Jaylam

Spider-Man Gumby or Stretch Armstrong...

Back in 2019 my daughter had to travel to Nashville Tennessee for some training for her new job. I went along with her and one evening after her classes we went out to eat in Brentwood-Franklin and near the restaurant was a comic shop; I believe it was Outer Limits Comics. I told her what a coincidence and that we just had to go in and check it out. Up on their wall they had an Iron Man #1 which immediately caught my eye. I inquired about it, and they said they had just got it in with some other books the day before from a local collector and didn't even have it priced yet. After some back-and-forth negotiations, we finally settled on a price as a package deal with some other lesser value books they had. My daughter still makes fun of me over my excitement of the perfect timing of finding a raw Iron Man #1 in a shop like that on that trip. Here are before and after grading images of the book.

When you submitted the book with them, what did you value it at?

Call ComicConnect and ask them what's going on. It was my understanding from consigning with them before that this buyer's premium is an option for the seller now and they have been offering this feature for a few years now (for lower seller's premiums???), but oddly, nothing is noted about it on their website that I can find. Either way, it's bad optics for them to change something like this after an auction started with no explanation. If could be it was added to the auctions by mistake or was mistakenly left off at the beginning. I have found them to be very straightforward in communications. I believe Rob Reynolds is who you'd want to talk to concerning this as he is the director of consignments that handles the auction listings. Good luck.

You are right, I got the 8.5 first and then was able to pick up the 9.4 for what I thought was a reasonable price, but after comparing them side by side... well it makes it difficult to decide which one I like better. I do have duplicates of other books as well, some for sentimental reasons, some just because I like the presentation and visual appeal of one over the other like in the case of these Iron Man #9's. In most cases though, eventually I will sell off one and set my sights on something else.

By the mid 60's, Flash was an 8 times a year book, 9 if you count the 80 page giants when they started to include them in the regular numbering starting with #160. Issues #107 and #113 did have July cover dates when the book was bi-monthy until they switched to 8 times a year.

Yeah, seems kind of odd that book sold for that considering the last reported sale of a 7.5 was $69. That $152.50 is an all-time high for a copy in that grade which seems like an outlier and goes against the recent trend of a fall back in prices for most books except for a certain few.

As the way books were manufactured in the old days, the color strike could vary through the print run. As the ink begins to run low, the strength of the ink can wane. Also, depending on how the book was stored over the years, that can also affect the ink colors and page quality. I have seen CGC take off on grade because of color fading, like if the book had been exposed to too much light for too long. It is not wise to display your books in the light too much as it will cause the colors to fade, reds usually being affected and fading the worst.

I have to agree with you, I have a hard time telling the difference in visual appeal between an 8.5 and up to a 9.4. I have an Iron man #9 in 8.5 and 9.4 and in hand, the 8.5 seems to have more pop to the colors; the white background is whiter and the colors seem deeper and more vibrant. The only detraction the 8.5 has is a color breaking crease or rub just inside the middle right edge of the cover (just above the top of Iron Man's head). Both have the "White Pages" page quality designation. Part of the difference could also be the 9.4 is in the old-style holder in which the plastic is not as clear as what's used in the newer slabs.

Somehow, after 40,000+ posts, I hope we can all appreciate the humor in this little snippet from SNL. Get a Life! - Bing video

As close as I've got to a comic room.

Always enjoyed this re-imagining of the cover of Batman 181.

Seriously, would you really want those you call "responsible for some of these screw-ups" cooking your food?

Nowadays just an everyday common site on the subway!

I noticed they offer Silver Age bags in both 7 1/8" and 7 1/4" wide sizes. Why the difference? To accommodate the square bound giants better?

This has got to be one of the best double entendre panels from a Romance comic but does anyone know what title and issue it's from?

Lol, yes I did. However, this one is in pretty amazing condition. Looks like the top graded is a 7.5. This one looks close to that. If I remember correctly the back cover looks real clean with a very, very light dust shadow. I was tempted to bid on it, but didn't. There are only 4 graded copies on the census, so this is a rare early issue find. If you end up getting it graded, let us know how it turns out.

Heritage Auctions just put up five absolutely beautiful, 9.6 graded copies of Flash. Issues 150, 151,152, 154 and 157.

I wonder if you can still get that "ice cream"?

So, you are the lucky winning bidder! Congrats. I wondered if you had seen it. I almost sent you a message but figured by the time I saw it, it was probably too late.

For those of you that missed it almost 60 years ago!

Add to that the name of the Challegers character that got the flame and invisibility powers was "Rocky". He was almost the Superskrull!

The only "fatigue" I have is reading the "Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC???" thread. Disappointing and depressing that they can't seem to clean up their act.

Huge run of Brave and the Bold up on Heritage Auctions this week. Almost every issue from #4-85, some in very high grade.

A huge run of Brave and the Bold's have just gone up on Heritage Auctions. Starts at issue 4 and goes all the way up to issue 85 with just a few issues missing here and there. Various grades but some nice high grades are available. Check it out. Here's a link directly to the auction. Heritage Auctions Search, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction 122325 [52 793 794 791 1893 792 2088 4294939450] (ha.com)