Remember the days when people paid huge money for old comic books? 2 2

[Telegan]

On 9/12/2023 at 4:19 PM, lou_fine said:

Well, still not quite as good as Nvidia where you would be sitting on around $325 million if you had brought it when it first came out in 1999.  One of the much vaunted Magnificant 7 this year and also one of the very small handful of trillion dollar companies, and most of all, one which some financial experts thinks will have no problem doing another double in the years to come with AI coming in like a storm.  

Then again, you could have invested the $180K into something like Enron, Worldcom, or for the Canuckleheads on these boards here, Nortel, whereby if you did, you would be sitting on a big pile of toxic smelling doggie dodo to show for it.  Yeah, I still remember all of the financial whiz kids spouting Nortel as a Strong Buy when it already had a bigger market cap than all five of Canada's chartered banks combined and its market cap also represented more than 30% of the entire Toronto Stock Exchange all on its own.    

Weird.  I turned down offers from Enron and Worldcom to work there and decided to move out of my city and work elsewhere.  I also worked on a giant Nortel campus after they decided to sell a lot of the buildings as they collapsed.  Funny thing about that is the company that took over at least a couple of the buildings also got caught up in a mortgage fallout years later and they collapsed as well.  Maybe I'm the problem. lol. 

I remember holding Apple stock back in 1998-2000 or so and constantly trading it because I was a "day trader" (lol).  Then when I had doubled my money, I said I had made enough and exited like a wise "trader".  I think my split-adjusted valuation of the stock was probably about $0.50-$0.90 back then.  I did get back into the stock over a decade ago and have held onto it since.

If you want to play around with "what if" scenarios, you can use this site : they include split adjustments and dividends.  Not sure if they reinvest the dividends or not : https://finmasters.com/stock-calculator

Have I mentioned I hate these threads that show prices of comic books from decades ago.  It just reminds me of the times when I couldn't afford them anyway, so I'd stare the yellow Mile High Comics ad in the middle of the book and pretend I had them all. lol.

[Telegan]

On 9/12/2023 at 10:11 AM, MattTheDuck said:

In either case, I'd actually have $250,000 and all the comic books I'd like to have.

Yeah, I think after a certain amount, I'd be happy with my Punch Comics #12, Blue Bolt #115, etc. in the highest grades possible.  I'd be the guy bidding 3x GPA for everything because .... why not?

[lou_fine]

On 9/11/2023 at 2:13 PM, WolverineX said:

That's probably true.  180k in apple stock is probably insane now

Try telling that to Ronald Wayne, one of the three co-founders of Apple who sold his 10% share of the company back to to a begrudingly Jobs and Wozniak for a whopping $800, even after Jobs couldn't convince him to stay with the company.    

Needless to say, he would have had a nice return since his $800 sale back to Jobs and Wozniak would be worth well over $250 billion dollars today.  Now, that's totally insane, although Wayne says he has no regrets as that was the best decision for him at the time given his age, his job interests, and his risk adverse personality.  

[lou_fine]

On 9/11/2023 at 4:49 PM, Robot Man said:

On 9/10/2023 at 9:16 PM, sartrexpress said:

Bill Hughes at one time had the Sup 1 mile high 8.0 restored. priced about 50k . color touch was removed

My understanding was it went from Church to Chuck who sold it to Redbeard who sold it to Bechara. I didn’t know Hughes figured into the picture. I know it was unrestored while in Redbeard’s ownership. 

Are you sure that Snyder also didn't figured into the picture somewhere along the line because I thought he had purchased the majority of the Church DC keys as he had direct access to Chuck via his annual preferred buyers list?  

Then again, I also believe that Redbeard himself was also up near the top of Chuck's annual preferred buyers list and might have nab the Supes 1 for himself before Snyder got to it.  

[lou_fine]

On 9/12/2023 at 9:41 AM, aardvark88 said:

Collector's Book Store in Hollywood, CA, USA circa 1968(?) mail order ad. Pic courtesy of Bob Beerbohm's FB. Fantastic Comics #3 nm at a lofty $17.50.

Is it just me or is it my failing eyes since I can't seem to see that copy of Fantastic 3 for $17.50 in your list above?  

From looking at that list of the early Master's with the much sought after Raboy covers, it would appear that Master 27 with the iconic "V For Victory" classic cover must have been just as elusive back then as it is today since there's a noticeable gap in there within the Master 20 - 30 run.  

[lou_fine]

On 9/11/2023 at 9:34 PM, N e r V said:

That price actually sounds about right. I was still building inventory in 1986 which was about 3 years before I started doing mail order. I bought 2 copies of Fantastic Four #1 that year. One was around 1k or more that would grade out today as a high NM. I picked up a reader copy for myself in VG+ for $150.00 in the same deal. I want that issue of Top Dog now. Lol. What comic and issue is that???

 

On 9/11/2023 at 9:48 PM, tth2 said:

A NM copy of FF 1 was worth way more than $1200 in 1986.

How sure are you about that because that was 1986 and $1,200 might actually sound a tad on the high side to me for FF 1?   

After all, you have to remember that top of guide in Mint condition for FF 1 was set at only $1,100 back in 1986 and that was after all of the SA Marvel keys had basically gone absolutely nowhere at all in guide from the start of the 80's right through to '86 except for a slight downward drop in the case of FF 1.  Plus we all know how Overstreet hates to show drops in his guide, so to have the SA Marvel keys going through a bit of a down draft during that time period would not have been surprising with '86 possibly being rock bottom as guide prices started to move back up from '87 onwards before the big SA price explosion at the turn of the decade.  

I remember being offered a supposedly absolutely HG run of Spidey 2 through 10 for only $1,000 (i.e. just slightly below top of Mint guide) back in that same time period and given a couple of weeks to make my mind up about it.  Got a phone call back from the comic broker a short week later saying that another buyer got wind of the books and wanted to purchase the set, and as a result, needed me to make up my mind in the next day or so.  Clearly, I made the wrong choice as I was just starting to get my foot wet with vintage comics at the time and said "NO" simply because it was missing the Spidey 1 from the set, as I did't even know about AF 15 at the time.  

To this day, still my biggest regret in terms of a non-purchase (after all, who gives a crapola about that toxic looking TMNT 1 for a super ridiculous $300 back then ) and not so much for the financial missed opportunity, but for all of those key Spidey villians first appearances that would still be residing in my personal collection to this day.    

 

[N e r V]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:54 PM, lou_fine said:

 

How sure are you about that because that was 1986 and $1,200 might actually sound a tad on the high side to me for FF 1?   

After all, you have to remember that top of guide in Mint condition for FF 1 was set at only $1,100 back in 1986 and that was after all of the SA Marvel keys had basically gone absolutely nowhere at all in guide from the start of the 80's right through to '86 except for a slight downward drop in the case of FF 1.  Plus we all know how Overstreet hates to show drops in his guide, so to have the SA Marvel keys going through a bit of a down draft during that time period would not have been surprising with '86 possibly being rock bottom as guide prices started to move back up from '87 onwards before the big SA price explosion at the turn of the decade.  

I remember being offered a supposedly absolutely HG run of Spidey 2 through 10 for only $1,000 (i.e. just slightly below top of Mint guide) back in that same time period and given a couple of weeks to make my mind up about it.  Got a phone call back from the comic broker a short week later saying that another buyer got wind of the books and wanted to purchase the set, and as a result, needed me to make up my mind in the next day or so.  Clearly, I made the wrong choice as I was just starting to get my foot wet with vintage comics at the time and said "NO" simply because it was missing the Spidey 1 from the set, as I did't even know about AF 15 at the time.  

To this day, still my biggest regret in terms of a non-purchase (after all, who gives a crapola about that toxic looking TMNT 1 for a super ridiculous $300 back then ) and not so much for the financial missed opportunity, but for all of those key Spidey villians first appearances that would still be residing in my personal collection to this day.    

 

I think one impact that CGC did have besides setting the collecting fields position on things like restoration is it brought a bit more stabilization with pricing. Yes you can argue the point that first happened in 1970 with the first Overstreet guide which by the way was also super controversial in the beginning just like CGC was. But after Overstreet we still had good, fine and mint as our 3 grades on the scale and later some in between grades. So what that meant is you first had to agree on a books grade before you could agree on pricing. CGC at least reduced some of that argument between buyers and sellers. Well into the 1990’s I saw sellers trying to push mid grades as higher grades. So prices could fluctuate more than today. It was always a problem getting to a price if you  couldn’t get past a grade agreement first.

I might get hate mail on this but most people can’t grade accurately either. Yes grading in general is highly subjective but virtually everyone in the past up to today that I’ve bought regularly from I allow points up or down to how they grade on their scale. It just is that way. Same with pricing. I know from experience who’s reasonable, who’s high and who not to bother with.

Lou Fine, everyone who’s collected for any amount of time will share their regrets with yesterdays prices. The angst is built in with this hobby…

[lou_fine]

On 9/12/2023 at 4:07 PM, aardvark88 said:

Yes, I used to work for Nortel Networks and my company stock went from $176 each down to 87c Canadian.

I thought the numbers were actually a high of around $125 when analysts were still calling it a Strong Buy and then finally (albeit way too late) having the smarts to switch it to a Strong Sell when it hit something like $2, before it eventually became a worthless POS on your monthly statement after it went through bankruptcy proceedings.  

Seriously though, sorry to hear that you was one of the nearly 100,000 Nortel employees that got hit hard by their closure after being North America's biggest maker of telephone equipment and one of the world's Top 10 most valuable corporations at its peak.  Hope you managed to get out of there with some money and your corporate pension was not tied up in their worthless stock.  Can't remember the reason for their bankruptcy, but probably overburdened with way too much debt and if I remember correctly, also issues with some big accounting scandals affecting the company.      

Edited September 13, 2023 by lou_fine

[N e r V]

Here’s a Overstreet price bulletin from 1986 for the market for curiosity sake’s.

[Cat-Man_America]

On 9/13/2023 at 12:34 AM, N e r V said:

Here’s a Overstreet price bulletin from 1986 for the market for curiosity sake’s.

If Bob horsed around a little & titled it OVERSTREET'S PONY UP EXPRESS his bulletin might've had a longer track record. 

[lou_fine]

On 9/12/2023 at 10:34 PM, N e r V said:

Here’s a Overstreet price bulletin from 1986 for the market for curiosity sake’s.

Yeah, just take a look at that Top 10 SA chart there with a ton of DC's in there and Adventure 247 with the first Legion leading all SA books.  

What a contrast to today whereby FF 2 is clearly no longer the second most valuable issue of FF and ahead of FF 5 with the first Doctor Doom.  Heck just take a look at BB1 and JLA 1 rounding out the Top 10 and coming in ahead of BB 28 with the first appearance of the Justice League.  Go figure that!!!  

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

On 9/12/2023 at 1:23 PM, N e r V said:

You can can find a lot of information about him from wiki to any number of anime sites but to break his impact in anime down to cup half full and half empty on the positive side he had a tremendous impact on making anime a mainstream product in the west. Robotech was a major mover of the genre in the 1980’s and with Streamline a lot of things arrived here for US consumption. Why he’s controversial is what changes he would do to the product by westernizing the anime. So For some he gets his credit bringing anime to the masses but for many fans he destroyed much of it in order to bring it here. I kind of ride both sides of the coin. I started buying anime stuff and seeing him at anime panels promoting it way back in the 1980’s and well into the 1990’s. I have no idea when I realized he was one of the guys I dealt with at American Comic Book company in the 1970’s. Robotman might know but I think he was involved in another comic book store too. 21st Century comics in Orange I think. Either way he was an important figure of our genres and I was sad to see anyone pass that young regardless. Another face I miss seeing at cons…

The original Astro Boy cartoons that were made for the US market also were somewhat modified. I don't think this is quite as controversial. It was amazing to think we got to watch Astro Boy, Gigantor, Simba and Speed Racer from Japan on US UHF television back then. I loved all those shows as they were much more interesting than the US cartoon fare being served up at the time. OK Looney Tunes was pretty good but most of the rest was pap.

[pemart1966]

On 9/8/2023 at 11:46 AM, shadroch said:

I guess it depended on where you lived. I remember visiting my grandmother in Queens around 1967, and my temporary best friend and I would go bottle hunting. I don't recall what they were worth, but the bigger ones were grails. We made almost nothing, and after a week I let him hunt solo. 

In my jurisdiction, the small ones were worth 2 cents while the larger ones were worth 5 cents. I  don't remember ever having found a 5 center.

[Robot Man]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:18 PM, lou_fine said:

Are you sure that Snyder also didn't figured into the picture somewhere along the line because I thought he had purchased the majority of the Church DC keys as he had direct access to Chuck via his annual preferred buyers list?  

Then again, I also believe that Redbeard himself was also up near the top of Chuck's annual preferred buyers list and might have nab the Supes 1 for himself before Snyder got to it.  

As I have said a couple times before, I am not 100% sure. It was a long time ago. I believe Ron bought it from Chuck. If it is that important, ask him. He loves to talk about the old days and is probably a lot sharper than I am. Or track down Snyder although I would believe Ron more.

At the end of the day, what difference does it make? I’ll never own it, neither will you or 99% of the rest of us. I’d rather concentrate on books I actually might be able to own.

And yeah, he bought a lot of Church books from Chuck. Not really the keys but a ton of “smaller books”. He had a vision that these were special and time had proved him right. 

[Robot Man]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:24 PM, lou_fine said:

Is it just me or is it my failing eyes since I can't seem to see that copy of Fantastic 3 for $17.50 in your list above?  

From looking at that list of the early Master's with the much sought after Raboy covers, it would appear that Master 27 with the iconic "V For Victory" classic cover must have been just as elusive back then as it is today since there's a noticeable gap in there within the Master 20 - 30 run.  

Oh, it’s there grouped with 2-5. 
And, back then, other than GA DC, Timely, Barks ducks and stuff like Flash Gordon, Tarzan and other newspaper strip characters were undiscovered and undesired.

Times have indeed changed in 50 years…

Edited September 13, 2023 by Robot Man

[N e r V]

On 9/13/2023 at 12:34 AM, 50YrsCollctngCmcs said:

The original Astro Boy cartoons that were made for the US market also were somewhat modified. I don't think this is quite as controversial. It was amazing to think we got to watch Astro Boy, Gigantor, Simba and Speed Racer from Japan on US UHF television back then. I loved all those shows as they were much more interesting than the US cartoon fare being served up at the time. OK Looney Tunes was pretty good but most of the rest was pap.

I wasn’t old enough to see any of those in their original runs but watched all of them growing up in the 1970’s. Gigantor was one of the earliest I remember and the theme song is burned into my memories. I was the perfect age to watch Speed Racer. It was on after school ended when I was in the 7-10 age group. Along with the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon it had one of the best theme songs ever. Had no clue it was Japanese or what anime was at that age but knew it was different because it had some degree on story progression and a real ending where Speed confronted Racer X about his identity. Cartoons didn’t do things like that. 
 

Those were the pioneers of anime. The Japanese invasion would begin in the 1980’s with Robotech and friends. As US cartoons continued to fall behind in quality the Japanese anime introduced us to something different in what cartoons could actually be. Besides the trickle of anime being imported into the US colleges and others began dubbing projects and bootleg VHS tapes of anime began to circulate before western companies could buy rights. It was anime’s Wild West period and it was fantastic to experience at the time. I had tons of unauthorized bootleg tapes I’d watch with friends and girlfriends at late night parties playing role playing games or whatever was on the ticket for the evening. So many of us got introduced to stuff that way.  

Edited September 13, 2023 by N e r V

[lou_fine]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:24 PM, lou_fine said:

Is it just me or is it my failing eyes since I can't seem to see that copy of Fantastic 3 for $17.50 in your list above?  

 

 

On 9/13/2023 at 7:41 AM, Robot Man said:

Oh, it’s there grouped with 2-5. 

Thanks again and like I said, it INDEED are my failing eyes in my advancing years.    

[aardvark88]

On 9/13/2023 at 9:28 AM, lou_fine said:

 

 and like I said, it INDEED are my failing eyes in my advancing years.    

U were just addled and thought the Collector's Book Shop listing was for FF #1 nm $30 but that would have been a rich price for 1968 mail order rather than GA Fantastic Comics # 1.

Edited September 13, 2023 by aardvark88
sp.

[Bronty]

On 9/13/2023 at 1:34 AM, N e r V said:

Here’s a Overstreet price bulletin from 1986 for the market for curiosity sake’s.

boy does that bring back memories

[N e r V]

On 9/13/2023 at 10:00 AM, Bronty said:

boy does that bring back memories

Sure does. Indy comics were in full swing and comics changed with Dark Knight, Watchmen and Born Again. For me this was really the beginning of the Copper or “dark age” in comics…