thehumantorch Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 (edited) There mostly Dell reprints in installments with Carl Barks, Al Taliafferro, Jack Bradbury, Floyd Gottfrdson, Carl Buettner, and the others present. Great stuff, some fantastic covers, thanks for sharing these. Edited January 28, 2012 by thehumantorch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theagenes Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 I appreciate all the encouragement and nice feedback you have given my Mickey Mouse Magazines over the years. Last year, I finally reached the difficult decision to have all the books certified. It's been a long process and there is still some way to go, but the best parts of my collection are now starting to come back. The books below were in a box I received today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumantorch Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 I appreciate all the encouragement and nice feedback you have given my Mickey Mouse Magazines over the years. Last year, I finally reached the difficult decision to have all the books certified. It's been a long process and there is still some way to go, but the best parts of my collection are now starting to come back. The books below were in a box I received today. Wow, congrats. That is a box I would like to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 (edited) The results made me curious about the earliest 9.4 and 9.6 copies in the census. The only examples prior to 1936 are 3 Mickey Mouse Magazine dairy giveaways (5 1/4"x7 1/4") from 1933-35. From 1936 the only 9.4 is a "Mickey Mouse in Pygmy Land" story book. That makes the CGC 9.4 V2#1 in the photo the earliest comic or magazine format 9.4 to date. Based on the same criteria, the V2#11 is the earliest CGC 9.6: it beats the Church copy of New Adventure 17 by one month (the latter is the earliest 9.6 comic book). I have seen several earlier comics owned by other board members that would likely grade 9.4 or higher if they were ever to certified. What interesting to me is that there are so few early high grade books. Every surviving example from the dawn of comics is really a treasure as the number of existing 9.x copies decreases exponentially for each year you step back in the 1930s. It's a privilege to be the temporary caretaker of these books and I will continue to do my best to promote them and their history. > It's hard to see in the pic but there are TWO v.2 # 12 in 9.6 in that stack? And some other dupes, no? Yes to both. I actually have about a dozen more 9.4-9.6 MMMs but they are in safety deposit boxes. I usually don't keep anything of value at home. Edited January 28, 2012 by tb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 The results made me curious about the earliest 9.4 and 9.6 copies in the census. The only examples prior to 1936 are 3 Mickey Mouse Magazine dairy giveaways (5 1/4"x7 1/4") from 1933-35. From 1936 the only 9.4 is a "Mickey Mouse in Pygmy Land" story book. That makes the CGC 9.4 V2#1 in the photo the earliest comic or magazine format 9.4 to date. Based on the same criteria, the V2#11 is the earliest CGC 9.6: it beats the Church copy of New Adventure 17 by one month (the latter is the earliest 9.6 comic book). I have seen several earlier comics owned by other board members that would likely grade 9.4 or higher if they were ever to certified. What interesting to me is that there are so few early high grade books. Every surviving example from the dawn of comics is really a treasure as the number of existing 9.x copies decreases exponentially for each year you step back in the 1930s. It's a privilege to be the temporary caretaker of these books and I will continue to do my best to promote them and their history. And that, in a nutshell, is what makes a true collector and curator. Nicely said tb. (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Kid Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Amazing, tb, just amazing. I used to think that Malcolm Willits had the finest collection of MMM's ever assembled, but yours is easily superior, and just beautiful! Congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moondog Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I appreciate all the encouragement and nice feedback you have given my Mickey Mouse Magazines over the years. Last year, I finally reached the difficult decision to have all the books certified. It's been a long process and there is still some way to go, but the best parts of my collection are now starting to come back. The books below were in a box I received today. (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 (edited) Thanks, everyone. It feels great to get this confirmation from CGC as you always worry about a missing coupon or undisclosed restoration. I have somewhere between 25 and 30 copies graded 9.4 or higher at this point. Wish there was a way to post a video of them since a group shot of so many slabs is hard to read. I made one of the books corresponding to the labels above last night, but it's close to 80 Mb. There are many other copies where I've been very happy with the result. The two issues below are examples of iconic covers that are incredibly difficult to find in nice condition. To get to this point, I've had to buy large numbers of raw copies, often from sellers who had no idea about grading comics, just hoping that statistically some of them would turn out to be nice. The V1#9 on the left, for example, was bought off eBay from a small antiques store that had no experience with comics. It was a complete fluke that it turned out to be my best copy. Edited January 29, 2012 by tb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 You are correct. That cover on the left is one of the most iconic in the run and it's safe to say one of my favorites. There's an amazing non-hokey mix of the bucolic and innocence in that shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 For a little break in the conversation about early high grade books; I wanted to point out that at Terry's California Comics Show this morning there were no less than three Uncle Scrooge Only a Poor Old Man (FC386) on dispaly for sale. All were fairly low grade between G-VG with prices ranging from $100-200. and each was at a different dealer. It is unusual to see that many on display, considering there are only about 25-30 dealers. I have gone to San Diego shows with fewer on hand. It probably goes to show that this issue is actually pretty plentiful on the low end of the grading spectrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kite_Fun_Books Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Somebody got a good buy: Donald Duck Kite Fun Book for $12.75 from "mycomicshop.com" Link I sold them a bunch of 1970s CGC kite fun books about 2 years ago. At the time, they filled in the rest in their system with low prices, like $8 each buy price I guess as space filler in their system. Maybe somebody that didn't know better sold them one for their listed buy price, and it automatically went up for sale at some multiple of same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mycomicshop Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I think what you described is exactly what happened. Issues were added to our database with default data copied from other issues, somebody sold us a copy at our stated buy price, and then it went up for sale at some percentage of that. Thanks for posting. Buddy will review the pricing for the kite fun books and correct the ones that need to have the prices increased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Thought some of you might be interested in seeing how CGC graded some of the raw books I've posted in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Kid Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Out of curiosity, tb, do you agree that the 9.6 is a superior book? It often seems to me that at this level, the grading almost seems to be by chance. If a bunch of high grade books were removed from their slabs in a year and submitted by someone else, I wonder what the test-retest reliability correlation would be. Regardless, those are two beautiful MMM's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Out of curiosity, tb, do you agree that the 9.6 is a superior book? It often seems to me that at this level, the grading almost seems to be by chance. If a bunch of high grade books were removed from their slabs in a year and submitted by someone else, I wonder what the test-retest reliability correlation would be. Regardless, those are two beautiful MMM's! I'd certainly be proud to have either in my collection! They are both wonderful books tb. My observation is that there is some variability in the high grades assigned (that's why the crack and resubmit game is played) but statistically I think that most books in 9.6 slabs are better that most in 9.4 slabs. The annual grading contest on these boards bears that out too - the most usual result is a distribution that peaks at the CGC grade, with views on either side. Of course, whether that should translate Into the price differences we see is quite another question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 When CGC first started grading Mickey Mouse Magazines around 2008, my impression was that the variance of the grades appeared higher than for regular comics. It was as if in some cases, especially when an individual book had been submitted, they had decided to be more forgiving. With the 30 or so books that I have received back in the last couple of months, I find the grading far more consistent. Most of these books graded 9.0-9.6, and I think CGC did a very good job distributing them between the grades. When I look at the 9.6s, they are generally superior to the 9.4s, which are slightly better than the 9.2s etc. When I evaluate books myself, the CGC grade is only one part of my consideration and I always try to inspect them in person. But sometimes that's not possible and then the information on the CGC label certainly helps when buying from someone I don't know. Overall, the latest submissions have given me a bit more trust in CGC's grading of Mickey Mouse Magazines, but I'd still check them out in person before buying if possible. Btw., I have no intention of selling the books. I got them certified for various reasons but plan to continue to improve my run for many years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 What a striking cover image! Given that it's magazine sized it would really have made an impact on the newstand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 This is currently the only comic or magazine sized book published prior to 1937 to have received a CGC 9.4. At least according to the census, the Church collection starts appearing in high grade from 1937 and becomes dominant from 1938-39. For 1937, there are now more Mickey Mouse Magazines graded 9.4+ than the combined number of Church copies from all other titles in the same grade range. Like many of my highest graded books, this copy can be traced back to the Disney Archives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicdonna Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Very nice books, tb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moondog Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 This is currently the only comic or magazine sized book published prior to 1937 to have received a CGC 9.4. At least according to the census, the Church collection starts appearing in high grade from 1937 and becomes dominant from 1938-39. For 1937, there are now more Mickey Mouse Magazines graded 9.4+ than the combined number of Church copies from all other titles in the same grade range. Like many of my highest graded books, this copy can be traced back to the Disney Archives. TB, what is the origin of the books labeled as FILE COPIES? I believe I recounted the story of the file copies I lost out on - they were purchased by Bob Cook (who bought them for Steve Geppi). I believe Jim Payette may have ended up with some (all?) of them after buying them from Steve. Same find or different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...