MGsimba77

It's a contemporary Vietnam story. I love those storylines involving real time events. You're absolutely right. Early bronze was a key time for him. Do you have a raw 106? Its like a da Vinci for comics. One of those panels with spidey climbing the wall was the corner circle sketch on M Tales.

If you're looking to get a low grade then yellow covers are your best bet. The yellow obscures wear & tear more than others. I think last I checked 129s in low grade are well within reach.

Romita at his very best! Just from observation and its been mentioned here before, there was a point in time between '71 and 73 where he reached this superhuman beastmode level of artwork. I mean on another level off the charts! I'm thinking ASM 106 107 immediately come to mind. And his inking on the Kane issues particularly #96 is just bonkers! The last splash page of 96

Ive seen a couple of X-men 104 with this effect especially on the back cover. Same with my slabbed copy. It only shows a little bit from scans however. You have to see it in person. Aside from 194 I don't know of anymore bronze ASMs that have this? I've seen several silvers with the see through but not too many bronze. Check that: ASM 146 has some of it.

9.8s in particular had a big runup ~ 2005 (while every other grade was mostly flat) due to movie hype if memory serves. After that it came way down starring in 2008 hitting a low ~2011. It then started to steadily increase since then. This year its skyrocketed passed previous highs from the last few sales. If current trend continues those 10 year %s for 9.8 will look much better.

If there's not a significant difference in pricing and you could afford the markup then 9.2 would be my preference. Have you scoured the market for 9.2 whites? I think there's several available at any given time so there could be another reasonable priced copy you may like. I would prefer the highest grade I could afford on such a major key. As for PQ I have a particular OCD that prevents me from having more non WP than WP for any given year. I wish I could get rid of it. For example right now I have an even 3-3 PQ split on 1972 books. So if I add another non WP it may result in some emotional upheaval that I may not get under control ...Obviously exaggerating but not completely.

I don't know that anyone is "coming up with" ratios. The ratios are there at any given time determined by available supply. At least the ratios that I'm referring to. I'm not aware of anyone claiming a major comic beatdown the moment it touches the rack? Much likelier they got dinged at the corners enough to still be in the 9s if on the rack long enough for perusing. Ebay Clink Hakes or whatever. Anywhere.

He spells out the caveats and goes over them in detail. Obviously the census is not perfect and is very small sample size but its still a real data point that tells a similar story to the strong anecdotal evidence of available 9.8 barcodes anywhere sold. If someone were to believe your theory of parity then how do you square such a wide ratio between certified 9.8 or even 9.6 barcodes to direct editions from mid 80s to early 90s. How do you square it with a census (imperfect as it is) telling the same story? Wouldn't there be more of a split? Don't you think its a bit odd? Every piece of evidence be it verified or anecdotal points in the same direction. I mean sure if this changes drastically I'm more than happy to change my tune! I'll go wherever the evidence points and right now it points to coppers of a certain timeframe in top grade merit a premium. Go to any of your favorite sites that sell comics and tell me how many 9.8 Mcfarlane ASMs with barcodes compared to without. Maybe even check 9.6 for that matter. What do you find? How many Batman 423? Hulk 340? So as of now Lazyboy I'll stick to the available evidence as a guide.

What are you talking about? He's showing census information. Even if he wasn't why would your word be any more credible? Oh and the eye rolls .

This may be of interest for anyone interested in actual numbers that are broken out into a census instead of just opinions. Its obviously not cgc and it's a small sample size but its better than nothing. This is an updated version of the link someone posted on page 1. @valiantman I don't know if you've seen this "population report" but it might be right up your alley. https://rarecomics.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/newsstand-rarity-by-year-cbcs-census/ Its some interesting reading and you gotta do some scrolling on the site to get to the relevant numbers but here's a screenshot of a chart where he charts 9.8s for 3 titles (ASM Uncanny X-men Incredible Hulk) from the years listed. I'd love to see the census information on ASM 300 9.8 but for whatever reason they won't accept my email so I can't create an account Anyway think this might be helpful.

Fantasy? The life of the comic is the reason for the math. So it's both.

The collector in me most definitely values a 9.8 newsstand over a direct not only for the scarcity but the experience the book went through. And yes its worth the cost imo. A newsstand copy of any given copper age had ample opportunity to suffer damage even before making it to the spinner rack. It was likely sitting in a pile of other comics under who knows what squeezed in shrink wrap on a pallet that may or may not have been transported with care. Imo there's value in a top graded copy that saw some risk as opposed to just sitting behind a counter somewhere under protection. Even collectors could have bought those barcodes to use as readers oblivious to their future potential while storing away the direct copy. So yeah there's a good reason people will pay a healthy premium for an ASM 300 9.8 barcode copy! I think people becoming aware of this is a good thing and the reason they've been getting some attention. It'll become a "fad" when we start seeing the ratio of available 9.8 barcodes vs direct edition decrease substantially. Particularly coppers. I'll kind of go off topic here a little but I always thought there's some value in a particular book's experience. Just an example, if I knew for a fact (silver age comic x) was owned by someone who had it sitting on a coffee table in front of his TV while he was watching something like the moon landing I'll go for that over a similar copy that just sat in his drawer. I mean I wouldn't pay some crazy premium for that but would still value that story as a collector. So there's my

Some for the lower grades

Anyone have experiences selling to buyers with 1 feedback or very low feedback on Ebay? I have an offer from a 1 feedback buyer on a relatively pricey slab but not sure if I should counter or just decline? I tried looking up the Ebay user name in the search function here and nothing comes up including this thread. I've read too many horror stories here to have confidence.

Does anyone have any recently sketched books by Migrom? I haven't seen too many from him. I'm thinking about submitting for a Migrom remark but considering his age I'm not sure. It would just be a black spidey face on a white cover so pretty simple. Maybe I'm just having some trauma from seeing all those misplaced Stan sigs? Thoughts from anyone?

Shyster 😉

Oh ok nevermind. I was referring to a long time boardie who doesn't post anymore but sells a lot of yellow labels. He has a 55 that looks exactly like yours with the signature in the same place and I think same grade

Is that RMA's copy? I'm almost positive it is

She's about to knock that "Romita" right off the cover like a balloon

He's a brave man!