Funny Story About Iron Fist #14 1 1

[paqart]

On 7/8/2023 at 11:42 AM, Robot Man said:

In the very early ‘70’s, ECs were around $5-7 each. But virtually all PCH, GGA and obscure GA were unbagged in boxes under the tables for a buck or two each. I was on my hands and knees a lot…

I was buying ECs, what few I could afford, starting around 1978. I was focused on the Frazetta/Williamson issues. I only had a handful because they were hard to find. I don't remember what I paid. The difficulty had more to do with finding them than their cost, though I seem to remember that the best Frazetta covers went for as much as $75 in good shape. I wanted the Famous Funnies or Buster Crabbes, but they were much too expensive. I want to say they were about the same as FF 1 or more, like $500-$750 or so.

Speaking of Iron Fist 14: It's amazing how much that comic has appreciated. I liked IF, so I had the whole set and they were all recent enough that my copies were all in what we called mint back then. Every one of them was an inexpensive comic; a dollar or less. At the time, I was horrified by how expensive ASM !20 and 121 were: $20 each. ASM 129 had no premium. The really expensive comics were X-Men 94, GXM #1, and Green Lantern 76, all of which were in the $50-$75 range. Hulk #181 was a dollar bin item (or less).

Edited July 9, 2023 by paqart

[Terry JSA]

Great story!

[Ken Aldred]

Fantastic thread.

Worlds apart from what was available to me at that time in northern England.

[lou_fine]

On 7/9/2023 at 7:38 AM, paqart said:

e difficulty had more to do with finding them than their cost, though I seem to remember that the best Frazetta covers went for as much as $75 in good shape. I wanted the Famous Funnies or Buster Crabbes, but they were much too expensive. I want to say they were about the same as FF 1 or more, like $500-$750 or so.

Unless there were regional anomalies which is always possible, I don't believe the Frazetta Famous issues were quite up at those prices yet.  

I remember the LCS downtown had what appeared to be a HG set in their window display at something like $150 to $200 for each back in the late 70's or very early 80's.  Unfortunately, my younger and stupider self back then was not yet into GA and didn't give any serious thought to picking them up at the time, even though I still to this day clearly remember how beaautiful they were looking through that window.  

According to CBM, looks like Overstreet sold his HG set (sans FF 213, 214, & 216 ) at $650 a pop back in '95 when they were guiding at something like only $265 or what amounted to almost 2.5X top of guide at the time.    

 

[lou_fine]

On 7/7/2023 at 7:36 PM, paqart said:

The highest price I paid for any comic in the 70's was the $375 for the Thun'da 1. Next highest was $175 for FF#5 and ASM 6 together, both in what I believe would grade as a 9.8. After that, I spent $250 for a box of about 175 Barks ducks, all in VF-NM condition, that included Christmas on Bear Mountain (first Scrooge) and Only a Poor Old Man (US 1). My copy of Avengers #1 cost $50. I also had a Batman #2, Comic Cavalcade #2, World's Finest 2 or 3 (I forget which) and an Action 27. The first three cost, I think, around $75 each, and the Action, which was in about 8.0 condition, cost about $200.

Well, the one silver lining in this rather sad post considering that your Mom forced you to sell your collection is that the chance of some of these early SA Marvel keys actually grading out to be 9.8 is highly unlikely.  

Especially when you take into consideration the fact that even with the new books off the shelf last week, it's still hard to get yourself a 9.8 graded book.  So, definitely would be much tougher for books from some 60 years ago, especially since some of themlike the FF 5 and the Avengers 1 have yet to even have a single copy slabbed as a CGC 9.8 graded copy after some 20+ plus years of certification.    

[lizards2]

[paqart]

On 7/9/2023 at 8:41 PM, lou_fine said:

Unless there were regional anomalies which is always possible, I don't believe the Frazetta Famous issues were quite up at those prices yet.  

I remember the LCS downtown had what appeared to be a HG set in their window display at something like $150 to $200 for each back in the late 70's or very early 80's.  Unfortunately, my younger and stupider self back then was not yet into GA and didn't give any serious thought to picking them up at the time, even though I still to this day clearly remember how beaautiful they were looking through that window.  

According to CBM, looks like Overstreet sold his HG set (sans FF 213, 214, & 216 ) at $650 a pop back in '95 when they were guiding at something like only $265 or what amounted to almost 2.5X top of guide at the time.    

 

I can believe that. I don't have my old guides any longer, so I'm just going on prices that "seemed high" to my younger self. I remember the Famous Funnies and Buster Crabbes as out of my price range. As I recall, the most expensive comic was Marvel Comics #1 at $10k. Action Comics #1 was either the same or a little less. I remember Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly #1 was around $3750. Pretty much any title that was featured on the cover of Overstreet went up that year. Hence the Barks craze in around 1976, then the Spirit, Torchy, ECs, Schomburg, etc.

[paqart]

On 7/9/2023 at 10:31 PM, lou_fine said:

Well, the one silver lining in this rather sad post considering that your Mom forced you to sell your collection is that the chance of some of these early SA Marvel keys actually grading out to be 9.8 is highly unlikely.  

Especially when you take into consideration the fact that even with the new books off the shelf last week, it's still hard to get yourself a 9.8 graded book.  So, definitely would be much tougher for books from some 60 years ago, especially since some of themlike the FF 5 and the Avengers 1 have yet to even have a single copy slabbed as a CGC 9.8 graded copy after some 20+ plus years of certification.    

I've had this conversation a few times. I think they would have been a 9.8 or 9.6 at worst. Keep in mind that I graded comics all day long at Comics and Fantasies, got called in at Recycle to grade comics (for a fee equal to 10% of whatever they paid for the comics I graded), and my boss at C&F didn't believe me until I brought them in. I compared them to comics straight out of the box from Phil Seuling, and he admitted that my FF #5 and ASM #6 were better than the new comics. He said they were "Pristine Mint", what we call a 10.0 these days. They were in better condition than any comics I owned at that time, regardless how fresh out of the box they were.

Edited July 11, 2023 by paqart

[lizards2]

On 7/10/2023 at 7:27 PM, paqart said:

I've had this conversation a few times. I think they would have been a 9.8 or 9.6 at worst. Keep in mind that I graded comics all day long at Comics and Fantasies, got called in at Recycle to grade comics (for a fee equal to 10% of whatever they paid for the comics I graded), and my boss at C&F didn't believe me until I brought them in. I compared them to comics straight out of the box from Phil Seuling, and he admitted that my FF #5 and ASM #6 were better than the new comics. He said they were "Pristine Mint", what we call a 10.0 these days. They were in better condition than any comics I owned at that time, regardless how fresh out of the box they were.

I have three ASMs that I purchased as "Pristine Mint" at a convention in Portland back in 1978/1979ish. A 16, 19 and 21 - they were pretty sweet. I probably need to pull them out some time and see. That was the same day I bought my DD 1 (about 9.0) for $55. Between the DD 1 and the three ASMs, I was out of $.

[Ken Aldred]

Never knew the Frazetta Famous Funnies covers were quite that pricey back then.

Learned something.

Didn’t really switch on to ECs and his material until the early 80s. 
 

Too much of a Marvel Zombie in my teenage years, I suppose.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[lou_fine]

On 7/9/2023 at 7:38 AM, paqart said:

At the time, I was horrified by how expensive ASM !20 and 121 were: $20 each. ASM 129 had no premium. The really expensive comics were X-Men 94, GXM #1, and Green Lantern 76, all of which were in the $50-$75 range. Hulk #181 was a dollar bin item (or less).

Clearly remember ASM 121 and 122 being the key BA Spidey's to go after, but if you are talking about BA keys back in the collecting days of the mid 70's, let's not forget about Conan 1 and especially Avengers 93 with 52 pages of stunning Adams cover to cover artwork and you was not considered to be a true collector unless you had one of these in your personal collection.    

Edited July 11, 2023 by lou_fine

[seanlinc]

On 7/8/2023 at 5:59 PM, Hschwartz said:

Great memories in this thread. Sidebottom absolutely hated kids. My brother and I were teenagers when we first went to his shop in the mid seventies. He just grunted at us if we dared to ask a question about something that we couldn't find on the shelves. When we graduated into our twenties he softened up a bit but just a little. This was a cool time to be a comic collector in the Bay Area. Right around the corner from Sidebottom was Comics and Comix plus at least two other stores sold old comics within two blocks. Then in San Francisco you had three stores that sold old comics within two miles of each other in the Sunset District by the late seventies. Hard to hold on to your money in those days because there was so many things you could buy.

 

Lol what is it with comic book store owners hating kids? I used to go to a store in Raleigh NC called tales resold in the late 70s early 80s and the owner acted like he could barely stand the fact I walked through the door. I went back to his new location in the mid 90s and he was only slightly friendlier. Spot on grader though I sent in a few that I bought there and they came back exactly how they were graded on the sleeve.

[lizards2]

On 7/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, seanlinc said:

Lol what is it with comic book store owners hating kids? I used to go to a store in Raleigh NC called tales resold in the late 70s early 80s and the owner acted like he could barely stand the fact I walked through the door. I went back to his new location in the mid 90s and he was only slightly friendlier. Spot on grader though I sent in a few that I bought there and they came back exactly how they were graded on the sleeve.

I used to spend quite a bit of time in my friend Paul's comic shop back in the late 80s.

It made me realize I couldn't stand to operate my own shop.

It would be extremely wearing to deal with the kid/nerd clientele, day in and day out.

Anyway, unless you have the right personality to enjoy such things, I think a comic shop would quickly turn most people into grumpy old coots.

[PeterPark]

I don't think you'd find many takers for trading an IF 14 35 cent variant for a 9.8 IF 14 regular version...in almost any grade.

[paqart]

On 7/11/2023 at 10:21 AM, lou_fine said:

Clearly remember ASM 121 and 122 being the key BA Spidey's to go after, but if you are talking about BA keys back in the collecting days of the mid 70's, let's not forget about Conan 1 and especially Avengers 93 with 52 pages of stunning Adams cover to cover artwork and you was not considered to be a true collector unless you had one of these in your personal collection.    

Avengers 93 was the first comic I ever owned (IIRC). I also had Conan #1, so I don't think of those as expensive. To me, they were cover price at the 7-11. I remember noticing ASM 121-122 because they were on the wall of the store I worked at for $20 each. I was surprised because the reason for the price bump was the story, not the art. That was a new concept to me. The pricing of X-Men 94 and GSXM #1 also surprised me because I had stopped buying X-Men some time after they started reprinting stories. I never had #1, but had most of the rest up to around #70. I did have GSXM #1 for some reason, but had to buy #94 after it became hot.

Edited July 11, 2023 by paqart

[WernerVonDoom]

On 7/11/2023 at 12:06 PM, PeterPark said:

I don't think you'd find many takers for trading an IF 14 35 cent variant for a 9.8 IF 14 regular version...in almost any grade.

Dollar-wise, I think around a 7.0 variant equals a 9.8 regular. That said, I think I'd rather have the variant in any grade.

[Point Five]

On 7/11/2023 at 6:30 PM, WernerVonDoom said:

Dollar-wise, I think around a 7.0 variant equals a 9.8 regular. That said, I think I'd rather have the variant in any grade.

Really? That's fascinating. Are the price variants something you've chased for a long time? Is it simply the rarity, or is there some other kind of mystique there?

Nothing against them at all, I've just never quite understood the drive to own them or the prices they command.

 

[WernerVonDoom]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:58 PM, Point Five said:

Really? That's fascinating. Are the price variants something you've chased for a long time? Is it simply the rarity, or is there some other kind of mystique there?

Nothing against them at all, I've just never quite understood the drive to own them or the prices they command.

 

Well, to each their own, but I see them as unicorns. There's 6943 graded copies of the regular version in the census. There's only 78 variants. 

[paqart]

On 7/11/2023 at 9:06 PM, WernerVonDoom said:

Well, to each their own, but I see them as unicorns. There's 6943 graded copies of the regular version in the census. There's only 78 variants. 

That makes the price variant less rare than a lot of modern newsstand editions

 

[Steven Valdez]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:19 AM, lou_fine said:

Looks like it was $600 to be exact for FF 1 in top of guide Mint, but clearly overpriced with some of the others then since AF 15 was valued at only $360, ASM 1 at $300, Hulk 1 at $240, JIM 83 at $225, and the rest of the early ones including Avengers 1 barely cracking 3-figures.  

Clearly less popular was X-Men 1 at only $60 in top of guide Mint condition, or at the exact same price point as a couple of now classic GA goodies in the form of All-American 61 with the Solomon Grundy cover and Fantastic 3 with the robot cover.  Way behind were books like Suspense 3 and Suspense 8 with the classic Cole spider cover at only $7.50 if you could actually find them at those prices which I would very much highly doubt.  As for the Frazetta books, yep his Thun'da 1 was indeed valued at $360 (i.e. same as AF 15), yet his classic Buck Rogers Famouse Funnies 209 - 216 run were listed at only $75 a pop.  

If we only had a time machine and knew what we know now, and yet like I said, although the early SA Marvels might have been available at close to those prices, I highly doubt the GA books were actually available at those listed values.  

I seem to recall that Canadian wheeler-dealer Robert Crestohl was already selling FF#1 in "pristine mint" for around $2K in the late '70s. He had about 5 variations of "mint" at the time... with mint, mint+ and pristine mint at the high end.