PGC Mint article on cgc census & Geppi's golden age.

[hammer-migration]

ComicFan,

The amount of Golden Age books in existance (or for that matter, SIlver, Platinum, Bronze, etc.) has absolutely nothing to do with the CGC census. You can't lose sight of the fact that the online census numbers only the books that have passed over the grading bench at CGC. Nothing more. Even to try applying a factor, an equation to MULTIPLY those numbers in the census, to attempt extropulating a projected OVERALL world comic census (for instance X2, X6, X66, X6,666), would be as meaningless as trying to extropulate world population by how many people shopped at your local mall this holiday season.

[FlComicFan]

I wasnt using CGC numbers I meant the Gerber scarcity numbers Ernest Gerber assigned books based on his time in the auction/comic business and real approximation of what is out there. There are wartime Pep's that are only rated a Gerber 4 or 5 that I have never seen and no dealer has them so what gives?

[hammer-migration]

Keep in mind, that book was written a LONG time ago relatively speaking to all that has transpired in the comic biz. Possibly at that time, Gerber had run across those issues regularly. He does seem to be on the money with his assignments of 7s-10s, and MOST Marvels from the 1961-1966 period are rated 2 or 3. We all know how "difficult" THOSE are! I look back at old CBMs (issues 1-25) and see MANY different copies of Red Raven 1 offered in dealer's sell ads. No big deal it seems. I think it's been about 2 years since I saw one offered on Ebay (restored) and another one recently in a Heritage Auction (restored as well). I think that if you look back at dealer's inventorys from 10 to 20 years ago, you'll see instances like,

Metropolis Comics

Pep 22 VG/FN

Pep 24 Fn but pc. out back cvr.

Pep 25 BEAUTIFUL!! VF Cosmic Airplane copy

Pep 26 Fair/good

Pep 27 VG (tape)

Pep 28 FN++

etc. etc.

 

I marvel at these old sell pages. Seems like whomever bought these books regularly backthen are NOT letting them out of the chute.

[hammer-migration]

Also keep in mind that there's a picture in an old Overstreet (2 or 3 old Overstreets) of a dealer who had a WALL of comics in his shop. On display were:

 

4 copies of Marvel 1 (2 Oct. / 2 Nov.)

4 copies of Action 1

3 copies of Det. 27

4 copies of Cap 1

4 copies of Superman 1

4 copies of Batman 1

2 copies of Whiz 1

Detective 1

New Fun 1

Green Lantern 1

2 copies of All American 16

All Flash 1

3 copies of Human Torch 1

3 copies of Subby 1

Red Raven 1

Pep 22

Archie 1

5 or 6 copies of AF15 (overlapped)

5 or 6 copies of Spiderman 1 (overlapped)

5 or 6 copies of FF 1(overlapped)

Flash 1

Adventure 40

2 copies of Det.33

2 copies of Det.38

Action 2 through 5, 7

etc. etc.

 

This is going back to a 15 year old publication. Where can you find anything remotely resembling an assemblage like that now? There's alot more out there than anyone suspects! Supplies have diminished, but they ARE out there, squirreled away.

[clarkkentdds]

I assume you're talking about your old store- "Fantazia" right Danny?...That was a cool ad though! I marveled at that picture.

[aardvark88]

Thought it was an OS ad by Tropic Comics, FL. or Nick Kronfeld.

[FlComicFan]

yeah I remember those ads and remember seeing multiples of all silver age keys even at small local shows just 10-12 years ago. Still some of those gerber #'s seem way off. I see lots of Timleys and DC's up from the 40's but see very little MLJ's. Actually there are a lot of titles I rarely see maybe they are too cheap in the guide? Speed 10-25 or so comes to mind I never see those up on any dealers lists or Ebay

[aardvark88]

Can anyone tell me if any other MLJ's had a pin-up BACK cover other than Pep 18 2nd Hangman (1941?) :

[hammer-migration]

No, it was Fantasia in NY, and even though I've got a pretty impressive Golden Age Timely and DC collection currently, I would consider ONE THIRD of what he had up on that wall to be in the upper .01% of the world's finest collections, then OR today. I'd have been proud to have owned any small section of that wall, from what I understand was not nearly the extent of his quality inventory.

[Crowzilla]

Although we never had as much as Fantazia or Metropolis, we had a pretty good set-up back when I was dealing heavy - this was my version of the Fantazia picture.

 

[hammer-migration]

WHOA!! If you just hold the two images together, your pic here and the Fantasia photo from the price guide, that's an INCREDIBLE amount of key Golden Age #1 and first appearance books accounted for by just TWO dealers. Not even taking into consideration what other top dealers of the day had in inventory: Metropolis, Comics&Stories (Joe Mannarino), Tropic Comics, Sparkle City, Steve Geppi, Dave Anderson (not the dentist), James Payette, Mark Wilson, etc., illustrating the point I was making when I stated that in all probability, that being in the hands of mostly collectors rather than dealers, a VERY small percentage of Golden age Comics, compared to existing numbers, are represented by the census.

[aardvark88]

Gr8 pic Sean. Raw comics that u can actually read. What a novel concept.

[Shield]

All MLJ's from around July-October 1941 had that, with the exception being the quarterly titles (Shield-Wizard, Jackpot)....Zip 17 had it for sure, Pep 18, Top-Notch 17 or 18, Blue Ribbon 16