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What’s the cheapest anyone’s seen AC 1 or DC 27
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Started by NoMan,

80 posts in this topic

pemart1966

pemart1966

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A lot of people looking at these prices are probably saying "I've got that much money in my wallet right now."  The fact of the matter is that those prices were astronomical at the time.  People were still going in to used books stores and buying back issues for pennies.  The VAST majority of "people" that were buying comics at the time were not investors.  They were teenaged boys with precious little money to their names.  A lot of those kids had probably never seen $100 at once let alone have it to spend on a single comic.

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lpsunburst

lpsunburst

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20 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

A lot of people looking at these prices are probably saying "I've got that much money in my wallet right now."  The fact of the matter is that those prices were astronomical at the time.  People were still going in to used books stores and buying back issues for pennies.  The VAST majority of "people" that were buying comics at the time were not investors.  They were teenaged boys with precious little money to their names.  A lot of those kids had probably never seen $100 at once let alone have it to spend on a single comic.

Agreed, I remember saving up the $10 needed to buy a mint X-Men 1 in the early 70's, I spent maybe $6 on a TTA 27 and had to haggle to get it at that. Spending $100 or more on a book was simply out of the question, even original art which seems like a bargain today was expensive, I bought lots of Avengers pages for $15-$20 all of which I wish I still had. PCH books used to be in the $.25 bin at shows, couldnt give them away unless they were EC's.

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Tri-Color Brian

Tri-Color Brian

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35 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

A lot of people looking at these prices are probably saying "I've got that much money in my wallet right now."  The fact of the matter is that those prices were astronomical at the time.  People were still going in to used books stores and buying back issues for pennies.  The VAST majority of "people" that were buying comics at the time were not investors.  They were teenaged boys with precious little money to their names.  A lot of those kids had probably never seen $100 at once let alone have it to spend on a single comic.

I don't know about that...one day at Cherokee Books I saw Pat Calhoun and the Carter brothers walk up the stairs to the comic hallway with cardboard boxes in their hands...which they proceeded to fill from the 25cent boxes.  :whatthe:  At least I think it was them.  Who else would be yelling "OMG, look at the ACGs..."  lol

Edited by Tri-ColorBrian
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Robot Man

Robot Man

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1 hour ago, lpsunburst said:

Agreed, I remember saving up the $10 needed to buy a mint X-Men 1 in the early 70's, I spent maybe $6 on a TTA 27 and had to haggle to get it at that. Spending $100 or more on a book was simply out of the question, even original art which seems like a bargain today was expensive, I bought lots of Avengers pages for $15-$20 all of which I wish I still had. PCH books used to be in the $.25 bin at shows, couldnt give them away unless they were EC's.

Probably half of my pch collection came from dollar boxes under the table. I remember that EC horror was around $3 and sci-fi was $4-$5 each. I would pile up as many issues of Mr Mystery and Weird Tales of the Future ect as I could afford then splurge on a couple of ECs spending $25 or $30 and going home happy. Condition wasn't an issue although higher grades weren't uncommon. I still have most all of them.  :luhv:

(The Worlds of Fear in my sig line was one of them)

Edited by Robot Man
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Robot Man

Robot Man

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1 hour ago, Tri-ColorBrian said:

I don't know about that...one day at Cherokee Books I saw Pat Calhoun and the Carter brothers walk up the stairs to the comic hallway with cardboard boxes in their hands...which they proceeded to fill from the 25cent boxes.  :whatthe:  At least I think it was them.  Who else would be yelling "OMG, look at the ACGs..."  lol

I loved those boxes!!!

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woowoo

woowoo

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1982 I was doing a con sold Action 252 vf/nm for 10 bucks bought a near mint to mint Hulk 1 from Hal Verb for 100.00. Hal and I  where leaving two guys where playing Frisbee with a Action 1 in lower grade lots of tape. I think they said they would take 3000 or could have been 300 and I said no way. I did trade my 250.00 Fantasy 15 for there Batman 1 missing back cover. I still have 2 Xerox copy's of the back cover from a copy of batman 1 I had. I married the one missing back cover to the Xerox  it took 3 copy's at 5 cents to get it right for those days No 1080 p just 80p lol

Edited by woowoo
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N e r V

N e r V

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I had family members who bought copies in that and earlier time periods so I know that copies of Action #1 could be had for $50.00 in the early 1960s. I believe $35.00 is all it took to get one of his nicer copies around 61’ or 63’.  Detective #27 was a lot cheaper than Action #1’s until the TV show pushed it up. $12.00 was all it took for a copy in that same period. If you go back to the 1950’s way less. The first copy of Action Comics #1 anyone in my family purchased was back around 1945/46 for 15 cents at a used book dealer (I believe) by my great uncle. His kids still have these and I think the 15 cent copy would grade VF although it’s been years since I saw it. 

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N e r V

N e r V

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22 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Trouble is, even if I could get there, I still wouldn't have the cash for one by yesterdays standards...:sorry:

I think a lot of people have trouble grasping that even though the gap for obtaining things might have been smaller than today it was still a big hurdle to afford big books for most people. 

You could have turned a million dollars into over 50 million today by buying a certain Ferrari in the early 90’s but how many people had a spare million dollars in 1993?

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Tri-Color Brian

Tri-Color Brian

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4 hours ago, Robot Man said:

 

(The Worlds of Fear in my sig line was one of them)

The only Cherokee books in my sig line are the Superman 17 and 23...and those together represented a $15 investment...I sure hope i get my money back someday...:insane:

Edited by Tri-ColorBrian
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IngelsFan

IngelsFan

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My story doesn't go back nearly as far as most of you guys', but in 1987 at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair I had $$$ in one hand and Action 1 in the other, but passed on it because I was working for Phil Levine and E Nelson Bridwell's collection had too many cooler books (high grade Jungle, Jumbo and National runs, New Funs, early More Funs, large sized Masters...). The price for Action 1? A modest $1500.

Edited by IngelsFan
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Hudson

Hudson

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8 minutes ago, IngelsFan said:

My story doesn't go back nearly as far as most of you guys', but in 1987 at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair I had $$$ in one hand and Action 1 in the other, but passed on it because I was working for Phil Levine and E Nelson Bridwell's collection had too many cooler books (high grade Jungle, Jumbo and National runs, New Funs, early More Funs, large sized Masters...). The price for Action 1? A modest $1500.

Even in 1987, that AC1 must have been in rough shape for $1500.  Still a bargain in any condition, however.  Wish I had seen it.

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N e r V

N e r V

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58 minutes ago, Hudson said:

Even in 1987, that AC1 must have been in rough shape for $1500.  Still a bargain in any condition, however.  Wish I had seen it.

I don’t have an old Overstreet in front of me but I think a HG Action Comics #1 was probably around 25K. I think this was still the period where Overstreet might have had Marvel comics #1 being listed as most valuable book too.

I remember somewhere around this time a lot of us were wondering if these books might actually hit 100K one day. lol 

 

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Mr.TawkyTawny

Mr.TawkyTawny

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58 minutes ago, N e r V said:

I don’t have an old Overstreet in front of me but I think a HG Action Comics #1 was probably around 25K. I think this was still the period where Overstreet might have had Marvel comics #1 being listed as most valuable book too.

I remember somewhere around this time a lot of us were wondering if these books might actually hit 100K one day. lol 

 

1986-87 OPG had Action Comics #1 listed as Mint $18,500; Fine $8,000; Good $2,500 with the caveat (Prices vary widely on this book).   Marvel Comics #1 was the top value book at $23,000.  You have quite an eidetic memory. :smile:

Edited by Mr.TawkyTawny
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