the landshark

Just a quick thank you to those that have posted since my post of 16th May distilling the last 50 years of my life into about five paragraphs. All comments and advice have been very much appreciated

Could we start again please because we appear to have got off totally on the wrong foot. Before we do start, two important things. 1) I am not a comic dealer. 2) I don't have a Twitter feed because I'm not even on Twitter. Please read this through to the end and it should become clear. I live in the Midlands in the UK. I'm in my early sixties and I grew up with Marvel comics. My interest was sparked when I was 12 and I visited a stall at our local market hall with my brother. The owner had a table on which he put second hand Marvel and DC comics for people to rummage through. My brother bought a copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 there, though he didn't realise what he'd got at the time.and it was rather spoiled anyway by the owner's habit of writing the price in ink on the front cover. This was our first exposure to American comics.Batman had just started on TV over here and my dad's idea of prime time tv wasn't 'people dressed in underpants saving the world' which is what he'd decided all American comics were, so he wouldn't have them in the house and we had to sneak them in.It wasn't until a year or so later that English comics appeared which included reprints of some of the early Marvel stories and these for some reason he didn't seem to mind. I always preferred Marvel to DC. When I was 13 or 14 their characters seemed to have problems you could identify with, plus I far preferred the Marvel style of writing. I'll cut a long story short, but I got married in the early eighties, children came along and I neither thought about nor had time for comics, plus of course the characters and the artists and writers changed and the new ones didn't seem as good. It's a bit like James Bond or Star Trek - your personal favorite incarnation is always the one you grew up with; in my case that was Kirk, Spock, and Roger Moore. My interest was rekindled in the late eighties when I bought several books featuring reprints, covers, and, out of curiosity, second hand comic price guides. So in the early nineties I had a sketchy awareness, and no more than that, that decent copies of early Marvels were things to be prized.I thought no more about it until a couple of years later I was walking round an antiques fair, which I'd visited hoping to buy old postcards. Comics hadn't entered my head, but I was walking round the stalls and my eye was caught by several Marvels prominently displayed. There was an Incredible Hulk 5 and what was that next to it, a number 1? Surely not? I had a look, and another look, asked the stallholder, who knew what he'd got. All I knew was that I had never seen one in anything like that condition, so either I was looking at something brilliant, or a spectacular forgery. I kept a level head talking to the stall owner. I couldn't possibly afford the comic, but I knew that I had to have it. And so it was that it has spent the last twenty odd years very very carefully stored away, during which I've got it out no more than half a dozen times, to make sure it was still there. As I said, I'm now in my early sixties. My wife has no interest in old comics and I didn't want her unknowingly shipping it out to to a charity shop were anything to happen to me. I thought I'd better get it valued, so first stop was to get it CGC graded.Now that isn't quite so easy if you live in the UK. Who can you trust, who you've never met before, to get your prized possession half way round the world in one piece? I settled on Wolf Comics after viewing a You Tube video from a customer who had used them for the same service. I rang them up and knew instantly from speaking to them that I could trust them, so I made a 200 mile round trip to their shop to deliver it to them, as I wouldn't trust our postal service.When I got there the guy said that he loses sleep when he sends away something this good, and basically does it for the love of seeing the comic. He asked me if could post a picture of it on his Twitter feed when he got it back and I was happy to let him, and that is the picture you saw on my post. It's his Twitter feed,not mine, and the words used when he says 'a customer' are his. He was referring to me - I am his customer.and that is my only connection to Wolf Comics.It's his comic business, not mine. The business,comics and e bay links which you refer to are all his and I am sorry if anyone thought they were mine. Just to briefly cover other points, The 3% figure is from an internet article which I could guide you towards. I'll find it if you wish but I don't wish to be accused of furthering a cause. To be honest I think the article said 3 to 5% and yes (I'm not without fault) 'very very rare' is on reflection overcooking it and a phrase I would not have used with hindsight.I'm obviously thinking of selling it but not on here so I didn't see any harm in posting.I was going to use Comic Connect as I said earlier and they would have arranged publicity via their catalogue but you don't seem keen on them - I didn't even know you had a shop here till you said - I found this site yesterday after googling the words 'Incredible Hulk 1 1962 pence cents'. - it took me direct to the forum. I suppose on reflection I should have taken my own picture of the comic and posted that instead of pinching the one from Wolf's Twitter page,which would have avoided anyone thinking I was here to promote a business, but I hope things are clear now.

. I appreciate that you joined us to pimp your book. Pence books do not at current command similar prices as their Cents counter-parts. To the underlined portion above: whether you are making it up, someone actually suggested it you or Comic Connect told you so - it is not true. In this book Pence sells for about 45-66% of Cents copies - based on the data it appears the gap is smaller the higher the grade. Recent 7.5 sales are down versus the 2015 average, but at 66% you are looking at $26-$29k - IF you get more than one Pence collector on the hook. In any case I wouldn't use Comic Connect for an auction unless you want the Buyer to get a deal... Good luck with the sale and WTTB! May your next post be something of contribution and merit! I joined because I wanted information and help. Paragraphs 2 and 3 were helpful and thank you for those; it was exactly the sort of information I was looking for. Paragraph 4 the jury is out about and paragraphs 1 and 5 I could have managed without but no matter. Fyi, I did not make anything up - and I joined to hear other people's opinions on the subject, so I could make my own informed decision based on those; not to 'pimp the book'. I have found Comic Connect very helpful so far, though of course you would expect that if they were looking for business.I'm new to this and I would appreciate any facts on why you or anyone else would not use them.

Was thinking of putting this one up for auction with Comic Connect but not sure about how the fact that it's a pence variant may affect the price. https://twitter.com/Wolf_Comics I'm well aware that lower grade pence variants sell for less than their cents counterparts, but this one is apparently the highest graded pence variant copy on record and it's been suggested to me that because of that the price shouldn't be affected. Done a lot of research on this, though there isn't that much about it on the net. I know that the pence copies only amounted to something like 3% of the original print run so it's very very rare. Comic Connect tell me they think opinions towards pence copies are changing (for the better).