grade this Pep 31

[The Black Hand ®]

What would you all grade this? Creamy supple pages, flat and tight and all attached. See attachment.

[SteveLRoberts5]

I'll say 6.5--perhaps a 7.0. Nice book-- whatever the grade!

[nearmint]

I'd say 4.5, because of the missing paper top left and bottom right. Great color on that copy though!

[The Black Hand ®]

The colors are really nice on that copy. That was one of the really tough Peps to find. I kept finding 32's and 30's all day long, but no 31. I love those Archie Peps, that's for sure. I also love Top Notch, but I'm having a heck of a time finding Top Notch Laugh 31 and 35 for some reason.

[rjpb]

I agree with nearmint 4.5 - also looks like a tear at the bottom.

 

great cover!

[The Black Hand ®]

That's the only Pep cover attributed to King, I think. For the longest time I thought it was a Montana cover, since he did 30 and 32 and 33. But yes, that is a cool Nazi war cover! What's also neat is the cocaine story. Maybe the first in comics, with a bad guy called the 'Snowbird' in the Shied story who snorts a lot of coke during the story until the Shield sticks some pepper in the coke.You gotta love the golden age!

[rjpb]

I remember that. Board member Shield posted that story on the boards a while back. he has a web site with a great number of MLJ stories scanned. I don't have it bookmarked so I don't have a link.

[Aces]

Given the GA curve you might have a near fine there.

5.5/6.0

 

5.0 tops by silver age standards.

[143ksk]

Very nice book!

 

I think it's a VG/FN 5.0 which is not bad at all for that issue I agree that it's one of the tougher Peps to find (although, they pretty much all are difficult).

 

So, do you have a line on any of these Pep 30's you've been seeing? I need an upgrade and I know Jon Berk has said he is looking for a copy. If you have any leads, please PM me.

 

Please post some more Peps for us to look at

 

BTW, Shield's site is www.goldcomics.com

[The Black Hand ®]

I've had 3 copies of Pep 30 and they were all low grade. My current copy is only a g/vg at best and I've rarely if ever seen a high grade copy of that issue, but then I don't travel in that high grade circle that some of you do. The highest grade Archie Pep I have is maybe a F+ 29 and vg+ 36 and vf 41.Most are in the vg/vg+ range, although with grading standards on golden age relaxing more they seem to be going up a bit.

[The Black Hand ®]

OK, guess the grade on this one with nice pages.

[143ksk]

It's hard to tell with such a small scan and no back cover scan, but looks like it could be a VFor better. Very nice book! Looks to be significantly nicer than my copy.

[The Black Hand ®]

Here's a pep36. see attachment above.

[The Black Hand ®]

and a pep41

[143ksk]

Both very nice books!

 

I think the 36 is probably in the VG/FN range and the 41 could be VF

 

For comparison on the 36, this is my copy which CGC graded a FN+. Here's a LINK to a previous Pep grading thread.

 

[The Black Hand ®]

Good calls on all of them. I myself grade the 31 a vg and the 29 a fine and the 36 a vg+ and the 41 a fine+ but then I always undergrade a bit and I do think cgc standards are loosening a bit on golden age, but that's my unschooled opinion. By the way, you have some really nice books there. Pep 36 has to be one of my all time favorite covers because it meshes Archie and the superhero characters so well. Here's a 34, the spine on the pages are all split, but nothing else seems britlle and the inside of the cover is white.Go figure.

[143ksk]

Well, it's the cover on this book that is the big selling point and fortunately yours is quite nice:

 

[143ksk]

Pep 36 has to be one of my all time favorite covers because it meshes Archie and the superhero characters so well.

 

Mine too

 

I actually had Dan Parent (a current Archie artist) do a color recreation for me. The cover is really awesome in twice up size. It's way too big to scan, but at some point I'll have to take a digital picture and post it.

 

Thanks for posting your Peps. Feel free to post as many as you have--I always love looking at them.

[rjpb]

That 29 looks like a sweet copy - hard to say due to the small scan but definetly looks closer to a VF than a F.

 

I'd happily upgrade to that 34 - mine is a 1.5 tops - love that cover

[The Black Hand ®]

And thank's for all your valuable input. I would love to see that reproduction some time, that sounds very cool.