Aman619

Keep in mind that covers are not printed alongside the interiors. Or on the same machines in the same place. But they are assembled on the same machines... newsprint pages folded trimmed then saddle stitched to the covers. therefore, however they printed the covers, and price and indicia variations, if the interiors were identical for each variant cover, they just load up the cover intake point with all of the covers and separate them later... or pause between each cover variant . Or, they COULD do it that way, ... and as to why there were two different 10 cent fonts used, I think it relates to why there are white boxes. The primary covers were the US 10c comics. But in order to serve their international licensed distribs, I believe they "neutered" the covers to have NO PRICES on them, allowing each market to strip in their own price, and change the indicia if need be. The way you do that is to "mask out" the US price on the negatives with a black box in same position on all four plates/CMYK. Being a negative, that black box becomes a white box when printed. And, being white, or clear when reversed, as positive film, it's an easy fix to add black type price back inside the box. place a empty white box And there are different 10c versions because there was at least one market that also priced the comics at 10c. So in effect, they had to add back the same price that Atlas/marvel used here at home. Using a slightly different font (typefaces were not nearly as ubiquitous back then. You had to order typesetting from a shop, nobody did it inhouse and choose from the font choices the shop had stocked up on.) Even though the foreign comics also said 10c, so it feels like they could all have been printed here in the states, I think Atlas/Marvel just didn't want to be responsible for printing someone else's comics, preferring that the licensed foreign distribs take care the trouble and expense (with no shipping costs) themselves.. in other words take the fee and be done with it. im not sure this is what happened, but it makes sense from a technical basis.

I remember a sale around 125, but seems like Avengers 1 has stalled in 9.9 and above for quite a while.

Where did those sales take place?

Where and when has Avengers 1 in 9.4 sold for 175K? Private sales? Thanx

Agreed. I barely skim thru SC22s posts. It's always the same thing again and again. Spouting hype. Getting defensive. Then pointing out others talking money. Boring. and I also agre strongly with Vinatage about the CC sales spiking AF15 down into the lower grades. Those sales were shockingly high for mid grade copies. Wacky high... almost shilly high. After that people began chasing similar copies left and right, but only online and at auction... not at conventions. I also agree that many many times when anomaly high sales happen, too many people jump to conclusions that "the book is hot" when it's quite often just an upgrade parlay. Flippers will always bid based on what the upgrade sell price will be. And NOT what it's current label says. Been happening for awhile now. Preview night etc. sure AF15 is one the best books to have, but that alone doesn't explain the recent crazy spike is sales of lower grade copies.

"Iris" went to Earth 2. I think that's the key, if you follow my drift. But self sacrificing HR makes even more sense than killing an innocent "other earth iris "

Why would OAAW 83 rate so highly on this list? The top copy is only a 9.0, so how can it be compared to the other keys that exist in, and have sold in the higher grades? In other words, it will never be as expensive to buy even the best OAAW 83 compared to the rest of the keys. are you just comparing 9.0 prices for each book? Seems like an arbitrary comparison to make.

Maybe there will be a DD TV show to boost prices!

Anyone else think tonight's episode was a lot tighter and better written than most episodes? It held together and had a lot of nice action and dialogue... poor Malverne though. Don't think his first appearance will move too much.

I just commented on the common dealer complaint that the collectors do "stuff" that is one sided from the dealers perspective... when it's the collectors who say the same thing about dealers. I think there enough self serving action on both sides of the booth so we should always acknowledge that when pointing out the "other side's" actions. I wasn't saying you are guilty of anything in particular.

Most people just plug in their scanners and start scanning books. Assuming that its been set up perfectly at the factory.. But in reality, scanners must be calibrated, or each scan must be fixed, one by one, by eye (preferably with the book in hand in a good light) afterwards in photoshop. Saves a lot of time to set up a good scanning template that corrects to what you perceive to be accurate tones first, before doing your scanning. Most comics paper aren't white, but rather a pleasing very light, or 'light' cream color. Makes a less impressive scan sometimes but its more realistic. Heritage was guilty (or perhaps not yet sufficiently careful in their scanning) for large periods of time of over whitening white covers (and other) books by pumping contrast and colors. Bottom line, can't trust what we see online when it comes to color AT ALL. even a perfect scan will appear differently to EACH of us as a result of our own monitors. and that goes for the scanner himself judging his results by looking at HIS monitor!

fixed that for you. kettle meet black. just keeping it real...

At the risk of being a broken record about judging books by scans.... here's a tip. First look at the white areas of CGC labels for any color tone. Then use that tone to judge all the other colors. In these two books scans, the "greyer' grey copy is a much bluer tone in the labels white areas. Blue makes colors cooler, as in a cool grey. The other has a yellow and magenta fleshy tone in the whites, therefore any excess yellow seen in the grey background is also a result of the overall scan "warmer" (yellower) quality of the image. This also made the back cover look much yellower than it really is.

Say what? Yes digital means at its essence ones and zeroes, but that's true but meaningless since in a similar vein, everything is made up of electrons and protons. And yet mass is far more complicated than two type of basic building blocks. Just as electrons and protons combine in atoms to form elements so too in scanning and printing where your ones and zeroes are actually smaller bits that Read in 256 bit combinations per pixel... and using 256 ones and zeros allows for millions of colors. (256 x 256 possible combinations times each color R G and B ) of course, after the scan data is stored, it then gets translated back to our eyes on everybody's monitors, and they are ALL different from one another based on their manufactures, pixel depth, age etc etc. If if anyone wants to compare pedigrees based on scanned images, good luck. But it's a waste of time Because you are just comparing scans, on YOUR screen, and not the books themselves side by side in the same lighting...

does this copy have the year on the cover? I just see a "K" under the Batman logo.... Ive seen some Batmans that have the year written very similarly on the cover, either just the year "1943" or like this "1943-44" in ink, often under the date and issue.

my typo. "with similar DATE notations". anyone know anything about this collection?

More like the issue is everywhere BUT the left edge. The rest is all sun faded. The blue is the true printed color. Or were you making a joke?

I've seen other Batman issues with r notation about that's size. Any idea what collection they came from?

Jeez, yet another fugly label too.

Found these logos and a few characters. https://www.brandsoftheworld.com/search/logos?search_api_views_fulltext=Marvel Comics

Ok. I'll bite. What's a vectorized comic image? One that someone has already converted into vectors in say illustrator?

I don't think the next sale hits 2M... but it ought get there. But the buyers will argue for a lower price due to the plentiful nature of 4 9.6s. I suppose a smart seller (or dealer) will counter that if you buy the first 9.6 to come to market, you are in the drivers seat because it will set the benchmark for the next copies to beat! All future buyers will have to pay more... but, in the million dollar plus price range, the buying pool isn't quibbling about price too much. Yes yes they aren't stupid etc etc, Im not saying that.... but if you are buying 1M++ comics with cash, you've got plenty of assets besides your comics, making it a more a "fun" thing, not as much an investment where losing $$$ would keep you up at night..

Thanx for not taking offense to my notes on your post. The thing is, as you describe why you used GPA for your numbers, is that there's so much more "reading between the lines" of all public data in our hobby. One must stay up with ALL pricing data to get the full picture and make smart decisions when buying or selling, or even guessing trends in values. GPA is great at what it does, but since many big sales are kept private by dealers (with only some of them noted on the boards) and many large auction sites do not share any sales data with GPA, one must take this into consideration when drawing conclusions about what you CAN see on their site. GPA is a great tool. But it's most accurate for books that trade often on EBay, like slabbed Common stuff, or set records on Heritage. Truth is that even today we don't have one reliable and comprehensive sales tool we can all use because the comics market has not yet achieved the transparency of other markets.. maybe someday. Just maybe.. the million dollar AF15 sale WAS done because it truly was thought to be the one and only 9.6. Many of us have made this mistake, not fully realizing the potential for more high grade copies out there, and the impact of pressing potential to existing copies. Buying the current highest graded copy today carries with it a far more realistic expectation that your purchase will not stay alone at the top. But on a book by book basis, one can make a pretty good wager with their hard earned money whether any book is truly scarce enough in any particular grade, for the long term. I've bought 9.0s many years ago that are still top dog. Also, the buyer didn't use hard earned money to buy it, so it was not as risky as it would be for the rest of us. we know and understand a lot more now about the slabbed marketplace than 10-15 years ago when CGC began. 9.4s were the safe high grade level for Silver Age runs. 9.6 was actually considered a freakishly ridiculous high grade comic where " the Madness begins!" As in attempting to complete a run in 9.6. And this thinking was used for a run filler book like say Avengers 44, let alone an AF15!

Math is hard. 13k up to 41k is not up 300%. The price rose 28K which, compared to 13k is slightly more than 200% increase. And as you describe, the differences in the grades can't be ignored. A 5.5 AF15 is a very different animal than a 5.5 Superman 1. Your chart of highest prices paid seems to be missing many sales that aren't recorded on GPA. And the million dollar sale of AF15 occurred when it was the sole unmatchable 9.6... right now there are 4 9.6s. I think the next 9.6 sale will be for a million again... but not anywhere close to 2 million... and only because only 1 of them has come up for sale (Privately) in 6 years. The price was well below 1M, but now that a 9.2 sells for 450K, a 9.6 will no longer be had for 700K like the last one. ...but I agree that the demand for AF15 in ANY grade is staggeringly unexpected!

Thanx. I was thinking of checking the idicias for clues! But I'd have needed both cover dates to work with. Nice work.