skybolt

Congratulations Ian, I'm very happy for you. Good things come to those who wait.

Great job on FFB's part as well.

By the way Ian, did you have to trade one of your duplicate books to get it, or did you purchase it outright?

I agree with your point on highly sought after books in very low quantities. I'm more concerned with the Gerber 3 to 6 ratings where it's pretty much no-man's land.

The problem with the Gerber ratings is that they don't take the condition of books into factor. For instance, if Book A has approximately 45 existing copies, but most of those were warehouse finds that grade VF and above. However, Book B has 70 existing copies, but only 3 or 4 them are considered HG. If someone is searching for a decent HG copy, then the Gerber guide can be misleading.

That's why I hope someone puts together a guide that rates the "Availability Factor" of a book over the past 10 years. This factor would range from 0 to 10 depending on the number of available copies, how often they show up in the market place, and in what specific grade. If only 30 copies exist of a certain book, but their owners have been hoarding them for the past 15 years, then the average buyer should be aware of that.

If I'm trying to complete a certain GA run in 6.0 and above range (let's say for Batman #60 to #70), and Gerber shows a 5 rating for all these books. Let's say I purchase Issues #60-69 at guide value, but pass on Issue #70 at 1.3X guide. However, I spend the next 2 years looking for a decent copy and it doesn't show up, while the rest of the books seem plentiful. I'd start kicking myself for not having purchased the book back when I had the chance. Perhaps, Gerber was wrong on the number of existing copies for this book, perhaps they were all in low grade, or perhaps the cover is so nice that none of the original owners wants to part with it. With all do respect, all of these scenarios would rate the same for me if I'm trying to complete a run.

An "Availabilty Factor" guide would be much more helpful to the average collector than the Gerber guide.

Sorry for my

Very nice pick up.

Congrats deathlok.

Beautiful book Mark.

Don't be shy about posting any of your books.....the covers are awesome.

Wow, beautiful book with white pages. Looks like a 9.0 to me.

Great looking books gozer.

Love those WWII Captain America covers. Here's mine.

 

Excellent, keep those Timely covers coming.

Here are some Batman covers I've posted in another thread, but this should be their pemanent location:

Hey Skybolt, what Batmans do you have? Are you still collecting?

I own 15 pre 1960 Batmans, but haven't picked one up in over a year. I may go back and collect more, but I'm not sure at this time.

I've posted these books before, but might as well make them permanent on the GA thread above.

Thanks guys. I would say about 50% of all GA covers have some appeal. You really can't go wrong.

Here are a few more mid-grade GA books I haven't posted before.

Here are some Superman covers that I've posted once before in other threads.

I picked up this book about 1.5 years ago. It's the only Green Lantern GA book I own, but I love the cover.

Skybolt, if you ever want to part with that All-Select #3, I'm your guy. VERY cool cover!

Thanks. The strange thing was that Midnightshadow17 posted that book for 6 or 7 straight weeks 2 years ago, and no one would bid his starting price. Finally, he listed it at $999, and I decided to hit the bin. At that time I was only collecting Batmans, but since this book was ranked 2nd on the census (8.0 or 8.5 being the highest), I decided to pull the trigger. I'm glad I did.

If I ever decide to sell it, you're the person I'll contact first.

I've posted most of these before, but this is the right place for them:

Very nice books Mark.

Avengers #273 thru 277 is one of the greatest storylines ever. Pretty much the last really great story to come from that mag too, although I really like The New Avengers.

 

Absolutely. And with John B and Stern doing the art it was fantastic. Hercules getting smashed by the Masters of Evil and then Thor kicking some butt in return was awesome. Actually even the Olympus saga that followed was damn good stuff.

I completely agree. I even liked the Olympus story arc from issues 281 to 285 (Thor with his broken down body vs. Zeus). However, once they switched to Namor searching for his girlfriend in issue #290, the series went down hill from there.

DL: Thanks for the link. That's a great thread. Although, I'm still curious whether the books collected during the war years were collected while the little girl was in an internment camp.

 

Skybolt: I sold the Supes #29 for two reasons. I'm complete on Supes #10-#20, and this was my only issue outside of that range. I tend to be more partial to the Action war covers because they have...well...more "action" in them. Eventually, I'll probably pick up a Supes #23(great cover), but otherwise, my intention is to work backwards from 10-20, not forwards.

 

The other reason is because Metro got in a Fighting Yank #10 CGC 9.0 that I've wanted for A LONG time. One of my favorite Schomburg covers. If you'd like to take a look, I posted it in both the "Have a Cigar" thread here in General, and in "Jeff's Nedors on Parade" in the Golden Age forum.

Thank nearmint. I do love looking at those Superman/Action Comics covers when you list them.

The only early Superman issue I own is #26 in CGC 5.0. I like that war cover as well.

Not to to be nosy nearmint, but why sell that book? I thought you were collecting those Action Comics and Superman covers.

Here's one I recently purchased:

I'm new here and forty-something. It's nice to see lots of younger Golden Age collectors are around. I wish I was 34 again.

Welcome to the boards.

 

 

Fantastic, nice post!

 

What happened to the top edge though?

The book was miscut. Same thing happens at the bottom.