underthebigw

Sharon, that is just super sweet. I'm guessing it's a later piece--have you looked into it yet?

Found these at last summer's Chicago show. They're not books (from a distance I thought I had found some rare digests), but are greeting cards from the early 80's. Someone thought these were a good idea.

Please tell me you asked if they had any more comics.

Now that is too cool.

That's it. I freakin' quit. Those last 4 issues of Young Romance are just impossible. In fact, I think the 25c books are just about the toughest Marvels or DCs to find in any shape, never mind HG. That run is just too sweet.

From the show in Philly this past weekend:

The PQ is freakin' horrible. Absolutely horrible, just like all of their other books, maybe even worse. I don't know why, but it seems like it's definitely worse than the horror books, and marginally poorer than the cartoon books. Lots of miscuts, random blobs of ink, horrible paper, etc. Look at the L&R I posted--like the 3" random black strip of ink in the LRC? Typical. The problems get worse with time. The 20 cent books aren't horrible, but by 1975 it's pretty bad.

More goodies found while digging through my collection. The first one just screams 70's. You know, the more I look at this, the more I wonder if this could be by Byrne. A lot of similarities to his mid-80's work, and he was doing Charlton stuff at this point.

Thanks. I think you're right, and I really think this is indicative both of their rarity and how relatively easy it's become to complete a BA run of Marvels. Marvel completionists have very few challenges that can't be overcome by opening the wallet. Now that they realize these long-dissed romance reprint books are truly tough, the demand has gone up considerably.

I hate it when Greggy's right. About 4 times a year, he tells me I don't know what's in my collection anymore. Well, today, I was searching for my 35 cent variant of Iron Fist 14 to sell. And instead, I came across these. No idea I had them. From what I can tell from the surrounding books and boards, I must have picked them up in the late 90's while hunting for variants. Boards were marked $3 each, so I probably paid a buck a piece. Pretty solid copies. (sorry for the crappy scans, but I'm in a rush)

Cross-posted from the Four Color thread, just cuz I'm too psyched. An X-mas gift from my kids. From an original owner collection in northern CA. I honestly did not believe I'd ever come across a non-file copy this nice. Heck, never thought I'd come across any copy this nice. DEEEEP COLORS, beautiful pages. Scratch one grail off the list.

An X-mas gift from my kids. From an original owner collection in northern CA. I honestly did not believe I'd ever come across a non-file copy this nice. Heck, never thought I'd come across any copy this nice. DEEEEP COLORS, beautiful pages. Scratch one grail off the list.

C'mon, calculators where the stuff of sci-fi in 1972. I didn't get my red led digital watch and first calulcator until 1975.

I've found this to be a VERY tough book to find in solid shape. I'd love a decent copy.

I'm convinced that they tried a different randmized sampling technique with the Tarzan and John Carter issues. There are a hugely disproportionate number of variant versions of these books, that it may be likely for some distributors they were the norm, not the exception. Marvel may have wanted to see what happened to sales figures for a distributory when most every issue was the higher price. In that case, it would be possible for a .35 variant to come from an area where there were no other variants.

I think you are correct. That he is mixed up with the 30's? Michigan, Maryland, Texas, California, New Mexico, and Massachusetts had 30c books. So my thought on Pennsylvania might still be a better choice. There has to be a collector or a deal in that area who can answer this. I'm pretty certain it is a certain city in PA. My OO copies of IF 13 and 14 variants came from this city, and I found two others once while driving through. I'm actually paying a visit in the near future and plan on setting aside some time to check.

How the heck did I not ever know this. Seriously. All of the useless info I've accumulated over a lifetime, and this escapes me. Thanks. You made an otherwise work-filled night meaningful.

Some quick box-diving in Baltimore produced some great results, all at absolute bargain prices. Was really pretty exciting to come across some of these books. The Marvel and DC were great and, in a warped way, the Charlton was just as exciting. Some of these books you just never see in any condition, never mind relatively HG. The other thing that continues to amaze me is how low the census is on romance books. I hadn't checked many titles in over a year and assumed the numbers had creeped up. Instead, some books continue to be absent, and many only have one or two graded copies. Unreal. The sole Marvel: Some sweet, sweet DC romance: Clearly DC didn't have a lock on gray-tone covers. Here are 3 Charltons--I've never seen the Teen-Age Love and I Love You in close to HG: And lots more 70s Charlton goodness:

Not uber-HG, but found these all in bargain bins for far less than ticket price at Baltimore. Especially pleased with the Our Love Story.

That is just freakin' perfect.

That's a sweet copy. Very white. Congrats.

Maybe the funniest thing on the boards- EVER. Great job.

Fixed that for you. There's nothing variant about the 75 cent copies. EVERY Canadian issue had that price. It's still regarded as a Canadian Price Variant (type 1a). See Jon McLure's article in the 40th edition OSPG. Yeah, I know what Jon said. Using his terms, every Canadian edition is a variant, every pence copy is a variant, etc. I personally don't see them that way. I see them as editions. They were the common version where they were sold. Here's what I just PM'd another board member. "....the price variants were not the norm anywhere. For example, even the .30 Marvel variants distributed in Baltimore (far and away the widest distribution of any variant anywhere), were probably 1 out every 100 for the common ones, and 1 out of every 5000 for the rare ones. The were never the norm or the rule. The 75 cent books were. I'm not trying to suggest they're not worth collecting. Everyone should collect what they want---it's just that certain dealers and collectors try to hype them by calling them variants in order to suggest they're rare. Usually, they're not." Where's JC when you need him.

Fixed that for you. There's nothing variant about the 75 cent copies. EVERY Canadian issue had that price.