trmoore54

Jay just noticed you and I joined the boards like 3 weeks apart in '07.

Hey Jay...hope all is well. Yep less than 1%. And as I believe Jolly Comics chimed in pure luck. Well yeah. Getting 5/5 vs 4/5 or 3/5 or 2/5 needs some "luck". Probably many players this contest and many other contests are like .5 off on 3 or 4 books. Duh. Skill and luck combined = rare perfection. Congrats to the five for fiver! (Still think a $100 credit is a very small tip for the feat.)

My biggest mistake is shaping my grade as if it is my book and I'm going to sell it. Classic undergrading strategy in my case because I as a rule always wanted the buyer to be happy and not return the book (talking about raw books obviously that I am grading myself). Gotta get that out of my head. Although I have a tendency to overgrade GA books. And then contrary to my undergrading tendency I remember what Steve Borock said "always give the book the highest grade it deserves."

I am think strongly per Round anyone who gets a 5/5 bullseyes should get at least $100 grading credit! Any mathmeticians out there to figure the odds? And I think everyone involved would heartily approve of this being a retroactive decision by Mike. In our annual football pool this past year we went from 12 picks a week to 15 picks a week (we pick 18 weeks and have 1st/2nd/3rd weekly prizes and then a year-end season totals 1st/2nd/3rd that pay out 60/30/10 percentages of the pot). We pick any 15 games from the entire College and NFL games/lines vs the spread. We have a standing reward of $500 for anyone with a perfect scorecard. Of course, since the pool is finite, this has to be extracted from the season totals kitty. (In this case Mike can just add the reward.). Sure enough, like week 3 someone hit 15/15. Odds are roughly 33,000 to 1. If he would've bet $10 in Vegas would've paid $100000!

Round 1 butt hurt...and it's on!! Love it!!

10-4. THX!

Will the scores and standings be posted per round?

Couple of bulls happy about that. Went with double GA bump on FLASH 5.5. Wanted to go 9.0 on DD7 but settled on 8.5. Ugh. Bombed the FF94 with 6.0...that is one FUGLY 7.5 IMO. Tessie and Veronica my bulls. Upward and Onward!

Hey Dave...hope all is well with you and family. I'll send you a PM. Would be good to chat/catch up.

Here's the spreadsheet from July 2019.

FANTASTIC FOUR 1-50 HG CENSUS ANALYSIS 4.23.2023 TOUGHEST IN HIGH GRADE Checked in on the ASM 1-50 Census (see Amazing Spider-Man Collecting Thread in Silver Age Comic Books) so thought I’d do the same with FF 1-50. Here we see no change in the Top Eleven with issues 17 and 4 changing spots at Ranks 12 and 13 respectively. The next 10 spots are pretty static with issue 24 jumping up to the 23rd spot and issue 43 dropping to 29th. Overall pretty much the same order. Clearly early FFs in HG are difficult to come by. When I finally got around to selling my 7 and 11 in 9.0 I was really torn…just felt these two books in particular were very undervalued at the time and still so. You can see the numbers pale in comparison with ASM 1-50 numbers by about half on average…bear in mind FF debuted in November 1961 about a year and a half before ASM 1 in March 1963. FF 1 remains the most difficult of the SA Keys in total HG numbers at 19 graded books while Hulk 1 is currently one back at 20 books. Although FF 1 has two 9.6s and three 9.4s while Hulk has the lone 9.4 as it’s highest graded copy. Other than the bottom 3 books, with issues 44 and 48 being warehouse finds, FF saw only 9 new 9.8s in the last 4 years. As for resubmission upgrades, it would appear that one issue of 7 upgraded from 9.0 to 9.2, while an issue of 4 apparently went the other direction from 9.2 to 9.0. Ouch. Issue 12 saw 2 upgrades from 9.2 to 9.4 and issue 32 saw a 9.6 convert to a 9.8. Issue 27 saw 4 9.2 upgrades to 9.4 and an apparent copy dropping to 9.0…issue 45 had two 9.4 upgrades to 9.6. Also comparing to ASM 1-20 FF has only 48% of the Spidey total books graded in HG 9.0 – 10.0 (5,881 books compared to 12,027 books). And while ASM has only 6 books with a total of HG copies less than 100 FF has 31 books! Here’s my write-up from July 2019… I just recently updated my HG Census analysis for ASM 1-50 which I posted in the ASM 11 thread. Now let’s have a look at the Fantastic Four 1-52. As for the ASM data, the last time I put his together was in August 2014 as well. Let’s break it down… As per the title, I am using the Census to examine the numbers. As with all analyses and empirical data/evidence…there are factors of error to be considered…retired books resubmitted probably the foremost issue…but all-in-all the numbers appear to be consistent with the Jan 2012 analysis and my non-published analysis prior to that. Also the fact that “key” and singular books will have more submissions than the other issues. Additionally in the case of the FF issues, issues 44 and 48 are warehouse finds and thus significantly more issues have been submitted and graded for these 2 books with higher grades as would be expected. Let’s start with some general statements of fact: Of the 50 books, 14 issues have only added 8 or less copies to the Census in grades 9.0-10.0 or 28-per cent. The most difficult of all, with only 3/4/5 added copies respectively are issues 1, 11 and 8. Next up is Issue 12 with 6 copies and then Issues 3, 4, 5, 6 and 18 with 7 copies and rounding out Issues 7, 17 and and 19 with 8 copies. Issues 16 and 20 have 10 copies added. Issue 1 retains the top spot with 16 issues and only three 9.0s added. Issue 3 is next with only 27 copies. And then those 2 dark covers, Issues 11 (31) and 7 (34) followed by Issue 8 (36 copies) to round out the Top 5. The order is the same as in 2014 except for 7 and 11 changing spots. Issues 2, 18, 5, 2, 13 and 6 round out the Top 10. Twelve issues do not have a 9.8 adding 2 9.8s down from 14…Issues 9 and 49 each added one 9.8 There are a total of 29 9.8s added. Of the issues without 9.8s, Issues 7 and 8 have only one 9.6! Fifteen Issues now have 100 or more HG copies graded up from 10. Issue 48’s total numbers have risen by a staggering 121 copies or an average of 24 per year. There have been no 9.8s or 9.6s added for Issues 1, 3, 11, 7, 8, 2, 18, 5, 13, 6 and 4 in their order in the rankings. 9.8! Still only 145 copies in the entire run achieving the rarified 9.8 grade status (or 2.9-per cent)! That represents a meager 32 issues added in the last 5 years of an average of just over 6 a year! As previously mentioned, Issues 9 and 49 joined the list with 1 copy each. 9.6! Only 73 9.6 copies for an average of a little under 15/year. Summarily, there are only 5,013 CGC graded issues of FF 1-50 graded 9.0 or better…an overall increase of a 1,130 copies in the last 5 years…and average of 226/year. Side-by-side comparison Grade 2014 2019 9.8 113 145 28.3-per cent increase 9.6 391 483 23.5-per cent increase 9.4 849 1066 25.5-per cent increase 9.2 955 1371 30.4-per cent increase 9.0 1443 1948 34.9-per cent increase FF Issues 1-52 8.25.14 9.8 9.6 9.4 9.2 9.0 TOTAL 1 2 3 2 6 13 3 1 1 2 10 6 20 7 1 5 8 12 26 11 2 5 6 14 27 8 1 7 5 18 31 18 1 1 5 12 12 31 5 2 11 11 8 32 2 1 2 6 11 14 33 13 1 3 5 10 16 35 9 6 13 7 10 36 6 2 6 11 18 37 17 1 4 8 11 16 40 15 2 4 8 12 15 41 4 6 10 11 16 43 19 1 7 13 8 16 45 31 2 3 11 13 16 45 23 1 4 6 16 20 47 10 2 4 11 12 20 49 12 4 14 17 14 49 37 4 8 17 20 49 29 8 6 19 21 54 16 1 2 18 15 19 55 20 1 7 10 8 30 56 34 2 16 20 21 59 51 7 10 21 21 59 42 2 4 14 17 23 60 43 2 7 12 20 21 62 40 7 6 18 32 63 14 3 7 16 14 24 64 22 2 7 15 14 26 64 27 1 4 13 18 28 64 25 2 5 11 20 33 71 30 1 8 20 22 22 73 32 2 11 10 16 34 73 24 4 11 20 14 27 76 21 4 6 14 23 32 79 33 5 7 22 15 30 79 38 2 9 19 29 22 81 28 2 6 24 22 38 92 39 2 10 18 19 43 92 26 2 11 19 29 33 94 36 1 8 17 33 36 95 45 3 5 15 24 58 105 50 2 5 13 38 57 115 52 3 12 27 37 72 115 35 3 16 22 36 43 120 41 7 10 34 30 40 121 47 2 14 33 39 38 126 49 9 22 35 60 126 46 7 18 45 60 53 183 44 9 33 90 69 64 265 48 28 71 98 105 148 450 TOTALS 116 410 886 1109 1536 4057 2013 105 373 764 955 1314 3511 DELTA 11 37 122 154 222 546

Or sell it here for no fees.

Or you could forgo the trade route and list it on CLINK or EBAY with a mininum BIN price to cash out on the Avengers 1 and then just shop for another book with the cash. It's a pretty much no harm ho foul scenario as it doesn't cost you anything until the sale goes through. You can get lower offers to consider on both sites. I sold my last 2 FF issues 8 and 13 in 9.0 Restored on CLINK. I paid about $500 for the 8 and about $750 for the 13. They sat there for several months (I was in no hurry) and finally about a week or two apart both sold for $1500. GOOD LUCK! (I wouldn't do the trade straight up...agree with other points of view here...)

Here's the spreadsheet from June 2019.

4.23.23 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1-50 TOUGHEST IN HIGH GRADE CGC CENSUS Well it is as I suspected…ASM 11 is still KING of the toughest ASM 1-50 books in HG (Grades 9.0 – 10.0). I have known this for some time and still have an on-going PM I started with Jeff/jordysnordy and Elmer/Dutch74 we started August 2016 in our reverence for the book and, at the time, my quest for a CGC 9.0 as well as Elmer and Jeff’s for a HG copy. If memory serves me you would be lucky to see 1 or 2 offered at 9.0 or greater in the previous years so when one did pop up you had to act fast. I was able to get my copy in August 2016 from Bob Storms. AF15s in 7.0 were going for about $50K at the time. My list accounts for both Blue/Universal and Signature Series labels and does not include Qualified or Restored copies. Within the time period, 2,083 new books have been graded and added to the new total of 12,027 books in 9.0 – 9.9. That’s an average of about 1.5 books per day making the grade. Issue 11 is one of 5 books with only single digit copies having been added to the Census in the last 4 years, along with issues1, 2, 7 and 28. Makes sense. Issue 11 is also only 1 of 3 books without a 9.8 (along with 4 and 28). I last checked my survey in June 2019 so just a little shy of 4 years and thought it would be fun to check back in on the overall list. So on to the other 49 books… Everything pretty much holds true to form. No change in rank for the first 8 books and then we get our first flip-flop for issues 6 and 12 rounding out the Top Ten…issue 6 nudging issue 12 by one book. And then we see some minor rank movement jostling with issues 9 and 15 trading spots, issue 23 holding pat and 8 and 13 trading spots. The list overall remains pretty static. Only 3 books moved over 2 spots…issue 16 moving up 4 spots and issues 39 and 46 moving down 4 and 5 spots respectfully. Interesting as well the bottom 8 remain unchanged. It should probably be noted that some issues like 14 and 39 would be expected to have higher numbers as they are key books with higher submission rates. But of course the list generally follows the years and ages of the books for condition quality as one would expect. I have noted ASM 33 as a warehouse find of which I have read of and am not sure, but question if that is also the case for issues 45 and 47. If anyone knows of this please chime in. Unicorn sighting. So what do we all think of the lone 9.9 issue 19? It is by far the lowest of the Top Twenty issues and with its all-white cover common in HG. But you have to feel the 9.9 was just a random assignment for the 334 books graded 9.8 or higher. I mean what would the odds be of any given collector or grader picking out the 9.9 copy if all 13 books (the other 12 9.8s) were laid out in front of you. And it’s probably safe to say as years pass the likelihood of another ASM 1-50 book getting a 9.9 is probably slim to none. Having been pretty inactive the last several years since I completed my ASM 1-20 in 9.0 I somewhat equate the difference of a 9.9 and 9.8 to a wine grade differential from 100 to 99 points. You will be hard-pressed to discern any difference between the 2 in my opinion. They will both be killer wines where the given circumstances on a given day will be a toss-up between 99 and 100. It is in that sense the 9.9 grade is arbitrary and a one-off. It appears 3 books were upgraded from 9.6 to 9.8 on resubmissions. A single issue 1 and 17 and two 12s.

Best to get these grades in and not overthink it. As usual always waffle between 2 .5 differential grades. Hoping I've picked the right ones...

Hey Bob...long time. Hope all is well with you and family. All good on my end. 4 brand new grand-kids for us since COVID. My comic collection remains stagnant. But my wine collection is robust and growing.

First you've seen tons of AF15s (let's see if a comic book weighed like an ounce, and tons would be at least 2/plural, that's at least 64,000 copies) now 100s and 1000s (that would be a subset of tons). Impressive. LOL How many issues are there? I think you've seen them all. Anyway, just kindof checking back in on the boards and am enjoying your hyperbole. You seem to be passionate about AF15. All good brotha!

Hey Shar...been a while...maybe since the last contest lol. Hope all is well with you.

Hey Andy...been a looooong time. Hope all is well. Using this contest to connect back a little.

Didn't see a start time ETA. Did I miss it? Don't make me look through all the pages. THX.

In it to win it!!

Priceless!

Al Jaffee obit LA Times. True legend! Along with the whole MAD Crew...one of the greatest publications of all time! https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-04-10/al-jaffee-mad-magazine-cartooning-legend-dies-at-102