The Bronze Age & the Overstreet Price Guide

[bronze johnny]

Hello Fellow Forumites!!

 

Let's go back to 1970 where the Bronze Age begins and what we see is not only new trends but also another Bronze Age creation that really distinguishes Bronzedom from the prior great ages. The Overstreet Price Guide really starts another new approach to Comic Book collecting- a consistent price guide/reference book. The guide becomes the tool that many comic book collectors use and becomes the standard for all comic book price guides. The comic book marketplace is never really the same.

 

 

Perhaps we can open up this forum by asking several questions:

 

What was comic book collecting like before the Guide?

 

What was the comic book marketplace like before the guide?

 

The Overstreet Price Guide: Another Great Bronze Age Creation?

 

Sincerely,

 

BronzeJohnny

[ninanina]

Seems like nobody on this forum collected comics in the early '70's. I started in the mid to late 70's so I have no idea...but I'd like to know how most collectors at the time not only purchased comics, but how would they determine what they were worth?

 

Anybody?

 

I suspect many were purchased at conventions.....I mean if there were conventions back then. I think they were 'cause reading early Marvels.....they do talk about them in the letter's/bulletin pages.

 

But still....trying to detemine a value on them musta' bin' a crapshoot.

[Rob]

Can't help ya, born in '74. But I can't see it being anywhere near what it is today. Think about it, in 1970, ASM #1 is 7 years old. That's like a 1998 comic today. Detective 27 is 31 years old. That would be like a 1974 comic today. I'd be curious to see 1970 values.

[shadroch]

I'd suggest you go to the Ga forum and ask(very nicely) if Robert Beerbolm or Moondog would care to add to this thread. I'm not sure anyone else can really give first hand info. If there are members who were in fandom back then,I apologize for overlooking them. While I was buying the occasional book back then,I didn't get serious until '73 and have never owned the first two guides.

I can post some prices from Marc's Comic Room,circa 1974 if anyone wants,but pre-creation shows, Ican't really add much about how fandom worked,other than what anyone can gleem from reading about early fandom in OS.

[awe4one]

I wasn't collecting then but it's my understanding that fanzines such as RBCC were used as a barometer for back issue prices before OS. There were also a couple of mail order dealers whose catelogues served the same function...

 

Jim

[bronze johnny]

When I was a kid and started collecting comics in the mid 70s during the last years of the old "newstand market," for one thing, I collected to read the comic books like probably most collectors from my generation. I would bet that most comic collectors who were kids during that era collected the comics to read. I wonder when the older generations captured the market "consciousness?" When does the Overstreet Price Guide really start to make its way into the "mainstream mind" of comic book collectors? 1970? 71? 72? 73? 74? 75?...

 

Arnold, if you're watching, I'd like to get feedback about this from you or someone else at Overstreet.

 

BronzeJohnny

[Zonker]

A few years ago Overstreet published a reprint of their first edition and included it in one of their Updates, or Overstreet FAN magazines or somesuch. I'll see if I can find mine and post some of the prices. I do remember from my mid-1970s first exposure to Overstreet that the spreads between low and high grade were nothing like today: $1 for Good, $2 for Fine and $3 for Mint were the norm. A lot of the focus on back issue collecting was to find that issue you missed from a few months ago when you didn't make it to the drug store, newstand, etc. Of course, there were also mail order dealers like Howard ("Tape is not considered a defect") Rogofsky, Robert Bell, etc. There was also a network of fans and fanzines for the selling & trading of vintage back issues. Bob Overstreet himself writes a memoir in the OPG of 3 or 4 years ago talking about completing his EC collection in the mid-1950s through the mail with other fans of the day. I think the "EC Fan Addicts Club" should get a lot of credit for starting the beginnings of organized comics fandom. Then when Julie Schwartz starting printing letters with addresses in the early Silver Age, all the budding fanzine publishers suddenly had a ready-made mailing list.

 

Beerbohm would indeed be an excellent source for a first-hand account.

[nearmint]

i started buying Archies in 1970, and DC/Marvel in 1975, but I was completely unaware of organized fandom. I bought to read, and wasn't very grade conscious. In fact, when I was about 7, an older neighbor showed me his early Marvel collection, and I remember thinking that I couldn't wait until the pages of my comics had turned yellow, because that would mean they were really old and worth a ton of money! I bought some back issues at the local swap meet, and one or two books from Robert Bell.

 

Around 1979, my brother drove me to a comic shop just south of Disneyland. We got there before they opened, and I remember gazing through the window at shelf after shelf of bagged and boarded comics. To me, it looked like a museum. Maybe that's why I keep my comics on bookshelves now, recreating that image burned into my brain 26 years ago.

 

That day, my brother, who hadn't purchased a comic in several years, picked up beautiful copies of Batman #9 & #18. I'm certain that was the first day I ever held an Overstreet guide in my hand.

 

I was hooked.

[rjpb]

I was collecting comics as a kid in the early 70s - and the first guide that made a big impact was the 1972 edition. While it is true that early Marvels were only around a decade old there is no way to compare them to 10 year old comics today - there were no comic stores carrying back issues, and comics weren't hoarded until the mid-60s, so while late SA books were plentiful and cheap, the early keys were pricey by the standards of the day- $50-$100 for a F to VF ASM #1 for example. To put this context, that was at least 250X cover price of a new comic for a book that was only around 10 years old - which would be like paying $750 for a 10 year old comic today (and one that was in nice - but not exceptional condition). Unless one stumbled upon a treasure trove at a garage sale or antique store, mail order and conventions were the best way to get back issues - as well as trading and selling among a small community of collectors in the neighborhood. There were a couple of used book stores that sold old comics - but the selection was usually pretty thin - though in some areas (like Hollywood CA) had bookshops with incredible stock from what I heard. Comic shops started showing up in the mid to late 70s, at least in central Ohio.

 

Obviously, with a 3:1 ratio between Mint and Good - condition was less specific than it is today - but still held some importance. While the guide only listed 3 grades in it's pricing, by the mid 70s if not earlier, + and - grades were being used by some, and VG and VF had long been established as legitimate grades. For younger collectors like myself at the time, Overstreet was treated much more like a pricing bible than it is today - which meant that how a dealer graded was often the difference between a good or a bad deal - some large dealers that advertised in the Buyer's Guide listed more common books with the catchall grade of VG - Mint. I recall one local dealer at the quarterly Columbus OH conventions seemed to only believe in 2 grades - VG and NM - as you can imagine much of his stock was severely overgraded even by the standards of the era. To all but the more anal and foresighted, VF was considered high grade for older books, and what passed for VF then would probably be considered 7.0 today. While VF+ may have been used as a grade - I don't recall split grades at all in the 70s, and distinctions such as NM- and NM+ would have been considered absurd - as NM and Mint were virtually interchangable grades.

 

I can't really say what collecting was like pre-guide as I only went to couple of conventions prior to 1972, though I actually set up a table at one, and was only 12 at the time - It seems to me I understood pricing more by osmosis than anything else.

[Norrin_Radd]

A few years ago Overstreet published a reprint of their first edition.

 

I have several copies of the OSPG #1 reprint. I also have a reprint of the 1st comics price guide published in 1965.

 

 

 

I will post some prices this weekend if anybody is interested.

 

Action Comics #1 went from $100 in 1965 to $300 in Overstreet in 1970.

[precodekeith]

 

I'm loving these "historical" perspectives.....

[awe4one]

 

I'm loving these "historical" perspectives.....

 

They'll be fun until someone asks for a historical take on Image Comics. That's when I know I've overstayed my welcome in this hobby...

 

Jim

[precodekeith]

[Rob]

 

I'm loving these "historical" perspectives.....

 

They'll be fun until someone asks for a historical take on Image Comics. That's when I know I've overstayed my welcome in this hobby...

 

Jim

 

Tell me what it was like when Spawn #1 came out.

[the blob]

was action #1 $1,000 or $10,000 in the 1977 OPG? I remember that was the first OPG i ever owned and was amazed at whatever price for action 1 was in there. unfortunately, i think that old guide was discarded --- although it was beat to death and missing its cover last I looked, so only "value" would be to look stuff up and say "shouldah couldah wouldah"

[awe4one]

$5,250 in NM in 1977 Guide. A complete NM run of Action would run you $19,972.

 

Top comic was Marvel Comics #1 at $7,500...

 

Jim

[Norrin_Radd]

Comic.......................1965 (Argosy)........1970 (Overstreet)

Action #1...................$100.....................$300

Detective #1...............$30.......................$125

Detective #27.............$80.......................$275

Captain America #1....$75.......................$150

All-American #16........$55.......................$50

Flash #1....................$75.......................$125

Marvel #1..................$100......................$250

All-Star #3.................$65.......................$135

 

Mad #1.....................$10........................$30

 

Amazing Fantasy #15.$5........................$16

Fantastic Four #1.......$6........................$30

Hulk #1.....................$2.50....................$14

X-Men #1...................$1.50...................$6

Showcase #4.............$7.50...................$12

Showcase #22...........$3........................$6

 

 

 

Any others anybody wants to see prices for?

[shadroch]

The only comic shop I knew of,The Book Shop in East Meadow used to sell books at about double Os. Saying that the book reflected last years prices,not this years.Then Hero's world opened a kiosk that bought books at 1/3 guide good and sold them for mint.Around 1977 i found a shop that sold all its back issues three for a dolar. I remember walking out of there with several shopping bags full of books such as DD 16/17, Avengers9,FFs from 60 to 110 and such. In fact ,it was stock from this store(The Memory Bank) and a collection from a friends brother that allowed me to start doing shows.

I remember I would only bag books that I could sell for more than two dollars,and there weren't too many of those in my stock for quite awhile.Most of my 'bags' were of the glad variety,btw.

[the blob]

so, in 1970, for a couple of nights worth of blow, you could probably be retired right now..ditto 1965, for what a color television would have cost... assuming you didn't get robbed too bad on the grading

 

i guess you could have doen better, in less time, spending the equivalent amount of money on microsoft or wallmart stock, but comics are more fun!

[ft88]

Another part that is easy to forget is how difficult it was to sell comics. While I first collected in the 80's with shows and stores common enough, trying to sell comics was a chore at best. Tables were $100 a piece with really no other option besides opening a store yourself ( I was 15 at the time) or selling to dealers. The best bet was to take stuff to conventions and trade but even then you could only get rid of prime items.

 

Ebay really changed everything and to a small part CGC. With ebay you can buy a run of VG-VF Batman 300-400 for $100-$200 and turn around and sell it for basically the same amount. You just couldn't do that in the 70's and 80's. The only place to buy the same run of Batmans would be from a store or convention and if you had a nice dealer he'd let you have them for $100-$200 and that was in 20 year ago prices. Go to the next table down and try and sell them for cash and you'd be lucky to get $25 for them.

 

One key was that with limited space and limited funds you really had to define your own collecting or you'd end up with a bunch of expensive stuff that you could never get rid of. Today you can buy and read/collect everything from the 1940's to the 2000's and if you don't like it or want to switch to the next genre, 1-2-3 and its done in a month or two.

 

I do remember the midset being very different. Once I owned a book I was basically stuck with it for the next 10 years or longer. That was a blessing with my Amazing Spider-mans, but a real pain with the 70's Thors I picked up.