Accuracy of Gerber and Overstreet Scarcity Designations 8 8

[ComicsAndCode]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

[BLBcomics-migration]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

If you do not have this essential tool of the trade, you should order a set for $99 from Bud Plant, who has them on special sale right now

[ComicsAndCode]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

If you do not have this essential tool of the trade, you should order a set for $99 from Bud Plant, who has them on special sale right now

 

The Marvel version included? URL?

[BLBcomics-migration]

Nope, just the first two which has better printing on the covers than the latter two Marvel ones

 

google Bud Plant or try www.budplant.com

phone 800 242 6642 24 hours a day

 

any body contemplating investing in old comic books should have the first two gerber books

[adamstrange]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

Just where do you get off thinking you can come on to a comics forum and post a question about the scarcity of Silver Streak 1 in a Golden Age Threa?.

 

 

 

Gerber 6

[ComicsAndCode]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

Just where do you get off thinking you can come on to a comics forum and post a question about the scarcity of Silver Streak 1 in a Golden Age Threa?.

 

 

 

Gerber 6

 

Thanks! I'm ever so grateful. Thanks also to blbcomics for pointing me to the comic photojournal volumes on Bud Plant. Looks like a good deal. Likely to purchase it soon.

 

Ok, so SS #1 gets a 6 rating. What does that mean exactly? I really have no frame of reference to go by. Guess the answer is to buy the book!!

[Theagenes]

Thanks! I'm ever so grateful. Thanks also to blbcomics for pointing me to the comic photojournal volumes on Bud Plant. Looks like a good deal. Likely to purchase it soon.

 

Ok, so SS #1 gets a 6 rating. What does that mean exactly? I really have no frame of reference to go by. Guess the answer is to buy the book!!

 

Be warned - acquiring the Gerber books can hazardous to your bank account. Every time I look through them two or three books get added to my want list.

It's an absolutely crucial reference work if you collect GA.

 

The scarcity index rates scarcity on scale of 1 to 11, with 1 being very common and 11 being non-existent. The numbers according to Gerber are:

1-4 - Common to average scarcity

5 - 200-1000 copies exist

6 - 50-200 copies

7 - 20-50 copies

8 - 10- 20

9 - 5-10

10 - less than 5 copies known

11 - Non-existent but known to have been printed

 

Keep in mind that these numbers were put together before the internet and eBay and many books are now known to be more common than once thought. A good rule of thumb is to double his numbers to get a more accurate idea of what's out there. That said there are also a number of books that have turned out to be much scarcer than he thought (or at least they don't come on the market very often). In general though it is pretty accurate in a relative sense, if not an absolute sense. You won't regret picking the set up just for the amazing photos if nothing else.

[adamstrange]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

Just where do you get off thinking you can come on to a comics forum and post a question about the scarcity of Silver Streak 1 in a Golden Age Threa?.

 

 

 

Gerber 6

 

Thanks! I'm ever so grateful. Thanks also to blbcomics for pointing me to the comic photojournal volumes on Bud Plant. Looks like a good deal. Likely to purchase it soon.

 

Ok, so SS #1 gets a 6 rating. What does that mean exactly? I really have no frame of reference to go by. Guess the answer is to buy the book!!

 

Sorry.

 

Now I feel like I was Chico selling the racing guide to Groucho in "A Day at the Races".

 

But it looks like Theagenes helped out.

 

I'm a long time collector and I don't look at the Gerber ratings at all. I used to take them into account in purchasing but felt that it only helped me make less than optimal decisions. If you haven't read all the way through this thread, I would suggest that you do as it will provide background on why I operate this way. Your mileage may vary.

 

I definitely recommend the Gerber guides. It is one of the finest books ever published about a collectible.

Edited October 21, 2006 by adamstrange

[shiverbones]

 

I just watched a day at the races two days ago! That scene is wonderful! I do look at the gerber scarcity indexes, but don't use them exclusively. I look at all the info available from all sources to make up my mind. Its impossible to have the scarcity for each issue broken out, especially non super hero runs that are lumped together. For Instance Funny Stuff #26 is always available, yet I have never seen a copy of funny Stuff #30 for sale, or even a scan of one other then the beat to death copy on Mike's DC page. They both have a SCI of "5" lumped together in a run. It is an interesting tool though.

[tb]

Bob, thanks a lot for your perspective on the Poughkeepsies. Like most of the other big Disney collectors I know, most of whom live in Europe, I have a demanding job and keep comics as a fun little hobby (I have never been to a comics convention, for example). So, it's hard to decipher truth from gossip.

 

Regarding the Four Colors, it is very encouraging that you think most of keys were absorbed into the market before Geppi bought the rest. Likewise, your comments abour reading copies and scarcity of true NM books are very interesting. I know that a large amount of Poughkeepsie books ended up in Scandinavia back in the 70s and early 80s. Many of these were probably NM then, but I know that many of them have come back from CGC in the 8.0-9.0 range. Maybe collectors didn't pay so much attention to condition and handling back then?

 

I sincerely hope you'll find the time to finish your book soon. All the noise from Nth sources on the internet makes it really valuable to have these observations documented in 1st person.

[BLBcomics-migration]

That is my understanding re Poughkeepise copies that the keys, in the main, were being cherry picked out of those warehouses long before Geppi bought what was left, and i remember there being 3 of them which came onto the marketplace at different times. I was buying back in the 1970s from people who got into the Poughkeepsie stuff - and by & large they were beautiful copies - and Larry Bigman's father, Irving, a man who taught many of us back in the late 60s thru early 70s how to buy & sell properly

 

- he also got into the Eastern Color files early on, liberating the Frazetta Famous Funnies in runs among other "key" eastern stuff. Then a fellow named Don DeFalco out in Walnut Creek Calif got those remnants, which was still massive. I used to buy multiple copies of Famous Funnies, Heroic Comics, etc at wholesale prices, or traded out of my 85,000 Byrne Xmen comics i had built up beginning in the late 1970s.

 

Most of what Geppi got was later stuff, massive in depth, runs of all kinds of later stuff.

 

He also got the Harvey warehouse holdings, and most of that was high grade as well.

 

There was also the Fawcett warehouse which was split amongst several people, comics, art, ephemera

[thedarkknight]

We might not be able to do this with all books, but major keys, we could start a thread that everyone who has one could post it and of sellers who have one and total them that way. It is a huge undertaking, but could be a little more accurate.

 

What do you think of starting a Who Has Action 1 Thread? It's one that most people would want to know how many are out there.

 

The only problem I see with this is that if I had one (I don't) I''m not sure about letting everyone know about it.

[BLBcomics-migration]

Well, i do not have one, -

 

Remember back into the late 1970s when Laurence Watts Evans morphed his column into CBG into a comic book total count scenario?

 

He attempted exactly what you suggested now - counting up the number of copies of a lot of books

 

This was in the days before the Gerber books and his Scarcity Ratio Index follies

 

Watt-Evans went on in his column for many many months, was quite interesting reading, and petered out when the number of collectors interested in announcing what they had waned

[ComicsAndCode]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to ask the following: Is there a Gerber scarcity rating for Silver Streak #1? If so, what is it?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

Just where do you get off thinking you can come on to a comics forum and post a question about the scarcity of Silver Streak 1 in a Golden Age Threa?.

 

 

 

Gerber 6

 

Thanks! I'm ever so grateful. Thanks also to blbcomics for pointing me to the comic photojournal volumes on Bud Plant. Looks like a good deal. Likely to purchase it soon.

 

Ok, so SS #1 gets a 6 rating. What does that mean exactly? I really have no frame of reference to go by. Guess the answer is to buy the book!!

 

Sorry.

 

Now I feel like I was Chico selling the racing guide to Groucho in "A Day at the Races".

 

But it looks like Theagenes helped out.

 

I'm a long time collector and I don't look at the Gerber ratings at all. I used to take them into account in purchasing but felt that it only helped me make less than optimal decisions. If you haven't read all the way through this thread, I would suggest that you do as it will provide background on why I operate this way. Your mileage may vary.

 

I definitely recommend the Gerber guides. It is one of the finest books ever published about a collectible.

 

Thank you blbcomics, theagenes and adamstrange for the information on SS #1. No doubt, I will pick up the photojournal books soon. More for the cover images than rarity index.

 

So as some else had said early on in the thread and that was confirmed by theagenes, there is roughly 50 - 200 copies known to exist but leaving the possibility open for more given the advent of the internet. Pretty cool. I knew I came across something special! This very book will be for sale before the year's end courtesy of Bedos Collectibles.

 

Peter

[adamstrange]

[Hepcat]

Another problem with Gerber is the condition factor. A book may be given an 8 but have multiple HG copies (due to its collectability back then), while a book given a 6 may have more copies out there but less in HG since it wasn't considered a key, and preserved properly 30 years ago.

 

I don't think preservation is the issue here. I think it's quite simply the case that high prices bring the supply to market. "Key" books are in higher demand which means that they typically fetch much higher prices. As a result they're offered up for sale more often.

 

For example, number ones are far more likely to be offered up for sale than number twos because the prices for number twos are too low to pry them from the hands of hardcore fans/collectors.

 

That's also why more key books show up in the CGC census. Slabbing is very often a prelude to sale. The books that aren't for sale are far less likely to be slabbed by their proud owners.

 

Edited December 16, 2010 by Hepcat

[Mac Man]

Huh... never saw this thread before. Looks like I know what's on my daily must-read for the day! Thanks for

[G.A.tor]

good reading for sure

[adamstrange]

Another problem with Gerber is the condition factor. A book may be given an 8 but have multiple HG copies (due to its collectability back then), while a book given a 6 may have more copies out there but less in HG since it wasn't considered a key, and preserved properly 30 years ago.

 

I don't think preservation is the issue here. I think it's quite simply the case that high prices bring the supply to market. "Key" books are in higher demand which means that they typically fetch much higher prices. As a result they're offered up for sale more often.

 

For example, number ones are far more likely to be offered up for sale than number twos because the prices for number twos are too low to pry them from the hands of hardcore fans/collectors.

 

That's also why more key books show up in the CGC census. Slabbing is very often a prelude to sale. The books that aren't for sale are far less likely to be slabbed by their proud owners.

 

Even after 10 years, the CGC Census is still immature and will remain so for a while. I think the point being made by skybolt is that some books like funny animals and romance comics appear to be much scarcer in high grade because they weren't the ones that devoted fans treasured and saved for posterity as a collectible.

[Scrooge]

Nor do their price point make them slab-worthy.