Aman619

to me bottom line, pricing is difficult! no one source (Overstreet is an annually updated list) is the be all and end all in coming up with what your comic is worth. I have been using the Overstreet data for years in my database. When compounded with a "factor" based on the spread from G to NM-, I come up with pretty accurate numbers for most books in Silver and Bronze ages, as well as not hot Golden and Copper/Moderns ages. Anything trading often and at multiples I add a second factor that I manually attach to the calculation. For CGC copies I use PGA and other verified sales sources. But unless it's a commonly traded comic, it's still all guesswork: "was the last sale the future trend? Was it too high for some reason, or was it abnormally too low." Unfortunately there's no simple method, never was one. Overstreet prices are a factor in the equation for 95% of all comics, and a baseline for the rest.

or more likely the person tasked with replying doesn't share the breadth of history loaded into the question. It's a perfectly acceptable reply ending with the perfectly acceptable: "We apologize for the inconvenience (of our or their divergence on ongoing business interests)...." My guess is that orders of the pdf Guide didnt move the needle much and neither side was still interested in the costs involved.

probably! the longer they sat in the racks or whatever the worse shape they end up in. Then again, weren't collectors without direct sales LCSs not ALSO showing up every week -- the day they came out -- and therefore picking up "pretty" fresh copies? They might be lightly damaged from loose handling into and out of the racks, but they didnt sit in the store for the full 3 months with purchases made toward the collection deadline. This was the 80s... Not like the 60s. I went to an out of the way drugstore in the mid 60s with a spinner rack filled with misbegotten orphaned unsold comics. But being hungry for something to buy, I searched every pocket. Pulled out an FF #2! It was years old by then... By the 80s very few outlets selling comics let then sit around that long. Or did they?

… and every now and then a book was Instantly so hit that LCSs chased down and bought newsstand copies to meet the demand in their direct only stores. These would be sold with no regard to the UPC code, just on a gotta have a copy basis. Assuming these were gathered early on at newsstands Whore wear and tear set in, they would be 9.8 candidates to this day having been being handled carefully same as these direct buyers treated their direct copies then edit fix: "whore wear" was "before wear" when I typed it. honest!

The big difference between the 30 and 35 cent price variants and the post direct market newsstands is quantity and intention. The 30 and 35 centers were a limited distributed test run. The numbers are finite, and being locally distributed in just a few markets are much scarcer that the later newsstands being discussed here. Until we pin down exactly what the print runs %s for direct vs newsstand, and in each year post 1979, we will remain in this guessing game of exactly which are scarcer and scarcest. That is clearly beginning to happen now. Let’s see where this goes and then we will have a clearer picture of the harder to find (and in grade) of the newsstands. And of the early direct copies, too. And if it turns out to be a “thing” collectors will enjoy chasing. Cause it won’t be a small finite set like the 30 and 35 centers, which I don’t collect, but CAN understand as a worthwhile achievement.

unfortunately, Access does not give you "access" to the entirety of each year's Guide prices. Well, okay, I guess it "does", but you'd have to populate your collection with every single issue, and pick a grade for each,,, and only then do you see a value for your books. But you ONLY see that grade's value.. Nowhere is the full 6 grade list of values (G thru NM-) visible to the subscriber.

yes. the Big Big Overstreet is very easy to read, but a beast on the desktop, and flops closed a lot unless you're in the middle third of the book!

As always your continued efforts on behalf of us fellow collectors are amazing! Now of course we enter the no good deed goes unpunished phase. Stay strong!

Im not sure it was intentional, but someone mentioned having every slab scanned will help with IDing ME's. Either in-house for staff to look at all of them before shipping, after shipping, or for a way to find out who was to blame.. Having a visual record will help CGC. They can even use them for customers (US) to proof the slabs before they ship. (Im told CGC no longer posts grades until after shipping because too many people were seeing the bad grades and immediately calling for CGC to pull them, then crack and repress and resubmit them, which gummed up the shipping at the last minute. In the early years this was a nice thing assuming you hade someone high up to pull your book... but it got out of hand..) But now as posted the submitter could do the proofing fr CGC spotting ME's before they ship. Guess the beancounters will decide which is most effective for CGC: like paying for shipping etc....

when you hire a photographer for a wedding say, HE or SHE owns the images. You can pay for prints or digital usage, but the photographer OWNS the image they make.

I met a guy who said he sniffed the comic to grade it. He was holding it in his hands! Im still puzzled by that weird assertion! or fetish... eek

That was one amazing day! Historic! Comic books at Sothebys! Top o the world, ma! anyone else recall “coo coo” spoken out loud after a particularly high crazy purchase price? I picked up a couple books… wish I’d bought a lot more. There was a run of Actions, 101-200. Anyone know how nice they really were grade wise? Or are they still raw? Sold for 10K. But maybe it was two lots at 10K each…

lighten up. no one is attacking Ian, and its easy to fall in love with his quest. Many f its were here when he was finishing it, and the sour taste his words and actions left with us in still fresh. Try to imagine the boards in the first few years. It was a new place to gather and exchange info and share comics knowledge. Then imagine someone showing up and using the group to further their goals... then poof. gone anyway, glad hes back. hope he stays. But as we have seen, He's only here for himself. First to find the last dozen books he needed. And now cause hes being talked about again. Read the entire thread from way back then for a little more insight as to why you are reading some less than lauditory posts and labeling them 'antagonistic'..

and here we go... so long Ian. come back soon

8.5 sure. But to chase and win a freak 9.4 copy? Pass. edit. Satisfied with my 7.0 and 7.5. But would have gone after that 8.5 if it existed when I was buying Superman’s years ago. I was doing 7.0 to 9.0 copies. Anything higher was a raw that lucked out! I understand the desire (need) for high grade copies, but for keys, not for run books — especially at todays prices (10-20k Each?)

If you want them….

Of course they are better! Cool your jets. From a cost basis comics publishers put quality production far down the list. I am questioning the solutions proposed from a printing standpoint.

Nothing for the buck. The difference in yellow is not that much is what I’m saying. Like ordering a higher weave for your sheets for an extra cost you feel,isn’t worth it. Some thing like that

Generally, the halftones of black are just stripped onto the same black plate as the solid areas/lines. Same for all the other inks. Adding black in light shades definitely achieved the gloomy shades on the DC horror covers. The printers may have been wary about these lighter shades plugging up while making sure a full solid black was being laid down. …but a pressman would best answer the why for paying for 2 different black plates

‘Another yellow plate”. Can you please explain further, or try to paste the actual quote? CMYK included yellow, so a duplicate yellow adds nothing. Having said that, a more sunflower tone (on the orange side) would be a better mix in many tints than the basic lemony neon yellow used in CMYK. But hard to believe DC would pay for 5 color printing! That an extra cost to every job and most designers stick to the gamut (total number of shades achievable from CMY and K inks) available in CMYK also most colors on covers are flat tones same as the interiors and stripped in the same method as interiors are (using 5s of each ink)… but allowing 10% tones of the inks would achieve these new colors too. On covers and interiors

Gpa breaks out Pedigree copies fro non pedigree. But I’m guessing you’re looking for a site that just tracks pedigree sales? Nobody Is doing that publicly I don’t think.

At this point I just want to see the Rolls Royce collection! Sheesh

Im beginning to think you really believe Stan was the mastermind in these dealings! Thats goes against your Stan did nothing shtick. I always say you cant have it both ways. A politician cant be a know-nothing dope and a shrewd mastermind in global conspiracies. Same for Stan here: the financial genius who cant create and manipulates his way to the top, while losing at every turn to Goodman, Ike, Peter Paul and to his latter days handlers. Stan did this and Stan did that. You realize that he went running to his lawyers and Peter Paul saying WHAT DO I DO NOW, and THEY say let me read your contracts, and then they come up with the threat of his ownership of the characters. It was a tenuous but plausible nuisance lawsuit that yielded his new deal including freedom to become Pauls NEW MEDIA pipedream Stan Lee Media. and, what would you have named the company whose only asset was Stan's involvement and the gimmick of Stan re inventing comics for the online age? Somehow Paul almost pulled it off until the online bust wiped them out after he had played fast and loose with the cash too. Peter Paul saying he was setup and would be vindicated is what the crooks always say "I didn't do it, they did this to me." I dont really recall, isn't he still in prison in Brazil? or was he sent back to stand trial? Finally you seem to be upset that Stan got 10M plus the 1M a year for his involvement in Marvels and the creation of the characters. But not that Jack got 50M years later using the same threat. Im sure you believe that Stan's "ownership" threat to Marvel was weaker than Kirby's. so your man won in the end. Financially. But I always felt he took home more than Stan in the 60s. Then again, you tell me Im sure you have their 1099s. (actually that woud be interesting, right?)

Look again at the dates on those court documents. This monumental deal involving Stan Lees ownership rights to all the Marvel Character was settled amicably and signed in a few months!? Peter Paul used Stan’s leverage with the characters. Not Stan. That’s the wording in the contract. Peter and Ike both got the deal they wanted. Ike secured a freedom from any future threat of litigation with Stan over the characters. Peter Paul got Stan to front his new company, free and clear to use Stan’s involvement with marvel characters in the marketing of Stan and SLM. Stan relinquished any ownership right that he MAY have had to the Marvel characters for a handful of beans: to go into business with Peter Paul.

somehow you missed the part about Peter Paul pulling Stan's strings during this time in this negotiation with Marvel. I may have forgotten the legal ins and outs that led to the deal they made, but the spirit of it was as I wrote it in a simplified way. Certainly it wasn't as cut and dried as I described it with all the lawyers involved and Ike and Avi seeking to ensure that Stan would never be a legal problem for them. Stan did not CREATE Stan Lee Media. It was all Peter Paul's doing. Stan was just the public face of it. trust me on this. You know lots about Stan Lee, so you know business acumen was not his forte. I dont say that Peter Paul was the mastermind with Stan as his puppet as a point in Stans favor. If you saw them together in these days you'd see it was obvious Stan was a sheep in Peter Paul's grasp and control. Stan was in his 70s and out at Marvel. The same instincts that used to trust his handlers 20 years later were there in his dealings with Peter Paul. Putty in his hands.