jimbo_7071

C (Cole) Shark to B (Baker) Shark.

You used to be able to see the IDs of whomever you were bidding against.

Quality from '54 to Quality from '54.

"WOW!" in the listing title bugs me. When I see that, I want to kick the seller in the shin.

That was before I owned a copy of Gerber and before Heritage (with their online database) was selling comics. I had it for quite a long time before I realized that it was not Four Color 135. It was also over-graded, but that's par for the course with eBay.

What's worse is when you get the wrong item but don't notice in time to do anything about it. I purchased this book as a Four-Color #135, but it's actually a Felix the Cat #2. The book may have matched the picture in the listing (although I'm not positive about that) but I didn't have the covers memorized and definitely looked up Four Color 135 in Overstreet when deciding whether the price was fair.

I guess it's kind of funny that an obviously-jealous Robin is trying to pull Batman away from his new love interest.

Quality to Quality and revealing attire to revealing attire.

It could be. I remember sorting through the books in the spinner racks until I found a copy of each book with no spine ticks; sometimes it was a challenge.

Patriotic cover to patriotic cover; July of '45 to August of '45.

I fixed it for you.

From what I remember, the direct market editions look identical except for some B&W artwork (like Spider-Man's face) in the place of the UPC code, is that right?

Most collectibles, including comics, will crash that badly eventually, but with comics, that kind of crash is still decades away, in my opinion. I don't think that people will still be collecting comics 100 years from now, but I don't see a significant crash in the next ten years (except with moderns and Bronze).

I tend to agree. I don't sell many books, but I sort of figure that anything I sell will go up by about the same percentage as anything I buy—not necessarily on a book-by-book basis, but on average. Unfortunately, there are enough flippers out there that they must have some effect on the prices of comics. Whether that effect is small or large is anyone's guess.

Sometimes sarcasm includes a grain of truth. But it hasn't been established that Heritage concocted the story. The story is still unverified, however. Personally, I hope it's true. It is a good story.

When did this trend of chasing newsstand editions start? I used to collect moderns back in the 80s—in fact, I had a copy of Thor #337—but I don't remember anyone back then expressing a preference for newsstand editions over direct market editions.

I have expressed my personal opinion, but more to the point I have looked at the evidence and drawn a conclusion about whether the backstory has an impact on the value of the books. That conclusion is based upon the claims of a number of people (including @sfcityduck) that the story had an impact on their purchase decisions. As in any healthy debate, anyone is free to try to refute my conclusion by challenging the evidence.

I've been happy with my purchases from Don Maris and Jim Payette, so maybe I should stick to buying from them.

I purchased this one raw from Metro as a 6.5. I purchased this one raw from Metro as a 9.0. I purchased this one raw from Richie Muchin as a VF/NM 9.0. I purchased this one raw from Worldwide as a VF/VF+.

They didn't have an obligation to tell us anything, but because they chose to tell us some things, they are obligated to be truthful in terms of what they do share. Changing names is one thing, but if they've misstated any material facts, then they've committed fraud. Whether any particular person cares about the backstory is irrelevant; we all know that the value of the books in the marketplace is affected by the story, and Heritage knows it, too.

That's possible, but it might not be the only explanation. Maybe his remains weren't repatriated until '54. Many soldiers killed in battle are buried in temporary graveyards and then brought back later.

I saw that Armand as well, but the biggest problems are that 1) the markings on most of the books don't look like they're from the Detroit area and 2) the collection continues for several months after Armand Craig's death. You mentioned before that the distributor coding looked like it came from Connecticut. Have you found any Armands from Connecticut who were KIA or MIA? I have also considered the possibility that someone named Armand saved comics for Junie after Junie enlisted, in which case Junie's name might not even be Armand.

If the money is going to Robert's kids, is it possible that Armand's other nieces and nephews would have a claim on the money? Technically, the books didn't belong to Robert, right? They belonged to Armand. So keeping the story under wraps may be more about not wanting other family members to find out.

Flag to flag.