Dr. Love

I'll keep you company.

that is the funniest thing...staring me right in the face! I wouldn't have caught that by myself in ten thousand years.

Spoiler alert. Remember this book from the March Baker extravaganza? Hammered at $2188. Well this 6.0 is gone from the census. And a new 7.5 (as in new highest graded, in a big way) has been added to the rolls. Exit question: can this book have been pressed/dry cleaned into a 7.5 slab? Don't look at me, it aint my book. If I'm right about this, we'll probably see it soon enough back on the market. Those who got beat out on this one before might get another shot at this uber Baker grail. That's the one problem with going deep pockets for a midgrade copy - with Baker, you never know if all it'll do is drive the higher grade copies, the ones you really want to pay the big bucks for, out from hiding. And then there's always the Mile High Bakers waiting to get slabbed, a matter of when, not if. btw, according to Chuck's catalog, there was no Mile High #25. Most of the Church Cinderella Loves were low grade (vg, even g!). That's no guarantee, but as none of the guys who had access before the public were probably into romance, the odds are there.

Wow. Besides not looking like his work, of course there's no mention of this work for Superior? in Alter Ego. It says he didn't leave St John until mid 1954, and the first assignment he came up with was Lassie 20-22. Email Steve B.

Sqeggs, there is one graded copy of Blue Ribbon #5 - an 8.5. Of course, it's in the census not under Blue Ribbon, nor under Teen-Age Diary Secrets, but under Diary Secrets #5 (which actually began with issue #10). CGC really messed up the data on these three titles. It's been untangled before on various board threads, but I don't have a handy link. That hammer price of $520 was surprising but didn't leave me shocked! shocked I say! There's not a lot of Baker solid mid grade to go around and the back on that book was a whole lot nicer than the majority of the backs on the Bakers that Sparkle has offered since March. Wartime Romances as a title is a nice one. It's themed which most of the other titles can't claim. The earlier issues (1-7) have a fair amount of original Baker; # 3 & 4 are two of only five books in the entire St John run that are all Baker all original art books. On the other hand, starting with #10, Wartime Romances has Baker essentially phoning it in with cover work or cover/one story only. 1952 saw an editorial decision to go with split covers, which I am not a big fan of. Those small panels don't seem a good match for Baker's style at all and they detract from the main panel. Which is a shame, particularly on WR #12, which deserved a larger canvas if any cover ever did. And then St John again made an editorial decision to go for no dialog covers for the most part from 1953 on. No surprise there - romance was dying off quickly and the remaining players were casting about for a successful strategy.

Consider the context. It's 1949, and St. John is looking to muscle in to the newest hottest segment of the business: romance. They're not first to the party, that had already been staked out by Simon & Kirby in 1947. Followed by a direct competitor, Goodman's Timely/Marvel. Then Victor Fox in a totally different wild direction and Fawcett with even a different spin, photo covers of all-american everday couples. In the second half of 1949 the romance output of the industry exploded, it broke records. So St John had to find a way to break in. I don't think it is surprising to see Baker get the go-ahead for an off-color risque take on the beautiful women he was already accomplished at drawing. It wasn't his first romance cover, maybe his 4th or 5th? They were busy finding out what would work for them. btw I think the prostitute angle is established more from the setting than her look, though that's obviously provocative. The streetlamp in that time said sex for hire.

Not the next one, comixnoir, the one after that - 8/15. Also, a 7.5 Reform School Girl is in that auction as well. Both graded within the last 2 weeks, same seller. Makes you wonder what else is sitting in that collection/inventory. We should start an under/over for the GCE 12 based on the last gpa price for the 8.0 from 10/07 of $6848

Baker cover. Baker pencils on the first 8 pg story, "A New Routine". That's it for this issue, but of course there are three other stories by other artists.

Nice. Very nice! All-Picture All-True Love Story 1 Rebounds are always interesting. You never know what you're going to get - could be a Canteen Kate story. True Love Pictorial 4 is a great book. Four Baker stories for a big 41 pages of original art. And I think the cover is the bomb - the composition, framing, perspective, coloring - all of it is first rate. One of my top 20 favorite covers from St John romance. And the only cover with just two women talking to each other and they're friends. The 25 cent Giants from True Love Pictorial (3-5) and Pictorial Romances (17-20) are awesome. Squarebounds - a challenge.

There is one problem with buying scanners off Ebay - and it's a problem that can't be fixed. It's the glass. Sometimes the glass has a scratch or some other defect that can't be fixed, as in cleaned. Sometimes you can't get at the glass, meaning the unit can't be disassembled. Always check for manuals on the unit you're thinking about buying beforehand, or goggle "model number clean glass" or something of the sort. It's a roll of the dice. Even if you hold to reasonable BIN prices with free shipping and 14-30 day no question returns, on Ebay the cost of shipping back if desired will always be on you. The scanners are heavy and the boxes tend to end up being priced by dimensional weight through the Post Office, which is the heaviest method of computing shipping and kicks in when the box > 1 cubic ft (L X W X H > 1728). So if you get the scanner for $25 it could cost you another $50 or more to ship it back. Still, $50 is way less than the same unit would have cost retail when new or what new legal size flatbeds are going for now. If you get a good one on your second try, it's still a win. If the second unit doesn't satisfy, it starts getting closer to a problem. So what's the answer? No free lunch on this one - Ebay entails risk. Craigslist is a better option, where you can examine the unit . Bring a bright light to shine on the glass at different angles. Better yet, plug it in and scan both a white and a black piece of paper before you purchase, if you can. But of course you're very lucky if you can find the model you're looking for - legal size flatbeds are rare - on craigslist. I'm ready to try the HP 7400c lottery myself. Those scans look awesome. My current setup is an old Epson Perfection 1200U for raw and an old Microtek Scanmaker V6UPL legal size for slabs, both of which I love. But I want a backup around just in case - the bulbs wear out over time and cannot be swapped out, at least not easily. And of course the scanner will go out on you just as you're preparing to close a deal and the final thing you need is to send a scan!

True that. Now it looks as if I get to potentially eat certain rash statements I made earlier about the completeness of the Baker Index. Those hands on that Lovelorn #3 cover are Baker hands. The 3rd and 4th fingers "webbed" together, that recognizable pointiness? Now whether Baker drew them or not is one thing...but Baker hands they are! Baker experts?

I wonder if the place he was buying his books didn't stock romance comics? Edgar picked up more than 950 romance books. That's just the approx count from Chuck's Church catalog. As we know, there were many many books, the creme de la creme, distributed before Chuck went to print on the list. The TR #2 & 3 comixnoir mentioned earlier among them - although high grade apparently they were not. What catalog you say? "During the Spring of 1977, we worked feverishly on trying to compiling a catalog of the Church collection. Our job was made a bit easier by the fact that approximately 20% of the books had either been sold by that point, or traded to Jim Payne for his store. That still left us with about 14,000 different issues to individually grade and list, which took an enormous number of man-hours. Then came the task of typing up the pages (on an old manual typewriter, and laying them out on boards that fit the dimensions of THE BUYER'S GUIDE. By the time we finished, the entire catalog came to a stunning 52 full-size tabloid pages. Each page consisted of four typewritten 8 1/2 X 11 sheets, so the total list of comics was quite huge. Below is a reproduction of our 1977 Mile High Comics Catalog as appeared in the Comics Buyer." The amazing thing is not that Church had so much romance - it's that he had so little. In 1949-1951, about 1 out of every 4 comics printed was a romance book, what Michelle Nolan has called the "Romance Glut". No other genre has an example of such extreme market saturation followed by market devastation.

Have any of the Church Baker's been graded? I can't recall seeing one. I'll do a workup on that and get back to you. As far as the Masked Marauder - He's a force majeur. Listen, and understand! That 3 second Sniper is out there! He can't be bargained with. He can't be reasoned with. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until your Baker books are his! Truly, resistance is futile.

BAM Who was that masked man?

That's a good list Shellhead. I wasn't thinking modern but it'll do. I would be very interested as to why some listings make it and others do not. I'll let you know what I find out. I don't know who Blowie is. How odd, and why half eaten? Comix4fun - that's funny, I see myself much the same way. A man out of time! But more James West than those poofs. Anyway, I'm a New Yorker, but from Queens, obviously. Ed - thanks man - do I seem as if I need help with these brutes?

They are always interested in having their clients understand how to get their listings into the Live Auctions links.

True enough ... as my dwindling bank account can attest. I think I need to go on the wagon for a while. Ha! Right after tonight's Pictorial Confessions #3 right my friend? That double cover 9.4 of alana's friend is mighty fine, but a bit steep for a non-key. At least for buyers like us. At least for the moment. But a sweet 7.5 is more what we're talking about, am I right?

Rick - I wish I knew where Sparkle got them from. I think Sqeggs made a previous reference to the consignor doing well, but unless he has some inside info, I'm thinking Sparkle bought them for themselves and slabbed them. Brian S. is pretty aggressive and does well at getting these private stashes out of locked cellars. The bigger question is: will these prices flush out more decent books? I know I'm getting ready to push my inventory to cgc, but they'll stay private...at least for now. Then you've got the inventory from the other Baker collectors on the board - we've seen many of those raw books over the years, mid grade by and large, as your private is. Above and beyond that - there is the Baker raw mother lode waiting in the wings, that which will blow it all away - the Church Baker. At least 20-30 raw books in nm/nm- condition, and maybe another 50 or so raw in varying grades below that. Who's got those? Verzyl?

Ahhh...the desire to show the precious wins out over the hesitation of being seen as gloating or worse...having much disposable income!! Well, less income now. Those Sparkle auctions are pushing the Baker envelope. I don't know whether to thank you guys for making our inventory worth more or cuss you for making Baker unaffordable except in VG! You can't go wrong buying what you love and those are very wise investments as well. Rick I hear you - I've got a line on a TR 38 as well. Sqeggs, I think you've been a busy Baker bee...I feel a blow away group shot isn't long in the making! Andy

No we don't. Of course we do. Indicative is the word I used. Quite appropriately I might add. Dang, you are a rough and ungenerous lot! I reach out and without breaking much of a sweat I find 5 out of 6 that don't make it to sales data, 83%, and it doesn't even represent a speed bump for your already decided point of view? Based on "someone would have noticed it already" and "their service would be worthless if this were true"? No qualifying, no backpedaling, no rear covering, no homework, not an inch of give even when I say I've spoken to GPA? I got to hand it to you Shellhead, you picked the right handle for sure. I hesitate to put the hours in to get a more definitive sample size, but I might...6-10 hours should tell the tale...more work than reward...btw, thank you Sqeggs for the thumbs up. Bio-Rupp - if your listing > 10 days and you want it to show up on GPA's Live Auction Links then you must include the 10 digit certification number in the Ebay listing title. That is definitive and straight from GPA. now...what was that about narcotics?

Sigh. Yes, it is not true as a definitive across the board 100% no exceptions statement. But it is more true than not. I pulled out 5 examples where no cgc in title = no sales data. I had to go through let's say 800 entries to find those. So much for one out of a thousand. But a high enough rate to justify a GPA subscription - especially when you see that it is generally Ebay newbies with little feedback and relatively low value books that have inadequate titles, ie do not have CGC in the title. But the more salient question is: out of the sold listings of cgc books that had no "cgc" in the title field, how many made it into sales data and how many did not? In other words, how comprehensive are GPA's other methods of capturing that data? I found 1 that got in, 5 that did not (of the 800). A small sample set to be sure, but indicative that about 3 out of 4 listings that do not have "cgc" in the title field will not make it into sales data. However, the value of my comments lies more in promoting an understanding of what it takes to appear in GPA's Live Auction Listings, especially for the long term listings.

OK I want to make sure this conversation doesn't get away from me. Meaning I first want to commend you Shellhead - your post gave the "case" a push in the accountability direction on top of the determination of one or two others, Soup got caught dodging again, and then rolled over. So good work! I just knew that your premise was based on somewhat faulty logic and didn't want to see anybody rush to judgement or get embarrassed in the future by not more fully understanding GPA's methodology. So. I know it because I've checked with GPA, and double checked their specs against ebay listings. The reason why GPA captures 99.9% of CGC books sold on Ebay is because the listings almost all have CGC in the title. If they don't, they (a) will not show up on the Live Auctions Links and (b) most probably won't have the sales data captured if they sell. I say most probably because you are correct, GPA has various capture methods. You can check (a) for example by looking up Item # 181112268621, #181112266053, # 111044531382. You can check (b) by looking up globallifeafair's sold Spidey's from 3/16-3/25. Four slabs, none of which made it into sales data. Or dave_48030's XMen #2 which sold on 3/25 but didn't make it into the recordbook. Does it matter? Not so much really - unless you're claiming the irrefutable smoking gun in a particular board matter is no gpa record of a sale. Then it might make a difference. Now this next part is important, because if you're a GPA subscriber, you probably care as much or more about the marketing aspects of having your listings show up in the Live Auctions Links as you do about having your sales data captured. If you have an auction listing that runs greater than a 10 day duration, and many of us are going for the cost effective 30 Day or Good Till Cancelled BIN approach, then even if you have "CGC" in the title it will not show up in the Live Auctions Links unless you have the 10 digit cert # in the title as well. MyComicShop understands this concept well and presents their data accordingly - others not so much. Until recently I did not understand why my long term listings weren't showing up on GPA's site. Now I know. Clarity in this area is beneficial to us all.

I don't know where you heard this, but it isn't true. Yeh, it is. But I'm interested - what conditions do you think drive the capture of sales data by GPA? What do you think they search for and where?

I know this matter is a dead issue. There is one aspect though that needs clarification. It's important that we understand how GPA derives it's reported sales from Ebay, and I would say most of us don't. Though Soup changed his story and so was flushed out, I'm pretty sure the logic Shellhead used above is not necessarily true and didn't necessarily mean at first that Soup was lying. That is, GPA does NOT track all Ebay CGC sales. The critical concept: If the string (or text as most would say) "CGC" is not included in the listing title, the sale data will not be captured. This is my understanding at the moment - I'm seeking confirmation and will get back to you all.

At Atlas that would have been Vinnie "I don't get no respect" Colletta on the inks. Next to Steranko the most interesting man in comics. imho of course