blowout

TOD is my favorite from the list, a consistently great read with some really atmospheric artwork. I must admit though that I haven't read any of the DC horror books so they were out of the running.

Who said that?

I hear ya man, but I don't think its gonna happen, since a given comic's heritage has already been lost (except for maybe a pedigree that could be tracked from owner to owner). Even if a seller says 'NO PRESSING', he doesn't know what the previous 10 owners have done to it. CGC not recognizing it, and the trouble with even detecting it. Good luck there. I'd rather wish for world peace--it's more likely to happen Thats a good point, but disclosure has to start somewhere. We can't do much about the past, but hopefully we can fix these problems in the future.

The important thing to my mind is whether the book's condition was improved as a result of some outside action. I don't even care about that, let people improve their books all they want. All I want to see is FULL DISCLOSURE of any process that has been carried out. Then let the potential buyer decide whether or not they can live with it.

You shouldn't be glorifying flame wars.

You want to be in it? Let me know. Do you actually ASK people if they want to be in it?

Yep, that Medusa covered ASM pops up on eBay quite often in high grade. I think you'll find that generally white covered books are actually EASIER to find in high grade.

It is very interesting to see the match-up between 48 (91 copies) and 49 (10 copies) that is a HUGE spread, much bigger than I would have expected. Maybe others on the board were right and its time we saw a better price equalisation in Overstreet.

91 copies of #48 May seem a lot in comparison (well, it is a lot ) but also depends on how many people want a copy.

Man, this board is like a car wreck; I try to look away, but I'm morbidly fascinated with the ugliness of it all.

COLLECTING COMICS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN Very true B...but unfortunately when big $$$ are involved the fun often goes out the window.

I have been away from the boards for a while so don't really know the full story here. But from what I can gather from this particular thread, Metropolis are behaving in a way that does not befit their status in the hobby.

I'm not sure what you should call ST114,but it should be a must have for every Cap fan. That sounds Key to me. I agree, and have always though of STT #114 as the first SA cap. Sure, Avengers #4 has the re-awakening origin type stuff and is the first SA Steve Rogers. But STT #114 has a Captain America appearance (who cares about his alter ego ) and he is on the cover to boot. A great issue.

I appreciate the mention Bruce, and you sure were right, those 9.8's are real tough. Kudos goes to you also for being one of the most level headed, informative and helpful guys around. Long may it continue, and you can be certain that I am out there looking with you for that elusive IF #1.

Hey Bruce, I TRIED to hook you up with those IF books you needed.

how about the reprints of Batman 608 and 612... they actually seem to have independent value... That is because they have alternative covers, therefore have an added appeal for the collector not found in the original. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing...

Basically reprints are just that, a reproduction of the original, and as such don't carry a back issue premium. Reprints are generally bought by comic books fans as reader copies and are only generally going to be worth cover price or less.

At least you can actually still read the book...

Stan Lee/Steve Ditko/Jack Kirby Roy Thomas Marv Wolfman Frank Miller Walt Simonsen Neil Gaiman Alan Moore

Ditko certainly got the ball rolling, but Romita's art gave the book a jazzier look and far more accessibility. I certainly agree that Romita's art was far more 'accessible' to the masses as he gave Spidey a much more heroic look. I personally feel that Ditko's art was much truer to the concept of the akward, everyman hero that Spider-Man was always meant to be.

I was arguing this in the Polls forum that it was Romita who has a heavier influence over Ditko in terms of how Spide and his cast are done today. Nah.....Romita may have had a bigger influence on the 70's and to a lesser extent 80's Spidey artists, but the newer breed like McFarlane, Bagley and Romita Jr. all take their cues from Ditko.

As has been said before some artist work varies greatly over their career, so here are my favourites and the things they did best. (in no particular order) Steve Ditko (Spider-Man & Doctor Strange) John Romita Sr. (Spider-Man) Jack Kirby (Thor & FF) Jim Streranko (Nick Fury/ covers particularly) John Byrne (X-Men & Iron Fist)

with regards to it being a 608 variant, 608 is definitely a modern key It is a hot, hype driven book. This is very different from being a 'key'. A book attains key issue status by being the subject of collector demand/ interest for a prolonged period. This book may well become a 'key' in years to come, but certainly cannot be classed as one while riding the hype machine.

I say IF things happen in a certain way, these 200 will be worth having. But one of the conditions I stated will DEFINITELY be true for this book that cannot be said for all these others you mentioned: BATMAN will still be published/exist 10 years from now. I accept what you are saying, and certainly this book will hold some kind of premium value over the regular version. What I do not agree with is the concept of printing 'special' books with the sole purpose of them being resold for vastly inflated prices.

but this argument of there being thousands of copies dosen't fly. There are hundreds of thousands of EVERY Amazing Spider-Man issue, so by your logic why pay for a high grade when there are so many lowgrades? After all, the comic is the same right? The key difference being that a high grade ASM etc is very collectable and comands a premium, as to achive such status the book has had to survive the ravages of time. Careful storage and handling have made these books tough to come by. A true premium item. A modern variant on the other hand rolled of the printing presses yesterday. Difficulty level detemined only by when the printer pressed the stop button. Now you tell me again that your analogy makes sense. As far as comparing this book to 70's price variants again this is flawed. The price variants were released as a marketing exercise and did not become collectable for many years. They have become collectable mainly for their historical significance IMO. This Batman retailer incentive book is clearly aimed at gready dealers and speculators and can be directly compared to the Gold Logo Valiant/ Image incentive books of the early 90's. And look what happened to those.