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Golden Age Comics - A perspective

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I generally read comics upstairs in my bedroom before I fall asleep. Last night I was reading a book from 1941, and "babying" it as much as possible; leaving it lie flat and carefully turning each page. I also have a really nice stack of Russ Cochran EC reprints from the late 1990's. So I grabbed a "Weird Science" and began reading.

 

Since this reprint was worth about 2-3 bucks, I folded the book at the spine completely for easier reading. I thought about something after I did this: In the 1940's, kids were buying these golden age books, and there were plenty to be had for a dime. I'm sure kids reading them back then took the same approach I did with my 1999 EC reprint - who cares if it gets damaged? That, coupled with the most people didn't mass-collect in the sense that we do today, and weren't possessed with having near mint copies around.

 

So, my point is this. When you pick up a golden age book and it's fine or better, think of how rare that really is...for a book to withstand multiple generations of owners, especially considering the original may not have had any regard for its condition! When you think about it, there really are more nice golden age books than common sense would dictate SHOULD be available. Don't get me started on paper drives!

 

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Many of the higher graded copies of Golden-Age books came from collections that were never read.

 

And I would guess the ones that were read were put in boxes and not looked at for many years. I would be surprised if many of the Fine or better books were:

 

1) Read by the original owner than

2) Past down to their kids who read them than

3) Repeat #2

 

What surprises me is how many Pedigree collections have been discovered in the past 5-10 years (Lost Valley for example). People knew 25 years ago that old comic books were worth a lot of money.

 

 

 

 

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When you pick up a golden age book and it's fine or better, think of how rare that really is...for a book to withstand multiple generations of owners, especially considering the original may not have had any regard for its condition! When you think about it, there really are more nice golden age books than common sense would dictate SHOULD be available. Don't get me started on paper drives!

 

I hear that. And don;t forget about the book burnings! I used to have an original photo of a kid putting his horror books into a pile of precode books being burned. A shuddery thing.

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I'm not sure whether to be proud of that...

 

Proud/not proud of what?

 

That I (we) take the time to think of such things...99% of people would call us weird for that... insane.gif

 

Oh yeah. I guess you're right! insane.gifinsane.gifinsane.gif

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First, my comic collecting is steadily gravitating toward GA books for the very reasons that you allude to in your post. For the ease of explanation allow me to stray a little.

 

In the modern, bronze and late silver eras there seems to be a collective knowledge that in at least some cases collectors, businesses, or speculators have purchased comics in efforts to preserve their condition. These comics were immediately bagged and boarded or at the very least stored in some manner that allowed for their preservation. This observation is evident in cases like Mile High 2, other warehouse finds, or collections of high-grade common books floating around eBay.

 

In the case of GA there are also situations where an individual has gone to the extreme to preserve a comics condition either intentionally or through accident. It seems that these cases have become exceptions rather than the rule, and in most cases have actually added to the value of the books; for example, Edgar Church and the Mile High books or the Gaines File copies.

 

To answer your question directly, I do ponder the past history of comics that I have purchased, read or even just admired on the LCS wall. It is becoming more apparent that with the more modern era's of comics the idea that a particular comic has a history other than created, printed, stored, sold, and stored again is uncommon. The golden age, however, has the appeal that any one collector really has no idea where the book came from with exception of the aforementioned cases. Therefore, the path a book followed to get in to the collectors hands is left to his own imagination. Further, markings like store stamps, printed names, or the occasional filled out but not clipped coupon can actually overcome the modern era's eye sore classification. Additionally, the preservation and storage techniques were not what they are today, so the fact that a mid to high grade book has lasted these 50 plus years is fascinating.

 

Lastly, one of the reasons that I collect comics is due to nostalgia. In the early years that nostalgia was based on my own childhood experiences. In the future, I see my collecting habits turning toward the nostalgia found in the history of comic books.

 

 

 

 

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Don't get me started on paper drives!

 

I hear that. And don;t forget about the book burnings! I used to have an original photo of a kid putting his horror books into a pile of precode books being burned. A shuddery thing.

 

Great points, and certainly the basis for a fascinating article/essay. Find a few older folks who actually did toss their funnybooks onto bonfires, and get their take on the whys and wherefores. Delve further into the other elements - like paper drives - that contributed to the destruction of many/most copies of comic books in the first 15 years of their existence... THIS is the kind of article that can actually educate non-fans/collectors on a subject like old comic books. I could see this article being published in anything from the Weekend section of Friday's Wall Street Journal (or the Personal section they've added three times a week), to Forbes or even something like Newsweek - if it had a solid news hook (like a million-dollar pedigree find somewhere).

 

I agree that any comic in say Fine or better, that is more than 50 years old, is something of a miracle... it's not hard for me to comprehend why such books are valuable and in demand. I think you can even look at certain types of comics from the Golden Age and make generalizations about why some are easier to find in high grade than others. Example: Donald Duck and Little Lulu books from the '40s and much of the '50s are very tough to find in high grade - even though they were printed in huge volume. (I believe that the WDC&S and Uncle Scrooge titles combined had circulation of something like 4 million in the mid-'50s ...?) The only reason I can think of is that kids loved 'em to death... they read them over and over, they shared and swapped and gave 'em to friends, etc.

 

Great food for thought.

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I agree with you, and when I read that I thought of another title that's extremely hard to find in high grade - the first 10 issues of Archie!

 

Archie #1 was a "Winter 1942/43" title, so it was probably on the stands around January 1943. All the copies I have seen were single staple books, but it has been brought to my attention that dual staple copies exist. I have most of the MLJ run from late 1942/early 1943, and MLJ switched to single staples with their January 1943 books. sign-rantpost.gif

 

Anyway, Issues 1-9 are all single staple books, and issue #10 is from October of 1944. The mass appeal of these books were kids, and probably younger kids with side features like "Cubby the Bear" and "Squoimy the Woim". I have pretty high grade books from 1943 (VF) that are single staple and still attached, but it sure wouldn't take much to detach them!

 

A friend of mine bought an Archie #3 in an antique shop 3 years ago that might be a Near Mint. I try to get him to sell it all the time but he won't. Overstreet calls #3 scarce, but I've seen twice as many #3's than #2's!

 

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So, considering the scarcity of these books, how much are they TRULY worth? They aren't printing these anymore!

 

 

 

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. When you pick up a golden age book and it's fine or better, think of how rare that really is...for a book to withstand multiple generations of owners, especially considering the original may not have had any regard for its condition! When you think about it, there really are more nice golden age books than common sense would dictate SHOULD be available.

 

I've thought of this myself: what stuff am I throwing away that could 50 years from now be considered a highly-prized collectible?

 

Sports Illustrated?

Newsweek Magazine?

Science Fiction digests? (the last of the pulp mags, after all).

 

The only of these I've ever even looked for on eBay is the latter category, SF mags I originally read as a pre-teen in the 1970s (Asimovs and Galaxy). I was surprised how easy it was to find these 30-year old magazines, and how cheap they were! There is apparently a significant fraction of the population that saves and preserves stuff, even though there is no obvious financial pay-off to do so. We're fortunate this is the case, or else we'd have almost no Golden Age comics still surviving.

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My Dad gave me boxes full of 1950's/60's science ficition digests and I don't know what I did with them....aaaaaaaaagh.

 

As for GA books and the good condition they have survived in....well, this is the one thing I thank CGC for. Now encapsulated these books have the chance to continue to survive without and further deterioration. I know that I read every one of my books and I get paranoid that I am taking them down a grade each time I read them.

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I've thought of this myself: what stuff am I throwing away that could 50 years from now be considered a highly-prized collectible?

 

Man it is a hard call. My inclination is that a highly prized collectible some years form now may well NOT even be SEEN as a collectible today. As an example - this past WEEK the show THE INCURABLE COLLECTOR HIGHLIGHTED comic books as the CURRENT Hot Collectible - with Messr Carbonaro as a highlighted speaker. Now - if anyone today thinks that comic books are suddenly the newsworthy Hot Collectible - well - lets go on to other areas....

 

What may BE the next hot collectible? Comcis books do lend a clue - nostalgia. But WHAT nostalgia. Man that is gonna be hard to calc. If we don't want to go beyond our "paper" thinking, it will probably be the next set of magazine sized books CGC will grade. BUT - that is sticking to our paper world. I have seen some folks talk and sometime slaugh at old video games. Well, they may well be the really hot collectible of the future. So may cosmetics...major names from the 50's and 60's and 70's. It would slot with the current apprciation of makeup cases and similar glam items. The thing is that the next really and truly hot collectible, even if only for a year or two, ir probably goinf to be in an area not already established that will take people by the scruff of the neck and make them go 893whatthe.gif

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What about Barbie dolls? And even G.I. Joe... those might be worth something someday...?! hehe

 

I sure wouldn't want to gamble today on the hot collectible 10/20/30 years from now... it will probably be something obscure created in modest quantity that somehow reflects today's culture in a way that's meaningful down the road. I do think video- and computer games, at least those from the early and mid-1980s, have a decent shot at serious collectibility, if only because the 'turnover' in that market is fierce; every 5 years, most consumers just dump the old system and games and move on...

 

 

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what stuff am I throwing away that could 50 years from now be considered a highly-prized collectible?

 

What if it's 1980s and 1990s unopened canned soft drinks?

(We all had them, no one kept them... and they're definitely "pop culture")

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it will probably be something obscure created in modest quantity that somehow reflects today's culture in a way that's meaningful down the road

 

Now you really said a mouthful there! One of the perfect definitions. Now we just have to keep watching ads and assessing product! grin.gif

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Yeah, I think PS1 might be kinda the cutoff, as games beyond that point tend to be not only produced in mass quantity, but in many cases "backward compatible," with newer systems supporting those 'older' games... meaning people will keep them longer and toss 'em less.

 

I'd say your best bet would be to look for games that shipped with the NES or SNES, at the latest... better yet, the various Atari, Magnavox, Coleco, Vectrex, etc. systems from waaaay back.

 

But I'm talkin' out my ear on this one... there are some pretty serious videogame collectors on these boards, neh? Where are they when we need 'em?

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