Roger66

FEAR 19 (CGC 9.4) per PM

I have found those who submit to PGX - also swear by them. It is beyond tunnel-vision with some collectors, who are only interested in the assigned numeral on the plastic case and not what might actually be inside and clear as day before their very own eyes.

Send it to CGC - .5 Send it to CBCS perhaps a 1.0 Send it to PGX - easily a 2.0

Limited #'s on the census typically does not translate to value let alone desirability. Sometimes the lack of census #s is due to people not caring enough to grade their raw copies let alone wanting to incur the grading costs. IMO p.s. less than 50 on the census for this inconsequential book

You know that was my initial quick reaction but there are a bunch of low grade CGC copies on eBay now.. and some look fairly nice. Compare those to this. I know you cannot see the interior in a CGC case but it did color my grade call. I don't see this ever hitting a 3.5.

I am leaning towards a 3.0. While a press would help in the appearance for sure - those water stains are going to likely keep it in a 3.0 grade IMO. Also this is a somewhat faded cover, which will also get u a ding in the grade. If the staples have rust, which I cannot tell, then for sure 3.0 and not higher. Regardless it looks solid even with the stains so far as no tears, no chunks out and no pieces missing - def. not a 1.8 or 2.0 as the guy ahead of me stated (my opinion) - actually I looked at the book again (I saw the eBay listing) and I might give this book a lean down to a 2.5 - so perhaps the guy before me and I are not too far apart.

Perhaps move this to a discussion thread and not a sales thread. My 2 cents

Hulk 181 will be 50 years old in 2024. Think about that. Yep it is a very common book with likely over 100,000 copies in circulation counter-balanced by over 10 million man-boys desiring to own it. As long as collecting comics in general remains fashionable and valuable you should never expect this book to do anything but rise. My lousy 2 cents.

I am 1/2 century plus old. I grew up loving tier 1 heroes like Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Wolverine, Justice League, Flash etc. The Eternals, Iron-Fist, Star Wars comics, She Hulk, that other martial artist dude etc - were comics I read, enjoyed and collected too but their huge increase in their valuations has much much more to do with the inaccessibility due to the unaffordability of the 1st tier characters 1st appearances. Please don't tell me all of a sudden a tertiary character's 1st appearance warrants a 400% increase in price in only the span of 6 to 8 months. That has more to do with hype, speculation and hot air then anything real or tangible. Because something is affordable doesn't make it a wise investment IMO. This hobby has a huge mob mentality and like moths drawn to the brightest flame - collectors in general are drawn in droves almost subconsciously so without really thinking in terms of is this really worth this price and maybe I should pass on it? The loss of reason is what I call it. My lousy 2 cents.

"Under-valued" is a highly over-used if not abused word just like when I read someone write in a sale's thread "could use a press." In short everyone is panning for gold in the same river these days (no pun intended). There are no secrets or mysteries to this market. If it is a first appearance then trust me someone is focusing on it as we communicate. The problem remains that most collectors don't want to jump on a book if they see no one else making a move on it. The irony of individual collectors calling out a book publicly as under-valued is they aren't sure themselves if it is truly priced right because otherwise if they believed there own hype - they would buy multiple copies of it first before calling attention to it. Finally no matter what happens to this market by the end of this year or next or in 10 years - I will always hold firm that the greatest keys to own were always the greatest S.A. keys to own from day #1 - i.e. TOS39, AF15, HULK1, SHOWCASE4, BB28 etc etc.. and these IMO very high prices on 1st appearances of SO-SO characters, who until not so long ago were tertiary heroes is where the shaky money lies. My lousy 2 cents.

AF15 goes through cycles - when it is burning hot there are a rash of high sales - some that seem almost insane 6 months ago - a la that chewed up 1.0 for 14k plus . When a collector, who sadly never owned a copy of this iconic key starts feeling deep pangs that it will move further out of reach or the guy who sold his 4.0 too cheap a couple of years ago and wants a copy back - irrationality & lack of perspective takes over and the new market sample becomes skewed because emotions are very high. In short when I see questions like "what is this 2.0 worth now in today's market?" I feel like saying "it's darn worth whatever you're willing to pay for it now." Personally if you don't have a copy and are dying for one - I suggest you wait until the market cools down. History has a way of repeating itself and for AF15 it is only a matter of time before prices cool off somewhat and you can be a responsible buyer as opposed to one who may very well be over-paying in retrospect on a book that is on the major upward slope. Finally.. IF you get great joy from owning a piece of history and perhaps did pay a chunk more than you wanted to - it doesn't matter - as long as you can afford it and have your financial priorities in place. My lousy 2 cents.

Well said.. another great and until recently overlooked Key but in the true lexicon of iconic 10 cent Marvel superhero keys - there are only 2

Regardless of grade it will look lovely in a CGC case. 3.0 with a lean down IMO

"and what’s your guys’ opinion on getting the Wolverine CGC label" - this is really about one's personal taste. IMO it is a one day to be retired gimmick, which cheapens the overall appearance of the book in its' case. Seriously do you need a showy label on a Hulk 181? Nope - the book says it all. Perhaps for those who collect less expensive keys in lower grades and / or enjoy displaying their books on a lighted shelf next to their many dust-gathering statues of their favorite characters - then this is for you . I personally don't display my books. I keep them stored and locked away. 2 each his own in the end. You asked. My lousy 2 cents.

Foxing or tanning has to do with how the comic was stored and / or the impact of the surrounding environment on the paper over time. A book can have a 9.6 appearance on the surface but as most collectors seem to forget tanning or foxing is a justifiable knock on the overall grade even if innocuous looking. A 9.8 really has to be close to how the book possibly looked when it rolled off the printing press. The whole game if you can call it in this hobby is to find the book that escaped all or most of the ravages of time. If we ignored or were ignorant of foxing / tanning (like lots of collectors conveniently do when grading their raw books ) you would suddenly have a huge influx of higher grade books on the top of the census. My lousy 2 cents.

took per PM .. thank you brother

One of only 2 Marvel Super Hero Keys that have a 10 cent cover price. The other one being FF#1. Great Ant Man movies and a truly awesome key from January 1962 (almost 60 years old!) - it seems like forever comic aficionados have been calling this blue chipper under-appreciated, under-valued and over-looked. Perhaps now in today's hyper-inflated-over-hyped-steroid fueled and speculative marketplace this book might see some more juice. I mean seriously would you rather own an ASM300 CGC 9.8 or say TTA27 in say a 5.0 plus? I guess GPA answers that one for you - but it honestly seems wrong. My lousy 2 cents. btw I see this raw copy here being no higher than a 2.0 but a nice 2.0.

I am simply amazed or perhaps I shouldn't be (considering human nature) on how many collectors search for trends based upon what is in fact a tiny snippet of time. For example 3 months for many collectors (esp. flippers) is apparently equivalent to 3 years. The slightest high or low weekly sale or auction hammer sends convulsions through many a collectors mindset - buy - sell - buy - sell. This is a major reason why the market is subject to overt manipulation when for example a non-payer sale occurs on eBay but somehow either gets recorded on GPA and/or a dozen collectors post a video or IG posting about "today's high sale!!!." All in all - trends are best measured with a wider lens and not a close-up. I have said it here before --- this hobby is truly an echo-chamber filled with self-promotion, false flags, over-hype and layered with misinformation and abject denialism. My lousy 2 cents.

Use your personal intuition as opposed to what the mob or think-tank says (even if it is a friendly, loving and earnest mob or tank as here ). When prices spike on books, which were always accessible at significantly lower prices in the recent past it more often indicates a panic mentality and not a scarcity or true worth. Reading these TMNT posts I see more of a sense of regret and got to catch this gravy train than anything else that indicates true increased value. In the end I see these books coming down to earth (not a crash but a gradual descending - sort of like a helium balloon coming down to earth). My 2 cents What causes helium balloons to lose their lift after a day or two? The answer is pretty simple: the helium leaks out. Helium is a very small atom and latex is pretty porous at the scale of a helium atom (if you ever go looking to buy balloons, you will see that there are "helium-grade" balloons, which try to be thicker and less porous).

I will join you on that too.

There is zero blaming the victim here. I am sharing with our close knit comic community my thoughts on a related subject. Life is obviously full of decisions wherein we sacrifice some freedom for security (like wearing a seatbelt), which are broader terms for what I am focusing on which is vigilance and mindfulness. How one chooses to freely live in their world is their choice just like it was my personal choice to reply as I just did.

I am very sorry to hear that. This is part of the reason why I am truly perplexed and dumbfounded when certain collectors show off online their prized goodies, which are often posted on their lighted shelves with their big statues too boot. I remind my friends over and over that you would never go on FB or IG and show off a stack of hundreds, your wife's engagement ring or your bank account ledgers to the public but for some almost child-like reasons we need to brag about our X-MEN 1, ASM300 or some 9.8 Bronze-Age keys to the world - and often the guys who do that have addresses you can track and find. My point being assuming your friend didn't show-off some of his collection - individuals (other than dealers) need to take a big mindful step back and consider what they show online and if there is a chance albeit small that thieves are watching and waiting for a gloater and bragger just like you, who doesn't realize he put a bullseye target on his home and family. Food-4-Thought for the comic collecting community. My 2 cents

Thank you Ryan

There are a ton of common 12 cent comics both Marvel and DC that are really not worth much - your particular book might be a $10 or $20 book but many a collector might not even pay that since today it is all about keys, movie characters and cool covers. Right now you can buy this issue for $159 on ebay in a CGC 9.4, which speaks volumes about lower grade prices for it. Regardless if you love comics and love reading them - a dollar find like this is fun - enjoy my 2 cents https://www.ebay.com/itm/194154305273?hash=item2d347f96f9:g:f0oAAOSwoBRgq6F5

AF15 is the Action Comics #1 of the Silver Age You can always find a copy to buy but the rabid demand makes it explode in price from time to time and this pandemic is certainly one of those times. Comic collectors in general are also like lemmings and often the slightest disturbance in the GPA comic force creates havoc amongst their collective psyches . Another factor, which many individuals forget is the element of time - AF15 hit the newsstand in August 1962, which is almost 59 years ago. So most collectors weren't even born yet and like a fine wine - this comic only gets better. I think anyone who had been sitting on their hands and wallets over the years on this book should feel a legitimate sharp pang of regret and perhaps disgust in not getting their copy when they could've (human nature is often about regret and denial). As far as the up and downward trends of this Uber-Key - if you own a copy or copies you likely don't really care (unless you are a dealer or want another copy) and if you don't own it you can cross your fingers and hope that it might come down a chunk but I wouldn't hold my breath. Regardless only time will tell - only time will tell. my 2-cents