SuperBird

Thanks, it's appreciated! Your timing was impeccable.

Action Comics 23: Part Two of Four Trigger alert: I had cancer. You can skip to the post following this one, if you'd rather not hear about it. What is it like to think you are going to die? Everyone is faced with death eventually, and I assume everyone faces it differently. I felt what I guess, looking back, can be described as a sort of calm terror. I’m almost 50 years old, and during those years I have accomplished basically everything one hopes to in life. I’m happily married, I have a wonderful daughter, a successful career, a nice enough house. I’ve seen half the world. I’ve gone to 100 concerts, eaten every kind of food, drank every type of drink. I am a 3x US Warhammer champion, painting giant armies of little soldiers and rolling lots of dice to victory. Upon forced reflection and introspection, I wanted to live to see my grandchildren, and to retire and goof off for years doing things I loved. I also wanted to see if the Avengers could beat Thanos, and how Star Wars would end. But if it was going to end here, I'd had a good run. My appointment with the cancer specialist wasn’t for another week, and that time was probably the hardest. You know what it’s like when you think you might be sick, have some weird symptoms, and you start googling? Yeah, try that with cancer. I had a 1” lump under my tongue, which either hadn’t spread anywhere else, and I might be OK. Or it had, and I was dead. Not the easiest thing to get up, go to work, come home and go to sleep thinking about. My wife and I went for the appointment, which left no doubt as to what it was. The doctor was generally kind and reassuring. A few scans would reveal my fate. He took a biopsy, but was pretty certain of the outcome from just looking. (Remarkably, the biopsy did not hurt, although I almost passed out when I saw the results of what he did.) Another three days to get the scan results. One of the scans used an intravenous radioactive isotope, and it was a kick to be “radioactive” for a day and walk around NYC with a letter explaining my condition to law enforcement, who apparently have radioactivity scanners set up. (I wasn’t stopped, sadly). The doctor called with the results: it hadn’t spread. LIFE! I visited four different surgeons and got four different opinions. Such is health care. Assuming surgery and treatment were successful, I’d end up with some cool scars, but no other real permanent effects. There was another 6 weeks to wait until they could fit me in, however. Every day, the pain got worse, and eating and speaking became a real problem. I really wanted to get surgery over with, like you have no idea. January 9th, 2019, I went in to Mt. Sinai hospital. I’m not sure what I expected from the anesthesia, but one minute I was there, and the next I woke up, actually feeling pretty good. The pain was mostly gone, and I could speak normally! I asked for more drugs, because why not. It took a week to get out of the hospital, of which I will spare you the painful details. Bottom line: the operation was a success. I would need radiation therapy afterwards, but not chemo (radiation itself was terrible). I’d need physical therapy for my arm (they turned me into a human Lego set). My odds were about as good as one could hope for—and 18 months later they continue to be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I came home from the hospital on January 16th, 2019. On January 21st, I received an email alerting me to a message from @Cosmic Boy on the CGC boards: “Still looking for an Action 23?” ---To be continued!---

Action Comics 23: Part One of Four! The first appearance of Lex Luthor, and arguably the only “key” book in my run. This was the hardest to get, and was the last one I needed to complete 15-63. This post will take a while, because it’s a story. It involves some health issues, and to answer what will be an immediate question, I have so far overcome them. (Consider that your trigger warning.) The best way to attack collecting a run, so it goes, is to buy the key books first. They’ll go up in value the quickest. I of course did the opposite. In my defense, by the time I decided to go for the complete run, Action 23 was already a $6k+ book in the lowest grades, unrestored. I definitely recall low grade restored book being common “for cheap” in the years leading up to that point, but I just wasn’t looking then. Once I did decide to go for it, my options were limited. I was simply not willing to spend the near-$10k it seemed like it would take. I came close about a half-dozen times, all in my price range, among which were: • a restored 2.5 I was the underbidder on ComicConnect for • an underpriced conserved 6.0 BIN I missed on eBay by a half-hour. ( @pointfive texted to give me a heads’ up just a little too late) • a restored raw copy on eBay that I was negotiating with the buyer about on and off for years, but in the end declined because he would not take returns if it were found to be trimmed or married • a qualified, married 3.5 on eBay I ultimately declined to BIN as I decided I didn’t want a married copy • a 1.8 amateur restored copy on Heritage with coloring all over the cover, bad tape stains and a wrecked spine that I was talked out of buying While my search was going on, I watched in horror as the realized prices for Action 23s went higher and higher. But I stayed pat, refusing to go outside my spending comfort zone. In the meantime I was able to acquire every other issue in the run by the Fall of 2018. I was off on an island somewhere with the family, as we did every year (pre-pandemic) when I realized that a sore in my mouth I’d had for a week or so wasn’t getting any better. I had been to the dentist to have a cap put in on a chipped tooth, and something was catching on the underside of my tongue. I went back after we returned to the States, and there was a slight chip on a back tooth, which the dentist smoothed out. I thought “problem solved!” 2 weeks later, the sore was still there, and worse, the pain had spread to my ear on the same side, bad enough that I was popping Tylenol every night. I visited an oral surgeon, who took a look under my tongue and gave me a contact for yet another doctor, saying I should make an appointment immediately. When I called their office, the receptionist answered: "Hello, NYU Langone Cancer Center. Please hold.” I held. ---to be continued---

A slightly brittle 5.0 copy of Action 33 (other company) just sold for $1050 on eBay. Go figure.

A 5.0 slightly brittle copy of Action 33 just sold for $1040 on eBay. Go figure.

Action Comics 24! I was always a fan of this one, and it's the one book I'm still looking to upgrade. Bought this copy off of a dealer's site, which one I forget, but it was right after the new CGC cases came out. No additional waviness occurring in the years I have owned it.

Action Comics 25! This is one of the more popular covers, though personally I'm not that into it. Something about the layout, with Supes' foot over the tiny boat in the background. It is featured on this little book of Action covers, which may explain part of it's popularity? I bought this copy as a BIN off eBay one night when I was blown out of a series of ComicConnect auctions I had intended to win. It was right in the midst of a Cthulhu RPG session, and I was multitasking between bidding and trying to stop the players saving the world from Azathoth.

Action Comics 26! The other book I gifted myself along with the 27, above. IMO one of the under-appreciated covers of the run.

Action Comics 27! The true 1st cover appearance of Lois Lane. Also: 1st cover appearance of Superlion. I was going through a pretty rough time when this came up in a great ComicConnect auction with a near-full Action run. My father had been in and out of hospitals for months, and it was really wearing on me. I gifted myself this one as a cheer-me-up, as well as the 26 to immediately follow. It also started piquing my interest for higher grade books. Well, higher than 4.0 anyway.

Action Comics 28! I always liked the reds on this one. Bought off a random internet website.

Apparently we've solved the mystery of Lois Lane cover fans: our wives.

Action Comics 29! Now we're getting down to it. The first second Lois Lane cover. I am not entirely sure who collects Lois Lane covers, but apparently enough people do that this issue commands a premium. Note the lovely yellow cover, continuing the trend. When CGC first switched over to the new slabs, I stupidly passed on a sweet-looking 6.0 that ended up hammering well under FMV. At the time there was so much uncertainty with the new slabs, and I was questioning whether to even continue collecting GA books at the time on account of it. (time has proven me an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, as my wife will confirm.) I obtained my first copy of this book a while later from a ComicConnect auction, a decent looking restored 2.0 I won on a thrill bid. Within a month I'd flipped that copy and won this one from a ComicLink auction.

Lots of great names in here. I'll add Matt Kindt and Dave Sim.

Action Comics 30! Do you like yellow covers? Then these are the comics for you! I won this old label copy at auction off of eBay a while back.

Action Comics 31! Yellow covers were all the rage in 1940, and this one is no exception. This eBay BIN had the right price, so I paid it. When they label this a "bondage cover", I really don't quite think this is the type of bondage covers collectors care about. But maybe that's just me. Not entirely sure what that symbol on the soldiers' helmets is...

Is there a way to put in batch bids, or is that feature gone?

Clearly Mr. America. :P It's also one of the more common issues to find, even among the surrounding issues.

---the story of the stolen Action Comics 53, continued--- Action Comics 32! What a cool mad scientist cover. This is actually one of the tougher issues to find, and @Point Fivewas at some point kind enough to sell me a low grade copy he'd bought on these boards after I pestered him for days from the comfort of my office cube, a few cubes down from his (we've worked together for about 20 years). Once I decided to collect the entire run in slabs instead of raw, I upgraded to a sweet 6.0 I bought off of eBay, along with a great-looking Action 53 in 6.0 from a certain eBay buyer. I entered both into the CGC database, to which I received a lovely notification from CGC: These books have been reported stolen by @MikeinHI. I immediately contacted him through DMs, at which point he sent me the contact info of the police detective in charge of the investigation, as well as pointing me to this thread he'd started: I contacted the detective, a really nice and helpful guy in Hawaii, and he helped me navigate what steps to take, and how to deal with American Express, which I had fortunately used through PayPal. In the end I shipped the books to the police, who provided some formal documentation for me to give to AmEx. The first person I spoke with there said I was out of luck, and they could not provide buyer protection. The second person I spoke with, a few days later, said "of course!" The lesson being, it really depends who you speak with at any of these big companies (A lesson I learned 3 times over during my Action Comics 23 saga, which definitely puts this one to shame.) At the end of the day, Mike got the 2 books back, I got my money back, and I eventually bought this nice 4.0 copy off of an eBay BIN. You'd think that would be the end of the story, but no! A few years later, I got a follow up email from an unexpected source: "Matt, I’m sooooo sorry. I was in jail and just got released today. I was in for 18 months cus the guy I bought the comics from report it that I stole it from him. The police came into my home and raided my house and took all the books. I went straight to jail after that. I couldn’t make bail so I had to stay inside jail. I lost everything! I am innocent of the charges against me, please believe me. I hope you got all your money back from PayPal. If not, then please let me know." I never responded. :)

1140 for a 6.0 Action 51 seems high to me actually.

The stuff I watch is mostly new comic art, not stuff sought after by whales.

I understand what you are saying, @Mmehdy, just reporting back on what I am currently seeing. The OA I follow is also hotter than ever.

From my limited perspective, I haven't seen much of a dip in GA prices on things I watch.

Action Comics 33! The yellow covers continue. For whatever reason, this one is significantly more highly sought after than other non-WW2 covers, regularly jumping in price out of what I'd consider the right range. Maybe it's the super-sized Superman? This is the 2nd copy I've owned. The first was bought as a raw unrestored GVG off of eBay in one of the handful of transactions that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The cover was clearly married from another copy, and it had glue on the spine as well. The seller refused to accept a return because "glue and married pages are not restoration." I ended up keeping it rather than dealing with the aggravation, as the pages were bone white and it had great eye appeal anyway (plus was cheap). I later sold it at eBay auction as a restored Good. I replaced it with this lovely 6.5 from a ComicConnect auction a little while after. My wife approved of the grade.

Action Comics 34! One of a run of yellow-ish Superman covers that span from the 20s to the 30s. I kept a running post in the forum's WTB section throughout my collecting days, but was actually only able to find 2 issues via that route, this one and number 23.This one was sold to me by a boardie whose name I've lost record of as a 6.5 slab from that other company. It's so nice in hand that when my wife saw it, she admonished me for collecting anything less than 6.5s A few years later I had it reslabbed by CGC, who agreed with the grade.

Action Comics 35! When I first started collecting golden age comics, my wife kindly humored me by coming along and attending shows. It was at one of the local NYC ones that no longer exist where we saw this book, sold as a raw VG+, and she bought for me as a birthday present. At that point I was sticking exclusively to WW2 covers, and this one fit the bill. A decade later, CGC agreed with the grade.