ASM # 2 in 8.5....Pretty Cool

[brian1227]

Pretty rare to see this book in this grade..

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2195764962&category=74

 

One of the better copies of this book I've seen in a while. Be interesting to see if someone with more poker chips than me takes the plunge.

[fantastic_four]

Not too rare actually. I'm down to needing only ten more Spidey issues to finish my run, and this is one of them, so I've watched all the ones made publicly available for the last three years. I see this one in 8.5 or better with some frequency--approximately every 2-3 months--with AF 15, #1, #3, #5, #7, and #11 being offered much less often in the higher grades.

 

Every 2-3 months probably sounds pretty rare, but since the others only pop up every 6 months or so, and tougher titles like Journey Into Mystery and Fantastic Four pop up even less frequently--or NEVER--in the lower numbers, Spidey #2 seems comparatively more available in my search experience.

[Edian]

When you complete the run the meaning of your life is complete?

[fantastic_four]

When you complete the run the meaning of your life is complete?

 

I've been told that when I complete my run, Stan Lee will pop up out of thin air and sign whatever I want him to sign! However, when I completed my run of Daredevils, it didn't happen...so I've told myself, maybe I need to complete a run in 9.4 or better for Stan to appear. So I'm going for that now, and I'll let you know if he appears when I'm done.

 

If that doesn't do it, maybe it's when you finish the ENTIRE Stan Lee run on Marvel in 9.4 or better. I guess I'll have to do that if he doesn't show up when I'm done with one of my individual runs.

[Edian]

When you complete the run the meaning of your life is complete?

 

I've been told that when I complete my run, Stan Lee will pop up out of thin air and sign whatever I want him to sign! However, when I completed my run of Daredevils, it didn't happen...so I've told myself, maybe I need to complete a run in 9.4 or better for Stan to appear. So I'm going for that now, and I'll let you know if he appears when I'm done.

 

If that doesn't do it, maybe it's when you finish the ENTIRE Stan Lee run on Marvel in 9.4 or better. I guess I'll have to do that if he doesn't show up when I'm done with one of my individual runs.

 

If he appear, can you ask him to sign a comic for me??

[murph0]

Are you sure this isn't the same book? I've seen this 8.5 ASM 2 at least 3 diff times on eBay.

 

Brian

[WernerVonDoom]

Hey FF, have you posted your runs on the registry?

[supapimp]

bufffness/notch_top sold a ASM 2 CGC 8.5 curator copy recently.

[brian1227]

Not too rare actually. I'm down to needing only ten more Spidey issues to finish my run, and this is one of them, so I've watched all the ones made publicly available for the last three years. I see this one in 8.5 or better with some frequency--approximately every 2-3 months--with AF 15, #1, #3, #5, #7, and #11 being offered much less often in the higher grades.

 

Every 2-3 months probably sounds pretty rare, but since the others only pop up every 6 months or so, and tougher titles like Journey Into Mystery and Fantastic Four pop up even less frequently--or NEVER--in the lower numbers, Spidey #2 seems comparatively more available in my search experience.

 

Hey FF.....I guess I must have missed those other auctions, I've never seen an 8.5 or better up for bid. What grades do you collect your Spidey run in? Are they all slabbed. I noticed Showcase has a run of the earlier books up on Ebay now, some high quality, some reading copies. I was tempted to bid on those reading copies just to say I owned them, and well...to read them. What a concept..

[fantastic_four]

The Curator 8.5 had white pages (and sold twice this year actually)...I saw an 8.5 sell in late 2001 for $1800 that had off-white pages (still kicking myself for not bidding)...and I've seen two different 9.0s and two different 9.2s sell on e-bay within the last year and a half--I have the auction pages saved to my hard disk with scans.

 

I've also seen at least two sell on ComicLink (they could have been the same ones on ebay, I don't really know), the Massachusetts 9.2 copy sell at the Mint auction last year, and I've seen several on Heritage although their search kinda sucks and I can't find any way right now to search just for that issue...searching on "spider-man 2" retrieves over 1000 results, most of which don't even have the character "2" in the title.

[murph0]

Oh well, that's not too bad then. I've seen this book on eBay 3 times. I'm not sure it was the same seller though. Strange that those 2 9.0's and 2 9.2's popped up. I wonder what the reasoning for them popping up was. I was looking for a 8.5-9.0 of that book a little more than a year ago and couldn't find one on eBay at all.

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

Hey FF, have you posted your runs on the registry?

 

I'm on the fence about the registry. I've got all my comics visible on the web at an address I don't give out publicly, and it's more complete than the registry because not all of my books are slabbed. If I could list unslabbed books but not have them factor into the score, I might do it, but I mildly dislike the fact that the set doesn't look complete just because they're not all slabbed. Also, since my site has scans that are all over 100k, I couldn't upload any to the registry anyway...so it looks like an inferior way to display them than I already have.

 

Plus I prefer not to dwell on competitive collecting, which seems to be one of the main motivations people list there. I think I'd be fourth on the Spidey 1-25 list with my current slabs...but many of us know who has the best runs, and they're not there, so what's the point? Everybody there would fall shy of the top 5, if not the top 10, if it was complete. Maybe over time more people will list, who knows.

[fantastic_four]

What grades do you collect your Spidey run in?

 

Look at my "me" page (link in sig line), but 9.0 or better is my goal. I've got two unslabbed copies from 1 to 20 that are only VF that were both bought from a large-volume comic dealer as VF/NM . I have two CGCs as low as 8.5--#11 and #38. Looking for another 38, sorta...that one seems mildly plentiful in high grade compared to some others in the 30s and 40s so I should have plenty of opportunity.

[fantastic_four]

Oh well, that's not too bad then. I've seen this book on eBay 3 times. I'm not sure it was the same seller though. Strange that those 2 9.0's and 2 9.2's popped up. I wonder what the reasoning for them popping up was. I was looking for a 8.5-9.0 of that book a little more than a year ago and couldn't find one on eBay at all.

 

I've seen an alarming number of pure white-paged copies of #2! And at least three of them I know were different because one was a 9.2, another a 9.0, and another an apparent 9.2 with "very small amount of pro color touch" that should only drop it to 9.0 if removed. A lot more white pages than any of the other issues from 1 to 10...I dunno why. Here are details on the sales I referred to (archived version of the web pages available by request via e-mail):

 

• CGC 9.0, white pages, sold by "jp-themint" to "patcervone@aol.com" in April 2002 for $4500
• CGC 9.2, off-white to white pages, sold by "idesent" to "mike@dctnetworks.com" in May 2002 for $9000.
• CGC 9.0, off-white pages, sold by "comicjel" to "dutchvalleyman" (he burned ebay UP last year) for $4100

It looks like one of the 9.2s I had saved was actually an Annual #2. It looks like I started saving auctions in February 2002, but I definitely remember a few 9.2s from 2001...there was a stretch when 2 or 3 popped up in the span of 6 months, and at least two of those had white pages--it's possible they were the same one, I dunno. Looking at GPA, it looks like I missed saving a 9.0 from July 2003, which sold for $4255. GPA lists JP the Mint's Massachusetts 9.2 copy as selling for $9680 in June 2002, two 8.5s I didn't save selling for $2472 in December 2002 and $2645 in May 2003, and it lists the Curator copy as selling 3 times -- $2415 in June 2002, $2567 in May 2003, and $2938 in July 2003.

 

The scan of the 9.6 white-pager in the CGC Gallery is rather stunning also...makes you sick that the guy who owns it also owns the other 9.6 copy!!!

[murph0]

I was the underbidder on the ComicJel one. But didn't it end reserve not met?

Still don't have the #2 that I want yet.. probably won't have it for a while. Been out of actively buying for a few months now

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

The comicjel one did meet reserve, I just double-checked it. Plus I don't save auctions which don't meet reserve...I know there were more copies listed which didn't meet reserve but I don't have records of those, and who knows, maybe some of those are also the ones that sold on ebay, heritage, or comiclink...at least a few of them must be.

[fantastic_four]

Been out of actively buying for a few months now

 

Doesn't look like you missed much. I hadn't thought of it until now, but we really haven't seen many really nice #2s on sale publicly this year...but I saw so many in 2001 and 2002 that it doesn't seem uncommon to me.

 

I've got the same problem with this issue that I do with #1. #1 is really #2, which makes #2 really #3, making neither one of them worth to me what the guide lists them for. #3 is different because I like Doc Ock, but the Vulture BITES!!!

[murph0]

I don't particularly like the Vulture either, but there's just something about having all those 5-10 first issues. Very cool if you ask me.

I think the #2 is fairly difficult to find, at least it was for me. I have an 8.0 but it's not very satisfactory. Have any dupes you're looking to trade yet? (I still desperately need 115, 148, 149 amongst others)

 

Brian

[12c_Comic]

That is a sweet cover and grade,ASM 1 to 25 by my book are classic.....

[WernerVonDoom]

Plus I prefer not to dwell on competitive collecting, which seems to be one of the main motivations people list there.

 

I haven't noticed any of that yet. I think everyone so far just likes to display what they have and see what other collectors have.