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New Name for People Who Still Collect DC
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133 posts in this topic

On 1/29/2022 at 1:21 PM, Brett Barrett said:

I think you are a Brilliant Man. DC SA Keys are in my opinion the final frontier, the last hoorah in the hobby, as far as unrealized value is concerned. In my honest opinion DC SA Key books are so extremely undervalued it’s Insane. The scarcity far exceeds that of Marvel Keys and sooner or later, whichever comes first the market will catch up with the hobby. Some books I will let go maybe but the Big Guns 💪 I’m keeping in the barrel for a very long time. Long Live DC 🍻🍻😀

Quick question - why are they more scarce than marvel keys? I thought DC print counts are higher until the late 60s? 

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On 1/30/2022 at 8:25 AM, namisgr said:

One main reason is they were published in the late fifties to early sixties, when few comics were saved.  Another is the average age of the readership of the times, with the especially young DC, Archie, and Harvey readers of the earlier time rarely paying attention to reading and storing them to preserve condition.  Like sports cards of the time, comics tended to be treated roughly and stored poorly if not more commonly thrown away.  

As an eight year old reading comics for the first time in 1962, I did so with my buddies Tommy and Rich - we passed them around to one another, and read them by folding over the front cover and parts already read, so they could be held with one hand.  They were disposables, after all.  Eventually, they were pitched, but even if saved would have been vulnerable to being pitched by clean-conscious mothers years later, and even when that didn't happen stored in less than ideal conditions in the era before widespread air conditioning.  It astounds me to see a high grade copy of a ten cent DC, Archie, or Harvey comic book, as common as white elephants.  It's even more freakish to find a high grade copy with white pages.

Also, incinerators were available...no paper recycling, if you lived in NYC and upset your mom, they would just fly down the shute..never to be seen again.

Lots of NY comic collectors lost their collections that way;)

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On 1/30/2022 at 8:25 AM, namisgr said:

One main reason is they were published in the late fifties to early sixties, when few comics were saved.  Another is the average age of the readership of the times, with the especially young DC, Archie, and Harvey readers of the earlier time rarely paying attention to reading and storing them to preserve condition.  Like sports cards of the time, they tended to be treated roughly and stored poorly if not more commonly thrown away.  

As an eight year old reading comics for the first time in 1962, I did so with my buddies Tommy and Rich - we passed them around to one another, and read them by folding over the front cover and parts already read, so they could be held with one hand.  They were disposables, after all.  Eventually, they were pitched, but even if saved would have been vulnerable to being pitched by clean-conscious mothers years later, and even when that didn't happen stored in less than ideal conditions in the era before widespread air conditioning.  It astounds me to see a high grade copy of a ten cent DC, Archie, or Harvey comic book, as common as white elephants.  It's even more freakish to find a high grade copy with white pages.

My brother related a story about how a certain neighbor invited the kids to come pick out some baseball cards as they were getting ready to burn the ones the kids didn't want. The cards were from the 50's and early 60's. He said after everyone was done, they still had enough cards to fill a 55 gallon drum that were subsequently torched. He said some comic books met the same fate. This was in 1962 or 1963 he said, can you image the value that was lost that day? 

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On 1/30/2022 at 10:51 AM, Jaylam said:

My brother related a story about how a certain neighbor invited the kids to come pick out some baseball cards as they were getting ready to burn the ones the kids didn't want. The cards were from the 50's and early 60's. He said after everyone was done, they still had enough cards to fill a 55 gallon drum that were subsequently torched. He said some comic books met the same fate. This was in 1962 or 1963 he said, can you image the value that was lost that day? 

Of course I can.  :preach:

My brother was 5 years older, and he started collecting baseball cards probably in '57 or '58.  Several shoeboxes were filled with them and stored in the attic. At least they were for a few years, until my Mom threw them away to clear space.

It's a common story from back in the day.

Edited by namisgr
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On 1/31/2022 at 12:51 AM, namisgr said:

Of course I can.  :preach:

My brother was 5 years older, and he started collecting baseball cards probably in '57 or '58.  Several shoeboxes were filled with them and stored in the attic. At least they were for a few years, until my Mom threw them away to clear space.

It's a common story from back in the day.

If it wasn’t a common story from back in the day, SA and GA books would be worth no more today than Coppers and Moderns.

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On 1/29/2022 at 1:02 PM, Brett Barrett said:

I sold off a lot of my Marvel Heavy Hitters. I reinvested into as may of the DC Silver Age Big Keys as I could get my hands on. I gave up a lot. But I now have probably one of the best Silver Age DC Signature Series Collections in the hobby and I don’t regret a single second of it. My Collection is Unique and I have always loved DC since I was a child. I still have some really Big Marvel Keys, which are easy to obtain if you have the Coin, but with SA DC, it often doesn’t matter  if you have the money or not, locating High Grade SA DC Keys is more than challenging, they’re just not readily available and the CGC Census is an indicator of that. Just saying.

Agreed but with supply an demand it takes both to tango.

In my youth during the 90's I primarily purchased Silver Age DC in high grade thinking it would be huge. While it has appreciated its nowhere near a Marvel Silver Age % increase. If I had made mine Marvel in the 90's, I'd be able to retire now.

 

Edited by MAR1979
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Spec book. Let's hope DC movies and programming keep garnering little attention compared to Marvels books...at least until I get all the books I need. We know we are in trouble if the first appearance of Terra-man becomes a 2000 dollar book.

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On 1/31/2022 at 8:56 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Still one of my favorite books, and still way cheap, even in higher grades than this one. Not a mega key, but in my opinion it's a cool book to own and another example of the "DC Discount" compared to Marvel:

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Agreed! Love early Justice league books!

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