4GEMWORKS

Wow, the Promise books...they certainly hit the market at the right time.

Incidentally the Heritage Four Color sales are moving towards some of the lower numbers. Nine of the 25 issues in series one will be up for auction next week. These are difficult to find in any condition, let alone nine at once.

Hi All- I have gotten a few e-mails and thought I'd put up a general reply. I decided to sell my Four Color Collection after 20 years of working to collect it. I had the full set and was short only about 40 books that I thought were worth grading. Heritage is handling teh sale and all my books are in their hands. They will be selling them over the course of the next year or so, about 20-25 per week. For those who have posted your list of missing issues, it's a;most a certainty that those books will be put up for sale. About 125 have sold so far but there are another 1200-1300 to go. Here is a link to a press release on the sale: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/the-complete-1354-issue-run-of-dells-four-color-hits-auction/ For what it's worth, the best advice I ever got in collecting was from Josh Nathanson at ComicLink about 25 years ago when ComicLink was just building steam. He said to buy the highest grade you can afford. A book bought for $20 may be hard to resell at $10. A single highest graded copy bought at $500 will rarely sell for less and usually more. I realize not everybody can afford the price of some of these higher grade books, but do yourself a favor, if you can and try to get at least one high grade book of something that you really want. You'll never regret it. My current goal; is to collect every EC comic published in the highest grade I can afford. I'm actually closer than you might think, but like Four Color I'm at the point where what I don't have is the hard stuff to find. Good luck and contact me if you have any questions. Please note I do not have any of the books in my collection as far as Four Color goes and cannot make deals outside of Heritage at this point. Good luck and happy New year!

I got lucky. It was on Comiclink but was hidden among the odds and ends as far as I could tell. I was willing to pay much more. I was astonished, actually.

That is a great question but it has an elusive answer. It reminds me of old silver dollars. At a certain point the value of a silver dollar is more dependent on the price of silver than the numismatic value. But things can change and suddenly the numismatic value increases it beyond the silver value. The value of the 35 centers, in my opinion, has always been the 35 cent rarity factor. For years certain 35 centers have sold for vast multiples of the underlying common issue..ie Kid Colt. So the 35 cent factor is far more of a driver than the actual issue. I don't think the 35 cent factor results in a more dramatic price multiplier than than underlying issue itself.. If a 35 center such as The Eternals suddenly pops, the 35 center is likely to get far less pop as a percentage than the underlying issue. The variant may go up but not at nearly the percentage of the underlying. Time will tell, but I think the 35 cent factor is somewhat limiting so far as value increases versus the general increases being seen in comics. Much more important would be supply and demand. If just a few more collectors enter the market for variants that would have a bigger impact as there is such a scarcity to begin with. I bought my entire X-men run of 35 centers for about $100 each. There were not all that many people collecting them 20 years ago. It has been the large increase in the number of collectors that has been the primary driver in the 35 cent price increases. A friend of mine has a complete collection of USA pennies. He mentioned an 1856 Flying Eagle which was a "sample" coin to make it simple. A few were put into circulation but nobody ever paid attention. 30 years ago you could have bought one for a couple of hundred dollars. The guide finally included it 20 or so years ago and with a bit of publicity it became quite valuable, now selling for 10K plus. A lot of big money has entered the comic book market. If a few of those players get into the varies, prices could skyrocket.

After 20+ years of waiting patiently, I finally got a copy of the elusive Flintstones #1.

I'd like to see set that consolidates EC titles. For example Moon Girl becomes Weird Fantasy. Most of these start at #1 somewhere and I'd like to see a consolidated set from 1 to finish.. Also, I'd like to see a consolidated set for the various EC genres, i.e New Trend, all issues, New Direction, all issues. There are not all that many EC books and it would be nice to see a set that simply includes all EC books ever published (I would delete MAd magazine from that collection list as it is a pretty significant single set.). Hello @4GEMWORKS, I have created an E.C. Comics - Complete Set (Excluding Mad) which is live now. I will not be able to make the additional sets as they are redundant to the main set. Thank you for your patience.

It's been 15 years or so since I got any variants graded. A few came back better than expected.

FC 717 Here is one of those books you can find on EBay all day long. You will be lucky to find a copy better than Fine, however. I have waited well over 15 years to get a high grade copy like this. I got it from Slayor on EBay after finally talking him down on price. I have no idea how that guy sells any books at all. But he did sell me this copy to his credit at a price just slightly above where it belonged.

I had a hoard of at least 50-60 of these DC copies about 10 year sago. I could hardly find a home for them. I finally sold them on Ebay for pennies each. I originally got them from a guy that had been based with the military overseas. They are out there you just need to be lucky and find the right person. I also got a ton of Marvel 30 cent variants which was my original goal and he had them in spades as well.

Last copy in the trade with Bullet was FC 618. Johnny Mack Brown has never been particular tough but I was never able to find this higher than about VF-. Thanks again Bullet!

Here is number 510, Son of Black Beauty in that era of poor paper quality. This also replaces some lower grade copies that were just not high enough in grade to get graded. This also came in teh trade with Bullet.

I managed to connect with Bullet and we were able to help each other fill a few gaps in our collection. What a great guy and a totally painless experience! Here is 89, completing at long last my Four Color collection 1-100. I've had decent copies but nothing worth grading!

Great books. My mouth is watering!

Yes I do. I have a decent copy, around 6.0, but not good enough to get graded. It's a really tough book as so many of the missing issues are. Great to see you back. I wondered what happened to you!

I sent you a message Jim. Maybe we can work out something on some books. Glad to see you back.

Not only delays, I have seen packages come with more damage than I have seen in all my years shipping. Luckily no comics were damaged. I did have a couple of graded pennies that were run straight over and both cases cracked. I have no idea what's going on with package care, but it's not the same for sure.

My CGC graded Four Color collection is about 97-98% complete including almost all the issues through 100. Here is a link to the complete set: I have pictures front and back for virtually every issue as well if you go to the gallery. https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=8497 This is the link for series one (1-25) https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=57232 Lastly here is the link for the Four Color Donald Ducks only issues which is pretty cool as well. https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=9887&SelectedTab=SetListing

Lastly, while not technically right as far as time frame. Four Color had been the sole series for Movie Classics. This issue, David Ladd's Life Story would almost certainly have been a Four Color had the series gone another few months and may well be missing. I slotted it as missing FC 1362 in my custom set.

Here are three pretty straightforward missing issues: Marge's Little Lulu and Tubby in Japan, missing Fc 1321. The Real McCoy's, missing FC 1325 and lastly Mickey Mouse Album, missing Fc 1357.

Here is a book left off the list of missing FC issues. It was an oversite on my part. I will add back. It is The Bullwinkle Mother Goose Nursery Pomes. Missing FC 1277

The first missing book. Barbie and Ken Missing FC 1217

Here is another CGC labeling error. Missing Four Color 1329. There is nothing in the Indica other than the 8 digit code. Yet, CGC labeled it as FC 1329. You can find other census info with just the Gyro Gearloose title and matching numbers.

Here is an amazing book. It is actually missing FC 1323 but was mislabeled by CGC. The actual 1312 is shown below.

I finished adding all my missing Four Colors to my custom set. So here are a few more nice books. Let's start with Missing FC 1340, Beany and Cecil. Unfortunately this is not GCG graded but I'm afraid to resubmit to CGC,. You never know what might happen. This is the book that led to the discovery of the missing four colors. Original artwork with the scribble FC 1340 found on the actual artwork.