Dr. Love

Lol theres that midwestern humour. Actually the new standards incentivize doing just that - no purple, no real hit on mid grade, which is now 4.5ish. Might as well give those bad boys a haircut for that sweet squarebound look.

the First Law of Pulps - thou shall not disturb the overhang in any way

This. The only thing that I took a real double (triple) take on was the emphatic "we're counting pages". Cumbersome for sure - but dangerous to the product too. Holding onto that right fragile cover edge as you grab the next tannish page by its edge, and that's if it's a trimmed in production product. What if that right edge has overhang - and it mostly will. So the precheck newbie, there to count pages, is pressing down on that overhang while securing each new counted page to that mass under his thumb - and then repeat hundreds of times looking for what? a missing page? a cut coupon? why bother - IT'S SLABBED. Buyers aren't looking to crack them and read them, for goodness sake. Matt acknowledged that, as well he had to - it's all about the cover cover cover. For a well thought out process, this seems way wrong.

The mag box length is 13 3/4" long. With a narrow label it handles the bedsheet. Although 1" box is too deep, at least for this book. I'll be reholdering to get into one of the new tweener slabs.

I know a rhetorical question when I see one! Hey, I built up interest in a niche area of comics. But it took years. And I did it by show and telling about things that I loved. Not by telling people that these items were interesting and had potential.

Actually, I'm not sure. But that's never stopped me before!

The first reason is valid, the second not. If you wish to withhold reporting the sale for tax purposes it makes no difference whether it's the boards, even more private, or HA.

Liked it a lot. I'll watch anything with Fassbender though. It reminded me of why I liked Dexter back in the day.

+ to infinity and beyond

my face says... 123 go I'm trying to pass this kidney stone but...

Lol IBTL3 I like what you say generally, and it's not like I disagree specifically, but I would have to say at this point you're being kind of a troll

Not having read the books, they could have called the movie Bob's Your Uncle and as a generic action movie, fine, even better than fine. But to devoted Lee Child fans it was a betrayal of the first order, and one for which he sort of apologized afterwards. Almost any other aspect of the character could have changed, his sheer physicality, his monumental stature defined everything about him and his existence. Reacher doesnt go down. Ever. That's not just incidental as a plot point, its pivotal, its central to everything that follows. Heck they could have cast Gina Carano as Jane Reacher and it would have worked better than little Tommy Cruise. Anyway, awesome course correction with Ritchson. But even his 6'2" is shy of Reacher's 6'5".

2005 edition on Ebay for $50 2020 edition on Amazon for $150

As you all know, I love this book. Apparently a few others do as well. A long time Ebay romance guy got the win, and a somewhat new to romance collector with a fondness for Ace books was right in the mix. Too bad Dylan was the seller on this one. Don't touch our books, you scoundrel!

Thanks Jack. Bedsheet slab? And I'd like to know the depth of the Amazing Stories 6.5 slab, previous biggest slab was 1" deep. Wonder if a 276 page pulp could fit into something narrower.

And???

comics comics yadda yadda slabbed pulps? we've only been waiting....3 years now? more? cmon guys

Here's my favorite Baker - and it's a Heshka! Like Rick's piece, one of one

+1 USPS Registered supposedly won't lose the box, but good luck collecting 40K if the box gets crushed. I think chances are higher that Santa drops by your house this Xmas with replacement books. CIS is an insurance company. It's what they do, and have for many years, covering many different collectibles. You'll have to take out riders on some of those books, and if something happens provide some comps for value maybe - but you'll get your check.

Not only that, but all the content in #9 is a reprint from #7. Difference being the photocover was replaced by an interior panel as Ron said. The digest Teen-Age Diary Secrets #7 has more original Baker art than any other St. John romance issue.

That's a good question. Depends first on whether youve got coverage eh 20k shipment hope the OP has something to back stop a disaster. You can shake your fist at CGC till the cows come home, in this life stuff happens

the "Wall of War" ah, the smell of Salidas in the morning! "Reading comics, eating pizza" - two activities separated by a swath of time and maybe two townships if I'm not mistaken! And watch out for ink transfer from that big thug on the right!

Congrats, Rick, on your latest purchases. You've got a good eye and great taste, and when you go in, you go in relatively strong. There goes the neighborhood - but in the best way! And congrats to you and the HA team on a fantastic Romance Showcase Auction. Well done. HA has been a forerunner in bringing the romance goods to auction. The Valentine's Showcase Auction from earlier this year set a high bar in terms of slabbed romance - a very diverse offering of 24 publishers, 181 slabs with an average grade and sales price of 5.8 and $534 respectively. Bakers figured prominently, however, with 35 slabs generating 40% of the total $ in romance slab sales. Two huge St. Johns alone accounted for 31% of the total $ in romance slab sales. So, Baker sells - and sells well. This we know. If you back the Bakers out, you get a better picture of the state of the genre in market terms at that time - 23 publishers, 146 books, $254 slab average on an average grade of 6.3. Now it's 8 months later and we just finished the newest Romance Showcase. One in which there was no Baker, none at all. Instead, it was billed as featuring LB Cole. How'd it go? Tightly focused, it involved just 4 publishers - Ace, Atlas, DC, and Star - offered 119 slabs with an average grade of 6.5, so pretty much the same as the Valentine's Showcase in that respect, but averaged $470 in slab sales price. That would be almost double. And this wasn't on huge Cole representation. In fact, with only 13 slabs, the Star portion was the least of the publishers. With a whopping 65 slabs, the biggest chunk was from Atlas. This actually could have been called the Atlas Romance Showcase (including some LB Cole!). And for romance collectors like me - it was a dream come true. Bakers and Coles abound in the census and in the market. PCR (Pre Code Romance, trademark pending!) Atlas, on the other hand - you could wait a quarter century for some of these books to surface (and I have) - in grade, which for romance means 7.0-7.5 - and still have nothing after all that time. And then keep in mind that of the 65 slabs, 75% were the highest in the census, and often the only one in the census. Another 20% were the 2nd highest in the census. That was NOT the case in the Valentine's Showcase, not by a long stretch. And lest I forget, there was a huge grail non-Atlas book in this auction as well - Falling in Love #1, highest graded impossible all black cover 8.0. In fact, this book starts the SA for romance - in fact, according to me and my imaginary friend, it starts the entire Silver Age! Yup, I just said that! Anyway, it was a great two day treat. Hopefully the start of more sweet graded romance to come. But allow a little time to recuperate, please!

Speaking of which @BaltimoreLauren

Back to the Biggest and Baddest of them all. Death and Destruction personified. Not Our Friend - if only we understood it better. Not capable of understanding sign language from a little 10 year old girl. Feels like a slow motion pivot is going on out there.