Hepcat

If you really wanted us to make an accurate comparison you'd have to break the books out of those plastic cases.

That's when I started. I started as a "serious" collector in 1979.

I agree. It looks better than a 6.5 from what I can see. Good eye appeal!

Fortunately I have the 312. .

Here are scans from my collection of the first two issues of the Flash:

All my life? =) All of the silverage Superman Family titles are my collecting focus. Great stuff! I'm still killing myself trying to find nice enough copies of Adventure 310 and 311. (thumbs u

Wow! Those are nice books! I only have about half of those issues. How long were you working on completing those? What other runs are you working at completing?

Why don't you just bring them over to my house for safekeeping? I've got a couple of great filing cabinets for them you know. I'll even let you look at them on occasion with prior notice.

Here's a scan of my unslabbed Green Lantern 7:

There is no such thing currently. Therefore B&B 28 in 9.4 continues to be the 3rd most valuable SA DC book, behind the 9.6 and 9.4 copies of Showcase 4. Would a 9.4 SC #22 top a 9.4 SC #4 right now is the bigger question in my mind. With the emergence of the 9.6 I doubt that a 9.4 SC #4 would come anywhere close to its high price now. FWIW, I expect SC #22 to eventually end up as #1 if the GL movie franchise does well. Given that Showcase 4 predated 22 by three important years and is widely regarded as raising the curtain on the Silver Age, I'd say that Showcase 4 in the same grade will continue to elicit higher bids than Showcase 22. And I'm saying this even though Green Lantern is my favourite hero.

That's a nice one for sure! (thumbs u

Here are scans of the next two Aquaman Showcases from my collection: The 33 was a particularly good buy since it has a 1/8 inch chip out of the back cover at the top but that bothered me not at all. What I didn't like was the miscut left edge but the cover was so white and bright that I bought it anyway.

Truthfully I never get around to reading them anyway. I'm hundreds of comics behind in my filing right now. I bought dozens of Little Audrey and Spooky the Tuff Ghost early last year and I've been working on getting all my bronze age JLA, Flash, Wonder Woman, Batman and Brave & the Bold properly filed - but I've run out of Halfbacks/Thin-X-Tenders. All my bubble gumcards, sports and non-sports, are properly filed in binders though but I need an additional storage rack. I have more than twenty of the DC Archive books including the Aquaman one which I have been reading through though. They don't, however, have all the cool ads, letter pages and other nifty features.

Quite simply I don't believe in slabbing. Why would I entomb my own books in plastic thus making them effectively unavailable to my own self? They're not for sale. In fact, I've cracked open the few slabbed books I've purchased over the years and stored them with the others in Mylites with Thin-X-Tenders/Halfbacks.

Here's a scan of my Green Lantern 5: The 4 and 6 have been the ones that have proved the most elusive for me.

I'll start. Here are scans of my Showcase 30 and 31:

My good man, I do believe you have hit the nail square on the head...the DC Sci-Fi collector is the most discerning of collectors...yes. Unlike those...if you pardon the expression, "Marvel zombies" who only collect those nasty little plastic encased "keys". Each DC Sci-Fi books is a masterpiece in its own right. The interior of these treasures simply cannot be sealed up in a clear plastic. They must be allowed to breath the air and have their interior artwork and stories be enjoyed by its loving owner. If I may, I would liken a slabbed DC Sci-Fi book to a beautiful and elegantly dressed woman, who you could only look at, but never touch...(brings a tear to the eye). What are your thoughts about this, my fellow DC Sci-Fi enthusiasts? I'm in full agreement with you on all your points! Down with collectors of only "key" books! They're like lemmings following the dictates of the unwashed mass of critics deciding which books are to be considered keys. And comics are indeed like beautiful women; both should be lovingly and gently caressed.

Here's a scan of the Green Lantern 1 that I've had for about fifteen years:

How dare you put Rex the Wonder Dog into a thread for 2nd string titles? He's my number one hero of all time! Rex needed no stinking tights to do the job.

Yes. I'll be posting the 1 and the 7 in the next few days. The ones I lack are 4, 6 and 15 - plus I'd also like to upgrade my 13, 24 and 25 for extremely picky reasons. This upgrading thing is a horrible compulsion.

Here's a scan of my Green Lantern 3:

No need to apologize. Few of us have everything. Prioritizing in this hobby is a sad reality. And any comic that you treasure is a "key" in my book! (thumbs u

If by grading you mean getting it slabbed, no. There's no point since it's not for sale. In fact I've broken the few slabbed books I've been compelled to buy out of their imprisonment. I store my collection in Mylites/Arklites with Half-Backs/Thin-X-Tenders backing boards in two massive lateral filing cabinets. I've fallen behind in my filing though because I've run out of the Thin-X-Tenders. I thought I had two packs left from my last order eight or so years ago but they're nowhere to be found so I'm going to have to order some more.

Here's my Green Lantern 2 which I bought to upgrade another copy about two years ago:

Great stuff this scanning! Next week after Xmas I'll do some of my Fiction House and Fox covers as well as some of my Joe Kubert and Neal Adams covers. I'll also be putting up my Flash 105, Flash 106, Showcase 24, Green Lantern 1, Green Lantern 2, Brave & the Bold 29, Brave & the Bold 30, Justice League of America 2, Justice League of America 3 and Brave & the Bold 34 for grading purposes.