MAY1979

Its pretty much 30 years old Time does fly...

I do recall seeing at least several Newsstands. Frankly the book was so ubiquitous, I just wanted to see something else, anything else Other books that seemingly every comic dealer had multiples of CGC (and the occasional CBCS) 9.8's and 9.6's; ASM 361 (dirt common), Star Wars 42 (everywhere!),Thor 337, Secret Wars 8, Savage She-Hulk 1, WBN 1 most "high end" dealers had multiple copies, ASM 362, ASM 316, ASM 301, Batman Adventures (first Harlequin). Its why when i found a dealer who had not so common stuff I purchased a bunch of slabs The most common being a book with a 9.8 pop of 8. I do wish the newsstand data was recorded by CGC, even if I'm not a direct sale era newsstand collector, I'm just someone who happens to have a bunch of direct sale era newsstands. I've been thinking about subscribing to either GPAnalysis.com or GoCollect. Do you have recommendation for a collector (not a dealer or a seller) that likes to analyze data? No issue if you'd rather not say. I was planning on trying each one out for month this winter.

But how many are correctly labeled and reported as newsstand? Seems to me more a product of incomplete data. I have piles of CGC slabbed newsstands from the direct sale era not one denotes newsstand including my Canadians when I did everything correct on the submission forms - including adding a note! I'm sure some will profit, or already are, on the incomplete data by claiming the newsstands are more rare than they truly are BTW it was Thor 337 that my I mentioned the newsstands are common not the ASM's. I believe we both know reasons why for that book. "Many years ago, I took a few days and made a note of which Gerber Scarcity Index went with which book in the CGC Census for my CGCdata.com database. " Is that really your site? If so I owe you a debt of gratitude. I use it ALL the time. Sometimes while eating lunch My sincere thanks for the service you provide!

What I do know is this: Amazing Spider-Man 300, 361 are the exact opposite of scarce. At a comic con there is nowhere you can point your eyes that you will not see at least 20 in 9.6 or 9.8 for sale. This includes the bath room stalls at NYCC where folks were hawking handfuls of CGC graded copies of those issues whilst I was releasing a brown trout into the wild. Honestly there may not be 2 more plentiful books in high-grade on this planet. Thor 337 also falls into the same category and that includes the Newsstand versions the only difference is they were not in the bathroom I used, only on the dealer floor.

Think this was at Heritage Comic Connect/Metropolis

Albert does put up some Eye catching pieces but it not common for him to "only" add a 10k piece to his wall. Unless we go back in time 10 years.

I have an order (25 subbed) sent early April - arrived to their PO Box April 22 , marked as received June 14, sitting in G/E/I since Sept 17. I do hope if CGC ever ships it back to me that they send it to the correct person(me)/address(mine) as have been reading some horror stories in other areas of this board

I did receive an extra page once from an Artist. Contacted him and was told it was gift for my large volume purchase. It's totally plausible it could have been the case, and totally human to think what you did at first glance.

Albert keeps much higher value items in the portfolios on the table. Odd for him to keep such a "low" value item on the wall.

So while it was likley a "labor of love" probably for an old-timer, still they may rather keep the 20K or so in books they received instead. Not sure what the legalities are here given multiple countries involved but seems to me that the person will need to voluntarily admit they received the books then send them back. The former may never have occurred and if so difficult if not impossible to prove. All that said most old school COLLECTORS are honest. FWIW I do very much hope the situation is resolved to your satisfaction!

CGC is riding very high on the hog right now, sadly as such I'd be surprised if anywhere near true current market remuneration is provided. If they do actually make good without nickel and dime-ing the submitter, Kudos it will put them ahead of PSA in terms of Professionalism and Customer service/satisfaction.

None in CGC census. Not listed in Overstreet. As rare as Elson's are, the Play World's seem much more scarce. My memory was of the Elson's however so glad i have one in High Grade slab. Found some images of the Play World, cover except for name in upper left corner are same as Elson's. The Series #1 copy is on uPay.

Was referring to market manipulation via shilling, thus the wink at end of the post But yeah like with Comics a good amount of DC stuff has low growth potential. The way I look at it is; with exception for a few DC characters (Batman, Harley Quin, Joker and some others), major DC characters rank below minor Marvel in terms of growth potential. All that does not take into account artist and other variables but DC is simply not in Marvel's league. Wish it was as DC represents probably near 2/3's of my art and comics collection. Of course the reason for that was lower price to begin with...

Only the newsstand would do for me on this book. Was hoping for an older slab for aesthetic reasons but glad I grabbed it before it jumped in price. The book seemed to jump overnight from $50-$75 to near triple that for the direct sale.

As a child this was of my earliest direct sale books. So perhaps the newsstand is only a place holder? Actually probably not.

Final issue, perhaps looking in wrong places but this one took longer than I guessed to locate a newsstand (had hoped to find a 2nd gen CGC slab so it would match my other Battlestars). I'm not a newsstand collector as such, but want books the way I first recall seeing them. Which is why in my last post was actually a bit disappointed the Hex 1 in pre-2002 CGC slab was not Direct Sale. Guess I'm difficult to please Simonson Cover with Simonson/Janson interiors - an A level team doing what at the time was a C level book on the cancellation block.

Picked this up not due to it being a newsstand, but think the cover looks great with the old school slab. My memories though are the direct sale edition and to me it does not look the same with out the "1935 DC50 1985" in UPC area. So for me just a place holder. One of my favorite Texeira covers.

I'm sure if it was on certain auction sites it would be bid up to a higher amount

Unless it's DC Character then nothing appears to matter. Only exception I can think of is Harlequin. Minor Marvel Character gets small mention on a TV show 1st appearance jumps to hundreds or more and continue to climb.. DC somewhat Major (well major-ish) Character gets own TV Show, values go up only a tiny amount then stabilize - IE , Stargirl, New Teen Titans/Titans TV [Starfire, Raven, Cyborg (Doom Patrol) ]

Agreed. At one time festival seating at major events was considered fine. Until Cincinnati in 1979. I've never been to San Diego Comic Con does it appears safe from Fires and other hazards? I'd like to mention the callous disregard for human life in at least one members posts here are in poor taste and frankly unsettling. Those of us with a conscience should at least give the overcrowding at previous NYCC's cause for pause.

Since the Elson's were all issued in 1981 does this topic belong in "Copper Age"? If yes how can that be requested?

Not sure about art dealers, but comic dealers I spoke with mentioned sales were up compared to 2019 even if crowds were down. More than one dealer, I do ask ?'s, mentioned to me that at least now buyers can actually get to their tables unmolested.. Reduced ancillary activities and cosplay probably helps sales - The metaphor "Costumes, don't have pockets" applies. In 2019 years back a major high end book dealer told me no one in costume had ever made a purchase from him. ant any show he had ever done. I'll glad take a perhaps perceived "lower energy" show over one where I'm constantly pushed, shoved, and jarred while attempting buy some books. It's a con not a football field. Also lower crowds inherently means better fire safety. P.S. Artist Alley was actually bearable this year, seemed more space and smaller crowd, also one particular major/huge entity not being in the alley IMHO was addition by subtraction.

Agreed. 2016-2019 they must have seriously greased the inspectors as no way it was safe with the massive over crowding and plethora of choke points.. Too few egress routes and far too many people. If there had been a fire of any note on the top (main) floor death tolls likley would have been in the thousands due to smoke inhalation and trampling. Would have made the infamous Triangle Shirt Fire seem like a walk in the park. All that said its possible the sprinkler system might mitigate all but the trampling which still could could leave hundreds dead. This year regardless of the reasons it felt safe from a fire hazard perspective at least on Thurs and Friday. Weekends are not my scene. Overall the show reminded me of the first 4 or 5 NYCC's. Before the event became an "in-thing". Honestly I'd gladly pay the higher price if the future shows were the same. But they won't be, price will still increase but they will sardine cram in all they can. Nothing is more importantly to ReedPop than their bottom line. Getting the kickbacks from "Clear" (story for another day) as well as unsafe crowding until this year proves that. P.S. The real irony here is due to Covid many of us got a "nicer" NYCC experience.

I recall seeing a few of these as child in the 1982/1983 time frame at a friend of a friends home. Appears that was 1-2 year after they were issued. At the time I was a bit jealous. Wish I had asked how he got them. I picked up a very nice graded one, since all the covers are the same except for color background any one to me was is representative of the "series" and my memory of seeing them long ago. The most I was able to find on their history is this: http://www.kleefeldoncomics.com/2014/11/on-history-elsons-super-hero-comics.html In 1981, Elson's Gift and News paid DC to repackage some of their comics into Elson's Presents Super Heroes Comics. There were six issues, each featuring the same cover (with just a change in background color). The interiors were pulled from existing DC books, including the original ads. The only new material for any of the issues was the Elson's comic style ad on the back covers with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. There's curious debate about the interiors. Because the original ads are included, and nearly all of the material comes from January 1981 issues, many people believe these were not in fact reprints at all. Rather, they were returned/remaindered copies of the originals which were literally pulled apart and glued back together with a new cover. . Given they were 100 pages, the way they were packaged and distributed, and that they might have been remaindered pages, they are very much condition sensitive and apparently rather rare books. For those who have memories of them if you see one in 9.4 or above and price is "fair" in my opinion grab it. Interest in them is low however - probably why in Overstreet they have only gone up $4 over the last 16 years. In terms of content #3 with the New Teen Titans 3 and Wonder Woman 275 (vs Cheetah) is my favorite volume, #1 being very close due to the excellent Starlin penciled Superman/Spectre story Elson's Presents DC Comics (1981) #1 DC Comics Presents 29, Flash 303, Batman 331 #2 Superman 335, Ghosts 96, Justice League of America 186 #3 New Teen Titans 3, Secrets of Haunted House 32, Wonder Woman 275 #4 Secrets of the Legion of Superheroes 1, Brave and the Bold 170, New Adventures of Superboy 13 #5 Legion of Superheroes 271, Green Lantern 136, Super Friends 40 #6 Action Comics 515, Detective Comics 498, Mystery in Space 115