CentaurMan

Sure. I've been crazy busy at work, but I've already done these so it's not a hard cut-and-paste. I will put a caveat out there: These are preliminary. For books with so few available copies, the rankings can get skewed by 1 or 2 additional sightings, and I haven't fully explored all available data sources. But here's the first effort. When I actually start a thread dedicated solely to scarcity, as a repository of all of these rankings, the numbers will likely be a little different. The format is Title, Issue Number, Relative Scarcity Ranking. New Comics......................1................17 New Comics......................2................24 New Comics......................3................28 New Comics......................4................23 New Comics......................5................21 New Comics......................6................21 New Comics......................7................20 New Comics......................8................20 New Comics......................9................14 New Comics......................10..............22 New Comics......................11..............15 New Adventure Comics.....12..............23 New Adventure Comics.....13..............25 New Adventure Comics.....14..............24 New Adventure Comics.....15..............26 New Adventure Comics.....16..............20 New Adventure Comics.....17..............25 New Adventure Comics.....18..............21 New Adventure Comics.....19..............12 New Adventure Comics.....20..............14 New Adventure Comics.....21..............20 New Adventure Comics.....22..............24 New Adventure Comics.....23..............26 New Adventure Comics.....24..............17 New Adventure Comics.....25..............24 New Adventure Comics.....26..............25 New Adventure Comics.....27..............30 New Adventure Comics.....28..............21 New Adventure Comics.....29..............19 New Adventure Comics.....30..............20 New Adventure Comics.....31..............13 As you can see, I think the two toughest books are New Comics #3 and New Adventure #27. Ian's brutal search for New Adventure #26 actually has led to a few copies appearing more recently, and I no longer believe that's the toughest New Adventure. I believe my numbers for New Adventure #13 and #15 are wrong, based on anecdotal comments from knowledgeable collectors, and I'm working to get more data on those. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged. I also want to thank Stephen Fishler for his support for what I'm trying to do and suggestions about how to make the final data more useful. To have a major industry expert like him discussing this project with me was very energizing.

Jjbee2001, my man, you're definitely collecting the right books!!!!

Nice! I like the giant bug on the back wall.

Man, we go almost 4 days without a post in this thread and then we get three great books in a row?? People, spread it out!

Good eye, Ryan! You're right, A-Man's fingers are colored green on the other side of the Nazi gorilla monster's leg. However, that does very little to fix the perspective problems. Here's another Gustavson. Not as egregious, but check out how The Arrow and the guy in the bottom right are grabbing each other. Unlikely. Amazing that, for all the perspective problems, Gustavson's covers still make a great impression me. Great, great coloring on all of these, and great overall concepts, even if the execution is flawed.

Gustavson is known for cool covers marred by distracting perspective problems. Take at look at this Funny Pages and tell me how many things you see wrong with it:

Yup, and similarly, if Metro didn't know Steve was just kidding about all those mean things he said about them, they know now!

Speaking of how great Metro is, here's the book Stephen posted a few pages back: You know what's cooler than Nazi gorilla monsters? Nothing.

Nice book. I don't think anyone balked at that price, actually; rather, I think it was just a matter of who saw it first. Unfortunately for Ryan, it wasn't Rick, Bill, him, or me.

What Tec 27 purchase? Hey we don't all have millions in disposable income, some of us have to make sacrifices to move up into bigger books. I am in that group. I regret every book I sell, or ever sold for that matter! Just a fact of life. But the beauty is, I will get them all back again one day. I always do. I thought you might like the Detective Eye I think you have a pretty good idea of what I was willing to pay for the Detective Eye, you mad sniper. I'll certainly make sure you get your original investment back, if you choose to go that route. But in theory, it's not a super scarce Centaur (although I don't have one, I've seen a few and passed), so if you can make a good bit more than your money back I certainly would hope you'd go that route instead. I'll find one eventually.

Dude, you just got that Detective Eye like 2 months ago! I've regularly seen Bronze and Silver collectors flip books like that, but very rarely GA guys. You still hurting for dough on that 'Tec 27 purchase?

Hi Rick, No need to feel like you let me down!! I appreciate the thought, and the fact you would have shelled out that kind of money so I could get the book. Fact is, I PM'd Stephen a few minutes too late ... literally, a few minutes. I think it went to someone on the boards... I would like to know myself!! $$$$$$$ Anyone taking offers on that book? (Thanks again Rick! ) Ok, I just got back from a 4-day business trip, and have a lot to catch up on. PMs will be responded to over the next day or so. But here are my thoughts on the AMF: Just like Rick, I wish I'd seen the post because I too would've snagged it for you, as would I expect almost every regular on this board (like ciorac, sacentaur, etc), as we all know how much you want the book (not that sacentaur deals with Metro anymore, of course). I imagine someone not super-active in this community picked it up, and I definitely feel bad that you missed out on your book. That said, it wasn't a failure of the want list system. As I understand it, want list matches are sent once a day (typically around midnight), and if the book is added to the system before then, the want list won't trigger at that exact moment. Also, in many, many cases Stephen is able to match a book to a customer based on a pre-existing relationship (and I'm pretty sure he doesn't rely on the automatic want list in those instances). In this case, AMF v2#5 was discussed on these boards many times and he probably figured (correctly) it was the easiest way to get the book to someone who really wanted it without making a lot of phone calls (knowing, for instance, that Jon Berk and I already have one and that Steve doesn't deal with Metro, etc). I do feel badly for you, though. I can't imagine someone appreciating it more than yourself (the same amount, possibly, but not more). Man, you guys post a ton in 4 days! I've got like 800 posts to read in the Golden Age forum alone!

Holy smokes, that's AWESOME dude!!

Some of the preceding 15 issues of All-American are the toughest to find of all early comics. Just like some of the preceding 39 issues of Adventure comics are ridiculously tough. It would make sense that All-American #16 and Adventure #40 would be challenging. Once the superheros in the books caught on, circulation got much better. For instance, here's All-American #13. How often do you see this book?

If you've got those 3 KDF books in your hand, you've pretty much got to call them NM or NM+. At that point, the VF books you used to call NM kind of have to drop in assigned grade by default. And then the FN books you called VF have to drop too. Etc, etc, etc.

Just to keep the 1st three Church KDF's somewhat together in the thread, here's issue #2 (which I originally posted a few weeks ago). I can't stress enough how tight these books are, especially for 1938.

oh god.....gettingdim......i rthink i'm going to have an aneurysm......

That's a VERY tough book. Congrats!!!

Here's my nice All-American #16 (as opposed to my very low grade copy, which I'll post later). I do disagree, however, that it's the rarest of the keys. Even limiting the universe to DC keys (ignoring books like Wonder Comics #1, Silver Streak #1, Feature Comics #27, etc), I believe Adventure #40 is a touch rarer and Detective Comics #1 is clearly rarer. However, it's tougher than 'Tec #27 or Action #1 for sure.

Here's the Church copy to the very first issue of KDF. Thanks to Stephen for brokering this deal between myself and the owner of these early KDF's. I've now got Church copies of the first 3 issues plus 3 later issues. It's funny, because the earliest Church KDF's are in immaculate condition, while the later ones are mid-grade double-slash 2nd hand copies.

As I mentioned before (jokingly), I'm collecting Action Comics in order. But now that I've just gotten this one (to follow my 1 and 2), maybe it's not a joke any more! Who here has a 4 they'd like to sell??

Nice Flame! I need to get me one of those sometime. Here's the Pennsylvania copy of Mystery Men #26:

I love the colors on that book! Very sharp. Good eye!

Not to derail the thread, but here's a recent pick-up. Keen Detective Funnies #10 (3rd issue), Church copy. This was on my short list of "Could end up being the last Centaur I have to find" Centaurs, so I'm thrilled to cross it off.

What the hell, dude, didn't you just get those? Them books aren't made for flipping!