VintageComics

It was more or less true. It's why titles were limited until the late 60's and then the big expansion happened.

Their flagship show, Chicago was a complete bust. It started looking like Philly when Philly started going downhill. There were many empty, unsold booths in Chicago which would have been unheard of even last year or two years ago. Philly was comparable to Chicago 10 years ago. It's now a flee market. I suppose if they don't make it it will help other shows as lately there have been waaay too many shows people anyone to keep up.

What's your estimate on it Roy ? 300-350 ? I'd prefer not to share. :-) My point really was that it's easy to throw other people's money around but real bidders don't think that way. It could sell for $400 as that is close to what the last copy sold for (CC in March had a 9.0 go for $395) although I beleived that copy to be upgradeable. And yes, this is the old Voldemart copy that crossed over.

I would be surprised if it sold for $500K. Heck, I'd be surprised if it sold for $400K. Where are you pulling your numbers from?

Like I posted, I believe you're seeing the shadow of the inner well, and not any bend in the top edge. I have a number of examples of comics I've scanned that show this scanner artifact. Agreed. It's VERY possible that it's NOT SCS.

If it's still available.

The story goes that Kirby was upset at not being allowed to draw the Surfer in his own title after creating him. The last issue (#18) was finally given to Kirby to draw - right before it got cancelled. Kirby always envisioned the Surfer as an angry, powerful alien while Stan Lee took him in the direction of the empathetic, tormented, hopelessly romantic philosopher. When you read issue #18 you'll see that Kirby begins to take him in an entirely different direction as a raging alien on the last page - right before it got cancelled. I find it hard to believe Stan didn't know why Kirby left.

that's called the sweet spot. I generally call 7.0 and 7.5 books high grade, because at arm's length they do look high grade. They're definitely not low grade and most of them don't look mid grade. But to each their own.

Shameless plug from the Stormstrooper.

My son went homeless for a few days after leaving his sober living home. As tough as it was we had to tell him either go back or live on the streets. He went back after 4 days and has been sober and doing well for 5 months. Tough things to have do in life- hang in there! I'll add that it doesn't matter what the issue is with children, the principles are the same. We're subjective human beings and as subjective people, we have a general tendency to take what we can get and constantly evolve our needs. As adults you learn to choose better with experience but children don't have that experience. As parents, it's our jobs to teach children their boundaries and those lessons are usually the toughest to teach them but they are also the most rewarding. Giving in to the wrong things will only reinforce to children that they can push those boundaries and exacerbate the issue. Holding your ground and sometimes saying no is the toughest thing I've had to do as a parent, but it really is the difference between good parenting and bad parenting, IMO. Great conversation.

Jim, I took a similar stance on some things with my kids as well. I told them, at some point I will not bail them out of poor decision making and they will have to learn the hard way. It's a tough thing for a parent to do but they need to find their own boundaries on their own or they never will.

@jimjum12 Tough love, but real love. Play the long game, which takes a lot of patience and work but you should be able to make strong inroads. And since you've been through it all, you know exactly what he's going through. Wishing you the best, Jim!

Right, but that wouldn't be specific to any particular grades. Those reasons would eliminate comics of all conditions. Low grade comics were thrown out for an additional reason that isn't applicable to mid and high grades. It's why the population numbers are "middle heavy"... low grade didn't survive the eyeball test as often. Great point.

Or staple and paper drives during WW 2

Doug has consigned nearly $1MIL in books in this auction. There's no facts but it certainly looks like it's Doug. Anybody looking to flip a record price book a few weeks after setting a 'record' winning bid....well, that's tough to swallow.

It depends on why they are thrown out. I would agree that many were thrown out because they were low grade but not all were. My parents threw out comics because they gave me nightmares. Some were thrown out because they were throw away items.

I don't doubt at all that there are high grade GA books to be had. The census is proof of that. But I have to believe that there are in a tiny minority of all the entire population of GA books that are in existence. Sure, they exist in smaller numbers but that is a different discussion than the one about high grade vs. low grade. The highest graded Detective #27 is a 9.2. The nicest Marvel Comics #1 in likely to grade a CGC 9.8. The nicest Cap #1 is a CGC 9.8 So the argument that GA books are high grade at what a SA book is mid grade at is not really a logical discussion. Also, most of the old timers who collect these books will likely also tell you that even if the highest graded copy of a GA book is a VF 4.0, it's still a low or mid-grade book. Being scarce or in limited supply just change it's grade.

There are PLENTY of high grade GA books (some even grade 9.8 or 9.9). They are just tougher to find, but they are out there. The recent Jon Berk CC auction had plenty of NM range GA books in it.

I think it's unrealistic to call a low grade book 'high grade' when it isn't. It might be a 'highest grade available' but it's not high grade. So you'd really need to call it something subjective like 'highest grade available' to be accurate. Otherwise it's illogical.

There's a good reason for that. Values can fluctuate wildly in the highest grades so the small designations become a necessity. For example, a CGC 9.0 book might sell for $5000 but a 9.2 might sell for $10,000 and a 9.4 for $15,000 so just labeling them as 0.5 apart may not be as feasible for the market. Meanwhile the differences in prices are not as large for a 6.5 to 7.0 swing. But don't look at it as 0.2 degrees of separation. Just look at it as separating the top grades into finer increments. You could have separated them by 0.5's if you wanted to but then that would not leave many increments left for the lowest end of the grading scale as the 7 increments from 9.0 to 10.0 would have taken you down to 6.5 if that makes sense. I'm OK with it.

I had bought the book as a keeper at the time so it wasn't for resale. But ultimately, the burden should have laid on the people who the book was stolen from according to what I understand about NYC state law.

More or less my experience. I bought an item that I did not realize was stolen. I am in Canada. When I found out it was stolen, I returned the item to the owner (they are in NY state) and was reimbursed by the owner who was then supposed to track down the thief (they knew who it was) and get reimbursed through legal channels. They unfortunately were unable to track down the thief and so were never reimbursed. They held a grudge against me for taking reimbursement and so to keep the peace, I took the short end of the stick and gave them back their money even though the owners had almost unlimited resources. I was out over $2000. I agree with the principle of dealing with reputable people to minimize risk.

I can show you 7.0 books that look better than some 8.5's - it's going to depend on the book and the defects - that's why I specifically said VF range and not necessarily a particular grade. Grade should be irrelevant of era. High grade is high grade regardless of how old the book is. If a book is a 5.0 or a 6.0 I consider it mid grade even if it's a Tec #27. But being tough in grade, and being a highest grade copy for a tough book (like and early Tec) is an entirely different matter.

Is it? It depends on the book but most people confuse 7.0 or 8.0 books with NM when they start grading. I don't think it's a stretch. The new grading scale of minor increments divided into 0.2's is relatively new. An old school NM often turned out to be a VFish book today.

The one in the current HA auction Right. So the same book that sold in Pedigree for $145,000 a few weeks ago https://www.pedigreecomics.com/auction/comic/059312/showcase-4-cgc-85-w Is up for auction again in Heritage. https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/superhero/showcase-4-the-flash-dc-1956-cgc-vf-85-white-pages/a/7169-91049.s