Wizard Philly: the dirty lowdown part 1

[namisgr]

What better excuse is there to take a day off from work than to attend the Philly show? Decent crowds for a Friday, although things were a wee bit quiet at the tables of some of the bigtime dealers.

 

There was little apparent softening of prices on high grade early Silver Age Marvels. More on the comics, the pageantry, and the most enjoyable times spent with forum members in part 2. Now it's time to show off my key purchase of the con. It is the first time I've owned this ish, and it completes my run of X-Men from 1-66. Cover colors are exceptional and page quality OW/W, but it has a few corner creases (large one URFC and small one LRFC), some spine stressing, a very small chunk is missing from the back cover, and the staples have begun to rust. Bought it from Joe Vereneault in a part cash part trade deal. I'm a happy camper!

 

 

[esquirecomics]

Fantastic!

[Forbush-Man]

Color's are beautiful.

[divad]

Congrats!

 

I've been lucky enough to have two copies pass through my hands

[PUNYHUMAN]

Congrats!! That's a sharp copy! That book is special to me ,brings back memories . My Wife bought me a copy for Christmas in the early 90's .

[Thegoldenage]

Nice book!

 

It was cool finally meeting you yesterday.

 

Brian

[RedSkull]

 

Nice purchase.

[KingOfRulers]

Great copy! And congratulations on finishing the run. If you have any extras in that #1-66 run let me know. That is quite an accomplishment. It is not often you actually hear of someone completing anything.

[namisgr]

I could only attend Wizard on Friday, so my impressions might not reflect how the show went over the weekend.

 

While there were as many people waiting to get in Friday morning as I remember from years past, the high end comic dealer tables had very little action. Don't know if prices on high grade Silver and Bronze are finally turning people off, new collectors just aren't entering the hobby, or the number of East Coast shows is at saturation with the new one at the Javitz. By mid-day, many of the dealers were looking none too pleased with their infinite free time behind their tables.

 

Ted, Bob, Joe V and Harley each had some cool new stuff, but the only new collection I came across was being offered by North Coast Nostalgia, the guy who brought the Cleveland collection to market. He had a large mid-Silver to Bronze original owner collection with alot of stunning cover colors and page quality. Dealers took much of his stock even before the show began. One gets the feeling that few new original owner collections are surfacing any more, even encompassing the late sixties time period.

 

Somehow I always manage to spend my entire con budget within a day, and this year was no exception. Just as much fun was hooking up with forum members and getting the chance to meet some for the first time. Had enjoyable lunch and a Vietnamese dinner that collectively included Brian (Foolkiller), his lovely friend Mary Ann, (Bronze)Bruce, Greg(gy), Brian (Thegoldenage), Nikos(61) and Tom Gordon. I especially enjoyed seeing the masters of the ultra high-grade Bruce and Greg go through what was left of the new North Coast collection. These guys are incredibly, uh, discerning (anal?), and know that sweating all the details is everything with high grade. Also enjoyed hearing the stories of the hunt from Brian and his GA posse from Connecticut. And of course we just had to spend some of the time sharing horror stories about certain well-known online comic auctioneers/sellers.

 

Besides the X1, I picked up a few early Ditko Strange Tales upgrades, a couple of ten cent DCs, an Atlas with an awesome Kirby cover, and a yellow armor TOS missing from my run. Here are some of them:

 

 

 

 

[Samurai-Bill]

You Sir have a good eye for comics !!

[tth2]

NIce pick ups, bob!

[rube11]

That ST 125 has one of the brightest colors/inks I have ever seen on that book!

 

Steve

[-cryptkeeper-]

incredible colors nice pick up congrats