So, what Bronze Marvel run would be most likely to "break" you? 1 1

[electricprune]

Ok, let's say you get the gumption to complete a full Marvel Bronze run of a single title. You want to get every book in the run in CGC 9.2 or better. What run do you think would be most likely to make you tap out before completing it?

Rules:

1. All books have to be graded at 9.2 or better by CGC, Blues and Yellows only. Comics only, no magazines.

2. Money is not a restraint. You can afford a Hulk 181, GS X-Men 1, ASM 129, WWBN 32, etc. However, you have to pay close to market value. You can't put a million dollar bounty on a book with one known book in 9.2.

3. You need to get every book in the run from 1-1970 to 12-1979, but the run does not have to be the entire length of that time. It can just be a few months if you think it's tough enough. Night Nurse would be an example.

4. You can argue that no run would be that tough if you'd like. It might make it interesting.

5. You can use price variants.

I think mine would be Chili. The later issues of that run just don't seem to come up in NM- or better.

[Genesis Comics]

I just completed a difficult  DC bronze run...sorry to be off topic so early in the thread lol...it was Welcome Back Kotter.  It took over 6 years and I was going for 9.6 White Pages or better.  I had to sub half of them myself as there weren't a lot in high grade available (before WW comics had the run they have now).  Issue 6 was my last issue...(if anyone needs NM- to NM issues of # 6 let me know as I have about a dozen lol).  

Does Atlas count?  If so, I'd say the entire Atlas run would be very tough...I have a few high grade examples but they are few and far between...I thing Vicki 3 and 4 are especially tough.

As far as what would make me tap out and not complete, I'd say My Love would probably be the toughest of all.  

[Readcomix]

What about Li'l Kids, Li'l Pals, or Petey?

[Readcomix]

2 minutes ago, Genesis Comics said:

I just completed a difficult  DC bronze run...sorry to be off topic so early in the thread lol...it was Welcome Back Kotter.  It took over 6 years and I was going for 9.6 White Pages or better.  I had to sub half of them myself as there weren't a lot in high grade available (before WW comics had the run they have now).  Issue 6 was my last issue...(if anyone needs NM- to NM issues of # 6 let me know as I have about a dozen lol).  

Does Atlas count?  If so, I'd say the entire Atlas run would be very tough...I have a few high grade examples but they are few and far between...I thing Vicki 3 and 4 are especially tough.

As far as what would make me tap out and not complete, I'd say My Love would probably be the toughest of all.  

I'd have to agree on Atlas/Seaboard....not tough to complete period, other than Vicki, but if trying to do it all in 9.2 or higher, that's tough. And if you throw in their few mags...yeesh!

[electricprune]

13 minutes ago, Genesis Comics said:

I just completed a difficult  DC bronze run...sorry to be off topic so early in the thread lol...it was Welcome Back Kotter.  It took over 6 years and I was going for 9.6 White Pages or better.  I had to sub half of them myself as there weren't a lot in high grade available (before WW comics had the run they have now).  Issue 6 was my last issue...(if anyone needs NM- to NM issues of # 6 let me know as I have about a dozen lol).  

Does Atlas count?  If so, I'd say the entire Atlas run would be very tough...I have a few high grade examples but they are few and far between...I thing Vicki 3 and 4 are especially tough.

As far as what would make me tap out and not complete, I'd say My Love would probably be the toughest of all.  

I was trying to keep it to Marvel, but Atlas can be discussed. I agree that Vicki is likely the hardest, but each of the 4 issues has 4+ in 9.2 already graded. #3 actually has 16! The most of the 4.

How many of the WBCs did you have to get graded yourself?

My Love is tough. I think Our Love Story might even be tougher.

[electricprune]

22 minutes ago, Readcomix said:

What about Li'l Kids, Li'l Pals, or Petey?

Petey and Peter the Little Pest are out there. Li'l Pals could be tough. Two issues currently have no copies graded at all. Li'l Kids would be a pain, but each issue has at least one 9.2 or better graded. So, they may be out there raw too.

[seanfingh]

My Love, Our Love Story and Wyatt Earp in that order.

[electricprune]

9 minutes ago, seanfingh said:

My Love, Our Love Story and Wyatt Earp in that order.

My Love and Our Love Story both currently have 6 books with no graded copies at 9.2 or higher. My Love has one issue not graded yet, Our Love Story has 4 yet to be graded. I think both could easily break many collectors, and I've chased the latter issues of both.

The last two issues of Wyatt Earp are just head scratchers. None graded yet and rarely seen in nice shape. I'm hoping to change that soon.

[Readcomix]

49 minutes ago, electricprune said:

My Love and Our Love Story both currently have 6 books with no graded copies at 9.2 or higher. My Love has one issue not graded yet, Our Love Story has 4 yet to be graded. I think both could easily break many collectors, and I've chased the latter issues of both.

The last two issues of Wyatt Earp are just head scratchers. None graded yet and rarely seen in nice shape. I'm hoping to change that soon.

I had forgotten about Wyatt Earp!

[seanfingh]

9 hours ago, Readcomix said:

I had forgotten about Wyatt Earp!

It's easy to forget, and good for the psyche as well. Because high grade copies, even after 20 years of Ebay are still impossible.  The only reason it is not #1 is because the run is so small! 

[Guardian Comics]

Tomb of Dracula...but I'm holding out for the Canton, MI pedigree

 

JJ

[Ghost Town]

Millie the Model. For the Picture Frames alone, #194, #195, 196, 197, 198, and 199 all don't have a single graded 9.2 or better. 

#194, #195, 197, and #198 all don't have a single 9.0 or better.

 

[electricprune]

1 hour ago, Guardian Comics said:

Tomb of Dracula...but I'm holding out for the Canton, MI pedigree

 

JJ

The Canton Pedigree is in peril of being overtaken. It also might have to be renamed the Ann Arbor Pedigree in a month.?

[electricprune]

30 minutes ago, Ghost Town said:

Millie the Model. For the Picture Frames alone, #194, #195, 196, 197, 198, and 199 all don't have a single graded 9.2 or better. 

#194, #195, 197, and #198 all don't have a single 9.0 or better.

 

Barton,

the fact that you've been chasing these for several years just goes to show that some Bronze Marvels can be tough to find, even in NM-.

Sean makes a great point about 20 years of eBay still not producing copies worthy of grading.

[Readcomix]

9 hours ago, seanfingh said:

It's easy to forget, and good for the psyche as well. Because high grade copies, even after 20 years of Ebay are still impossible.  The only reason it is not #1 is because the run is so small! 

I'm probably repressing on purpose!

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

If we're sticking with Marvel, I'm going to go with Marvel's Greatest Comics. It ran for the entire decade, reprint books are generally considered less collectible, so were probably less cared for. (I imagine these became reader copies for anyone collecting FF.) There are plenty of issues not on the census or with a very small number graded.

I guess if everyone knew that someone was trying to complete the run and money wasn't an option it would be a little easier.

Edited July 15, 2017 by GeeksAreMyPeeps
grammar

[electricprune]

29 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

If we're sticking with Marvel, I'm going to be with Marvel's Greatest Comics. It ran for the entire decade, reprint books are generally considered less collectible, so were probably less cared for. (I imagine these became reader copies for anyone collecting FF.) There are plenty of issues not on the census or with a very small number graded.

I guess if everyone knew that someone was trying to complete the run and money wasn't an option it would be a little easier.

I believe there are 19 ungraded copies (non price variants) of MGC in this time frame. Likely the most of any Marvel Bronze run. I just had the first graded copy of issue 44 come back at a 9.6. I think this run could probably be doable but it would take a LONG time and would require submitting many books on your own.

One thing that might help is that it doesn't look like anyone is taking a serious run at this title in the Registry. So, there may be no competition for most of the books.

[Brock]

This is leading things a little astray, perhaps, but I'm working on one of these right now. About 2 years ago, I decided to try to put this get her a CGC graded set of DC Whitman variants in high grade. I'm working on CGC 9.0 or higher, but trying for 9.6 or 9.8 where possible.

So two years later? I have fewer than 25 books (out of 160+). The good news is that every book I've got is the highest or 2nd highest graded copy, and even with only a small number of books, I'm #1 on the registry by a wide margin... the bad news is that many, many of these books have no graded copies. Complicating matters is the fact that - in my experience - about 10% of the CGC graded copies out there are mislabelled, either failing to note that they are a Whitman variant, or incorrectly identifying the issue number (for most Whitmans, the issue number does not appear on the cover). This means that the census itself is often unhelpful in identifying what's actually out there.

The problems, though, are part of what makes it challenging - and fun. I think I've got years ahead of me on this one... 

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

22 hours ago, Brock said:

This is leading things a little astray, perhaps, but I'm working on one of these right now. About 2 years ago, I decided to try to put this get her a CGC graded set of DC Whitman variants in high grade. I'm working on CGC 9.0 or higher, but trying for 9.6 or 9.8 where possible.

So two years later? I have fewer than 25 books (out of 160+). The good news is that every book I've got is the highest or 2nd highest graded copy, and even with only a small number of books, I'm #1 on the registry by a wide margin... the bad news is that many, many of these books have no graded copies. Complicating matters is the fact that - in my experience - about 10% of the CGC graded copies out there are mislabelled, either failing to note that they are a Whitman variant, or incorrectly identifying the issue number (for most Whitmans, the issue number does not appear on the cover). This means that the census itself is often unhelpful in identifying what's actually out there.

The problems, though, are part of what makes it challenging - and fun. I think I've got years ahead of me on this one... 

Is there a full list somewhere of books with Whitman variants?

[Ghost Town]

On 7/15/2017 at 7:51 AM, electricprune said:

I believe there are 19 ungraded copies (non price variants) of MGC in this time frame. Likely the most of any Marvel Bronze run. I just had the first graded copy of issue 44 come back at a 9.6. I think this run could probably be doable but it would take a LONG time and would require submitting many books on your own.

One thing that might help is that it doesn't look like anyone is taking a serious run at this title in the Registry. So, there may be no competition for most of the books.

Some of those MGCs are particularly cool because they have new covers. Besides all the Picture Frames, #40, 41, and 58 also have different covers than the original books. I'm probably missing some too.