jimbo_7071

Skeletal hand and two open graves to skeletal hand and one open grave.

I'd say that that napkin definitely falls into the category of "ephemera."

The "collectibles market" may persist, but what people collect may change. I tend to agree with those who mentioned the importance of nostalgia. Some millenials are collecting Pokémon cards. I think the original game was pretty neat, but I don't have a yen to collect the cards simply because there's no connection to my childhood. Even though I don't want to collect them myself, I get it. If I had been born 20 years later, I'd probably be collecting Pokémon cards instead of comic books. If I were collecting for profit, I'd ditch comic books for video games, game cards (not just Pokémon but Magic the Gathering, etc.), sports memoribilia, and tennis shoes. (That last hobby I really don't get.) However, I wouldn't get much enjoyment out of collecting those things. Collecting would become a job. Comics will probably fade eventually, but by then I'll probably be too senile to realize it. I'll think they're still valuable. I'll feel very benevolent when I donate my comics to my favorite charity, and they'll be like, "Gee, thanks?" Then the boss will be like, "Hey, Joe, some crazy old man just gave us a pile of trash. Find out how much it'll cost us to rent a dumpster."

Wrapped in chains to wrapped in a plant.

The Big Red Cheese really does look like Fred MacMurray on that particular cover.

I also very much prefer writing with fountain pens when I have to write for any length of time, but I seldom need to any more. I had forgotten that I owned any fountain pens. I have one "nice" one that was kind of expensive back in the 90s. I also have some cheap ones lying around.

Grinning man in tights with a bare-legged boy to grinning man in tights with a bare-legged girl.

I understand where you're coming from, @twmjr1. I've never wanted a book badly enough to buy an incomplete copy. And @Nazirite, if you own an incomplete copy, you don't own the book. You own part of the book.

You seem to collect quite a few different things. Are you retired? I'm just curious how you're able to find the time to pursue so many different hobbies. I can barely find the time for my comic books.

Torch in an anthogy title to Torch in his own title.

No. 10 horror comic to no. 10 horror comic.

I personally have no interest in collecting video games, but I occasionally buy used Atari 2600 games to play on my old system. (I gave all of my Atari 2600 games to my brother, but I will occasionally set it up when I visit him and play a game or two for old times' sake.) I think that collectors are mostly buying unopened video games in sealed boxes. I hope that this collecting doesn't drive up the price of used games, which are still cheap (under $10 for the most part). It also seems like people are more into Nintendo games, so maybe Atari 2600 games won't be affected. My brother is much younger than I am; he was into SNES and N64, and I played those with him quite a bit. I remember liking the N64 games better than the SNES games, but none of the systems that have come out since then seem noticeably better to me than the N64 system.

Simon and Kirby DC to Simon and Kirby Timely.

Roulette to Jack of Horror.

May of '46 to May of '49, black horse to white horse, and Ace Periodicals to Ace Comics.

That makes more sense.

I don't know whether the notes are comprehensive. Many Dell file copies have tanning on the inside covers, and if they do, they probably won't get graded above 8.5 even if they're otherwise perfect, or so I've been told.

Interesting! I had no idea that ink could come through the cover like that. I've never seen that before. I've see a little bit of red ink peek through—faintly—but I've never seen black ink come right through the cover inks. (I have seen ink transferred from other covers many times, which is why I thought that's what it was.)

I don't think so. If you zoom in on it, the central part of the ad shows pictures of houses.

This book recently sold on HA.com. It looks like it picked up quite a bit of ink from the back of whatever book was on top of it in the pile for many years. Can anyone identify what back cover ad that would have been? Ever since I noticed, I've been trying to figure it out, but I don't know enough back covers to be able to recognize it. It doesn't appear on the back of Mary Marvel 12 or 14. I thought I would check other issues from June of '47, but I couldn't find back cover scans for many of them.

Tastes differ, but I always go with eye appeal and page quality over grade. I would take a fresh 8.0 with white pages over a 9.8 with off-white pages any day of the week.

Even though I like Romita's art better than Ditko's, ASM 50 is overrated. Between those two, I'd go with number 3 hands down.

Fixed it for ya!

I do like that cover. What four-color issue do the images come from? Maybe I'll try to find a reading copy.

For me, the only foreign editions that would be of any interest would be ones with cover art that doesn't appear on any of the American issues.