MAR1979

5.0-5.5 depending on luck

I think the ownership has legal entanglements plus its a forgotten property of a cheap jack Evil Knievel ripoff. That said I did like the book a lot having found a near complete run in the quarters bins as kid in the mid 80's. There was a rumored potential low-budget movie a few years back. Not sure how easy it is to find investors who want to lose money A bunch of Fly 1's in CGC 9.8 appeared on eBay from Feb-May 2020. It was approx 1 per week from same seller. The prices varied widely and for a while dropped each week but bounced near the end. Shows that a 1970's #1 issue from Marvel in 9.8 will always have at least some demand. Anyhow I will say a borderline 9.0. If raw then I'd say better to advertise as 8.5 and have a happy customer than state a 9.0 and have one who will thinks your standards are very lenient.

Another Marvel and another DC favorite of mine which are "less common" and IMHO under-rated covers. The Back Cover of the Supergirl Digest is outstanding as well.

You are apparently lucky. I have an early April sub, marked received June 14, Sitting in G/E/I since Sept 17 with no end on the horizon.

Apologies for being blunt but that is practically meaningless. Condition is king and the books you referenced have very high populations. Take the advice of the post above this one and don't quit your day job just yet

Broke 2 long standing rules of mine recently. 1) Never buy from HA - self imposed ban since 2012 2) Don't buy the label buy the book As a small child in the early 1980's a friend of my Mom's gave me some books one day that were her son's. He was a teen and was no longer into comics. The two books in that lot which I recall most were "Adventures into Fear" #16 and "Super Cops" #1. I found out about the Super Cops just prior to the auction ending. Figured I'd give it a go as who knows when another would pop up again. It's 1/1 in 9.8 and the red background in my opinion is just about as condition sensitive as a black cover. Additionally Red is a color highly subject to fading. The Reds on this one are deep and rich and the scan really does not show how great it looks. Luckily for me this book would have passed my personal "buy the book" evaluation. Boy this one brings back memories and at least to me "screams 1970's"

7.5/8.0

Still as "hot" books go when compared to Marvel, DC = Dead Comics

Marvel: DC - thought I would post a favorite that is not as commonly seen

IIRC the Barcodes were distributed to Bookstores and large music chains like Tower Records. I also seem to recall, but could be wrong, that the bar-coded copies are NOT the first printings. From my experiences over the years collecting Lestat is that I've seen them in approx equal numbers. However I'm sure some folks will want to believe the UPC copies are more rare for fi$cal reasons. P.S. I do not sell comics but has become annoying that my Interview's have been sitting in Sarasota since April, unboxed in June :grumble

The Batman's Penguin-centric HBO Max spinoff series starring Colin Farrell has been confirmed. The first ever published Origin of The Penguin was in Best of DC #10 from Dec 1980 (cover dated March 1981). It's a very difficult book to find in high-grade that should be a minor Copper Age Key but alas will never be. Reasons why the book will never be hot on eBay (or anywhere else) despite today's Penguin announcement. 1) It's a DC not a Marvel 2) It's a DC not a Marvel 3) It's a DC not a Marvel 4) CGC Census population is very low. Hot books must have enough high-graded copies so that there are always 6-10 on eBay at any given time. In additional most dealers must have a large stock of the book in 9.6 and 9.8. It's pretty much impossible to manipulate the market when the book is very difficult to find in high grade. 5) Did I mention It's a DC not a Marvel ? A DC character can get a new TV show with a somewhat "famous" talent as the lead and the characters books will go almost nowhere. However all it takes is the slightest false rumor of some only seen once Marvel Character potentially receiving a mere off-the-cuff mention in a Marvel film or TV series and the book will spike to near 1K. Example; Marvel Team-Up 131 "White Rabbit" Yeah I do own the above slab as I'm a rather big collector of small digests, but I really just wanted to rant again about how DC books never and will "go nuclear". Tiny bumps at best for DC, outliers are nearly but not quite nonexistent.

At the last Con I attending a dealer had 2 CGC books from the same series that interested me so placed them in my "take" pile. When it came time for me to evaluate (aka "buy the book, not the label") my selections I found those 2 had various degrees of Newton's Rings. One I decided to purchase, the other the rings interfered with the beauty of the book too much. If the dealer had offered a discount in the amount it would take to ship and re-holder I might have gone for it. Given the asking price was $100 (and I was already getting a discount for my multiple purchases) offering a full re-holdering discount would not have been a smart choice on the dealers part.

New 52 was the catalyst for my reducing my new comic purchases to first less in a year than I had been purchasing in a month, then later a week, then eventually near zero. I had been losing interest for many years but continued to pick up new books out of habit or "muscle memory". After seeing the collective smug hubris displayed by Didio/Johns/Lee mainly geared at boasting their 2011 bonus from Time-Warner (New 52 began Sept 1 - right in time so it would be fresh for bonus season - those who work in large corporations know this...) I decided that was my exit point. Marvel too did annoy me in the 90's with the renumbering, then renumbering after renumbering, but I hung on although with diminished Marvel purchases. Had it not been for New 52 I would have collected new books another 9 years until July 2020 when my LCS, owned by a good friend, closed it's doors. Although New 52 for example spiked sales in the scheme of things it was short-lived and ultimately cost far more buyers that they will ever get back. Of course as mentioned it was primary a short-term bonus cash grab not expected to be anything more than a spike. While those optimistic like to think there are new readers to replace lost readers, there are not. If DC and Marvel had been concerned with maintaining existing buyers, new books sales would have tapered off a lot slower. Instead they catered to the few new incoming readers whilst hemorrhaging sales year to year. Pretty much now Marvel and DC's only purposes for putting out new books is grist for Video endeavors. What happens when the genre declines in Film, TV etc? P.S. I will say the few newer books I've read are great if one is in a hurry. Anyone with 5th grade reading skills can polish one off about a minute or 2 due to lack of dialog and preponderance of splashes and double page spreads. There was always some dreck put out each month, but at least in modern times you don't have to waste 8-12 minutes to get through a single book

https://thecw.fandom.com/wiki/Season_2_(Superman_%26_Lois) Only first 7 are so far titled and presumably shot. The order though is for 13 - still short of the 20-22 I expected it would receive.

Agreed

9.0 possible 9.2 if the non color breaking bend in upper right presses out. Press wont help of course where color is lost. Not sure why exactly but from my personal experience CGC seems to be very harsh grading this particular ASM issue.

If the chunk missing was the only defect I'd say a 7.0 at most with initial 9.6 eye appeal. If it was a Silver or Bronze key would be a nice copy to get "on the cheap". However this was a early 90's glut era release. The book had a high print run and the CGC census reflects that. In the last 11.5 months 256 in 9.6 have been added to the census bringing the total to approx 750. As CGC processes backlog I'd expect that number to go up another 20-30%. IMHO not worth grading but a nice raw book to enjoy the cover art on.

I have submissions that are now there 8 months. Although if it slows down speculators and flippers I'm good with that, as soon as a good amount of them exit the hobby the better it will be for collectors. I will say that the last 12-18 months CGC has been high on the hog but these things are cyclical. When (not if) the worm turns do remember how you were treated be it positive or negative. Random Rant: Amazing Spider-Man 361 is not a good investment!

I have a few copies of most from 609-619 got them all when they were new. At that time my LCS was literally around my corner. The only one I sent in to have graded was the 2nd print of 612 as I really like the Original Pencil Art cover. Those Hush issues were heavily printed. At the time it was huge deal that Jim Lee received a million per issue so DC kept printing to ensure anyone who wanted a copies could get them. IMHO there is glut of them. Anyhow the more who get burned by attempting to speculate or flip DC may result in lower prices for those of us who truly love DC ?

Most of my acquisitions this year were in the form of sending my raw childhood purchases for grading. For purposes of this topic not sure they count so won't add any. Here are my favorite pick-ups thus far in 2021: Secrets of the Legion: I'm not a collector who seeks out Newsstands in general especially DC! However there a few books for which I did want them. Secrets being both a DC and non-hot book with an overall low census pop as a result took me a long time to find a 9.8 Newsstand. Mod Squad: My Dad had told me he was a Squad fan back in the day, picked this up in his memory. Great 60's vibe - yeah it's from 1971 but it reprints a 1969 issue and cover. Honeymooners [Triad]: 1/1 in CGC 9.8. I still have my raw copy I purchased as kid but picked this up as "a bird in the hand..." I did send in my Lodestone Honeymooners #1 so a nice matching set of 9.8 Honorable mention: Note marks are due to the scan and scanner used they are not present on the case or book. I still have to get this one done using my new scanner. P.S. I do get more enjoyment from "odd-ball" books than keys or hot book de jour, thus what I posted.

? At least in my part of the globe 12/6/21 will not not occur for another few days.

Been mostly a DC fan sine I was in my teens, I've learned the hard way never, ever, never, ever buy a DC unless you love the book and will be happy down the road having overpaid. Buying a DC either virtually never pans out fiscally. Due to huge demand you can make mistakes with Marvel and still come out "ahead" with DC that is almost never the case. The ceiling for a Marvel mid-level hot-ish book will dwarf a DC "hot book". As for Jason Todd being "hot"; again it's DC, to purchase after price has gone up is never wise. As with any collectibles rule there will always be outliers but smart money does not depend on getting lucky with an outlier. Smart money buys Marvel, suckers purchase Copper age or later DC after a book has broke loose of the common pack.

Agreed $40 for shipping within in CONUS is a leading reason eBay decided to take a chunk of the shipping charges a decade ago. The absurd $40 shipping fee is also taxable for those subject to a sales tax. Thus it's more like $42.50-$44.00 for shipping! Also: 1) Book is being referred to as a newsstand in the description which it clearly is not. 2) Issue is not recognized by most as the 1st Killer Croc. 3) It's DC thus lower level of interest. 4) 80's Batman titles may be near the tops for DC titles but if Marvel it would be a B or C level. Croc is a B rate DC villain at absolute best, thus equal at best to a D level Marvel Spidey villain in terms of general interest. 5) Sad truth is never ever buy a DC after a book gets hot. More times than not it's a lo$ing proposition. The only way to avoid falling into the red at some point is not to buy Graded DC issues after they separate from the pack.

They could be, but should not be, as visual appeal is far more subjective than technical grading. For visual appeal, buy the book, not the label on the slab

Topic "How to get followers" Based on my time on the interwebs simply make your posts as snarky if not as downright mean+nasty as possible. The more intolerant and narrow minded the better.