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Captain America Annual (Canadian): Worth the eBay risk?

Started by comicparadox,

88 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted
Everybody wants something for nothing. The bad guys know this. Fly up and look at this book in person....or get a fellow collector in canada to look at it and pay him 100 bucks to do it.

 

Or the fellow Canadians might just want it.

 

:shy:

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comicnoir

comicnoir

Posted
Posted
Reminder to collectors that this b/w comic is too thick to fit in a mag Cgc slab, and my paranoid eyes thinks that the black spine line may have been re-inked in the vendor's 1st eBay pic. :wishluck:

 

It's not too thick anymore. CGC slabbed a Marvel Mystery Annual that appeared in a recent Heritage auction. 4.5 I believe (too lazy to check). If they can slab Playboys, they can slab a Cap Annual which is magazine size. An amazing artifact.

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aardvark88

aardvark88

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the correction to my post. (thumbs u

I agree that the Captain America "annual" is a great artifact. Some ppl love it because it is a genuinely scarce Timely; other fans don't collect it because it is "junky b/w" reprint and distributed only in the backwater hillbilly country of Canada so cannot be a true Timely comic. If a forumite lives close by, drive up there and count the pages yourself. You cannot go by what looks like complete story pages because you have to make sure the puzzle page is attached. :cool:

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comicnoir

comicnoir

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the correction to my post. (thumbs u

I agree that the Captain America "annual" is a great artifact. Some ppl love it because it is a genuinely scarce Timely; other fans don't collect it because it is "junky b/w" reprint and distributed only in the backwater hillbilly country of Canada so cannot be a true Timely comic. If a forumite lives close by, drive up there and count the pages yourself. You cannot go by what looks like complete story pages because you have to make sure the puzzle page is attached. :cool:

 

Maybe I'll get my cart and horse and take a 5 day trip up there.

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Ameri

Ameri

Posted
Posted

I got into a discussion about the "annuals" a year ago with a fellow collector and this was his interesting theory:

 

"Dispite popular opinion, (based on misinformation in the Overstreet

Guide), the Timely Annuals were NOT Canadian product. According to the

bottom of page one in one of my Annuals, it plainly states that the book

was made in the USA. New York to be specific. They were, however, only

marketed in Canada.

 

Why?

 

Copyright protection.

 

No International law existed at that point in time protecting against

copyright infringement in second class publications, such as magazines

and comic books. Whereas stiff International penalties applied to more

erudite publications such as books, nothing yet was "on the books" to

prevent, say for example, a Canadian publishing house from reprinting,

(or fashioning new art & story) utilizing the characters and stories that

appeared in American comic books.

Martin Goodman must have become concerned that Canadian Publishers might

soon be selling Captain America comics (as well as other Timely

characters and titles), without feeling legally compelled to pay Goodman

one red cent.

 

DIGRESSION.

 

In the USA there are two ways to protect or patent an idea you invent,

and thus prevent any skullduggerous characters from stealing your idea.

The legal way is by registering your idea with the US Dept of Patents. It

costs (or used to cost) around $500.00 to do so. The "back door" way,

(which may or may not stand-up in court), is to mail yourself (by

Registered Mail), schematics and descriptions of the item. The mail-piece

is dated, and theoretically, if someone rips-off your idea, your

presenting the sealed Registered article as evidence in court that you

had the idea first, then your contention may well stand up.

 

I believe that Martin in creating the Timely Annuals, used an approach

similiar to the "back door Registry", because no "front door"

international comic character registry existed.

 

So he took his most popular titles, Marvel Mystery & Captain America,

(with a stable of his most popular characters appearing in both books),

put them all together in one book, thus protecting both those titles and

all the characters within, put a Cap #22 cover on one and a Marvel #33

cover on the other, and marketed the two annuals, (each containing a

Captain America & Marvel Mystery comic book that was reprinted in black &

white), in Canada BEFORE THE CHARACTERS AND TITLES COULD BE STOLEN BY PUBLISHERS NORTH OF THE BOARDER!

 

He didn't have to produce a ton of these comics. He just had to be able

to show evidence that HIS item existed and was SOLD in Canada, prior to

any other Canadian company doing so.

 

So unlike the Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly's and those "In House"

titles like Double Action, the Annuals were actually SOLD on

newstands...but just up in Canada!

 

We may never know how many pieces of each were manufactured, but due to

Goodman's renoun as a skinflint, I assure you the print run was

miniscule. But I think for the most part, Martin Goodman's plan

succeeded. Yes, we may see an odd late 1940's Canadian Timely reprint

that slipped through the cracks. But those Canadian Publishers KNEW that

Martin KNEW what they were planning, and were scared by Martin's "Back

Door" registry, and didn't want to mess with him.

 

I feel the Timely Annuals are not only RARER than any comic ever

marketed, but they have a significant place in comic history as prehaps

"The Biggest Bluff That Ever Worked".

 

 

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Bat-Man

Bat-Man

Posted
Posted

(fyi I have not read the whole thread, so if its already been discussed)

 

The opportunity here is great for a prospective buyer if its real. But the opposite might also be true, its a scam, and you could loose big here.

 

I'd run for this hills on this one, unless you have deep pockets and like to live dangerously.

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Ameri

Ameri

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the info Aardvark! My friend didn't mention that the NY thing was specific only to the Cap annual...odd because he has two Marvel Annuals, both incomplete. My argument with him was something you said earlier about some collectors perceiving these to be "junky b/w" reprints. I had a Marvel annual once and was not happy with it for that very reason. Best part of the book to me was the cover with the 25c and "128 page" indicators which are one of a kind for a Timely. Would I want to spend upwards of 5K or more for that thrill again hm

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