Randall Dowling

First up, Lois Lane 111, former CGC 9.6 White Pages. One of the coolest covers to me as it ,at be the first bondage cover since the comics code was enacted. Maybe not but I love it anyway. Purchased this from Jerry Weist 10 years ago. SOLD! Our Love Story 5, Classic Steranko story, 8.5-9.0. One of the nicer copies I've found. SOLD! Avengers 89, former CGC 9.4 White pages, tough book in grade with a classic Captain Marvel cover. SOLD! Witching Hour 21, former CGC 9.4 White pages Don Rosa Pedigree. Truly beautiful copy. SOLD! Strange Tales 158, 8.0-8.5. Stunning colors and gloss on this copy, looks newsstand fresh. SOLD! Strange Tales 159, 9.0-9.2. Again, shockingly fresh looking copy of a classic cover. Another purchase from Jerry Weist. $220 $110 with discount! Avengers 144, 7.5-8.0 due to a non color breaking corner crease. $60 $30 with discount! That's the first bunch. Certified books up next.

Hello All, It's been a while since I offered books here on the boards but I've got to sell some stuff to help out with my new business. Here's the rules: Payment thru PayPal, shipping is $6 no matter how many books you buy via USPS Priority Mail No HoS or Probation list I'm open to offers (especially package deals) so feel free to pm with questions or offers. However, first in the thread wins. Thanks for looking!

It's interesting that 25 is conspicuously missing from that group. I seem to remember it being sold a while back. Beautiful comics. If I had the money, I'd go after that copy of #7. All the beautiful eye appeal and page quality of a Church book with some minor structural issues for a lot less than the 9.6s and 9.8s. And if I won it, I'd have no qualms about cracking it out.

This is one of my favorite threads on the boards! Really fun watching you collect these cool books, Oakman!! Keep'em coming!

That white St. John cover on Magic Carpet is one of my favorites. Amazing collection!!

I just saw this the other night. It's more than a month old but looks like a new record for price. Glad I got my copy when I did! http://www.ebay.com/itm/TWO-GUN-KID-60-CGC-7-5-MARVEL-Origin-1st-TWO-GUN-KID-Stan-Lee-Jack-Kirby-/351369255901?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51cf3d5bdd&nma=true&si=v1O9XbNmU4Ebpp7yh%252BXyfMazE%252Bo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

There is a crazy good price on Vampirella 3 and a whole set of other Warrens in the Marketplace until tomorrow, for anyone that's interested. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=78&Number=8473829&Searchpage=1&Main=373568&Words=&topic=0&Search=true#Post8473829

I have a Diary Secrets 16 for sale here http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8095638&Board=78&fpart=all&gonew=1#UNREAD for any and all Baker fans / collectors.

X-force 1 and X-men 1 both came out before Robin 1. Bloodshot 1 came out shortly after Robin 1. Chip is right though, it was Silver Surfer 50 that kicked off the gimmick cover craze and the speculation on that book was the beginning of that whole, sad time period. Also, I agree with you- 1400 New Mutants 98 in 9.8 and the price is $400 doesn't even begin to make sense. And there are many, many more out there just waiting to be pressed into additional 9.8 slabs.

Red Harvest is a classic for crime/noir fiction!

I think the most troubling thing about how long pressing has been a "thing" is the number of books that have been pressed and repressed over and over again. Not sure how many people saw that coming.

Gee, I didn't see that one coming and I was actually going to post "someone is going to bring up Spider-man" low-hanging fruit. As we all know, Spidey was gold at Marvel, and just like Batman and Superman, there are no rules with icons like that. Let's spin it the other way, are you really saying that Wolverine was LESS popular than Devil Dinosaur? Using your logic DD must have been way more popular, since he got his own title. Yes, by this logic, the following were more popular than Wolverine: Man from Atlantis Machine Man Human Fly Arion, Lord of Atlantis Power Pack Sisterhood of Steel Void Indigo Booster Gold Omega the Unknown And yes, even Sectaurs! I'm sure that I could compile sales data that would show that all of these had higher sales numbers than the oft stated non-existent Wolverine series of the time. Therefore, they must have been hotter, right? I could also add up all of the sales figures of all of those books and show that more copies of these titles had been sold than UXM, therefore, collectively, they must have been more popular than the X-men, right? What I don't get is why there is such a push to revise history and diminish the success of Wolverine by the guys that weren't collecting comics at that time. Why is it so important to argue against the significance of the biggest modern age character? And by the way, I'm not a huge Wolverine fan today by any means. I don't own Hulk 180-182. And I really disliked the X-men Origins: Wolverine movie. But I still find it silly to argue against his importance and popularity from 1980 on. RMA and Chuck, do you really believe he wasn't that big of a deal in 1983? Why do you think we're telling you otherwise?

You guys and your memories.... Why on earth would Spidey #129 be $10-$15 each in 1982-1983, when you could buy them from Mile High for $2, and nobody cared about Punisher until the mini-series came out in 1985 (and even then it was a slow, steady burn)...? There are multiple ads from the era which show Spidey #129 unbroken, the same price essentially as #125-140, all the way up to 1986. One ad I can understand, but MULTIPLE ads, over years, at the same general price point...? There's a double page Mile High ad in Hulk #271, centerfold, price: $2. Mile High had them, Crestohl/Ross had them, Moondance (I think it was Moondance) had them, I even think J&S had them at one point...all around $1.50-$3, and not broken out at all. Come on! Dude, there's something incredibly funny about quoting the prices in the Mile High ads from that time period. Unless you were a total chump, everybody that collected comics knew that those prices were for "VG or better copies". And that Mile High Comics was a rip off (actually, still is). But you wouldn't know that if you weren't collecting comics then. You preach about using data but you seem to fail to understand that data is only as good as the interpretation. In this case, you insist that your interpretation is superior to the actual recollections of everyone that was there at the time. Fine. Stick to that. It doesn't make you right. But, stick to that. The rest of us were there and remember how things went down.

This statement is completely wrong. Paul Smith didn't take over for nearly 2 years after Byrne left. As you said, sales of X-men picked up around 137 and then steadily increased. By 150, the book was very hot. I'm amazed at how people either have very different recollections or perhaps the dynamics were different in other markets or perhaps they've just been told false bits of information or made conclusions from incomplete information. Whatever the case may be, the distortion of what actually happened can be extreme. To say the X-men didn't become popular until Paul Smith is a joke, as you stated. Not a serious statement of fact. I think the other thing that is confusing is the idea that there was a point when the X-men "exploded". The truth was that the book steadily increased all through out the 80s and a lot of people got into comics because of the X-men. If you were to chart sales of the book the same way you look at stock prices, a 10 year chart from 1980 to 1990 would show minor ups and downs along a very positive trend throughout the decade.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus. I think Wolverine's exposure grew as the X-men's exposure grew. By the late 1970's they were all cool and then each character began to take a life on their own. Byrne probably had the most to do with that. There wasn't much hotter than X-men during that era from what I can remember. Am I remembering it wrong? No, you are correct. In fact, if you remember around that time, any crossover with the X-men took off as well (Marvel Team-ups, Captain Americas, etc.). Prior to the epic Byrne run, X-men appearances were no big deal. There were many of us that knew about the Adams run on X-men in the late 60s and thought it was pretty awesome but the rest of it was really uninteresting. It wasn't until the New X-men matured with Byrne/Claremont that all of the interest in the original X-men kicked in and the team became the coolest thing around. Without question, Wolverine was a key individual component in that dynamic. Much more so than Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee or Storm. Although, Phoenix was the character I was most interested in, especially after reading 131. Still one of my all time favorite memories of reading a comic for the first time as a kid.

Was your TGK 60 like that at all before you sent it? If not, I can totally understand your frustration! Still, great bunch of books, man!

Why did that get deleted??!!

The awesome thing to me about that book is that it's a 9.9 on a Frazetta cover! Very sweet pickup!!

Agreed. I like that notation at the top!

Check out the other Baker prices in this sellers auction. They went for cheap. These uncommon issues attracts the bids. If Ajax Largo's copy of Teen-Age Romances #41 is worth $440, I'm glad I held on to my copy. Maybe the woman on the beach is the day-time alter-ego of Phantom Lady? That would explain the hammer price. I had a copy in almost the exact same condition, I let it go at auction on eBay almost a year ago, and it went for about $65. At the time, I thought that was a fair price. Sometimes I regret a sale. In 2009, the only CGC copy, a 5.5, sold at auction through ComicConnect for $310. Sometimes I don't regret a purchase. Very nice!

Those prices for those grades are very hard to process.

The package came packed well- three great CGC books from this guy and they are all very nice, cases in great shape, pristine and without scratches. Perfect for me to crack out! Thanks, Charles

That Blue Bolt 105 is truly awesome. Nice books!

"Did I give my lips too freely?" What a cover.

That's a great copy of one of my favorite covers!