LowGradeBronze

The best explanation of how to detect trimming I've yet come across, which I'm noting for future reference! Thank you.

Hi, I'm going to be the boring voice of caution, but if I were you I wouldn't let those beauties out of my sight. The comics themselves are safe in those holders. Who cares if the holder has a small crack or defect in it? I certainly wouldn't use super glue as the gases it gives off are potentially harmful to comic books. Also the swirly effect you mention sounds like Newton rings, the optical effect caused when you are looking through two pieces of plastic with different refractive indexes. Again not really a problem as it's not harming your comics. If you send them in they will be out of your sight and hands for months. Don't do it, they are fine in their existing holders! I would NOT try to restore XYZ. The vertical line is only one reason why it's a 6.0 and you won't be able to fix them all. Plus you'd have a purple label (Restored) which collectors are sniffy about, whereas now you have the Universal label that everyone wants. Just love it, accept it and remember, not many people have that trio of gorgeous books in their collections.

What a scorcher from MWK. An absolute fave from Worlds Finest 219, my first ever DC comic.(Where I noticed a 'Marvel' name Frank Giacoia, was inking Dillin.So those Marvel guys work for DC too.) This was power cuts, (3 day week, Winter of Discontent,) reading comics by torch or better, candle light. And thinking HOW do I get my hands on a copy of the Shadow #1. I have a couple now, in nice grade too. One from Fantasy Unlimited in Islington for 60 pence in around 1980. One from MCS more recently.

They wouldn't allow that cover now: Health & Safety.

That's not easy to say. I had to put my teeth in.

Comes back to the numbers involved: US print run numbers and the unsold returns that survived, in the hundreds of thousands with a good proportion surviving in warehouses to re-emerge years later on the collector market, many in high grade. UK part of the print run, maybe tens of thousands? Had to survive being transported in boats. (Ballast theory applied or discounted.) No unsold returns process that I am aware of in the UK and the fact that SA comics passed through many hands, including book exchanges where they were resold at half price with a big ink stamp on the front cover. Much slimmer chance of any surviving in truly high grade. IMO. Odds were just stacked against them. Treasure the ones we have! They are true survivors.

Just the words "bus station paper shop" evokes in me a strong image and feeling. Possibly grey and grimy on the outside,the doorway dark but inside all laid out, overlapping along a low shelf, just the marvel logos visible in their greens, reds, blues and yellows,untold excitement waiting to be discovered!

I think you're good for 7.0 to 7.5 here but the little ripples and spine blemishes on the back cover maybe stop it getting 8.0

Nice, I do like a bit of Princess Python too. You certainly kept that in nice condition. It wasn't long after these three that I started to look after them better, but when you only have a few exciting comics, they get well thumbed! The wear is shared now over ahem, quite a few more...

Congrats! A really nice presenting 4.0 it is too. You could have mentioned the white pages! In fact not many people mention page quality in their PGM posts, and not many people show any pictures of the interior. You have a handsome slab there!

I guess for me, thinking about it now, with boxes full of artwork by Starlin, Ditko, Kirby, Gulacy, Sutton, Steranko etc I feel that these things have their own intrinsic worth, (place in pop culture and in my own personal history,) unrelated really to any monetary value. (For a long time they had almost zero resale value, especially many 70s Marvels.) I can see the value of the artwork and feel a need to 'save' and protect them, ie collect, organise and store them for some future beneficiary. Someone like me!!! Sadly my daughter has no interest and why would she? Only when I tell her that if sold, she could have a decent University education, does she perk up. But then I have to say to her, sell them? Over my dead body. (Now I have to check her google searches to see if she's looking up how to kill a parent and get away with it.) It makes me a little sad to think that when I pop off my collection will be scattered to the four winds most likely.

Some house ads that got me going! See how they got the issue number wrong for Brother Voodoo?

My first ever colour Marvel was Tomb of Dracula 11, followed by Cap 165. I'd become aware of Marvel as I already had the UK Mighty World of Marvel number 2. Tod11 and Cap165 were bought for me while we still lived in Worcester, then shortly after we moved to the south coast and DD107 was bought in Hastings, from a wonderful seafront newsagent, with all the seaside trappings (buckets and spades etc,) you can imagine brought joy to the eyes of a nine year old. The shop's still there but sells carpets now I think! (It's all about the nostalgia for me so these details are all part of why these comics are so important.) After DD107 I think I was allowed to write off for a mail order catalogue (send 50 pence for 5 random marvels and the seller's mail order list.) That was it, I was hooked. I have since bought high grade cents copies of all three of these. The house ads got me hooked as much as anything. ToD11 has half page house ads for Foom & Vampire Tales plus a full page Tales of the Zombie. Cap165 has house ads for Foom, Brother Voodoo (where they the issue of ST as being 167 not 169,) and Savage Tales, with the fantastic Barry Smith iconic image of Conan. It also caries the news that Bill Everett had died. DD107 has the fabulous back cover advert for Evel Knievel. All of which whetted my appetite. How could I get my hands on Savage Tales, or Tales of the Zombie? That came later, when I found out that some newsagents in Eastbourne had spinner racks full of the B&W magazines as well as the colour comics. I just didn't have enough pocket money to buy them all.

You may already have see some videos on pressing but this would give you some idea of what your books will go through and you can decide if you're willing to risk it. But get pro advice too, as already mentioned. Cool books you have there, a collector's dream!

Hi, welcome to the boards! Your question is best posted in the Newbie Comic Collecting Questions forum. You've posted in the 'Please Grade My...' forum where members ask for other members to offer opinions on the grade for a specific issue. Hope this helps!

I was at 8.0 until I saw the back cover (especially the bottom edge,) which I feel will drag it down to 7.5 but wow, what a super clean and bright copy!

https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg70.html Gets very interesting from second paragraph and explains what should have happened and what actually happened (!) to a lot of comics in the sale or return process. (In fact the whole thing's interesting, but this bit bears directly on our case in point: How many returns might have survived and why. )

s Excellent, @steveinthecity B,1 ... Paid Circulation: Sales through dealers & carriers, street vendors & counter sales 202,000. D,2...Copies distributed to newsagents but not sold: 167,000 There's the bulk of your total print run but the burning question (from the OP's POV,) is how many of those appx 167,000 made it to warehouses to wait it out until they could feed the collector market in high grades. How many turn up with distributors ink? A good indication of how many survived the returns process, (which I confess I can shed no light on.) Think back to all the Howard Rogovski type ads in the comics, where people were offering "Complete Marvel and DC back catalog, 1940s to 1970s" and where were they getting their stock from? I suspect there was a better market in taking unsold returns and selling them to the Howard Rogovskis of this world rather than taking them to be pulped. So we can start speculating on what proportion of appx 167,000 books survived, on top of the sold 202,000 copies. I'm starting to think a decent proportion, maybe more than 50% of 167,000. I certainly think that comic books from 1974 have much better in built survivability than books from 10 years earlier. A lot of my admittedly low grade early 60s books are hanging on by the skin of their teeth: Tanning, brittleness, spine wear to the point of falling apart, whereas my 1970s books are made of better stuff, literally. The covers and interiors are better quality materials. Add that in to the mix. (Although a mid 60s FF I looked at the other day with statement of circulation showed a total print run in excess of 600,000. That blew my mind a bit.)

Hulk 187 has the print run stats (statement of circulation,) so that would shed some light on typical print runs and have specific data on the issue closest to the filing date. The leftover, spoiled, & newsstand returns is always a frightening figure, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands, as much as one third of the entire print run. What happened to all those comics? Were they all pulped? In fact it's pretty weird to think that many of the comics in our collections are reincarnations of other, earlier issues, having been pulped and re-made into newsprint. I wonder if any DCs ended up as Marvels and vice versa??? As I don't have IH 187 I can't tell you what those stats are and how they may be able to infer how many IH 181s might be around, but it's a good starting point. (I went on to MCS and scrolled through IH until I saw that IH 187 has the print run stats. It's a great resource.)

I'm so glad this thread got revived. It made me remember I have the complete 1975 set, but no checklist cards now, although I remember having them at the time obviously. We used to buy the packs in one particular sweet shop that stocked them, on the way home from school and then swap them outside or in the playground the next day. I don't remember any 'abuse' of them, by that I mean we knew to keep them as cards and not stick them around. Maybe ten years ago I got interested again and managed to buy maybe 12 of the 1976 set in one ebay listing but haven't pursued the rest of the 1976 ones since. Not as good in terms of crisp printing and colours as the 1975 set, but some cool characters. A reminder of happy days!!!

I think your book has to be worth more to you than ever it would be in cold hard cash. Having said that, if you auctioned it off there would be a lot of interest. I'm glad you still have a good number of your original collection. The prices are truly frightening if trying to purchase now. I've been watching it happen over the last eight years or so, mainly using MyComicShop as my measure of supply, and prices for certain comics in various grades. Now MCS is largely items sold on consignment with no regard for Overstreet pricing, as MCS don't seem to have so much stock of their own on hand. I've watched the increase in prices for lower grades as collectors hunt down any available copy of key comics! It's become the wild west out there! And as you say the instant premium that CGC grading provides is like a revolving door making money for collectors. I also made myself a spreadsheet very recently and find it really useful. Maybe post some scans of your gems as you re-acquaint yourself with them. Welcome to the boards!

Was it pressed before grading? If there were some unpressed light finger bends etc that could hit the grade. Plus the inside of the comic that is now forever hidden from view...

Thank you for the link. I found the whole article useful, in fact.