Sinister House Of Secret Love and Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love

[davidpg]

Are these books really that hard to find and in demand?

 

Today was the first time that I saw these 2 books in person, and the first I had ever heard of Sinister House Of Secret Love.

 

Today, I saw both of these books for sale, and they were solid VF. What should I expect to pay for them?

 

Thanks!

[joe_collector]

Today, I saw both of these books for sale, and they were solid VF. What should I expect to pay for them?

 

If you'd never seen them before, why are you looking to buy them?

[davidpg]

Because I remember reading on these forums about Dark Mansion and loved the cover (of course), and they would fit very well into my bronze horror collection.

 

Sinister House I had never even heard of (which would be why it interests me).

[joe_collector]

Kewl, I just hoped you weren't buying these for "future value and demand".

[davidpg]

Kewl, I just hoped you weren't buying these for "future value and demand".

 

Ehhh...I can honestly say that I am well beyond that...

[shiverbones]

they are great books and relatively tough to find nice. I would have no problem paying fll guide for true VF's, but sometimes you can find them a bit under guide. It depends how long you want to wait to get them. You will like them if you like bronze horror!

[buena_vista]

I happened upon a copy of Secret House #3 last year at a NY convention. The cover caught me eye and I bought it. A beautiful copy and it only cost me $5! When I took a look inside, I noticed that the entire book was drawn by the incredible Alex Toth. The guide for it is about $60. It was a good find and if you like Toth's style, this is simply a great book to get. I don't know about the others, but #3 is worth having in your collection.

[FlyingDonut]

YOU THIEF!

 

Did you go back to the guy and give him the remaining $55! Lying, cheating bast.ard. Go and give him his money RIGHT NOW! He was probably old and afflicted with a wasting disease.

[BachelorOfComix]

[buena_vista]

Less joking --- more variants Donut! Actually I regretted not buying more from that guy.He was mainly a toy seller who had a slew of bronze age books he was selling for $5 a pop. When I went back to him the next day, he told me he sold the rest of his books in one shot --- to a f****** dealer, of course...

[jduran1]

Buy one if you get a chance. They are in Demand in Denver.

[chrisco37]

They are pretty cool books. I love the covers! I picked up (9) really nice books at Wizard World - Philly. I've submitted 2 so far, but have only got one back. Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #8. 9.2 OW/W

 

Chris

[Illiterati-migration]

They are pretty cool books. I love the covers! I picked up (9) really nice books at Wizard World - Philly. I've submitted 2 so far, but have only got one back. Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #8. 9.2 OW/W

 

Chris

 

The "problem" with the Dark Mansion books is that there are HUGE numbers of very nice (VF -> NM) copies of the later issues, but the first three are pretty danged tough to come by in nice shape. Well, they aren't quite "danged tough", but try finding an accurate grade on a #1, and you won't see many 3's anywhere. Nevertheless, the prices are extremely reasonable for the higher grades, but I wouldn't expect a great deal of appreciation any time soon.

[greggy]

They are pretty cool books. I love the covers! I picked up (9) really nice books at Wizard World - Philly. I've submitted 2 so far, but have only got one back. Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #8. 9.2 OW/W

 

Chris

 

The "problem" with the Dark Mansion books is that there are HUGE numbers of very nice (VF -> NM) copies of the later issues, but the first three are pretty danged tough to come by in nice shape. Well, they aren't quite "danged tough", but try finding an accurate grade on a #1, and you won't see many 3's anywhere. Nevertheless, the prices are extremely reasonable for the higher grades, but I wouldn't expect a great deal of appreciation any time soon.

[Illiterati-migration]

They are pretty cool books. I love the covers! I picked up (9) really nice books at Wizard World - Philly. I've submitted 2 so far, but have only got one back. Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #8. 9.2 OW/W

 

Chris

 

The "problem" with the Dark Mansion books is that there are HUGE numbers of very nice (VF -> NM) copies of the later issues, but the first three are pretty danged tough to come by in nice shape. Well, they aren't quite "danged tough", but try finding an accurate grade on a #1, and you won't see many 3's anywhere. Nevertheless, the prices are extremely reasonable for the higher grades, but I wouldn't expect a great deal of appreciation any time soon.

 

"Reasonable" meaning Dark Mansion #1 RAW NM will usually run around $100. Graded? Well, that's another story entirely... You might ask GMan what he ended up selling his for?

[ecfanman]

The reason is that the book switched genres after the first 5 issues, which coincided with the "down sizing" from 48 to 32 pages.

 

Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love 1-4 and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion 5 as well as Sinister House of Secret Love 1-4 and Secrets of Sinister House 5 were Gothic Romance comics. After those five issues, the page count went down and they became part of DC's mystery/horror lineup. With that switch, the "comic collector" readership picked up.

 

Ironically, the comic art collectors at that time picked up on the early issues with the Neal Adams and the Jeff Jones covers, which is why those issues are much more common than the others, particularly in higher grades.

 

ECFANMAN

[drbanner]

Ironically, the comic art collectors at that time picked up on the early issues with the Neal Adams and the Jeff Jones covers, which is why those issues are much more common than the others, particularly in higher grades.

 

ECFANMAN

 

Really!?!? That's exactly the opposite of my experience, with 1-5 of both titles being toughies in high grade. The 20-cent issues and later seem to be much easier to find...

[ecfanman]

Ironically, the comic art collectors at that time picked up on the early issues with the Neal Adams and the Jeff Jones covers, which is why those issues are much more common than the others, particularly in higher grades.

 

ECFANMAN

 

Really!?!? That's exactly the opposite of my experience, with 1-5 of both titles being toughies in high grade. The 20-cent issues and later seem to be much easier to find...

 

What I was trying to say was that out of the first five issues of both titles, the Neal Adams issue (DMoFL 2) and the Jeff Jones issues (DMoFL 3 & SHoSL 2) are easier to find that the others (DM 1, 4-5 & SH 1, 3-5) since there were collectors that bought and saved the Adams/Jones covers. Over the years, I've had numerous copies of those particular 3 issues, but much fewer of the other 48-pagers.

 

I agree that the first 5 issues (gothic romance) are much scarcer than the later mystery issues, although I haven't seen many copies of the first couple "mystery" issues of either title.

 

ECFANMAN

[deathlok]

So if I had the opportunity to purchase a Dark Mansion #1 for about $100. Which looked to be in Very Fine shape, there were no spine breaks and corners were sharp. Should I but it? Is this book really that hard to find?

[awe4one]

I had a very hard time finding nice copies (or any copies for that matter) of the early issues. A major problem I found also were the covers on these were on both ends of the spectrum. The black or dark covers showed every defect or the white covers were tanning.

 

 

Jim