rjpb

#13 guides for $219 in 8.0 and I would think a slabbed copy would sell for at least that - but I would have thought any copy of that book would sell for at least guide, until I bought a raw G/VG on ebay a couple years back for less than half guide. Now a #19 for less than guide would be a true steal.

Sweeeet! I keep wanting to collect the Kirby Sandman Adventures, and posts like this make me ask why I haven't started.

I love Mystics (first series), my favorite Timely short run - unfortunately I own none Schomburg, Kirby, Hitler covers, The Destroyer - great stuff!

One of my favorite titles ever. I read it every month, and have told myself I will read it again from the start when it's done - but I said that about Shade: The Changing Man and still haven't gotten around that. Azzerello & Risso are a fantastic team - I hope they keep working together long after they are finished with 100 Bullets.

One of my faves as well- beautiful copy

Here is the only other Shocking Mystery I have - I love this cover!

That's an excellent price! If I didn't already have a raw copy that I'd grade the same, I'd be all over it. What really hurts is that 9 years ago I paid $500 for it

Shocking Mystery #51 is a classic cover and will probably sell for well over guide in any condition. I paid over guide for this copy 10 or so years ago.

sfilosa, no need to justify collecting high grade - I'm guessing the difficulty in finding what you want has the effect of actually making it affordable to collect HG. If I could wait 3 to 4 months between comic fixes I would consider looking for nicer books myself. Unfortunately , if I go more than a month without adding something to my GA/Atom Age collection I start to get the shakes and begin hallucinating.

Great Shomburg war covers! Does anyone know why Subby was routinely drawn as being 15' tall or larger on these covers - something you almost never see with Cap or Torch. I'm not complaining - the symbolic representations are cool- especially when Subby is wrecking a bridge, or dunking an aircraft carrier, but Schomburg pretty much limited this type of represtation to the Sub-Mariner.

I like it 'Ravenous Jap Tidal Wave" indeed

This Speed #35 is an upgrade from an ultra-low grade copy. It arrived yesterday, a Christmas present to myself. Being the only Black Cat bondage cover by Schomburg it usually runs for a premium over guide. A few years ago it seemed all war-era and earlier Speed's were going for well over guide, and while some earlier issues are somewhat scarce, not all issues are. This was around the same time that Cheslers suddenly became hot. In both cases there are high demand books that will always fetch a premium, but today the bulk of Chesler's output can probably be picked up for around 1/2 guide.

Here is the first of a couple of Speeds I picked up recently, #32 - This scan is for nearmint, who was curious about Harvey Schomburg covers. Although the cover characters are as obscure as Nedor's, Schomburg's covers for Harvey remind me more of Timelys, being generally quite busy. Harvey also made an attempt to tie the covers into the interior by having the two page text piece inside based on the cover action. Harvey seemed to use a slightly paler yellow and pinker flesh tones in coloring the covers than either Nedor or Timely.

Beautiful books! Love that kiss of death cover - a classic!

Did one of you guys pick up that high grade AMERICA MENACED that was on Ebay in the last year? IIRC correctly I think it was listed twice failing to get a bid the first time ( I believe it was listed for around $900 ) It seemed like a fair price for a HG copy of such a rare book, but I had already spent too much money, and rarely spend more than $400 -$500 on a single book (which is why most of my GA is around VG ). I'm sure I will regret not bidding in the long run.

AMERICA MENACED - isn't that an extremely rare DC!!

I'm jealous - I'd like an affordable copies of DEVIL & BLOOD myself.

Excellent Lulu #1. About 10 years ago I passed on an opportunity to buy a VG Lulu#1 at a lcs for $50, and have regretted it since.

Major Kudos to drbanner! for a tightly graded and well packaged Marvel Mystery #36 that arrived yesterday.

Jayman, Those are all in about the same shape as my meager collection of pre-hero books, even low-grade copies aren't dirt cheap anymore

Yeah, WWIII #1 and Atomic War #1 are fantastic books - I'll stick with my VG copies for now, but if I were a high grade collector, I'd be seriously considering the WWIII on ebay - a 9.2 for 150% of guide - I imagine a VG copy could probably sell for 150% of guide.

$350 for a VG sounds less than what these were selling for a couple years back. I seem to remember a raw VG going for $450 on ebay at one point. Even though it is a key pre-code crime book, I don't think it's all that scarce - probably easier to find than LSS#11 or CDNP#24.

Congrats on the excellent grade! While a 9.0 might sell for more than $180, Is This Tomorrow is probably the most available anti-communist comic out there - they must have printed up millions of them. There is likely at least one copy on Ebay at any given time. Compare this to books like America Menaced, Plot to Steal the World and Red Iceberg, comics which rarely seem to appear on Ebay. It is a great piece of propaganda, and no atom age collection should be without one.

I always got the feeling more than a few small time dealers were hobbyists, who if they sold enough to pay for their table they were happy. They really weren't interested in liquidating their stock, because they weren't working too hard to replenish it. I think they liked to feel they were part of some larger dealer community, but lacked the skills to really make a business of it. That they would sell just enough books to warrant paying for a table convinced them that eventually there were buyers out there for all their overpriced stock. Another catagory of dealer is the guy who's bread and butter is selling silver, bronze and modern in bulk, and who has a few GA or pre-code books on the wall, or maybe HG or key SA books, and isn't really interested in cutting a deal on those books as they pull people to the table who might decide to look through the cheap stuff after checking out the wall books.