Gardner Broome

6.5 as is. 7.5 with press. 

I would not spend time posting more pictures and would not get these comics third-party graded. I’m afraid none of these have a value exceeding $10 due to condition they are in. They are great copies to read and enjoy. 

It was also a cool poster that I hung in my son’s room when he was a little guy. It’s weird to think that the McSpidey era was 30 years ago. 

I’m at 4.5. Personally, I would not certify this comic because the process to do so would likely cost just about as much as the book is worth. A Mylar bag and a couple of backing boards will preserve the book just as well as it being encapsulated. 

Welcome to the world of comic book collecting. While you may not be a big Green Lantern fan, the two books you have are part of a historic run by the team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams (Green Lantern #76-#89). That run is nothing like the other 60 years of Hal Jordan stories. The stories are more mature and the art is stunning. If I was just starting out as a collector, I would try to find the other issues in the run and complete a set.

It is easy to get carried away with dreams of dollar signs when you see the values of books like these in high grade, especially CGC 9.8, which is virtually impossible to achieve on books that are close to 50 years old. Copies like the ones you have here are worth perhaps 1% or 2% of that 9.8 value. They are referred to as “reading copies” because you can read them all you want and not worry about lowering the condition. The vast majority of comic books published in the last 50 years are not worth grading, but many of them make great reading material and/or are fun to collect in sets. 

I moved from the Midwest to the East Coast a few years ago. I have been collecting comics since 1974 so to say my collection is huge is an understatement. Thank goodness I did not let the movers move my books. I contracted with Mayflower, a large national moving company. I paid $5,000. As someone earlier mentioned, they sub-contract the work out to others. The movers were scum of the Earth and it was an unmitigated disaster. It took two weeks for my stuff to show up. Half my furniture was damaged and boxes of important things like family photos simply vanished. I had to sue for damages, which was stressful, expensive and time consuming. I can only imagine what they would have done with my collection.

With the comic books, before I moved I pulled out a couple of boxes of the best stuff and kept those with me as I was driving my car to my new city. The rest of the books went into a climate controlled storage facility in my old city, which made me nervous, but I could not think of a better solution until I was settled in the new city. Months later, the storage place called to tell me some emergency sprinklers had accidentally been turned on, but it was not close to my storage locker so they did not think there was damage. It still drove me crazy. As soon as I could I made arrangements to fly back to my old city with an incredibly nice new friend. We rented a medium-sized Penske truck, loaded up all of the comics, which were not damaged by the water, and drove to my new city. It was exhausting but it felt great to be reunited with my comics.

In summary, don’t let national moving companies touch your comic books, even if they are secured. Those companies are basically criminals. Also, be careful about storage lockers. I would wrap every box in plastic garbage bags if I ever have to use one again.

Regards,

Gardner

84/100, but I’ve been collecting for 45 years so I bought most of them when they were brand new—or still pretty cheap as back issues. 

Actually Black Canary’s first full Silver Age appearance, following the flashback cameo in 1962’s The Flash #129, was in 1963’s Justice League of America #21, and she is prominently featured on the cover of that famous first team-up of the JLA and JSA. Brave and the Bold #61 did not come out until 1965, but that was her first appearance without the whole JSA. In 1969’s Justice League of America #74 her husband Larry Lance is killed and the JLA invites her to move from Earth-Two to Earth-One. Wonder Woman had lost her powers for what ended up being several years, so DC had BC move teams to fill the token female role on the JLA. In the next issue, #75, she gains her sonic scream and begins her relationship with Green Arrow. In 1983 they retconned what took place between JLA #74 and #75 to reveal that her middle aged body was switched with her daughter’s mindless body that had grown up in a magical limbo, but Dinah’s mind and memories stayed the same. DC did this because Dinah had been around since the late 1940s and they wanted to make her age more in-line with the younger Earth-One heroes. It was a goofy way to do it as the JLA members all knew Dinah previously and surely would have noticed if she all of a sudden became 20+ years younger. 

When Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the Earths into one and changed DC history, it was eventually revealed that there were two Black Canaries, the mother and the daughter, who never shared the same mind or body. This was revealed after Watchmen came out, so the new origin and background was basically ripped off from the background of the two Silk Spectre’s in that acclaimed story. The older Black Canary was soon killed off.

It is a pretty convoluted background, but no worse than the TV series Arrow, where there have been three different Canaries so far. 

In my opinion, ComicLink is the better option. They provide superb customer service to both consignors and bidders and typically get stronger prices. 

Your enthusiasm is terrific, but I’d suggest you slow down a bit and become more educated before submitting any more books to CGC. This book, with its water stains and other damage likely won’t grade out higher than 3.0 and could be lower. Right now a graded 3.0 is worth around $75. Between the purchase price, clean and press, grading fees, and shipping both ways, you are most likely going to be in the hole if you were going to try to sell the book. If you use Ebay or one of the comic book auction firms to sell, that firm would take a nice chunk as well. I think a good rule of thumb is that a Silver Age book should have a raw value of $250 or higher before you consider sending it in for grading. If it were me, I would put it in a mylar for another decade or so and see if the value escalates. 

Bought a sharp copy of this one out of a dollar box a few months ago. Bidders must be confusing it for the first Man-Thing #1, which is the second appearance of Howard the Duck. 

While I agree that claiming to be a creator of Iron Man is not accurate, I think what Layton  is trying to convey with his claim is that the Michelinie/Layton team had a significant influence on the version of Iron Man brought to life by Robert Downey Jr. that most of the world now knows as Iron Man. Before they began working on the character in the late 1970s, Tony Stark was a very generic business man. The work done by the duo, along with a young JRJR, brought to life the notion of a Stark as a three-dimensional billionaire playboy/industrialist/inventor/superhero. Although he was not yet the wise-cracking version of Stark played by RDJ, this comic book version laid the foundation for that interpretation of the character. 

I’ve been collecting since 1974 and I’ve been hearing about how the hobby is going to crash and burn for at least 40 years now. Instead, it keeps getting bigger and values for the most part keep going up.  For the last few years, I’ve made a comfortable living selling vintage comic books and original art, something I would not have thought possible ten years ago. From high-grade keys to dollar books, everything sells if priced right. Most of the customers are in the 35-60 range, but there are guys as well as some women in their 20s. I’ve even sold Silver Age books to a few kids, one who is trying to complete a TOS run and one who buys a variety of titles.

Hundreds of millions of kids today around the globe are growing up immersed in a wide range of superheroes on the screen and we need just a teeny tiny percentage of them to sustain an interest in vintage collecting in order to keep the growth of this subset of the hobby going  for decades to come. Yes, most kids will not be interested in paper collectibles, but we don’t need a mass numbers. 

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

+1

Yes, definitely doesn't help when there are so many copies of the exact same book in the auction at the same time.

Besides the 3 copies of Hulk 1in the auction, it looks like there were 5 copies of AF 15 for the potential bidders to pick and choose between.  

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

+1

Yes, definitely doesn't help when there are so many copies of the exact same book in the auction at the same time.

Besides the 3 copies of Hulk 1in the auction, it looks like there were 5 copies of AF 15 for the potential bidders to pick and choose between.  

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

+1

Yes, definitely doesn't help when there are so many copies of the exact same book in the auction at the same time.

Besides the 3 copies of Hulk 1in the auction, it looks like there were 5 copies of AF 15 for the potential bidders to pick and choose between.  

I just wanted to mention that the Hulk #1s and the AF #15s in this auction were all in different grades so not really the “same exact” books. I’ve never seen Comiclink list Silver Age books with the same grade within the same auction session.

As far as soft prices go, I would not agree as it looks to me like there were dozens of keys in this auction that beat GPA by a significant margin. This included both major and minor keys across all eras. 

Thanks for listening,

Gardner

The books my buds or I have able to sell at small shows quickly this year in almost any condition (as long as they are not restored) at good prices are ASM #13, #14, #15, #31, #50, #101,and #300. I would assume #129 as well, but have not had any to sell.The others in the series don’t move quickly at all unless they are very high grade and priced low.

Plus Hulk #1-6 and #180-181 (of course). FF #48 and #49 as well as Silver Surfer #1, #3 and #4, GSXM #1 and MSH #13.

And HOS #92, Flash #123, Detective #359, Hawkman #4 and Batman #181. New Gods #1 seems to be in demand as well.

And Golden Age Batman issues featuring Joker, Catwoman or Two-Face.

Things I have not been able to sell even though they seem to sell for online dealers are keys featuring the Black Panther, Adam Warlock, or Night Nurse as well as Ms. Marvel #1, Shazam #1 and many others. 

Thanks for listening,

Gardner