alexgross.com

i couldn't agree more. i still don't have an asm1, but i have this:

boy that's a disappointingly lame copy for having belonged to ditko!

i've definitely learned a thing or two from the boards over the last 5 years, like who are some of the shadier characters in the business. i would never bid on anything from his "auction" site and i don't trust any of his results either, for good reason. i'm sure there sre plenty of legit results acheived there, and i suspect some shenanigans may also happen. of course, no auction site is transparent and only on feebay can you see if someone is shilling an auction. so they should all be taken with a great deal of salt.

i personally find almost all 2.0 copies and lower to be appalingly ugly, no offense to those who own them. there's usually tape, discoloration, major tears, etc. it's really 3.0 where some books start to look decent. so, for me, if i had to choose between an asm1 in 2.0 or an asm3 in 7.0 or 7.5 it's no contest. i'd go with the first doc ock, or sandman, or vulture, etc in fine or very fine condition.

last sale of a 3.0 was august for $2250 and last sale of a 4.0 was last month for $2945, according to gpa. good luck, that's quite an impressive accomplishment. please share pics of the run!

i personally always hold out for white page copies of 181 too. they are not hard to find. and i do think a better wrap is in order at this grade level.

@Drummy and @DST are just two boardies who can tell you how much more they have overpaid for a nice presenting white page SA key book in the past...

oh g_d, you just opened a can of worms. i'm sure several people i have on ignore will shortly write their theses here. based on no statistical research, and about 9 years of collecting mostly SA white page books, i can tell you that white pages enhance the value of SA semi-key and key books by about a half point in grade. so an x-men 1 7.0 with white pages is worth about what a 7.5 with OW or C/OW pages is worth, more or less. this is not a hard and firm rule, but since white pages are hard to find on alot of SA stuff, and downright rare on certain books (AF15, showcase 4), they are always more desirable. as someone once said, there are no collectors who focus on cream page books. many collectors don't care about page color. and then there is a significant cohort of collectors like myself and many others here, who focus mainly on white page books from this period.

such a great, insightful and unbiased assessment of the show and the market right now. in my short time here on the boards, i've learned that dealers here will either say any given show was insane, over the top sales, or they will say it was pretty good, or they will have nothing to say. naturally it is against their interests to say publicly that a show was dead or the market is slowing down since that would result in more of us annoyingly lowballing them on our offers. and dealers who specialize in different stuff will have different results.

i picked up a nice mid-grade copy of dd16 last weekend at a local show. it's really neat to see romita's very first attempt at doing spidey. for those of us who never read it, he got pretty ambitious with the webbing on the costume as you can see in most of these pics. he quickly seems to have reduced the number of horizontal web strands as he continued to draw spidey for years to come.

@Terry JSA thanks for the great pictures! man there are a ton of legit dealers at this show. looks like a phenomenal con, a la terry's california show, and bigger. and thanks for the selfie, it's nice to occasionally see a young face at one of these shows and on the boards especially.

i dont think so many people are aware of this website. i have heard of them but have never bid on anything there and their website is pretty bad. for example, if you go there today, there is no sign that they ever auction anything except sports memorabilia. i don't think they will get the results of the big three. perhaps it's a great place to get deals? i have no idea and cannot even find how to join their comic auction mailing list.

glad you are having a nice time, very envious. make sure to include a selfie-- it's a rare boardie that is under 40 and not fat, bald, ugly, or all three!

i havent seen this figure come up too often on heritage, but maybe i havent been paying attention to their toy auctions as much as their comic ones. seems like it would have gone for more had it been an AFA label. https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/movie-tv-memorabilia/toys/star-wars-boba-fett-21-back-b-cas-80-c80-b80-f85-sw-early-release-kenner-1979-/a/7301-77063.s?type=bidnotice-tracked-endofauction

where are all the pics of the booths and the books!?

my instinct says 3.5-4.0. i had a 3.5 xmen1 that presented better than this on the front though it had more creasing. this back cover is quite clean. perhaps the 4.0 is more likely.

looking forward to pics of this show! everyone says its the best on the east coast-

think i beat you to it. a momentous occasion nonetheless

thor 130 138 144 150

one way to do that is to put either or both of them on ignore. it's made my experience here better, not having to read what 3 or 4 know-it-alls have to say about everything. and i'm sure ignoring me has made it better for some of them too!

i did quite a big trade with @SpideyFein here about a month ago. he listed his asm3 8.5 white page copy in the for sale section and also mentioned that he was open to trades. i swapped my asm3 5.5 along with 3 other books plus a small amount of cash for his book. so trades can totally happen here @Every Day A Story

i liked the mignola hellboy piece quite a bit-

guys, enough bickering. we don't need yet another thread to be locked. hulk 181 is a divisive book. some of us think it's a good investment from a financial point of view based on the years long history of the book and the endless demand for it. others think it is not going to continue to grow because of a seemingly endlessly growing supply. TO EACH HIS OWN! you are not going to convince anyone here that you are right. if someone truly annoys you, just put them on ignore. this thread is about the overall market, of which doug's "auction" of a 181 9.8 is but one example recently. as everyone but the most blind are aware, most of the market is quite down from a year ago. all the early spidey stuff i have bought or bid on though is still extremely strong, unfortunately.

my carvel was on roslyn road in roslyn, long island, in the 70s, next to cookies stationery store where i used to buy my comics.