Albert Thurgood

8 to 8.5

FWIW, a 3.0 from me. Yes, the back is bad, but who wants to look at those old ads anyway?

@Brian48I never heard of that before, and I thought I had bought all of the things he put out for GBP in the '70s. Can you tell me more about this Conan portfolio please?

There was a Treasury Edition with Red Nails in colour. Great story. Also it had (I believe) a new cover illustration - BWS going Frazetta. PS @oakman29, you should add this to your list of keys

Thanks for asking! I collected during the mid-'60s and up till about 1975-6. For various reasons, I stopped buying and my collection just lay idle for the next 45 years. When I came back to collecting again, I was surprised at how things had changed. Keys were not a thing back in the day, and the most valuable of any run was #1, then the price went down after that. So any of the last issues I had bought would not have been worth much by that standard (and still aren't: eg I just checked Hulk 179 = $7 on MCS). So when I found that #181 was worth so much I checked my catalog, and also the actual collection of Hulks. They stopped just before #181, much to my chagrin. Anyway, I recently bought comic boxes to transfer my collection from piles to bags stored vertically. It has taken some time but the other day I got down to the last two boxes of ~25. These last boxes had duplicates and various books from the '70s that I had considered uninteresting. I got down to the last 10 issues of the last box and found these two copies. It was just amazing, especially as I had no recollection of buying either one of them! I have heard a lot of stories like this, and that makes collecting fun. But this is the first time anything like that has happened to me!

i meant "more informative" as it actually provides some useful description and examples. For example, here is 9.0 from HA via the above link: 9.0 VERY FINE/NEAR MINT (VF/NM): Back to TopNearly perfect with outstanding eye appeal. A limited number of bindery/printing defects are allowed. Cover is almost flat with almost imperceptible wear. Inks are bright with slightly diminished reflectivity. An 1/8" bend is allowed if color is not broken. Corners are cut square and sharp with ever-so-slight blunting permitted but no creases. Several lightly penciled, stamped or inked arrival dates are acceptable. Very minor foxing. Spine is tight and flat. Staples may show some discoloration. Only the slightest staple tears are allowed. A very minor accumulation of stress lines may be present if they are nearly imperceptible. Paper is off-white to cream and supple. Very minor interior tears may be present. Compared to CGC's description for 9.0: https://www.cgccomics.com/grading/grading-scale/ "A very well-preserved collectible with good eye appeal. There will be a number of minor handling and/or manufacturing defects". Regarding harsher grading, from what I have seen in the PGM threads, the presence of ANY stress lines (not just "a very minor accumulation") seem to get grades down to 7.5 or lower. But maybe I have not seen enough examples yet.

Thanks everyone for their comments! Yes I know that particular one does not have monetary value but I was asking in general. Given a small wrinkle can seem to reduce the grade by 0.5 or more, I was thinking that that obtrusive writing would have an even worse impact.

As a newbie here, I searched to see if this question had been answered already, but couldn't find anything, (though there is a similar question posed recently by @MareB). So apologies in advance if it has been covered before. I was able to find some scarce titles in a "flea market", but the problem is that they have the price written on them, like this one: They are nice enough for me to have in my collection, but I wonder how much does writing like this reduce the grade? Can anything be done to remove the writing without affecting the cover? Unlike the books recently posted by @MareB the ink has not bled through the cover but appears to be just on the surface.

I just checked and most of the Barry Smith Conan issues above #1 can be got for under $50 in at least VG. Sometimes a LOT less - eg the copy below I got for 10c... The beautiful artwork and great stories in these really established the popularity of the character and set up the Sword & Sorcery and Conan industries for Marvel and other publishers. It's a shame they are so undervalued by collectors, but means that those who were too young to appreciate them at the time can get them and really enjoy what I consider one of the best comics ever.

Thanks for those links. I had not seen these grading notes before - they are more informative than the CGC ones. It seems to me that people responding in the PGM forum grade books more harshly than the HA notes would indicate.

Haha! I love the ad in the background asking "STOMACH UPSET"?

They are not in the best condition, but easily worth the price I paid for them! Fine work by two of the best artists in the business! edit: I tried deleting this third image many times but the system keeps adding it back in!

I didn't think I was a member of this club, until yesterday when I found I had this: and this:

Most of my collection is SA, but here is a Bronze Age issue that I just found out yesterday that I had:

I am relatively new to the forum, and this is my first PGM, so please bear with me if something is not done correctly. But first, here is the background to this PGM request. As stated elsewhere, I have just come back to comics after 45 years. The world is now a changed place, especially regarding grading and pricing of comics. I was very surprised to learn how expensive Hulk 181 is these days. Then very chagrined to find that the last Hulk listed in my catalog was #176... After having almost all the others since his appearance way back in Tales to Astonish I "missed it by that much...!" Anyway, I have been transferring my collection from piles to short boxes (which weren't a thing back in the day). Yesterday I sorted through the last box, which was an assortment of lower quality duplicate issues and various drek. To my great surprise and delight I found a copy of Hulk 181! And then another one...! I really don't recall buying them though I did have a feeling of deja vu from looking at the cover. This is about the first "good luck story" in my life, so after that introduction, here are the pics. Here is the best one of the two: (That black mark under the CCA stamp is on the other issue too, so not sure if it is meant to be there.) And here is the other one, which is a bit the worse for wear, unfortunately: That striping along the bottom corner appears to be some paper that got stuck there. I wonder if it can be gently removed, or does constitute restoration? Oh, dear... Worse, the centre page has come off the bottom staple Finally, bags and boards weren't really a thing back then, so they have been au naturel for decades. Hope posting two copies is OK... I thought it made an interesting story.

Congratulations, but the thread needs some pics!

Glad for you that your issue was resolved. I note that the book you got back this time appears to have the white dot on the sole of Spidey's right foot, same as your original.

This is an interesting thread. I admit I am not as knowledgeable as most here re grading, but while people are arguing about the colour touchup, there is not much discussion about the possibility of a mixup at CGC. So here's my worth...consider these images. The first two are from @TappanZee's book pre- and post- CGC. The others are some random ones I copied from various random "PGM ASM300" threads. I have added arrows at places of interest. The first is to the white dot that @Randall Riespointed out; the right arrow indicates a small white dot on Spidey's mask. Neither of these are in the second image. Whether these come via the printing process or from handling, they can provide a unique identifier, as other copies have similar markings (also arrowed). Also there seems to be a difference in colour of the OP's first book, but it's hard to say if this is due to lighting or the bag that it is in. (The pics come out much smaller after being pasted here but you can see the originals of the first two on the first page of the thread).

Another step closer to complete FF collection up to 175. It has the "Marvel chipping" (as did nearly every other one I saw currently at dealers/ebay) but love the rich colour of this copy.

Thanks for the helpful comments, @Mars76 and @Glassman10

Just moved my collection into boxes so easiest to number them that way. So: 20 boxes, 1 long box, 3 magazine boxes Almost all SA and early '70s, some ECs. Zero slabs.

I'm trying to learn about grading from reading these PGM threads. Can I ask why is this rated as only a 7? I can see it has some minor creases on the top corners. According to CGC's "Standard Grading Scale" 9.2 is "very well preserved... some wear". Why wouldn't it meet this rating?

Here's my golden age arrival this week - and the first EC I have bought in about 45 years! Love that the cover is so white after all these years...

Filling up my FF collection, and just received this after a record long time in the USPS "system":

I would have bought this just for the subtitle: "A magazine for Iconoclasts"! They don't make 'em like that any more.