joe_collector

Small population, huge land mass and resources, pretty well educated, relatively low crime, government that functions without a lot of corruption, pretty good "productive citizen" to "leech" ratio... I think Canada will be just fine.

You're describing Canada about 20-25 years ago, and our immigration policies are significantly different now.

I wonder how many second copies were bought by people just to get the stamps? I know I bought several issues strictly because they had a stamp I needed.

That was the entire point of Marvel Value Stamps - to sell more copies - a) of comics you would not normally buy and b) one to clip, another to colect) and Stan the Man himself promoted this strategy in his Bullpen Bulletins.

I thought the economy in Canada was booming and all this copper stuff was doing well?

Yeah, it's a real economic fireplace up here.

Series B stamps were kind of dumb to me

This was the dumbest idea ever, and I always assumed when they announced Series B, that it would extend the original MVS series and add in the many characters (especially major villains - Magneto anyone?) that were left out in Series A.

When I saw what they were doing, it was a major on my part as to their inability to understand the very basics of fandom.

Thanks! Looks exactly like my 9.6 except mine is .30

... and that is why you fail.

[And why is the British copies not considered rare variants is beyond me.

Huh? It's because they're NOT variants, and are just standard British/UK comics that every kid bought back then. Think from *their* point-of-view, not yours.

I can only imagine you falsely believe these are "variants" because of an unusually-rigid US-centric view of the rest of the world.

It looks that way; but how can the split go past the edge of a comic?

That's why I asked - it can either be a plastic cover providing the illusion or a spine crease + slight imperfection in the plastic artificially extending it.

I'm going with Avengers #196.

Agreed, but that's still firmly at the tail-end of the Bronze Age.

Please tell me that's not a massive spine split in the middle of the book.

A couple of recent returns from Sarasota that unfortunately were not labelled correctly:

 

Any other members of this club? Let's see it!

 

I have a couple of MVS books and probably own the comic-based stamps several times over, but no way am I assembling them all.

 

As it should be. My collection is unclipped, no way am I cutting any stamps.

I meant "assembling" as in "dragging out my comics boxes, collating the MVS issues, displaying all the comics, taking photos, etc.".

Any other members of this club? Let's see it!

I have a couple of MVS books and probably own the comic-based stamps several times over, but no way am I assembling them all.

I forgot to mention that I'm Canadian and we have different distro up here, and these collections/lots missing ASM 162 were bought in Canada, except maybe for one.

Kinda Sorta All New Spider-Gwen. Gotta reboot Spider-Gwen, as its already becoming hard to understand after such a large and rich history of issues.

That's what happens when your readers all have ADHD.

"The fools can't remember more than 5 issues in a row!" - Axel Alonso

A marvel tales 106 (reprints 129) 9.8 sold for $350 on eBay

I always liked that red cover and tend to pick it up when I could, which was a LOT in the olden days.

But for some reason ASM 161 is out there in mass quantities and 162 is much harder to find.

I used to buy ASM sets and lots, and out of maybe ten runs in the 130's-180's, I would find two ASM 162's and 8-10 of the other issues. Some were complete runs except for 162, and I know they weren't taking out Punisher issues because 134-135, 161 and 174-175 were all there.

I've often wondered if ASM 162 was a lower distribution issue.

It's the first Punisher origin issue and I think maybe his 2nd? 3rd? app....

I think it's his 5th appearance, along with being a B&W mag, that really cuts into its value.

A book I really like is ASM 135.

P.S. Anyone know anything about the origin cover to ASM 135 with the "Origin of the Punisher" on the cover? Did they intend to give away his origin, then switched it to Tarantula?

Just keep in mind how many high grade copies are out there from 80s collectors. The shear volume is staggering.

That's what everyone said about every Marvel/DC Copper Age book, but the speculators don't seem to be listening.

I didn't listen to all this BS from maroon GA/SA jerks who kept saying "no one thought BA comics would be worth anything" as that is simply not true and even during the BA, there were plenty of books that commanded a significant premium at the time and no one was bagging and boarding off the shelves. I still remember as a little kid, looking at a copy of MTU 1 sitting on the wall of a LCS priced at $25, which would be like $500 today. Same with GL/GA 76, the Starlin Captain Marvel's, MP 15, etc.

But Copper is a different animal and lots of people were hoarding, bagging and boarding, buying cases of certain titles, etc., but the market is still very hot at the the high end. The only real difference, is due to scarcity, BA still sells in all grades, while lower-end Copper is a lot tougher to move.

I was hoping to snipe them for peanuts until someone found them and bid this morning.

Damn, those were the good old days, where you could pick up piles of stuff for peanuts, simply because eBay hadn't taken off and they also hadn't chased off the smaller sellers in favour of thousands and thousands of vast Chinese stores all selling the *exact* same thing.

Today, eBay is like having access to a massive shopping mall... but it's filled with Dollar Store after Dollar Store.

I think weather you liked the wedding or did not like it, both sides are arguing for the 'keyness' of the issue. Either way it signified something significant, even if it was something you didn't like. It made an impact. That's key.

Then your overly-wide definition of a "key issue" is much too lax for me and most of the hobby.

That's why I brought up the Flash Thompson "key issues", not to have you nerds debate their "keyness" but to demonstrate perspective and show that you feel the same way about Flash going to Viet Nam (an important issue at the time) as I do about Peter and MJ getting hitched.

By this logic, Amazing Spider-man 121 is not a key, because Spider-Gwen.

Nope, because no one in their right mind cares a whit about Modern drek.

I mean, just look at the latest "Marvel revamp" - barf!

[Depends on how "longtime" the fan is. I'm also of the mind that Spider-Man getting married was one of the worst things that happened to the character.

 

What made Spider-Man popular and relatable? He was a nerdy outsider who had girl trouble and money problems. Things that most average teenage boys can relate to. Successful photo-journalist, married to a hot super model...not quite so relatable.

Exactly, and this was also Marvel's opinion (as well as many of his creators) who thought it was a very bad idea to have him married to a supermodel, but didn't want to have them divorce and make things worse.

That was also quoted as a reason for the Ultimate Spider-man line, to get Peter Parker back to his base of being "a nerdy outsider who had girl trouble and money problems. Things that most average teenage boys can relate to."

Flash Thompson is/has been the star of his own top selling comic book of a flagship title?

Who cares?

You're using your own specific criteria to describe everyone (a common fault on here) when there are various "key" issues that do not involve " the star of his own top selling comic book of a flagship title", right? The point is that there are Flash Thompson fans in the world, and that sub-section of the hobby would certainly view his life-changing moments as "key" to their own collecting viewpoint.

To me, Spider-man getting married doesn't amount to 2 dead flies, as the character design just doesn't work with a hot model-wife, kids, mortgage, etc. - that's why Marvel killed off the baby, got rid of MJ for a bit, then retconned the entire marriage into oblivion.

The exact same thing will happen with this latest retcon, and years from now, they'll be retconned apart again.

I agree. What if Peter Parker's parents appeared in AF14, would people be able to call that issue Peter's 1st appearance?

Depending on your view of Peter's genetic parentage, Aunt May and Uncle Ben did appear earlier, so....

Why JC gets to consistently and routinely ignore board rules, and the mods do little to nothing about it, I don't know.

Man, with the manure spewing out of your mouth on a daily basis, you'd have to be insane to be complaining about "board rules".

One day those "moderns" will become vintage, but the standard for moderns is 9.8, You can only speculate, newer books go up and down all the time, but once in a while something come up out of nowhere that caught everyone off guard, Did you think BA 12 was going to turn into a $2000 book? Probably not.

The problem with Moderns is how freaking expensive the cover prices are, having been priced into the stratosphere multiples above inflation.

Add in the fact that 0.00000000000001% of published comics even become valuable, that makes it virtually impossible to make any cash just buying comics generically, as the hits like BA 12 are going to be eaten up by the thousands of other misses.