Redshade

Yes, it was mentioned that the same dealers (as evinced by the same "paddle" numbers winning again and again) were purchasing vast amounts of stuff and that the books would no doubt resurface in the market at some time in the future with an appropriate mark-up after being cleaned, pressed and slabbed.

I first noticed that "civilian" auctioneers were going online several years ago and that the days of finding a bargain were long gone. It may be that the lockdown has exacerbated things but this was trending quite some time ago. I contacted Antoni (see above) about the auction that he attended and he told me that whilst there were a few comic fans physically at the auction (and able to flick through the comics on offer including the AS-M 1 and FF 1 ) the vast majority of lots were going to online bidders.

£720 plus 24.6% in fees.

I apologise if I seemed a bit abrupt with my answer to your post. It reflected, if anything, my frustration at being outbid in all the auctions that I tried to participate in and in no way was meant to be an admonishment to your goodself. You are no doubt aware that all the auction houses put their sales online so that one doesn't have to be physically there to bid, some being audio only with others being video and audio? I wish you well in your searches. Stephen.

That's the point I think mate. Start with low estimates to draw people in and then get the punters bidding against each other. All these auctions are online and there is no way to catch any "nice bargains" any more.

You picked up some nice lots there Antoni (especially those GL), these are exactly the comics that I would have had a bid on if I were a lottery winner and had the cash.

I was watching that auction even though I knew that the prices were going to be well out of my reach. It looks as if it was an original owner collection of pence variants and very well looked after. I would have given my left leg to have been able to afford that AS-M 1. £13,500 !!! Plus fees on top of that. EDIT. That's $16,800 dollars. And I believe that fees are usually 20-25% or thereabouts for a total of $21000 or £16875. Why do I torture myself so?

I think that is is best left alone Steve. It's been such a struggle (by you) to get to where we are. If there should have to be any change in the nomenclature I would be happy enough with just "UK variant" but that is just a personal preference and not one that I expect others to agree with.

You took the words right out of my mouth Garystar. I was formulating just such a reply in my head as i read Marwood's post.

Hi all. I'm a little late to the party and by no means an expert on the Whitworth facsimilies but I can say that they were exact replicas of the older comics including the ads. As Whitworth produced 1000s of replicas in the 80s/90s of UK reprint titles of the 40s/50s/60s. This makes collecting these titles as absolute nightmare. I have a copy of the Whtiworth catalogue from that era and can confirm that YM no 370 was the last issue of that title that he reproduced. But as the earlier copies are now 30+ years old it is not outside the bounds of possibility that the earlier facsimiles themselves could have accumulated wear and tear and even staple rust.

Such a suspicious cynic thou art Marwood.

Thank you all for your input, it's been very helpful and greatly appreciated. I'm going to pass.

I really do appreciate your comments. It's obvious that I am wary as evinced by my original query. Given that this is a pence variant (which I remember from back in the day) may I tentatively ask what you would consider to be a fair price for this book.

This is on ebay UK, and these are the only photos shown. I am not asking about the general condition which all things being equal would be VG ish. I am asking what the community thinks about the fading and how the consensus thinks that it affects the overall grade?

I would like an opinion from you all as to what you would grade this heavily faded comic as? Thanks.

Nice to see you back Steve. We await agog for any ramblings, coherent or otherwise that thou hast.

Great comic. I just love to see UK variants. The Beatles magazines are 80s reprints of the original 60s mags and do not have any value. Sorry.

I love seeing the pence variants. Nice collection.

No problem, I'll do some more digging (yes, I'm retired with a lot of time on my hands ). That is why I mentioned the indicias earlier, perhaps there is pertinent information there? I'll try to do a screenshot to show what the UK guide suggests what these are "worth". The values given are a total for the set.

I found this in The UK Price Guide. It shows the Saxophone cover as being the No 1 and the Drainpipe cover as being No 4, although it is not infallible. It does not have pictures of Nos 2 and 3.

Oh! As a child in the 60s how those ads used to tantalise us in the UK with things that we just couldn't buy in England. Air rifles!!! Oh if only, and those sets of tiny plastic soldiers. And what were tootsie rolls and Cheerios? And all those ads where one had to sell merchandise " to friends and family and neighbours (wtf was Grit?)". Oh what great things were they just out of our reach? I wanted that bike, and oh that walkie talkie set and to be able to sell greetings cards and to be able to make lots of money . And the subscription ads in the indicias : Send this amount of money to this US address for a year's subscription "How do we do this Dad?".

So do we my friend . This what these sites are for. Show us what you've got. Although the researchers will probably be more interested in the indicias as much as the front covers. (This hobby never fails to amaze me, but I doubt that any one is interested in back cover ads). Show me otherwise.

The Disney comic being printed in Rupees (thank you Google) is an Indian publication. Very interesting. A lot of Indian comics were I believe printed in many languages extant on the Indian Subcontinent. Gujerati, Urdu, Hindi etc as well as English. That would be a fascinating series to research when one is retired and has plenty of time on one's hands.

I don't know anything about Luke Cage as by the 70s I had stopped buying comics. There is a Luke Cage wikipedia page which may be of use and the aforementioned Marwood and I has a very interesting thread on Marvel UK Price Variants although I don't know how to do "links" very well. Edit Looking through my Overstreet I see that the Character fisrt appeared in a title called "Hero for Hire" dated June 1972. The title ran under this name for 16 issues. It was renamed "Power Man" from issue 17 until the last issue 125 in 1986.