KCOComics

For my own education what makes you all concerned about trimming?  I don't see anything on the top edge that sets off alarm bells, but I'm certainly not knowledgeable in this field. 

I've been collecting for decades, but when it comes to identifying restoration or trimming through pictures I'm a total novice.

It makes me worried I've got trimmed books in my collection and don't even know it! 

On 2/4/2020 at 2:12 PM, Northwest said:

Avengers 2 cgc 3.5 ow-w
1st Space Phantom
Gpa 2019 avg 268
Asking $230

 

Take via PM

19 minutes ago, TC33 said:

   Avengers #5 snagged at a great deal per PM.

It was a great deal! I greatly appreciate it! 

This is such a great thread! 

I've always been partial to Schomberg. I feel like his early Marvel Mystery covers stand out as the most dramatic WWII covers of the era. 

It's hard not to love Cole. He's gotten so hot the last 5 years or so, but you can always pick out an LB cover.  

Lately I've been getting into Creig Flessel and pre-Batman detective comics. They are expensive books to collect, but so detailed!  Great stuff. 

If we have to name a king of the Golden Age covers, I would probably give the title to Schomberg. 

I just got a huge history lesson on Danny Dupcak. I may have even bought a book from him years ago! The stories I read were all too familiar and I ended up with a PLOD for what I thought was a great deal on a highly graded book. 

19 minutes ago, Glassman10 said:

 

It's just odd to watch. I bought them because I loved them. If I had done it to make money, I'm pretty sure I would have screwed it up.   There's plenty of folks out there that did the same and they haven't sold them yet or don't have a clue as to the value. American Pickers is just seductive.  Hoarders is when it gets out of hand. 

By the time I started collecting I can't say I was totally naive to the value of comics. I never imagined we would be here, but I certaintly collected for the love it. I stopped collecting for several years and when my son got interested him and I started again! 

In the late 90s when I was 17 or 18 me and my buddies took a train to NYC for a comic book convention. We got to the show late and this one seller was closing up and offered me deals on two books, but I had to act fast. 

One book was Hulk 181 for $220 and the other was a beautiful journey into mystery 83 for $450... I chose the Hulk for a few reasons. For one, I was a child of the 90s and wolverine was a big deal. But secondly, $450 mine as well have been $1M to me back then.

I remember making jokes on the train ride home about the kind of people who spend $450 on a comic book!  

The irony being that I eventually paid much much more for a much much worse copy of JIM83. And that copy of JIM83 is probably selling for tens of thousands of dollars somewhere today with people lining up to buy it. 

On a phone

I bought my first two books off the board from Jimbo.  Great communication,  they came quickly and as described. 

I bought 3 raw books from Dale's recent sales thread. They came quickly and as described! 

Couldn't be happier. 

Hi all,  

I've bought several books on here over the last few months and thought it would be best to start a kudos thread so sellers (and potentially buyers) have confidence in doing business with me. 

2 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

And if you want to quote a chain of multiple posts like above click at the top of the first post and drag down to the bottom of the last post (2 in this case) and then click the 'quote selection' black box that pops up.

Ok,  I tried. 

That was too complicated of a move for me!  I'll get there. 

Thanks for your help

1 minute ago, thehumantorch said:

  Click in the blue box and edit text.

Well look at that! Lol. 

Thank you!

6 hours ago, Glassman10 said:

The Santa Fe area including the surrounding community heading up towards the Glorietta Pass at that time (1967)  was an ocean of dead vehicles. You just weren't anyone unless you had at least 12 dead vehicles in your yard and not just any vehicles, stuff from the golden ages. I happpened to have a Dodge Power wagon that had dropped the drain bolt on the differential and warped the casing and needed a replacement, so I began to search the hills for a power wagon. I did find one, did get the entire differential and installed it. It cost about one hundred dollars as I recall but that search led me to strange places looking for parts. One place was Apodaca Hill in Santa Fe where I encountered "The bus".  The bus was not in good shape. It had broken windows, dents, flat dead paint, a "Bluebird" as I recall but that could be wrong. It had two wheels (Front) windshield wipers still in place! and the door ajar. Pressing and cleaning would not help. Ajar doors have drawn me in since Pre  Zork so I poked about. It could have contained Ken Kesey. He scooted around Santa Fe and Taos in his bus "Further" all the time he was there intereacting with the communes. But this appeared more desolate than Ken's piece, way too old. It was not far into the seating area that the box sat. There was a lot of stuff on all the seats. The owner knew I loved comics as I poked at the top offerings and said I should just take it. He's moved to Ohio now and I long ago lost touch with him. I took it and after establishing that there were no rear ends there for a dodge I left. The box contents were remarkable  but at the time not massively valuable, more archival. As I took them out of the box, it was odd how well preserved they were. The surprising one in there was ASM16 which graded out as a 9.2!, just sitting in this half open box in a stack. It had numerous early ASM's including 14 which I sold to a man in Illinois who expressed interest here. I had scanned it and there was a flaw that was quite difficult to see in the scan and there was transactional disappointment but he said he should have caught it so it was on him. I didn't feel good about that so I gave him the Avengers 4. Happy camper after that.  He went on to purchase two ASM 129's from me in the 9.0-9.4 range at a very happy price for him. There were a bunch of X-men, Strange Tales , early FF4. It was a true time capsule of stuff flung in a box and there perhaps years. But, there it was about fifteen books down  an AF15 worth about $80 dollars at the time, about one month's rent!. Had some gunk on the cover. I bought a plastic bag for it! We didn't preserve anything those days.  I just felt weirdly fortunate and tucked it in with my other comics. I used to walk across Santa Fe from my studio, about three miles and every third thursday the comics rack at the bus depot engorged with new material. I would take a five dollar bill and do what I could at .12 a shot. It went out to my little house where my friend and I would devour what the two of us bought. At that time, dealers were rare. Howard Rogofsky sold comics in NYC, the mile high collection was in the future and we just loved our stupid comics. Years went by and I kept it up. My mom had already thrown out all of my .10 cent books and baseball cards but I had fooled her and moved 1,000 miles away. 

So, when I sold the comics at the age of 70, it was because there was no future good to my having them. As I said, it took over a year to get organized and I met a number of charlatans ready to relieve me of the burden. So, sympathizing with new collectors, I simply told my process here on valuation.  As I look back, it's amazing that I allowed Bob Storms to simply walk out of my house with the AF15 consigned without a scrap of paper indicating the arrangement.  The two days I spent with Bob taught me more about comics than I ever could have learned elsewhere. It was stupid of me to ever mention the sales price and I haven't done that in a long time. I would say that 10K alone went to capital gains, double that to the boy and the rest, I bought Mastercard at about $150 a share and these days it's around $320.  So we all did well.  I get stupid lucky with junk like this. As a nine year old, going through rolls of pennies with my brother, I found a 1909-s VDB with actual mint luster traces. Someone had to have intentionally put that coin back in circulation but I sold it to my brother for $75 bucks and that seemed like all the money in the world. I really only liked Buffalo nickels . Sort of like Thor.  I use to win a lot at black out bingo at the beach club with Blue haired old ladies with doilies on their heads for luck  as well. Blackout always coughed  up about $75 bucks too. Those women could really glare.  What a great childhood. 

I still believe there are boxes of books out there to be found.  Around here, there are all these summer houses byt the lake that still have the contents from 1955.  So, no one went to the dump and now those houses are all being cleaned out. They printed a boatload of AF15's Seek and ye might find. You have to look in odd places. But sharing the story is pretty risky. 

Did I mention the bus had split rims?

I'm yet to figure out how to quote just a section of a story. 

Glassman - thank you for sharing! What an amazing and well told story! 

I'm glad you took care of it for all those years and the value materialized so much. 

I'll be keeping my eyes open for old buses and houses being cleaned out

TY. Out of curiosity,  do you guys think it's worth having it graded? Or should I try to sell it raw?  

I have a nice graded copy so I would love for this to go to another collector. 

I just love seeing that listed here. 

Comiclink just sold a restored one last week. In my opinion this one is much nicer (aside from not being restored, it presents nicer)

GL with the sale.  

36 minutes ago, NoMan said:

I figured there was a chance it could go like this. Having a brain that dwells on details like the school bus in your AF15 story and not the AF15 is a blessing and a curse, but mostly a blessing, I guess.

I was not being sarcastic or whatever, I truly was interested in the details of the school bus. I guess you could double down and say, "The school bus is none of your business" and it wouldn't be that big of a bigee. No harm, no foul. You be you. I'll be me. That sort of thing. But I think about stuff like that, "Who was the last person to drive the school bus?" "How did it get there." Some people take their photographs at the Official Kodak Picture Taking Spot and some wander off, like Everett Ruess, never to return. Get what I mean, Mr. Glassman?

I figured it might go down like this because social media is a foul sewer and all that so of course I'm on a social media site so I must be being an a-hole. I'm old, you know. But, really it's just how I am. I want to know about the school bus. I already know about the AF15.

I brought up the facts of your AF15 story (Bob Storms, price, etc) not as a put down but just to get that part of the school bus story out of the way. Are there not enough AF15 threads? 

Friends?

 

In defense of NoMan, I'm also terribly fascinated by this story.  

To the dismay of my wife and bewilderment of my therapist,  most of my fantasies end with "and then I found AF15 in a box!"  

Joking aside, your story is amazing!  And whatever you used the $$ for,  it's wonderful that your discovery enabled you to better your family! 

  I recently found a beat up FF48 at a strange collectibles store and felt like I hit the lottery. I've been bragging about it for weeks... this also leaves my therapist bewildered. 

Thanks everyone. 

I was going to include this in a trade, but that fell through, so I may try my hand as selling it here. 

 I've always been a buyer, never a seller, so all your feedback has been really helpful for gathering info. 

Awesome books!

GL

Thanks for the grades. 

The top staple is "mostly detached" if that's a thing. It's not totally detached and pages turn nicely, but it's an issue. 

1 minute ago, Chuck Gower said:

Yep. And that's why... and this isn't a knock on Stan at all, just the way I see it... but... it's always been about the art to me. You can have the best written story in the world, if the art sucks, what's the point? 

But you can have a very average story and GREAT art, and I'm ok with that.

Allot of the pre hero stuff from the 50s is a great example.  You read strange suspense stories or even the old TOS and JIM the stories are very hit and miss. But I love the art! The monsters and mysterious covers. I eat it up. 

4 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said:

I think it's just some backlash because of HOW much credit he's gotten. Stan's an important part of the history of comics, and there's no denying it. I just try and see it for what it actually is and present facts as much as possible.

A LOT of those early stories were kinda goofy! And yes, I LOVE to discuss this stuff! Not everyone agrees with everyone else, but I think discussing this kinda stuff can be interesting and educational and... and fun!

Totally agree on both. And to be fair,  what got me into collecting was the art.  I was a child of the 80s and 90s so I was buying up Punisher and batman books, but seeing the cover of FF49 was when I fell in love with collecting. 

3 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said:

Seriously? You mean promoting or creating?

Stan Lee and Marvel/Atlas were about ready to close their doors when Kirby came back and brought the Monster Books with him that jump started the company again. 

Once the Superheros began, his part in it monthly was just as valuable as Stan's. That's why Stan used him to train all the new artists to draw like him - so that he could increase the amount of books. So Jack had to do layouts for the books of other artists who they brought in on top of his own work load (and not get paid for it). AND do a bunch of the covers!

As an example - February 1965 - and this is when he was trying to back off a bit from being over worked...

Jack does full pencils for Fantastic Four #38, Journey into Mystery #115, and a 10 page Cap story in Tales of Suspense #65

He does layouts (i.e. story breakdown) for Avengers #115 (comics.org doesn't credit any Kirby layouts that aren't noted in the books. But there are photostats showing many more books he did layouts for that he didn't get mentioned in the book credits.).

And he does covers for Fantastic Four #38, Journey into Mystery #115, Kid Colt Outlaw #122, Avengers #15, Sgt. Fury #17, Strange Tales #132, Tales of Suspense #65, Tales to Astonish #67, and Two Gun Kid #75

That's 50 full pages of art + 20 layout pages (at least) and 9 covers!

That month Stan wrote/edited or plotted a possible 14 books total (that's all Marvel was allowed - its another long story)

2 1/2 by Kirby (easy, as Kirby's a storyteller in his own right) and 1 1/2 by Ditko (again, easy because Ditko's his own storyteller). Wally Wood says he plotted the Daredevil stories - Lieber scripts all of Tales to Astonish #43, and half of Tales of Suspense #41 and Strange Tales #108 (R Berns aka Robert Bernstein scripts the other half of both books) from (what's credited as) Stan Lee plots. 

Stan is listed as scripter on Kid Colt Outlaw #110, and Two Gun Kid #75, and Sgt. Fury #17 plus the Millie the Model #117, Modeling With Millie #138 and Patsy Walker #120. (We all have read the Stan Goldberg quote about how THAT writing arrangement worked - Not sure I ever read anything from Ayers...).

Soon after, Roy Thomas would join to take over numerous books to ease Stan's work load. 

I don't think Stan's contribution could ever be seen any less than it already is. He was the most recognizable face in comics, and most recognizable name in comics. I'm not even sure who #2 would be. He made Millions of Dollars and achieved fame that most could only dream of. 

Without Stan Lee, Marvel would've never become what they became. No question.

But without Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, there'd have been no Marvel Comics.

You bring allot of facts I can't even begin to contest

Your right,  Stan has gotten plenty of recognition. 

Your also right about the insane amount of work Jack was responsible for.  It's pretty stunning when you spell it out like that. 

I'm going to tred lightly because I don't want to appear to be against Jack or Steve.  

I just feel like there is allot of anti Stan sentiment among collectors. And part of that stems from the self promotion and credit grabbing.  As much as that shameless self promoting is real,  I don't think it should take away from what he actually did do for the industry. 

For what it's worth, I love Kirby. If you read FF5 the story is really kind of silly. Doctor Doom wants to build a time machine to go steal pirates treasure?  

I think Dr. Doom should have been DOA with that story. What saved one of the great villians was how sinister Kirby drew him. The art was far more compelling than the story!  

I'll probably have people disagree with me about that too  But I'm ok with disagreements. Frankly,  it's just fun to discuss this stuff with someone besides my 7 year old son. 

2.0 to 2.5 was what I assumed. That's why I would have been thrilled with a 3.0

15 minutes ago, gunsmokin said:

Kirby’s work ethic totally debunks this. He was driven to provide for his family. Jack consistently said the creations were his and I tend to believe him over Lee’s huckster nonsense. His creative success beyond Marvel is further proof.

It's a fair point. I mean, look how many titles Jack was drawing in those days. It's crazy to think about. 

I do stand by Stan doing more than anyone else to create Marvel. For all those titles Jack was drawing Stan was writing or at least editing those and a dozen others. He was running the operation, responding to fans letters, touring the country putting a face to Marvel comics. 

I will never take creative credit away from the artists. I just think Stan deserves his place in comic book history.  I think the creative part in the early 60s was very much a collaboration and credit is due all around. The business, marketing, and managerial responsibilities that built Marvel fell pretty heavily on Stan's shoulders.