Glassman10

maybe 3.0, maybe not...

4.5-5.0

I always have to keep in mind that my AF15 was in a low quality mylar bag along with the other comics I had. No backer boards at all. Sometimes I had a hard time finding it. That persisted for around fifty years. It showed no change at all. Weirdly, the one comic of them all that fared poorly was an Iron Man 55 which went up substantially in value introducing Thanos as the decades pushed on. It was absolutely gorgeous but every page had turned a very distinct dark cinnamon brown. It was buried in a pile of other books, all just stacked in the file cabinet. I had no others that remotely had that issue. I was also extremely fortunate that a mouse had made a home in the cabinet and it only went after one submariner comic which it really completely destroyed. I didn't care for Namor either. I thought he had anger management issues. I had an ASM 121 that was cared for better than an Egyptian mummy. It really did look nice. So I only ask tolerance. I try to keep humor a main focus in life. Just be kind to your comics. For me? Ignorance was Bliss.

you need to divide by the square root of sarcasm multiplied times the number of respondents. An opinion only mind you.

I'm at 4.0 as well but that big "E" must stand for excellent on the back.

Indeed. The only time radical temps changes might be pertinent is if you were looking at the dewpoint and the potential for condensation to occur between rather dissimilar surfaces. Otherwise, small shift like yours only change the outcomes of the storylines. Mainly happens in Disney books unless you freeze dry them.

And then there's that guy "Stan". Always used a sharpie too!

that spine has really taken a beating. 4.0

2.5

I couldn't tell the difference at all. I really hate photos in slabs. Somehow the whole notion feels alien to me. If I was a kid and I'd just gotten a brand new Lionel Train for xmas in 1954 and then my dad said I couldn't open the box or ever touch it until 65 years later and I'd thank him, I'd be sad and confused. Anytime I offer a grade on a book, it's a book I've owned as a raw copy. The only ones I still own are all raw and some days, at 70, I like to go up in the loft and crack a few from their backer boards and just read them carefully. I'll never slab another book after the A15. This character doesn't even look like Bruce Wayne.

that was a strange cover in that it looked worn brand new on the newsstands ( which I remember). There's no spine tics, corners are actually pretty good and not a lot of color breaking. Top front abraded. 5.0

somehow, grading a reprint seems really pointless to me.

on my copy, I was impressed with how incredibly thin the cover paper is. Not quite TP but not a lot better either. Not handling it at all seems the rule of the day. My other JIM don't have that issue.

I have that book in not dissimilar condition. It resides on a backer board in a bag. Actually mine might even be a little better which isn't saying a lot.

this thread appears to have slipped its moorings and drifted out to sea.

+

Lets give them all 9.8

It well may be true but I would point out that the number of people who somehow think there is immediate gratification from buying a newsstand comic and somehow selling it at a big profit later in the month is really enormous. I continually shake my head over the expectations that live in people's minds. Pressers and the CGC are the ones making money here. It's like shooting fish in a tuna can. It's true, when people say "thirty years old", that sounds like a lot but reality beckons. (hint) no one threw them out. By the time the bronze age hit, they were all saved. The books by and large that have real value were the ones our sixty year old's moms made sure to get in the trash. In the sixties, they really were largely viewed as trash. Poorly printed and assembled and amazingly distributed all over the country for .10-12 cents. Think about coins. Once the federal reserve building popped up on the back of the penny, disappearing what had been wheat sheaves, there are precious few of them that have value at all. They minted bazillions of them. We abandoned silver certificates for reserve notes. Gone are the days when I could get a 50 dollar bag of pennies in a small town in Ohio and find over half to be pre 1940. Tomorrow's collectibles? I have no idea what they might be but when I see signs for antique stores, I sigh when I see mostly plastics for sale. Now toys from the earlier time period and I mean quality toys with great ideas are something that still appeals to me.

3.0

This is one of those threads which should be on a continuous GIF style loop. It would save tons of input and remain spot on.

Bad premise to get in a biz that actually relies on trust. Further, value is based on perception, not scarcity. I have some Hopalong Cassidy here that are worth less than when they were printed in '48 based on condition. There are estimated 10,000 copies of AF 15 out there and even so, it pulls major dollars because everyone wants one, not because it's rare. If I gave any advice I hoped you'd take to heart, it's lose "the sucker mentality". You won't go far.

Indeed, the expectations between a 6.5 and a 9.8 clearly mark the trail of tears that lead you along the muddy grading path. 9.8 is a rare bird. Actually a 6.5 ain't bad.

It has always struck me that when you start collecting something, it's more of a passion. I have some things that I didn't realize I collected until we started counting, like scales to weigh things. I began to collect comics in about 1967 and there was never a thought of selling them for money. It was more like just wanting all of an issue. No Slabs, no backing boards and the ones that got bags were opalescent . Anytime I see someone preplanning their profit, I get uneasy. Primarily it starts as love and may or may not turn into an investment. I held every comic I bought on the newsstand as a teenager fifty plus years ago and did not sell them until I could see that they no longer had the hold on me they once did and that nothing good would come of my keeping them. I still have all the scales. Those things are actually useful. AT one point I went to a rockies game in Denver and they were giving the beanie baby "Glory" to the first 10,000 fans in. I had two, one was my daughters. We were leaving the game in the 8th since it was a hopeless endeavor and here's this bunch of kids on the street trying to buy them. I sold both for $100 bucks and that paid for the parking and the food. My daughter asked why I did that and I told her than in ten minutes, 9,998 beanie babies were coming out of that stadium right towards those kids. I asked her how much she thought they would sell for. Smart Kid, she understood right away.

it looks to have a faint subscription crease but otherwise a very nice book. 7-5-8.0

3.5