sirwesker

Several beautiful Spidey keys still available.

I heard that this week and found it interesting as they basically stopped doing second printings after issue 19.

Does anyone on eBay know how to ship comics? I have so many packages arrive with almost no packing material and in huge boxes. I just dont get it. If you pack something up, and you shake the box and can hear or feel movement, you did it wrong. How do people expect stuff to arrive undamaged? Am I the only one who constantly experiences this? I feel snake bitten.

Yeah. I wasn't over the fallout from 53 yet, and this one was just a real kick in the nutsack.

Regardless of laziness, that's just some bad editorial work also.

Annual 1 sold!

6, 39 and 40 sold!

Burnham is awesome, but I'm pretty much a pass on anything written by Kirkman.

Have a selection of key Amazing Spiderman books in high CGC grade. No probies or HOSers. 1st unconditional takes it. PMs and questions also welcome. Paypal, check, money order all welcome. LAST BOOK LEFT, Price Reduced! #122 - death of the Green Goblin, 8.0 white pages, was $275 now $249 plus 14 priority shipping. #6 - 1st Lizard, 7.0 OW/W pages - SOLD Annual 1 - 1st Sinister Six, 7.0 OW pages - SOLD #31 - 1st Harry Osborn & Gwen Stacy, 7.5 OW pages - SOLD #39 - 1st John Romita art, 8.0 OW/W pages - SOLD #40 - origin of the Green Goblin, 8.0 OW/W pages - SOLD #43 - 1st full Mary Jane & origin of Rhino, 8.0 OW/W pages - SOLD #121 - death of Gwen Stacy, 8.0 OW/W pages - SOLD #129 - 1st Punisher & Jackal, 8.0 white pages - SOLD #194 - 1st Black Cat, 9.4 white pages - SOLD #238 - 1st Hobgoblin, tattooz included, 9.4 white pages - SOLD

To the OP, the incentive variant is largely recognized as a rare, highly sought after variant of #1 that was given exclusively to retailers prior to/at C2E2 in early April of 2012. Because of its release date and its UPC number, there is a small but vocal few who label it only as a third print variant (CGC does not label it this way). This seems to be an attempt to diminish its importance or value, as labeling it this way ignores its unique nature as compared to other generally available variants and printings in the industry. The more you know.

Was it available in stores to the general public or based upon order numbers?

Sure... But who cares, honestly? Hasn't that whole topic been beaten to death?

The third and fourth print are indeed pretty rare, with the fourth print likely being the rarest (with the exception of the incentive variant). Currently there are 27 third print 9.8's, with 5 of those being SS. Currently there are 22 fourth print 9.8's with 2 of those being SS, and 7 9.6's, with 2 of those also being SS. For the most part, raw printings (2-5) of #1 don't seem to carry much value compared to the first print. I don't think they generally ever sell over $50 to 75. All of the value for them seems to be in 9.8 graded copies. I'm trying to remember what I paid for mine. I think my third print 9.8 was about 120 - 150. I splurged a bit to get my fourth print 9.8 because they never come around for sale. I think I spent close to 400 on that, which makes it a bit more valuable than a 9.8 first print.

Its hard to resist those collecting impulses. I totally get it. But its always important to remember first and foremost to enjoy the experience, rather than having it being a chore, even if its just mental. A comic sitting in a bag does nothing for you. Enjoy the experience of opening it and seeing the cover you want to see. It will probably be a freeing experience. We can't take any of these things with us when we go, so just remember to enjoy them. Their value is meaningless over the long term.

Although I will say this, humidity waves are usually vertical, that meaning, you see the waves looking down at the top of the book. These appear to be more horizontal in nature. I wonder if there isn't some pressure inside the well that is misplaced? It almost looks like the waves you would see on the recalled cases from a few years ago.

From what I've seen, and my experiences are admittedly limited, the older cases seem to suffer greater risk of humidity. I've seen labels with significant waviness/rippling that you can tell is clearly due to humidity. I think its because the older shells are not as tight and the inner sleeve and label just sort of sit in there, where with the new case design the label is pressed tight between the hard plastic shell. Whether the book itself is wavy or the inner sleeve is hard to say. It may be the appearance of waves caused by the sleeve warping a bit in places over time, and not being tight enough inside the hard case. It may be the comic itself, as many comics over the past 10 years suffer natural waviness due to the poor paper quality combined with too much ink on the page. I would consider a re-slabbing in the new case to see if that takes care of the problem.

Wow, another dual sign 9.8 just sold for 3,700 yesterday. That I think is the record.

Dual sig 9.8 just sold for 3,050 this morning.

I've been re-reading the ASM series as well and am on #40 actually. The Ditko era was nice from a historical aspect, but there is no denying the series has a dramatic increase in quality with issue 39. The art and storytelling get a huge bump. That first year of Romita is sort of amazing in terms of new storytelling. Instead of all the same old boring street level criminal types, we get the first true Green Goblin story, Rhino, the Lizard, Shocker and Kingpin.

I'll take ASM Annual 6B.

I was able to pick up my #1 universal 7.0 - Rocky Mountain Pedigree for 7,100 about 3 years ago. I'm stunned to see where prices are now.

Looks like ASM 13 is the newest book that speculators have ruined collecting on for a while. I will never understand the increase in price because of a movie for a key silver age book that is collectible in its own right. I can see more obscure characters from the 80's, 90's and more modern. But Spiderman 13? A classic long time villain? Give me a break.

You can't trust anyone on ebay. You can get great deals, but you will inevitably get screwed too.