Fantastic Four Collecting Thread! 32 32

[Corvonie]

One of my favorite ishes.  Namor is like "Does the fiancee convey?"

[WernerVonDoom]

[jayhawker]

[Straw-Man]

[Math Teacher]

[KirbyJack]

[Corvonie]

Some of Jack's best and most subtle early facial expression work (the apotheosis for me is probably the crazy sour doom face), and still - it seems - the uncredited god tier coloring of Stan Goldberg

[Corvonie]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:23 AM, KirbyJack said:

Ah, a subscription crease.  My single favorite defect.  I'll take it any day over spine wear and it knocks down the price so much!

[WernerVonDoom]

[MattTheDuck]

I'd be in today, but I declined a $10 remaindered copy of this book in 1974.

Very nice books, everyone!

[jayhawker]

[KirbyJack]

On 4/10/2024 at 2:27 PM, MattTheDuck said:

I'd be in today, but I declined a $10 remaindered copy of this book in 1974.

Very nice books, everyone!

1974?

I'd have turned it down, too.

[MattTheDuck]

On 4/10/2024 at 1:31 PM, KirbyJack said:

1974?

I'd have turned it down, too.

Might have been 1975 - all I know is I had to have my mom drive me over to look at it so it had to be before 1976.  I had previously told the LCS owner that I was looking for some older Silver Age books like that one but by that time I had all the chewed-up, low grade books I needed (all of which, of course, I still have).  Man, was I disappointed.  What I wanted was reasonably nice, complete books, but after I turned the #10 down, he never called me again although I continued shopping there for a few more years.

[KirbyJack]

I started getting serious in 1988, and I had put out an APB on FF 1. I got a call a couple of months later, but with the opposite problem: the book was too nice! VF, $900, and I had the money !

    I turned it down.
The most I had spent up to that point was $75, and my family thought I was nuts to do that. It was the biggest regret of my comic life, and the last time I let public opinion make a decision for me. 

[gunsmokin]

On 4/7/2024 at 8:53 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

No one can beat Kirby’s FF portrayal, but he really didn’t hit the ground running on them. His initial portrayals are third image below.. By issue 40 he was hitting on all cylinders . But I actually think I like Ditko’s initial portrayals better. Is it just me?

I think some of that depends on the inker but I love Ditko’s inks over Kirby pencils in FF 13.

[MattTheDuck]

On 4/10/2024 at 2:28 PM, KirbyJack said:

I started getting serious in 1988, and I had put out an APB on FF 1. I got a call a couple of months later, but with the opposite problem: the book was too nice! VF, $900, and I had the money !

    I turned it down.
The most I had spent up to that point was $75, and my family thought I was nuts to do that. It was the biggest regret of my comic life, and the last time I let public opinion make a decision for me. 

I just never had a shot at any books like that, sad to say, but I was way too passive.  The most I paid during my "first phase" of collecting was $30 for a really nice ASM #94 and $25 for a JIM #113 that was marked as "Fine."  Almost every other back issue I bought from 1973-1978 was $1.00 or less, but again, the quality of most of these books is not particularly high.  It was not until 1992 that I breached the three-digit barrier when I had another brief burst of collecting and picked up a very, very nice ASM #19 for $100 when, on a whim while on a work trip, I stopped at an LCS in the southern part of the State.

[Lee Enterprises]

On 4/10/2024 at 5:28 PM, KirbyJack said:

I started getting serious in 1988, and I had put out an APB on FF 1. I got a call a couple of months later, but with the opposite problem: the book was too nice! VF, $900, and I had the money !

    I turned it down.
The most I had spent up to that point was $75, and my family thought I was nuts to do that. It was the biggest regret of my comic life, and the last time I let public opinion make a decision for me. 

Thanks for sharing that (painful) story because it's so relatable. I've also had to rehearse in my mind many deals that didn't happen because I didn't yes to the offer. For me, items I sold that I should have kept have been a bigger source of pain (like when I sold a FF 1 that was beat but complete for $200...a little tear welling up as I type). Whenever possible I try to buy that book I missed out on or sold in a slightly higher grade or with a signature or pedigree so that the  replacement is "better". At least that's the mind game I play. Obviously, that's easier said than done when it comes to big ticket books. 

Edited April 11 by Lee Enterprises
typos

[Corvonie]

willie lumpkin!

Edited April 11 by Corvonie

[Math Teacher]

[Straw-Man]