Aman619

when China stops quarantining and commerce opens up again we will have a timeline for how long we will be affected outside of China. A graph I saw showed the reported cases and fatalities in China ballooning up, but then falling, just as the same curve was beginning to develop outside of China. Meaning it will pass through all parts of the world, wreaking havoc, but taper off. leaving an unknown number of fatalities and critically sick victims.... At least thats one guess where we are going. of course the severity and suddenness of its impact on life and the markets feels like a zombie apocalypse movie doesn't it? One day everything is fine but you hear about a scary thing or phenomenon somewhere 1000s of miles away. Its nothing to worry about. Weeks later, store shelves are empty and zombies are walking around your block and you realize everything has changed for good! thats another guess where we are headed.

but... but... its one louder idnt it?

good resource for matching comics by using the pics... but too many modern books have no FMV. they should fill these gaps if they want to run a price guide!

Is there a version with Spidey on top and Spawn under the gargoyle. That would be a nice variant.

Ooo....ooo

I haven’t read all the way thru. Just the first few pages, but we’ve been down this road many times before. One new thought jumped out at me this time. There’s an underlying reality we have ignored in these Stan vs Jack and Stan vs Steve arguments. It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room but we look right through it due to our fantasy that the Marvel comics we loved were lovingly created as collaborations. They were not. They were assignments from the editor to freelancers. Only Stan was the “Company” in all these dealings. As fans and outsiders we make the mistake of forgetting this overarching fact. Stan assigned each comic, selected the artists, told them what he wanted, whether it was full -script or essentially no direction at all. He was the “Company” making decisions to make product and keep the line moving. He also was involved creatively too to whatever extent made sense to Stan, or was deemed necessary by him. he and Jack and Steve etc created these comics together... but it was NEVER a partnership! It was never a freelance writer/artist package turning in an assignment to the publisher. It was never the same as Siegel and Shuster, or Simon and Kirby. Stan had the final final say in everything. That was his job as editor, or publisher, or boss reading Ditkos articles and Woods recollection that after telling Stan he wanted to be paid for writing drove this home to me. Wood was taken off Daredevil after that discussion. That’s not the act of a writing partner, that’s the Company making a hiring change. That takes a coldness that a partner wouldn’t do. But in his capacity of Editor, Stan made these decision constantly. He was the Constant at Marvel. Everyone else orbited around him and his decisions. Of course Marvel was very lucky that Stan was surrounded by outrageoulsy talented artists etc. but, it’s was Marvel that was to thrive at all costs. That was Stan’s directive. The artists directive was to keep getting assignments to pay the rent. Stan’s was to get the books out! And keep moving, and sell the process and the comics as he went along. as for all the Bullpen Bulletins, and comments by Stan about creating things or co creating them, and the asides etc that Ditko correctly describes as backhanded swipes and compliments out of anger at the slights... that was simultaneously true and awkwardly insulting to the talent, but unavoidable to the Editor of the line. This was the Editor always creating this fun silly aw shucks atmosphere of a happy family toiling away for you, our dear reader. ( in other words, US). It didn’t matter that it was never true. I mean, we’re we really supposed to believe it was true? Are we surprised to read the other side as the talent experienced it? and —— as we all know, it really worked! We are still talking about it now 60 years later! However successful it was, it was unavoidable what the effect would be on all the talent that did the heavy lifting in the Marvel Method, .... just my two cents..

the 2 big unforeseen effects of CGC in my recollection (and experience) were : Dealers coming to accept a "3rd party grader's" opinions of the grades of their books once they good stuff (NMs and NM-s) were selling in slabs (often 9.6 impossible slabs!) for 3-5 times more than what they had ever aggressively priced them at. These gains more than paid for the low grade stuff that they sold as VFs that were Fs at best that CGC reduced the values on for them. and 2) the new idea that a HG copy equal to a Pedigree copy was just as collectible as the Ped. Peds were anecdotal signifiers of HG qualities. But with a 3rd party grader equaling the field, orphan HG copies were just as well sought after. for a time...but things change.... now Peds are special again. if theres one Ped copy out of 25 9.4 TOS 39s, it gets more love today. I think...

Ive posted this before but speaking about the print run of Cerebus #1. When I was madly chasing early Cerebi copies, I did a lot of business with Harry Kremer. Real nice guy. I bought as many early issues as he still had (Cerebus was in the mid #30s then). He told me that when the first issue was delivered from the printer, He and Dave (partners to some degree on comics publishing like Octoberfest) spread them out in the living room (forget who's house) and saw that a lot were badly damaged. They complained to the printer. They said 400 copies were unsellable. The printer made a deal, "accept them and he'd print an extra 400 copies of #2 for free". For years Ive told the story and assumed the printer asked for the 400 damaged copies, making #1 print run only 1600, and #2 as 2400. But now I cant recall if Dave and Harry got to keep the 400, because, really, what was the printer going to do with them, except maybe take them back to keep Dave "honest?") Or, maybe because Dave knew stores wouldn't take damaged copies for sale as "new" books, he didn't want them either!? also, Dave was a comic reader and collector like us. Harry told me when the money started coming in, Harry was finding Early GA Supermans for Dave to collect. But Dave stopped fairly quickly and never pursued it after a while.

Well, normally, I think I’d say I agree that a pedigree copy would sell for more than a non ped equal graded copy. But since you’re refutin* my argument I’m leaning on not going so far as to say I’m wrong ! Didn’t the slabbin* phenomenon dilute pedigree status for many years? It became apparent by sales prices that early on pedigrees were devalued by equally graded copies bein* sold for same prices, thta the grade was the important 5hing. These copies previous ly sold raw without a pedigree designation were worth mush less , but when both were in say 9.6 slabs, who cared. Or at least, many collectors were just as happy to own the no name 9.6. I suppose that now, 20 years into slabb8ng, with the census grown far more plentiful, pedigrees mystique has raised Their prices back above no names. That seems to be what have elevated pedigree copies back into top position demand wise. If there were still just two or three highest graded copies instead of 20 or 30, the no name sales would match the peds

Im not interested in buying these video games.... however, I don't agree pristine copies now slabbed and selling for huge numbers are somehow invalidated because they may have been unsold store stock. Thats never been a consideration that trumps condition before in comics or baseball cards, or movie posters etc etc. If a box of unsold Marvels comics from 1961 turned up today, would these books in miraculously high grade be less valuable than Curator or Western Penn copies because they never circulated? How about the cases of 1952 Topps that contained around 40 Mantle rookies? Is no one buying them because they weren't left untouched in a kids sock drawer for 50 years and not in bicycle spokes or a plastic slab? Or movie posters obtained from a printer but never displayed in a theatre lobby the sat in a collectors flat files ? Mint condition is mint condition, and when the demand is there they will sell for big dollars regardless of how they survived. What I would be concerned about with toy and game packaged collectibles would be re-cellophane wrapped items. If done right aren't there extremely hard to tell apart from real plastic wrapping? assuming there are opened pieces in HG so as not to be obvious used VGs in new plastic.

which number one did you get? Famous Funnies Series 1 with panels separated by angled straight borders? or Famous Funnies #1 with the golfing cover?

sigh. thats like asking where to go for a toothache.

you forgot the TM at the end! When are the tee shirts getting printed?? : )

Ok. Glad to hear it. XMen 1 has been a bit of a dog for awhile so this is good news....wasn’t long ago a 9.4 could crack 100K .. if 9.2s are 128, skies the limit for the higher grades right?

I don’t recall the 9.2 selling for that much. That’s such a quantum leap that I’d wager it was an upgrade candidate, and even then, 9.4s don’t even sell for enough to guarantee it was worth the risk. Another possibility is that somebody is banking on the XMen moving over to Marvel Studios movies with the Disney purchase of Fox.

You’re practically done already! I try to place the one shots like Avengers-JLA and JLA-Avengers in the same alphabetical order as Overstreet does. And with so many books, the cheap stuff like this doesn’t really matter too much if they are in the “wrong place. Even knowing which box they are in it’s often too much trouble to dig em out and move them. One book would be easy, but a whole title causes a cascade effect where you are bumping 12” of comics from box to box! someone once posted that he adds his comics in boxes as he acquires them, in that order, and notes every comic in each box in a database. He looks up the comic and knows exactly where it is. I thought that Was really cool and was a great time saver especially when buying a lot of new books every week... but —- ocd requires me to store by title and alphabet! definitely pull out the valuable stuff though. In a pinch you don’t need the rest. Yeah sucks later when you look through the runs and issues are missing... but it’s also pretty nice to look through the boxes of “keepers” too!

yeah, some scans so far look grayer... all in all, its a clean look, and, lets face it - compared the other grading companies, CGC still has the best looking labels. Not an award winning look, but the others are just... well, you know. hard to believe!

This is the special Mother of Invention Non Conformist edition. Sold like hot cakes in Haight Ashbury! far out Man!

I like the gold “ metallic” labels, Simple, but with a touch of class. Short of using actual gold foil(!) this is a simpler solution and quite effective way to stand out and signify how special pedigree copies are to the hobby. of course If too many scans make the gold look like washed out puke green.. like the sample in this thread. well, that wouldn’t be so nice.

based on all the criteria you approached them with, I'd buy them too!

Im not surprised! you have an incredible and widely varied collection! And Im pretty sure you didnt pay 10-20K for you bound volumes, or wouldn't today. right? They are cool... but, aren't they hard to read cause you cant open them up all the way? the panels near the spine are difficult to enjoy. I also think the spine fonts and design are tragically vanilla -- designed by the printer!

I should have labeled that as a Debby Downer post?

has that changed?? Granted these look to have been fresh (unread?) office/file copies before they were chop-trimmed and glued-in during the bookbinding process, but still only a curiosity item, no? Geppi amassed nearly a full collection of Golden Age bound volumes, but are there others seeking to do the same? My feeling has always been that when pricing these, any ties to what the books within are worth intact goes out the window.... except say the volumes with Action 1 and Tec 27 (and other GA keys) -- where even the pried out copies would still get 6 figures in todays market. ("gorgeous covers, white pages, but no spine left and trimmed 1/8th inch on three sides.")

I wasn’t looking that closely. Saw enough cleaning, especially in the title white area and figured out more was done than adding tape for a bump up.

Book was dry cleaned and pressed, probably accounting for a half grade bump, if not a full grade minus addition of tape. So it went from a raggy low grade copy to a slightly nicer looking raggy copy. However while many aspects were improved, look at the crease above Batman’s head that actually was enhanced and is more pronounced now. Hazards of pressing color breaking creases! i just read the rest of the thread and see I’m days late with this breaking news!,