecomics for a quickly shipped and beautiful copy of Batman #4. The REAL Batman #4.

Funny thing is, before I got into this whole genre about a year and a half ago, I always looked at this DC area as if The Unexpected was the key series. I guess it is just because I'd happened upon issues of that series more than the others. But above that, to me personally 70s horror was always TOD and WBN, so I will assume that for Marvel at least, there's your Coke & Pepsi. But let me ask you this, which series sold more issues at time of publication, WBN & TOD or HOM & HOS? Whichever pair sold more, I'll give the title to the Coke and Pepsi of the overall BA horror genre. And now in 2005, which is the CURRENT C&P of the bronze age? For us Forumites, of course it is the DCs. But including all of comicdom, which are the top two? And for that matter, which was the "Snapple" series for Marvel?

OK, back after THAT little self-induced disruption (damn Runaway skank). I'd say the #1 is an 8.5 on a bad day or a 9.0 on a good day. Nice bright book but showing slight wear around the edges and a few very minor creases on the spine. Not good enough for me to spend the price of an Economy slab and wait three months to get back, so it will eventually be sold raw. 9.2 or above, I'd send it in. The #7 looks about one grade up from the #1. Oh yeah, definitely a good deal on this lot, but believe me, they don't all turn out that way. Regarding selling my BA horror stuff? Anyone that knows me, pretty much knows that everything at one point or another is going to be sold (except for the GA Bats #4 I just bought, gotta AT LEAST keep that one ). Anyway, ever since I got caught up in this BA horror stuff, like around early last year, I've been buying up as much of this stuff as I could find and afford, but only if I thought it was a good deal. I tried to never pay full retail, although there were a few exceptions. Anyway, my plan was to buy undervalued and underpriced books, then ride them up. I also didn't want to just sell a few books here or there along the way. I wanted to give them sufficient time to "mature" while building up a pretty large inventory. My plan all along has been to stop buying after the upcoming San Diego and Chicago cons. Then I get organized and go into full BA horror sell mode. Now, some people may be thinking I may have some hidden HG gems. Not really. I have had some, I get them slabbed up, and sell right away, but those are not the books I have focused on. After all, those are the books that already cost an arm and a leg, and it's harder to find deals on the best books as we all know. Anyway, 90% of my stash is 7.0 to 9.2 books, averaging around the 8.5 to 9.0 area and a little lower on the earliest 70s books. But I have bought most of these for pretty dang cheap. I'll be listing just about everything I have, sold individually one chunk (or run) at a time starting in late August or September. Mostly the usual suspects including all the core BA DC horror books, as well as all the WBN and TOD books. Plenty of dupes in varying grades of most. Although I will help some of you guys (if anyone is interested) fill some of your holes directly, since my initial reason for doing all of this was to have fun AND make a profit, most of the stuff will be going straight to Ebay, but I'll certainly give a heads up here before and during when they are listed. In the meantime, I'm not buying anything else on Ebay as I'm saving my dough for the two big cons coming up. I think after my big selling spree, I may move on to other pastures and dive into the Silver books. I love the BA stuff, but in selling relatively low priced books it takes a long time to raise decent cash. But who knows, I'm just babbling now, I may be stuck here forever as BA horror may just be too cool to move out of. That Silver stuff is so goody-two-shoes anyway. Ya' got the 50s and pre-code goodness, then the mild-mannered 60s, then the good stuff again in the 70s.

Back a little later to answer that question. Caught up now in a special about that damn Runaway bride beyotch on TV. What a psycho. That guy is an insufficiently_thoughtful_person to even consider marrying that psycho. Sorry about the OT, but she is horrorific!

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I wrote about an impulse buy on this thread a week or so ago. For a set of Weird War that I had to act quick on, without thinking, and hit the BIN. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you don't. I definitely won on this one. Seller turned out to be an accurate grader, quick shipper, and even shipped all the books in mylars with nice boards. The latter issues scanned here are definitely gonna make a trip to CGC with some 9.4-9.8 potential.