Hey guys....this is my life we're talking about....

[sfcityduck]

...but i think the eras are pretty well defined for most of us.

 

1) Golden-1938-1945

2) Atom-1946-1956 (first issue with the CCA symbol on it)

 

I wouldn't end the Golden Age so early. Too many of DC's heroes soldiered on for several more years. I'd be tempted to end it with the last issue of Flash Comics which was cover dated February 1949.

 

And the CCA symbol started appearing with comics bearing the March 1955 cover date.

 

 

Nothing of significance happened in 1946 for superhero comics to warrant cutting off the GA then. If you look at January 1947, you still see all of the DC superhero titles, the Timely superhero titles, the Fawcett heroes, the Quality heroes, HIllman's Airboy, Nedor's Black Terror, Harvey's heroes (Green Hornet, Black Cat, etc.), Street & Smith's Shadow, Standard's Fighting Yank and Super Patriot, etc. The Golden Age of superheroes was still in full play.

 

The "Atomic Age" is one of the least useful designations ever. It is really just a term used by SF and PCH fans to refer to the late 40s to mid-50s. But, there's no clear starting point.

[Big Moov]

Hey guys, great discussion. Despite my shameless plug, I've always wanted to have a discussion about which Golden Age comics SOULD be worth the most. Granted it's just opinion. Just throwing the question out there. But on the other hand, I do feel that a lot of prices/price-estimates are not what they should be. This hobby is still in the developing stages in my opinion. That's why I like it so much. It's like getting in on the ground floor. When I started collecting about 14 years ago, I felt like there was serious opportunity to get fantastic historic items that you'd never be able to get a whiff of in most other hobbies.

 

Like I said, the Golden Age is where it's at for me. I prefer the first appearances of characters. Don't get me wrong, other comics can be very cool too. Classic covers, first editions or first artist work....anything historic. But I like first appearances of characters far more than anything else. If it was up to me, the way I'd place the values is....I'd make a list (like we were doing before in this thread) of all the characters, put them in order by ranking....and the first appearance of those characters would be the most expensive books. Basically just like baseball cards. Prices would be adjusted by rarity also. Comic prices are kind of crazy though in my opinion. All kinds of strange issues are scattered throughout the Top-100 most valuable list.

 

As an example, the reason I jumped all over the More Fun 73 is because I think it's underrated. 2 of the top characters....and the so-called estimated value is way down the list of the Top-100. That doesn't make sense to me. Plus the book is rare; Gerber 7.

 

Great discussion on where characters like Green Arrow and Aquaman should be ranked. I do emphasize cover appearances like some of you do. I love looking at the Gerber Photo Journal and seeing who was on the covers. Even though Aquaman wasn't on covers during the Golden Age, he became a Top-6 DC character (according to DC themselves it seems) by the 60's, and he has remained so. He is listed in the Top-6 on their website, Top-10 in the DC Encyclopedia, etc. Then there's guys like Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, etc. who had many cover appearances. So all things must be considered.

[Big Moov]

Well Hepcat, to respond to your critique:

 

I used to buy, buy, buy, and ONLY buy too. I had all kinds of Silver and Bronze age stuff. But to switch to Golden Age, and to upgrade, I had to sell a lot. I'd win an auction in which I only had enough for a deposit, so I'd sell other comics to pay the balance.

 

Reading comics isn't what got me into the hobby. I started with coins and sports cards. What got me thinking about comics was seeing a comic price-guide. That's what got me thinking back to my younger days of reading some comics and watching some TV shows. I wasn't reading comics much as an adult. But it got me thinking....then interested....then later I started collecting. Now I keep-up on everything and find it much more interesting than any other hobby. I read some comics, watch some movies....of course I do all that now. I'm mildly obsessed now. My rambling initial post could have told you that . And no, believe me, it's not only about the money. I've been doing this for 14 years, and it's grown on me big-time. I'm just as into comics as I was ever into sports. When I had sports cards, I followed the players that I had. Now that I have comics, I follow my characters. For instance, I LOVED it when Black Manta whipped Deathstroke's backside in the Flashpoint movie. To me, that's a win for my guy Aquaman .

 

When I say "...should be a million dollar comic" I don't necessarily mean literally. $300K....$600K....who knows. And it's just my opinion, that's all.

 

So that's me. I try to be professional about buying and selling and all that. But I don't take things too seriously. It's supposed to be fun.

[jimbo_707]

Hey guys, great discussion. Despite my shameless plug, I've always wanted to have a discussion about which Golden Age comics SOULD be worth the most. Granted it's just opinion. Just throwing the question out there. But on the other hand, I do feel that a lot of prices/price-estimates are not what they should be. This hobby is still in the developing stages in my opinion. That's why I like it so much. It's like getting in on the ground floor. When I started collecting about 14 years ago, I felt like there was serious opportunity to get fantastic historic items that you'd never be able to get a whiff of in most other hobbies.

 

Like I said, the Golden Age is where it's at for me. I prefer the first appearances of characters. Don't get me wrong, other comics can be very cool too. Classic covers, first editions or first artist work....anything historic. But I like first appearances of characters far more than anything else. If it was up to me, the way I'd place the values is....I'd make a list (like we were doing before in this thread) of all the characters, put them in order by ranking....and the first appearance of those characters would be the most expensive books. Basically just like baseball cards. Prices would be adjusted by rarity also. Comic prices are kind of crazy though in my opinion. All kinds of strange issues are scattered throughout the Top-100 most valuable list.

 

As an example, the reason I jumped all over the More Fun 73 is because I think it's underrated. 2 of the top characters....and the so-called estimated value is way down the list of the Top-100. That doesn't make sense to me. Plus the book is rare; Gerber 7.

 

Great discussion on where characters like Green Arrow and Aquaman should be ranked. I do emphasize cover appearances like some of you do. I love looking at the Gerber Photo Journal and seeing who was on the covers. Even though Aquaman wasn't on covers during the Golden Age, he became a Top-6 DC character (according to DC themselves it seems) by the 60's, and he has remained so. He is listed in the Top-6 on their website, Top-10 in the DC Encyclopedia, etc. Then there's guys like Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, etc. who had many cover appearances. So all things must be considered.

You seem very optimistic. If you enjoy collecting, great. But if you're hoping to get rich off of comics, well, I hope your hopes aren't dashed. I've been collecting on and off for 30 years, and I've seen comics get hot and cold a number of times. It looks like a strong seller's market to me right now, which is why I've hardly bought anything this year.

Also, I wouldn't focus on cover appearances too much as a predictor of future success. Whether a character has remained popular outside of comics is more important. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and Archie are the safest GA bets. (Plastic Man has the potential to be revived, but only if DC were to pull off a PM movie without making it too campy, which would mean a serious re-tooling of the character.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Big Moov]

Jimbo I agree. I just said I factor-in cover appearances for my own personal ratings, so to speak. I have my own ideas of what comics SHOULD be worth....some are under-rated and some are over-rated in my opinion. But that might not have anything to do with what it sells for at the current time. Maybe in the future though.

 

If I can get the single highest graded copy of a Golden Age first appearance of any character, I'm happy. If he has a lot of cover appearances, even better. Ok I'll tell you some others that I own:

 

Crack Comics #27 Mile High - 1st Captain Triumph. Who? you might say. But he looks good in the Gerber Photo Journal - an entire page of cover appearances.

 

Funny Pages #6 Lost Valley - 1st Clock. Many cover appearances over a 7 year period.

 

That's just a couple examples of comics that I bought, just because I like them. Value or not.

[Big Moov]

Just to respond a comment I think I read....that said if all doesn't go SO great, my Flash Ashcan 9.4 Cap Marvel could end up in Mark aid's collection ................I respect his collection TREMENDOUSLY. But.......I'll put this comics up against ANY single comic! Sure I'm biased, but I like this one.

 

-all in fun, good convo guys, thanks...