shadroch

I'd give it a 9.2 but you wouldn't post it if it weren't special. 9.9

If you appreciate that cover, and I suspect we all do, he did a cover of Rainbow, from DNAgents that will float your boat. I'm not sure if it was a one shot or in the regular series run. Total cheesecake.

I couldn't say. Too many to chose from. I liked his Twisted Tales 1 cover and a number of his Rocketeer ones. I have a litho of his Valkerie cover from Airboy but I wouldn't say it was my favorite. There was an Eclipse book with a Brian Setzer character on the cover that we used to tease him about, but I forget which one.

I liked the puppy. He grew up to be a real hotdog.

To me, it's just a typical EC cover. To you it is a classic. Life is good.

Marvels distribution deal limited them to eight books a month, according to many, many sources that I have read. Martin Goodmans publishing department did books and magazines but that was a different department and isn't relevant. As for the other genres, that was the fault of comic shop owners. DC's horror line outsold their heroes in the 70s but as the market moved to comic shops, the owners ordered hero books. Books like House of Mystery and Unknown Worlds were canceled because DC wasn't getting sufficent orders for them. Those genres thrived in the 80s with independent publishers who could make a profit on 20,000 sales. When Marvel bought Heroes World and launched the suicidal distribution war, the smaller distributors went bankrupt, owing the small publishers thousands of dollars and putting them out of business. I remember talking to Mark Hamlin when his company went belly up. He did everything right. He put out good books, on -time. Brought in young talent and paid them. He paid his printers, he provided support to his customers. He put out books people loved. He sold a lot of books. Only several distributors didn't pay him and he went broke.

Bugs killed more stars than Galactus.

Choose them all. Let God sort them out. I've seen a few covers designated classic that I disagee with, and some I hold iconic that have yet to be recognized by the masses. It's not a big deal. Asking me to chose one cover featuring Batman after 75 years of issues would be impossible. Same with Supes. Asking me to chose one Schomburg Timely is a non-starter. One Mac Raboy Captain Marvel Jr cover? One Kirby FF cover? One Spidey cover? One Dave Stevens? I'd rather face a future with nothing but Charltons.

I can think of dozens, maybe hundreds of books I'd call classic. I use the term Iconic, myself. Between Schomburg, Adams, Kirby and Wrightson alone, I could fill a few boxes of iconic covers.

I propose we establish a committee to look into the aspects of what that committee should look like. Should Marvel collectors get to vote on what DC covers are classics? Can a DC collector be considered sane? How many years before a book can be considered classic? What is the perfect numberof people for the committee? Will there be cookies? I'd say we need a sub-committe in order to get a semi-accurate idea of when the committee might have its membership reguirements available for a vote no later than Labor Day, with the committee aspiring to be fully manned and named in time for this years Yule.

It happens. A Showcase I'd had listed at $50 before discounting it to $45 and then $40 ended up selling for $48 after being around $15 with an hour to go. Selling these lots is really about making space than money. A short box here, a short box there and I may get the monster under control. Even now,I have three long boxes of Conans 25-150.

Just sold my 100th book of 2022 thru MCS. The Average price has been just over $220 per book. I had four lots in last weeks auctions. Three met my expectations but one lot- a group of Conans in the 50s/60s fell well short. I'll end up with .90 cents per book. As I have multiple copies of the books, it isn't a big deal but I would not have sold them for a buck a pop if I had my druthers.

Personally, I'd frame a page from a reprint copy before I spent more than a few dollars on something like that, but there are others who feel different.

eBay is so 2008

Price point?

How would a store survive selling 20 books from a few companies and less from others? How would Marvel make money selling 20 titles a month? If fifteen X-books average 50,000 per title, do you think a single title would sell 750,000?

Thats not a fair comparison. Marvel in 1964 was putting out eight books so if they all sold 500,000 that means the market for Marvel comics was four million copies a month. They sell way more than four million units today so sales have not dropped 80%, although losing that percent of readers may be correct.

Staying the course in the stock market means doing nothing. Staying the course for the shop owner would have meant years of struggling to meet the monthly nut. The thousands upon thousands of shops that didn't survive didn't close because the owners had made their fortunes. The guys I sold my shops to were passionate but got tired of reaching into their pockets to keep the place going. It's a small sampling but of my fellow shop owners on Long Island in 1988, the few who were open ten years later almost all had pensions or were on disability. I was shocked when a friend who had what I thought was a very successful shop offered to give it to me. It turned out he was about to be evicted, hadn't paid rent, or insurance for months and owed Diamond for the last six weeks. He was looking for a sucker to step in and pick up his debts. When I sold my shop, I was getting 52% off new books and free delivery. Within five years, the typical terms for small shops was 40-45% and not only did you have to pay for shipping, but it came COD which added a few bucks per box.

They've got a really cool lounge and coffe set up.

Sure, but that was before he went rogue and switched to a diet of kittens. Magneto was once a good guy too.

I'm not sure where the 5,000 figure comes from, but it is a number I've seen mentioned a few times. Perhaps that is what they commisioned.

I think we are talking past each other. I thought you said the MCs boxes were only good for a few books. I don't recommend amazon boxes but if they work for you....

I don't know which boxes you are referring to. I get a box from MCS that will often have well more than five books,, or even 25 books in it. Are you talking about the white boxes they send slabbed books in? I would not ship those on their own. I use them within a box, but not to ship solo.

DC Whitmans in HG are much rarer than HG Mark Jeweler copies.

When I lived in Vegas, I'd put ads on craigs list and the local community boards for bubble wrap and boxes. These days I don't need extra but when I get too much I'll advertise on facebook. I've yet to have to throw any away, someone is always moving or packing something.