Golden Age Collections 2 2

[N e r V]

On 9/19/2022 at 11:40 AM, lou_fine said:

Now, this is definitely a good smart approach to buying books in today's comic book hobby and marketplace.  

Yes having been in the comics selling business for 15 years at one time it’s a great relief to be just a collector again where even a $50.00 book you like can bring you joy. I’m sure the moneys good for those in the selling end today but I’m pretty comfortable with what I have and continue to build on it. Comics are one of the few investments outside of art and collectibles that bring you joy in owning. Try getting that same feeling looking at your stock portfolio or 401k returns…

Edited September 19, 2022 by N e r V
Spelling

[lou_fine]

On 9/19/2022 at 11:49 AM, N e r V said:

Try getting that same feeling looking at your stock portfolio or 401k returns…

Any bets that most long time boardies here would be a whole lot more financially secure and a lot less stressed if we were allowed to have invested our vintage comic books into our 401K's or into our RRSP's or tax-free savings accounts (i.e. TFSA's) for those north of the border, instead of the more highly volatile equity stocks.    

[Bookery]

On 9/12/2022 at 2:25 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Do you guys still remember what that first book was and if you still have it in your personal collection to this day?  

My first comic was the Blue Bird Shoes edition of Charlton's "Six Gun Heroes" (came with a pair of shoes), 1962.  Decades later I bought the very building that housed that shoe store (though it didn't occur to me at the time), and today it is home to Bookery.  Full circle, I guess.  

[Robot Man]

On 9/18/2022 at 5:02 PM, PeterPark said:

At a discount no less, that Jumbo 69 is probably worth a lot more than you paid for the lot.

Not to mention a Jungle #1…

Old Lem was an OK guy…

[Robot Man]

On 9/16/2022 at 4:02 AM, Larryw7 said:

The first book I remember buying was Batman 207. Actually my grandmother bought it for me. I was four years old.

Obviously not my original copy.

My first book was either a Batman or an Our Army at War around 1958. Wasn’t a “collector” but an avid reader. Got a lot given to me as well.

What started my search was finding ASM #3 at the drug store rack. Turned me into a Marvel Zombie. I haunted the racks each month for ASM, FF 4 and Hulk. Also traded with the neighborhood kids for issues I missed.

At about the same time, my grandpa bought me MAD #72. Had never seen it. I decided I had to have all of them. Lots of trading, garage sales, used book stores and just gifts helped me along.

The turning point where I became a when I became a true collector was when I spotted a MAD #9 thumbtacked to the wall in a cleaners bag at Cherokee Books for the huge sum of $3. I had never even seen an EC MAD. I had to have it. Up until that point, I had never paid more that cover price for a comic. Sent me to the dark side…

[N e r V]

What’s mind blowing to me is that as a 10 year old in the 1970’s I got my first copy of Fantastic four #1 and at 11 years old picked up Amazing Fantasy #15.

Try that feat today kids…

 

[Terry JSA]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:23 PM, N e r V said:

What’s mind blowing to me is that as a 10 year old in the 1970’s I got my first copy of Fantastic four #1 and at 11 years old picked up Amazing Fantasy #15.

Try that feat today kids…

 

I ended up owning both of these at the age of 20. 

Plus I’m a today kid. 

[goldsilverap]

On 9/9/2022 at 12:57 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Would you be able to add a link to the post please? You have piqued my interest.

Sorry, 

I don't know how I missed this, here is the link:

 

[jimbo_7071]

On 9/19/2022 at 2:24 PM, N e r V said:

Correct. Good memory. More than one actually and a few more that I know of by other family members and old time collectors I grew up with. Think we brought this up before on threads on both original collections and people today estimating numbers of existing copies of Action comics #1. Not sure how many but there’s more than a few collections with big keys well off the radar still.

There are way more than a few. Many people here slab books and submit books to CGC. I think some people here forget that the vast majority of second-owner collections are still raw. There are plenty of guys wo built up second-owner collections in the 60s, 70s, and 80s who basically stopped buying but didn't sell and may never sell. Some of those collections will just be handed down and kept for sentimental value.

Even tough it isn't very valuable, I still have the coin collection that my great-great-grandfather put together by saving old and foreign coins that came into his saloon, which he had to close when Prohibition came. With some of these comic collections, the value of them might tempt the heirs to sell whereas the $1,000 I might get for that coin collection wouldn't mean anything compared to the sentimental value. Still, some of those second-owner comic collections might not be sold for decades. For some people, the sentimental value means that they won't sell at any price, especially if they're well off themselves.

The one thing that bugs me is that people still refer to Gerber's scarcity index when selling books. It should be obvious at this point that he basically pulled his numbers out of his rear end. Aside from a few books that were legitimately rare and easily identifiable as 9s or 10s, those numbers are basically meaningless. Even some of the white-space books are fairly common. I don't think he looked too hard for them.

[Bookery]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:26 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

The one thing that bugs me is that people still refer to Gerber's scarcity index when selling books. It should be obvious at this point that he basically pulled his numbers out of his rear end. Aside from a few books that were legitimately rare and easily identifiable as 9s or 10s, those numbers are basically meaningless. Even some of the white-space books are fairly common. I don't think he looked too hard for them.

The index is meaningless in terms of actual estimated numbers ("fewer than 20" etc.).  But I find it's surprisingly good in terms of relative rankings through the 1940s (it falls apart especially with non-hero titles in the 50s, as he lumps many romance and crime issues as being much more common than they really are).  But with some obvious exceptions, an "8" tends to be relatively scarcer than a "7", etc., specific quantities notwithstanding.

[circumstances]

On 9/12/2022 at 2:25 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Do you guys still remember what that first book was and if you still have it in your personal collection to this day?  

Thor #233 off the rack at a convenience store on Bird Road in Miami in January, 1975.

It is probably still around here somewhere.

First golden age books were from Jay at Sparkle City at my first comic convention, Phil Seuling's July 4th show in NYC, 1978.

Human Torch 12 and World's Finest 9. I no longer have either comic.

[circumstances]

On 9/11/2022 at 6:02 PM, RareHighGrade said:

I don't know, but a book from the collection just sold last week for $90K in the HA auction.

This has to bode well for my copy!

[PDGray]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:24 PM, N e r V said:

Correct. Good memory. More than one actually and a few more that I know of by other family members and old time collectors I grew up with. Think we brought this up before on threads on both original collections and people today estimating numbers of existing copies of Action comics #1. Not sure how many but there’s more than a few collections with big keys well off the radar still.

Is it safe to say that those Action 1s are not graded and probably never will be?  

 

PDG

[circumstances]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:26 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

There are way more than a few. Many people here slab books and submit books to CGC. I think some people here forget that the vast majority of second-owner collections are still raw. There are plenty of guys wo built up second-owner collections in the 60s, 70s, and 80s who basically stopped buying but didn't sell and may never sell.

Me! Compiled from 1975 to the late 1990s when I stopped.

100% raw, baby!

[tth2]

On 9/20/2022 at 8:23 AM, N e r V said:

What’s mind blowing to me is that as a 10 year old in the 1970’s I got my first copy of Fantastic four #1 and at 11 years old picked up Amazing Fantasy #15.

Try that feat today kids…

 

They weren't cheap back then, relatively speaking.  You must have been a pretty rich kid.

[Robot Man]

On 9/19/2022 at 5:23 PM, N e r V said:

What’s mind blowing to me is that as a 10 year old in the 1970’s I got my first copy of Fantastic four #1 and at 11 years old picked up Amazing Fantasy #15.

Try that feat today kids…

 

I have owned every Marvel key except Amazing Fantasy #15. A couple friends had one. They were stored in my bedroom closet. Their parents didn’t want them to have comics so their collections were stored at my house. I read their copies several times but when I got bitten by the “10 cent plague” and went to the dark age of GA, my money went there. They always seemed so common. Sadly, when I moved out of the house at 17 my mom “cleaned out” that closet…

[Robot Man]

On 9/20/2022 at 3:26 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

There are way more than a few. Many people here slab books and submit books to CGC. I think some people here forget that the vast majority of second-owner collections are still raw. There are plenty of guys wo built up second-owner collections in the 60s, 70s, and 80s who basically stopped buying but didn't sell and may never sell. Some of those collections will just be handed down and kept for sentimental value.

Even tough it isn't very valuable, I still have the coin collection that my great-great-grandfather put together by saving old and foreign coins that came into his saloon, which he had to close when Prohibition came. With some of these comic collections, the value of them might tempt the heirs to sell whereas the $1,000 I might get for that coin collection wouldn't mean anything compared to the sentimental value. Still, some of those second-owner comic collections might not be sold for decades. For some people, the sentimental value means that they won't sell at any price, especially if they're well off themselves.

The one thing that bugs me is that people still refer to Gerber's scarcity index when selling books. It should be obvious at this point that he basically pulled his numbers out of his rear end. Aside from a few books that were legitimately rare and easily identifiable as 9s or 10s, those numbers are basically meaningless. Even some of the white-space books are fairly common. I don't think he looked too hard for them.

I too still have my childhood coin collection. My grandpa gave me a cigar box full of old coins when I was young. Including several gold coins. He bought me those blue books to put my coins into. I grew bored with them because the only thing different was the number (date). I do enjoy looking at them once in a while though. The designs are beautiful and I enjoy the history. I would never sell them.

[N e r V]

On 9/20/2022 at 7:04 AM, PDGray said:

Is it safe to say that those Action 1s are not graded and probably never will be?  

 

PDG

Yes

[N e r V]

On 9/20/2022 at 7:23 AM, tth2 said:

They weren't cheap back then, relatively speaking.  You must have been a pretty rich kid.

Not really. Comics were 20 cents in 1973 and went up to 25 cents in 1974. When I got into actually collecting that year I was probably buying 30 titles or so a month or about $6.00 a month worth. Add things like 60 or 75 cent magazines and it was probably something like $15.00-$20.00 a month. I was probably getting a $5.00 a week allowance (I’m guessing now) back then. 
 

Boomers and Gen X’ers had a secret little thing we did back then when we wanted extra money. It was called work. I did side jobs like cut grass, deliver newspapers, etc. 

We actually spent summer vacations having fun and working to save money. When kids saved money family members often would kick in money too if you were trying to save. Good times.

Fantastic four #1 in 1973 probably cost me around $30.00-35.00 in high grade. Richard Alf had a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 for $25.00 in 1974 in VF+ at his store but I’m pretty sure my mom scored my first copy for around that on a trip to Arizona when I gave her a “hit list” of comics to look for. This was the era of good, fine, mint too so when I say VF+ by a legit dealer back then it would probably be a 9.0 or 9.2 today. Howard Rogofsky and others were not the grading standard you wanted. 
 

If you look back in old Marvel comics say 1974 or 1975 (can’t remember exactly) they noted Fantastic Four #1 was selling for around $50.00 by then (might be Stan’s soapbox?). I knew I scored big by then when I read it. 
Comics were not only fun but they increased in value fast. Very cool.
 

Edited September 20, 2022 by N e r V
Addition

[PDGray]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:10 AM, N e r V said:

Yes

I absolutely love knowing this.  Thank you!  It makes me wonder just how many "undiscovered" copies there are out there.  My assumption has been relatively few.  I even remember reading an article back in the 1990s that stated that probably fewer than 50 copies of any given GA book even existed.  So, this conversation and our other "discoveries" over the last thirty years leads me to believe that there are far more than that article led me to believe.  

This sort of information adds to the history of the books - even if they don't come to light during my lifetime.  

 

PDG