jimbo_7071

Old codger on drums to old codger in a tuba.

Red flames to red mist.

Locked in to "let's get the **** out of here."

"It was re-covered by the publisher, Rural, without page 1 of the first story." The first page of the story was probably on the inside of the original front cover. I think that that was common with early '50s Fox books.

Any hobby that is connected to pop culture has a shelf life. I do think that comic books will eventually tank, but it is very difficult to predict when. I don't think collecting comic books will still be a mainstream hobby fifty years from now, but it might have twenty good years left. I think of the money I put into comics as money spent on a hobby. Some people spend money on hobbies such as travel, horseback riding, hang gliding, etc., without expect to recoup the money that they've spent. I'm single with no kids, so I don't have to worry about what my assets will be worth after I'm gone. (Even if I had a family, I'd consider myself free to put a little money into my hobby, but I'd have to put more of my money into safer investments.) The comics that will tank first are the Bronze, Copper, and Modern books that are fetching hundreds or even thousands of dollars right now. There are too many raw copies out there. The supply will eventually be much greater than the demand, even for key books like Hulk 181. When I seen books like ASM 252 or ASM 300 selling for hundreds of dollars, I have a good chuckle. Every collector that I knew was hoarding multiple copies of those books when they came out—bagging and boarding them right off the rack. The number of high-grade raw copies out there must be staggering. Most of those copies won't find a market at anything close to current prices. GA superhero books will survive the longest, but only the ones featuring mainstream superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Captain America. The auction houses see the writing on the wall. They're already transitioning out of comic books and into video games. The collectible video game market won't last forever, either, but it's much earlier in its life cycle than the collectible comic book market.

April of '41 to April of '41.

That copy appears to be low grade—probably a 2.0 based on what I can see in the picture. I think that that comic book came with paper dolls on the inside. If those are intact, then the book is probably worth around $20. If the dolls have been cut out, then it basically has no value (except maybe $2 or $3 as a reading copy).

. . . to Veronica and Archie and Betty.

My original point, though, was that many people aren't bidding with respect to the "value in the marketplace." I have lost count of how many times I've seen a book sit unsold with a buy-it-now price only to have a comparable copy show up in an auction and sell for two or three times as much. There are many buyers out there who view auctions as competitions that they can "win." How else do you explain Gary Keller? I have no other explanation for why he was willing to pay as much for the Mile High Green Lanterns as he did. (I'm not sure who the underbidder was on those books.) For instance, I believe that he's the one who paid $11,352.50 for the #13 in August of 2007. The next sale of that book was in August of 2010 for $7,468.75. The next sale after that was in May of 2014 for $4481.25, and then it sold in February of 2015 for $3,824, 33.7% of the price that Gary paid for it. In the 2007 sale, I strongly suspect that only Gary and one other bidder went past $3 or $4 thousand dollars. And whether they were aware of it or not, I would submit that both of them were bidding because they wanted to "win." In Gary's case, "winning" likely provided some temporary gratification but ultimately cost him a lot of money. Any time you bid in one of these auctions, you would be well served to remember that you may be bidding against someone who wants to "win" in order to satisfy some kind of insecurity and who may not even be considering the likely resale value of the book. I've gotten pulled in more than once, but I've paid ridiculously high auction prices often enough that I've learned to walk away and wait for the next copy any time I see a book going above my honest pre-auction assessment of that book's value. I should say that I am able to walk away most of the time; it can be very hard to do during an auction—especially in the Heritage auctions where you only have a few seconds to decide whether to bid again, and you have a red warning light flashing in your face. The psychological manipulation in those auctions is obvious yet still effective because the HA folks prey on people's desire to "win," which is rooted in the insecurities that most of us harbor.

Interesting book. I never knew anything about Disney characters being licensed to King. I've also never seen "O Tannenbaum" translated as "O Evergreen." I always see "O Christmas Tree." I wonder whether the "O Evergreen" version was more popular at that time.

Uncanny Tales pulp to Uncanny Tales comic book.

You jest, but that might reflect the attitude of "punishment bidders" in some of these auctions. I think some people put in high bids thinking, "If I don't walk away with this book, at least I'll make somebody else pay a stratospheric price for it." I think that some shill bidders have it down to a science; they watch to see how long the other bidder hesitates before entering another bid, and when it looks like the other bidder is slowing down, they stop bidding. Their goal is to be the underbidder. Some of them are good enough at it that they rarely get burned, but they probably set up bogus accounts so that they can default on the payment without consequences when they do get burned badly.

If you value brevity, then the phrase "I bought a book in the auction" should stand you in good stead.

Guy on a white horse shooting an arrow to guy on a white horse dodging an arrow.

Mid-grade '50s sci-fi dust jacket to low-grade 50's sci-fi dust jacket.

I like some of the Vigoda covers, but I've found the early '50s stories that I've read to be very boring (so I haven't bothered to read very many of them).

I'm glad you told us that; I was about to offer you $1,000,000 for your Dazzler no. 1, sight unseen, but instead I decided to spend the money on a NM copy of Muppet Babies no. 1. (It's raw, but the seller verbally agreed to give me a 5% rebate if CGC finds any restoration when I have it slabbed.)

That's an ambitious run to go after. Be sure to post some group shots when you complete it!

Did Joe ever get his Lone Ranger piece back? Were the thieves prosecuted? (I've never met Joe in person, but I bought a Diamond Run book from him way on eBay way back when.)

Caged people to caged people.

Massive, anthropomorphic frog to tiny frog.

I'm sure this isn't new, but I got a laugh out of this forgotten password message on the fourcolorcomics.com site:

As others have mentioned, the year isn't over, but I don't have my eye on anything else. This was my last pick up. I like the way the cover is designed, but I'm worried that the reindeer on the left might be giving some unsuspecting tot COVID.

Cuts Like a Knife to Straight from the Hearth.

I've been on the boards sporadically lately and just saw this thread. I'm very sorry to hear about your wife. I remember that several years ago you mentioned that she she had bought you a copy of Catman 32 for Christmas, and I remember thinking, "that's one cool wife!"