On 9/28/2021 at 8:29 AM, KCOComics said:

This one with August 7th is the earliest I've seen. 

Mine has a hand written 8/8. 

So I wonder if this one hit the shelves 8/7? Or a drug store clerk forgot to change the date on the stamp? 

Saw one that had a date in late July

On 9/24/2021 at 12:51 PM, HighVoltage said:

Link:  Variety article

Story:

Marvel Sues to Block Heirs From Reclaiming Spider-Man, Doctor Strange Copyrights

Marvel filed five lawsuits on Friday seeking to block comic book creators and their heirs from reclaiming copyrights to such major characters as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

The move comes after heirs of five Marvel authors filed dozens of termination notices with the U.S. Copyright Office. If they were to succeed, the notices would not prevent Marvel from using the disputed characters, which were created by multiple collaborators. They would however require the studio to make payments to the heirs.

In the lawsuits, Marvel argues that the characters were created under “work for hire” arrangements, and that the heirs have no valid claim to the copyrights.

Marvel points to a key case involving Jack Kirby, who co-created “The X-Men,” “Thor” and “Iron Man.” In that case, Kirby’s heirs sought to reclaim copyright to his creations, but the federal courts sided with Marvel, finding that the characters were made under work-for-hire arrangements.

Marvel’s lawyers, led by Daniel Petrocelli, say these cases present “virtually identical circumstances.” Marvel is seeking a declaration that it holds the valid copyrights to the disputed characters, but is not pursuing any damages.

“Since these were works made for hire and thus owned by Marvel, we filed these lawsuits to confirm that the termination notices are invalid and of no legal effect,” Petrocelli said in a statement.

Marvel filed the suits in New York and Los Angeles against Lawrence D. Lieber, Patrick S. Ditko, Michelle Hart-Rico and Buz Donato Rico III, Keith A. Dettwiler, and Nanci Solo and Erik Colan.

Ditko is the brother of Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Solo and Colan are the children of Gene Colan, co-creator of the Falcon and Captain Marvel. Dettwiler is the nephew of Don Heck, co-creator of Iron Man and Black Widow. Hart-Rico and Rico III are the heirs of Don Rico, who also co-created Black Widow. Lieber is the brother of Stan Lee, but filed termination notices on his own behalf for work he did for Marvel in 1962-64.

Under the Copyright Act 1976, heirs are permitted, in certain circumstances, to terminate the grant of a license or transfer to a copyrighted work — such as a comic book — via a properly executed notice.

Patrick S. Ditko’s notice of termination pertains to the first appearances of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, in 1962 and 1963 respectively. His termination notice gives Marvel an end date of June 2023.

Nanci Solo and Erik Colan have given notice of termination to Marvel regarding dozens of comic books, including “Marvel Super-Heroes” Volume 1, #12, which features the first appearance of Captain Marvel and dozens of early editions of the “Captain America” comics, in which Falcon first appears.

There has been ongoing debate about how comic creators have been unfairly remunerated in light of the cinematic juggernauts their creations inspired.

When Ditko died in 2018, reports suggested his estate was worth only $1.3 million, despite having co-created one of the most famous comic book characters in the world.

It is a practice that continues to this day. Ed Brubaker, who created many of the storylines used in “Captain America: Civil War” — including the character of “The Winter Soldier,” played by Sebastian Stan on screen — spoke earlier this year about how he was treated by Marvel, both in terms of additional compensation (which he suggested was so paltry as to be insulting) and at the film’s premiere, where he was forced to watch in an “overflow” theater as opposed to the one with the film’s cast and Marvel executives.

“I have made more on SAG residuals than I have made on creating the character, for my one line that got cut,” he reportedly told Kevin Smith on his “Fatman Beyond” podcast.

However, comic creators have faced an uphill fight trying to reclaim copyrights. In 2012, a federal court ruled that Superman co-creator Joe Shuster’s sister could not terminate Warner Bros.’ copyright grant in the character due to a 1992 agreement between the studio and Shuster’s heirs, which prevented them from pursuing termination.

The exact nature of how Ditko’s and Colan’s heirs’ attempts to terminate will play out will similarly rest on what agreements they — and their predecessors — may have made with Marvel and whether those supersede the Copyright Act.

A rep for Patrick S. Ditko said the family wouldn’t be commenting. A spokesperson for Marvel did not respond to a request for comment.

============

It all just feels so very wrong...

It will be interesting to see what legal position Ditko's heirs take, considering how vocal Ditko was about insisting he had worked for hire.  There was talk that Ditko had been verbally promised something from merchandising and the TV series, and that it played a part in his departure when he was paid nothing from the MMMS money.  But that is, so far as I know, undocumented, and DItko said many times over the years that he was paid and Marvel owed him nothing, which was and is a core belief among Ayn Randians.   

On 9/13/2021 at 1:11 PM, batman_fan said:

Yes, I am still trying to clean up the mess I made all over myself when I saw it hammer (thank god for power washers!).  I thought over $100k was possible but more $120k not $360k.  It was a special case Sunday with an iconic speech by Linus but wow.

It's about the iconic speech that was a pivotal moment in the iconic Christmas Special which is remembered by nearly everyone including those with megachurches and private jets.

I bid on nearly every issue but had trouble getting bids through for a couple that went lower than I intended to go (5,11,7 IIRC).  Didn't mind at first thinking I'd get another but then the others I wanted went higher than I expected.  I'd gotten used to expecting collectors to diss owner copies, and thought surely (don't call me Shirley) there was gonna be people saying "stay away" "they're low grade so nobody cares"  "It's the nephew selling after he died; how convenient!"  Not that I agree with any of that, but it's what I totes expected, and bid accordingly.  So I have mixed feelings; glad that didn't happen but sad I didn't realize it in time to bid higher and get at least one of them...

On 9/19/2021 at 11:23 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I see signs of market softening on Cap 3. That’s fine. Just might make it easier to pick up another copy. The fact that it’s Stan Lee’s first work will always make this a significant book. Sometimes it takes a minute for the market to figure things out. I don’t particularly care that it’s Red Skulls first cover appearance, or that it’s a Schomburg war cover. To me, it doesn’t even look very much like a Schomburg. What I do care about is it’s Stan Lee’s first work. 

I owned that a bunch of times and all through the time I owned multiple copies I was being told nobody cared and it was not worth all that much.  It went up so quickly after I sold off my last copy that I imagined somebody calling me looking for reassurance that I no longer owned one before it could get the go-ahead to rise in in value.

On 9/15/2021 at 1:55 PM, Mmehdy said:

The next big price jump will be the purple label mega keys, especially A1/D27/Marvel 1

I will be curious to see if you are correct. Have not been a serious collector as long as you but I have seen the view toward resto swing so wildly that it went from one nonsensical attitude to another nonsensical attitude.  Originally it was you "have to get it restored or you're leaving money on the table".  Then it went to "all restoration is desecration and destroys the book's value because it's the deed itself that matters and not how little or how much was done".

I would love to see what this looked like prior to resto but doubt that info is available.  I remember when I tried to sell a book that was restored along with details of the work plus before and after photos, I was told "nobody cares about anything but what it looks like now", which of course eventually went to the other side of the pendulum to became "nobody cares because any restoration is just as bad as total recreation, so regardless of what it looked like before it has been destroyed".  

So you think maybe the pendulum will finally come to rest somewhere between the middle of those two extremes?       

On 9/12/2021 at 2:02 PM, PKJ said:

Heritage, same one as the AF15. The Ditko copies were broken into two segments.Here is the write up from the catalog.

Does anyone know if the letter exists in which Steve wrote he was sending the comics to his nephews?

On 9/12/2021 at 2:53 PM, PKJ said:

I guess I could start another thread but I thought it was interesting the coverless copy had "Steve" written on the first page, with no notes on the label. 

Issue 33 was the highest priced single book,which I expected it to be up there, but had no idea it would hit $8400.  I was in the stands at the UGA game bidding and dug my heals in on the last couple. 27 was one of the ones I had earmarked to go after.

 

 

https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-amazing-spider-man-cgc-graded-group-of-5-steve-ditko-collection-marvel-1964-66-total-5-comic-books-/a/7246-96661.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515#

I bid on more than a few and won nothing.  On most I was simply outbid.  On several I would have bid more but my phone failed me.  After the 6 went for several K I couldn't believe the 7 went so cheap and that my screen failed to realize my thumb was pressing the bid button.

On 9/12/2021 at 10:48 PM, Mr bla bla said:

It is one of those super few books that have transcended the hobby. The cover is iconic, its everywhere.

and in terms of content bat 1 is second to none!

Relatively speaking, imagine how many times you could put together a small stack (or even less than a handful) of other books from this auction which equaled the 220K the Batman 1 got, without including a single book that anybody outside the hobby would even recognize as a comic book, let alone recognize the actual book itself, or any of the characters within it.  So is a Batman 1 "just good" condition worth as much as (insert names and grades of a couple esoteric books that together brought the same money)? 

On 9/11/2021 at 3:36 PM, eschnit said:

I think Heritage may have a challenge outdoing this one.  Doubtful there’s any single book on the planet that would cause as much stir as 1 of the 9.6 AF 15s.  The highest graded Action 1 and Tec 27 are worth more imo, but less interested parties. Now if The Dentist chose to liquidate, that may do the trick, but that ain’t happening, and if it did, wouldn’t happen on Heritage.  Regardless, super impressive, and probably shouldn’t underestimate their ability to pull rabbits. 

If by interested parties you mean more fans of Spidey who might hear what the comic sold for, I would agree.  But if by interested parties you mean people with the sort of money they could and might actually pay 3.6 million for a comic book, you're talking about people who are both superhero fans and top copy chasers and they probably know a peak condition copy of Action 1 or Detective 27 is far less likely to end up sharing that status with as many other copies as an AF15.   And they will also know that if they happen to like Spidey more they can find a newsstand appearing copy virtually any day they are prepared to pay the going rate, and that's not necessarily true of A1 or Tec27

On 9/11/2021 at 11:51 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Definitely a strong price at $16,800 , I didn't really care too much for either the size or the placement of the "coding" on this copy of Wonder 15 as I found it to be a bit too obtrusive and distracting for my taste:  

Markings that deliberately deface the book don't seem to affect the desirability or value.  If there had been no markings on her leg but instead a barely noticeable bit of black pen mark in the black area, with everything else the same, most people would expect that to affect the desirability and value, and they'd be right, but in the wrong direction.   

On 9/9/2021 at 12:27 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

$222k for the 2.0 Bat 1 with tape. 
 

it’s official. Collecting has untethered itself from reality

I would say prices are unreal but this result for a Batman 1 is not what I would reference as the most exemplary indication of that.  Relative to every other book in the hobby in regard to cultural significance the Batman 1 is uber huge.  So this does not boggle me when stuff nobody's ever heard of outside the hard core hobbyists is getting the prices they're getting.  It would boggle me, in fact, only if the others got the prices they're getting and this did not get what it did or even more.     

On 9/4/2021 at 5:57 PM, LordRahl said:

This viewpoint is frankly ridiculous. It's impossible to know if there are more 9.4/9.6/9.8 copies of ANY book sitting around raw in a closet somewhere. We know (with a pretty high level of confidence) that there is a higher grade Action 1 out there raw than the current highest graded copy, so does that mean that the current highest graded copy isn't worth 7 figures? No, it does not. There could be dozens of 9.6 and 9.8 AF 15's out there. Just as possible that there are 0 more. It doesn't matter as they aren't graded and for sale. The available supply is tiny relative to the demand. What may or may not happen 5/10/20 years from now has no bearing on what they are worth today.

Way too argumentative.

It is not just opinion that there are more AF 15s, and that copies are far more likely to be in great shape.  That is not just overwhelmingly intuitive but also born out by indisputable facts, therefore totally "impossible to know".  People pointing that out should not be insulted or responded to as if they have expressed a specific desire to devalue your books.     

On 9/3/2021 at 1:10 PM, szav said:

Sigh.  Just, by request, give it the blue label grade it would get (in this case maybe 5.0) if it was CT scraped please without actually doing the removal.  No reason other than a couple extra bucks to actually deface the book and turn it ugly.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.

Or just treat it like additional damage and grade it harshly, point out where the CT is, anything but encouraging people to remove portions of the book itself.  Just don't get how it is supposed to be more desirable with pieces of the book gone instead of letting them remain and treating the color touch like ink instead of polonium.   

On 9/3/2021 at 11:38 AM, Aman619 said:

As he said.  After the single 9.6 sold for 1.1m privately, and a few more 9.6s showed up the widely held opinion was that they were worth far less than 1.1m. It made sense then just as you suggest it would again with a 9.8 showing up. No one knows if there’s a 9.8 out there in the raw or in a 9.6 holder. Could be, as always with these things. Btw one of the 9.6s reportedly has OW/W pages, a notch higher than the others. Does that affect its value relative to the others?  Maybe White pages might. Who knows. 
 

also we appear to be reaching a point where more copies at the top is a feature not a bug. Copies change hands more often yielding more sales data points and allows more buyers and creates competition. More so than s single HGC that sits in a collection for 10-20 years 

"more copies at the top" will feed the value increases even as it increases the potential for corrections.

The paradox has more than one cause, but a big one is this:  If you're selling something rare, then the more people there are who own something similar to sell the more people there will be voicing support for the value of the item you're selling and even bidding on it to make sure it doesn't sell for much less than they believe theirs is worth.   And since that "something similar" could be any book which simply has a similar grade number, the value-enhancing effect can be extended to many, or virtually any, other books. 

On 9/2/2021 at 11:51 AM, Will_K said:

Rule: Posting an image on-line (e.g. in a CGC forum) would not make any art "published".

So all those "sexy" pieces on ebay are not "published"?

Sorting books the other day came across this example of comics that are nearly perfect Yins to each other's Yang.  And Nick Fury is in both.  

Made me wonder if there are other fun examples like this, and I will post any more that I both think of and have time to organize (which could be today or years from now)

On 9/2/2021 at 11:54 AM, valiantman said:

Dr. Jukes had Superman in 1931.

Don't forget Nietszche

On 9/2/2021 at 10:36 AM, batman_fan said:

Is it too early to talk about Obadiah Oldbuck and why it should be more valuable than Action 1?

That time is past.  Real people in the know know that Inspector Jabot came first.

On 8/26/2021 at 4:52 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Ok so I got the idea of this from the CGC Celebrity Signature Series Books thread. 

I am wondering if you had a Celebrity Animal at a Con or where there was a facilitator could you get a CGC Signature Series on a book with an animal print?

For example you have a celebrity dog or cat that they ink their paw and have them place it on the book, could you get a note on the label stating paw print of "insert name here" and get the yellow label? 

Has this already been done? 

If you have one share them. 

I would totally buy a celebrity animal signed book.  Simple paw prints would be fine but more elaborate sigs would be better still.  Maybe it could be remarqued with a small illustration by an animal artist (not only simians but elephants and raccoons, basically any mammal that has hands or something like it... give em a brush and they go nuts.    

It is published, whether anybody "considers" it so, or not.  But I agree that "with an asterisk" is appropriate.  And it should be clear if it was created with the intent of publishing and then passed over in favor of another cover, or if it was created as a specialty piece which got published later on.  Both are cool, but the former is coolest, IMV.  

On 8/28/2021 at 8:52 PM, tth2 said:

Yes, but taking a quick poll of my 1.1 billion brothers and sisters across the border, the general reactions were: 

"He whines too much"

"He has super powers!  Why is he still so poor?"

"He has super powers and is smart!  Why is he not rich like Tony Stark?"

"He is a good boy to take such good care of his old aunt.  But if he made more money he could take better care of her!"

(there's kind of a general theme here)

They say these things but so did I when I was a kid, and like me they love him, anyway.  

On 8/26/2021 at 7:10 PM, sfcityduck said:

Far more AF 15s (2216 U.S. and 48 U.K.) than Batman 1s (128) on the census.  Far more in high grade AF 15s (24 copies 9.0+) than Batman 1s (4 copies 9.0+).  And the AF 15 numbers are certain to increase more significantly than the Batman 1 count.

Exactly.  So forget the grade numbers and go for something truly unique.  Imagine telling your friends you snagged "the 'Naked City' copy"

On 8/26/2021 at 11:50 AM, Aman619 said:

Well, “there is another…”. Safely estimated as a 9.4, maybe 9.6.  Or a press away at worst.  But overall, Batman 1 is first appearance of 2 villains. While AF 15 is first appearance of Spider-Man.   And Bat 1 is in reality only 20 years older, which continues to equalize the two books agewise every decade.  gA vs SA maybe be a distinction that doesn’t register at all for the new 5M buyers today.

That is a good point about the difference between 60 and 80 years.  For anyone below 50 the early 60s seem as prehistoric as the early 40s.  But aside from the numbers themselves those 20 years had a lot of history in them which will remain common knowledge for many generations to come.  There's been a lot of history since the early 60s, but Batman comics also shared the planet with fans during World War II, which greatly increases the feeling that Batman and other Golden Age heroes are a part of our history and culture.   

The other big difference is how many comics were saved.  That changed a lot from the 60s onward.  Far fewer books were destroyed.  Marvel even sold back issues for a while.    

So anyone who talks about the highest graded Batman 1 versus the highest graded AF 15 is thinking almost exclusively about a number generated recently and subjectively with all sorts of other criteria, and overlooking the fact that when it comes down to how many existing copies of AF 15 would look to the average person like they came straight from the newsstand versus how many of Batman 1s would pass the same test.  And, though I am a big fan of both books (I would even go so far as to say Bat 1 is a contender for best GA book of all, just as AF15 is the best SA book), I have to acknowledge that the difference in rarity between them, in all grades, is a very large number.   So if a tie-breaking factor is the genuine rarity of the book, then a minty looking Bat 1 wins out over a minty looking AF15.