divad

Fyi, he now goes by: goldstatus55 (33) and he hasn't changed his spots.

Great analysis Chuck, let me see if I can add anything to that. As a full-on collector by 1974, I had no concept of hoarding or speculating comics. I was addicted to buying them and reading them. I had never bought more than one copy of any issue until just about that time - the summer of 1974. I had just finished my freshman year at college, and resumed my job at the local drugstore. Positioned as I was, I started to stash two copies of every title - one to read and one to put away. Honestly, that had never occurred to me before then. Only in my first year of college did I actually make friends who also collected comics. Before then, it was a purely personal and private pursuit. I certainly did not have any idea that someday they would be worth anything (but to me.) And Hulk 180 and 181 were just another couple of books in The Incredible Hulk run, a character I always liked from the beginning, but frankly, at the time it seem to be dog-paddling. It didn't seem to be relevant in any way, and although not dying, it didn't fly off the shelves. I think the drugstore actually returned copies of both issues to the distributor. IIRC, It also took me a couple of months to get around to reading them. No big deal - Wolverine didn't change my enthusiasm either way for the title. I continued to buy and collect comics through college, and I think the last book I actively bought was in 1979. From there on, I lost focus (because of various life developments) and didn't buy or much look at another title, or look at my collection either for that matter . . . until 1995. So comics were a big part of my life from 11 to 22, but not much after that. In fact, I had moved to California in late 1979, and left my collection at my parents' house. They retired to Florida in '95 and I had to ship a bunch of my stuff out of the house just before the move, including my comic collection. It wasn't until the internet came along to widespread use and eBay popped up that I took notice of what books were selling for - 6 years later in 2001. I saw copies of of IH 181 selling for upwards of $1,800 on eBay. YIKES! I knew I had at least one copy of the book from my hand-written inventory of my collection. My daughter was born in 2000, and to say the least we needed a little extra cash, so I went down to the "basement" (which wasn't really a basement because it was a California house) and pulled out a big old trunk of comics. There were 2 copies of each in plastic bags (no boards). So we cashed in. My wife till says to this day, "Don't you have any more copies of Hulk 181?"

Don't feel bad . . . nobody bought it.

The newsstand guy said, "You see those shelves there, just give me enough every couple a weeks to keep 'em full."

Do I believe DC printed a million+ copies of FP #1? Absolutely. Without question. Unfortunately, we have no sales data for FP, New Gods, or Mister Miracle. [W]e do have most of the numbers for JO, and they continue the downward trend of the title (though Kirby definitely staved off the losses.) The numbers continued to decline until the title became Superman Family (and then continued to decline.) This is pure speculation. And JO was a dying title (even with Kirby.)

The end has past . . .

I don't know where you got that idea. But, but . . . LB - Where were you in 1976?

The ULTIMATE thread revival.

I've been under the weather . . .

Love the avatar!

Oh yeah baby, oh yeah . . .

Now, now bubba, go find yourself an avatar and come back with both barrels loaded! btw, about the same

yeah, and you had use a rotary phone . . .

Who the he-double-L cares about graders' notes on the books they submitted themselves. Hey-zoos kree-stos, you had them in hand before you submitted them. The only books I'd want graders' notes on are books I was considering buying. I don't play the game anymore.

Obviously, the rules need to be tweaked / expanded, but we do need some kind of limiting factor so we are all playing without unique market advantages . . . Thoughts anyone? Or just scrap the idea as another dud.?

Didn't know 24 was tough (runs to garage)

please delete

Godzilla 23 has an Avengers cover and crossover story, and is quite scarce, particularly in grade.

Especially when the better book to own (from the character perspective) is this one:

A collection I picked up in Napa many years ago, was advertised as "all 80s and 90s books, possibly every JLA issue printed" during those decades. Nobody even looked at it. The guy started at $2100 - I didn't bother going - too vague, I thought, or all junk. He came down to $900. Wth, I said and took a rental car up to look at them (the family car had just died and I was shopping for a new one.) Spent less than a half hour assessing them and then told him I'd take them all (for less.) He kept bringing out boxes I hadn't even seen. The TPBs alone (which I had zero interest in) covered my costs. Total gravy, and I still have over 40-60% of that collection "aging" in Mylar. The only other time I had seen a bigger collection was when Jimbo had brought back half of what we called then, the "Peninsula Collection". Jimbo barely had room for himself in the driver's seat.

I have bought multiple 20-30 longbox collections. Not a one has proved to be a burden. If the HG quality is there, I really don't care what the titles are, as long as they're representative of the collector. The more organized the better, of course. I've had to rebag/mylar them where appropriate, but I love doing it. I am nothing but envious of Dormian. What's the rush to get rid of anything? You going somewhere? Book and titles I thought at the time were just crapola, have turned into silver mines. Whenever you can find a "virgin" collection of any books 20 years old or older - BUY them. Hell, you just made 20 years of storage profit right off the top!