A Tale of Two 9.2s

I've been in the market for a 9.0 or better copy of Amazing Spider-man 151 for some time. I recall having this book as a kid -- in fact I still have my beater original copy. It's a pricey book in high grade due to the fact that the dark cover is notorious for showing the slightest spine stress. A CGC 9.8 copy recently sold on ebay for around $1,000. Obviously, that is way out of what I want to spend on this book, but one can occasionally find a 9.2ish copy for a small fraction of the 9.8 price.

So, I ordered a copy advertised as 9.2 from a major metropolitan dealer. At first glance, it looked great.

But then my eye caught this on the right edge:

Obviously, a 9.2 NM- can't have a 2 inch thumb crease and a tear. So, I sent it back.

Next, I found a 9.2 copy being advertised by SoCal Comics. A gorgeous true 9.2... I'm not crazy about miswraps, but I can live with this one:

High Grade Bronze

I've been thinking about my collecting goals and, more and more, it seems like Silver Age comics are not the way to go. High grade Silver Age is prohibitively expensive to anyone making less than 6 figures a year, and the midgrade stuff just doesn't have much of a future in my opinion. I have boxes and boxes of nice midgrade Silver Age books I bought in the 80s and 90s and I'd be lucky to recoup my original price paid today.

These are not new thoughts to me and this is why I started collecting low/midgrade Golden Age Action/Superman comics a few years ago. There appears to be great demand for these books and one doesn't have to be so grade conscious... a 5.0 is a very respectable grade for these books and my thinking is there will be long term demand for them, unlike midgrade Silver which is just too common.

Another area I've begun focusing on is high grade Bronze books -- specifically the series that I first read as a kid getting into comics. Stuff like 2001, Super Villain Team-Up, Machine Man, and Spider Woman. These books can be obtained in high grade for prices that us mere mortals can afford.

So, the next question is, 9.8 only or 9.4 and 9.6 as well? What is "high grade" in the Bronze Age? I'm going to try for 9.8s, but when nice 9.6 presents themselves for a fraction of the 9.8 price, I can live with a 9.6. Frankly, I believe that 9.6s and 9.8s are very close to being interchangeable and the difference is so minimal that I don't have a lot of confidence anyone could consistently differentiate between the two anyway.

So, let's start off with the latest acquisition: Super-Villain Team-Up #8...

Have You Seen the Fantastic Four #1 That Was Stolen From Me?

I know this is a long shot and it happened years ago, but I just found some images on a disc... so here goes.

This copy of Fantastic Four #1 was stolen from me in an ebay transaction that occured on May 12, 2003. Supposedly, hijacked ebay and Paypal user IDs were used and the transaction was charged back to me well over a month after I shipped the book.

The book was shipped to the verified Paypal address which was:
Trey McDaniel
26849 172nd pl SE
Covington, WA 98042
User ID: trey-autumn
Name: The Silver Age

McDaniel later claimed that it wasn't him, he never received the book and someone else was using his accounts.

So, on the off chance anyone ever runs across this copy of FF #1, please let me know. I originally purchased it from Stephen Ritter and it grades about GOOD+ in my opinion. It has very distinctive water damage/chipping on the bottom edge of the back cover.

A NOD to the Network of Disclosure

Regular readers know that I have devoted a great deal of effort in fighting fraud in the collectibles hobbies. I am an investigator for the UACC Ethics Board, I've published articles on fraud and forgery, and I've done my best to educate autograph and comic collectors about the various scams and pitfalls that are all too common.

I have recently joined the Network of Disclosure (NOD.)

NOD's pledge is simple: To promote Integrity, Security and Education between the Seller and the Buyer of any comic book.

It's a good organization with honorable goals... you can learn more at the Network of Disclosure website.

I also recommend that you support NOD dealers whenever possible.

CGC Grading and the State of the Hobby

A few weeks ago, Skybolt (Ed) made a great post on the CGC Message Boards. With his permission, here it is:

...we as collectors need to evolve beyond this current state of the hobby. If a CGC graded book can double in value from $10,000 to $20,000 by erasing a small smudge of dirt and raising the grade by a couple of notches, then something is wrong. I truly believe that eventually reality will catch up with perception, and people will wake up to the fact that they're shelling out thousands of hard earned dollars for a minor press job or dry cleaning, to raise a book's value 2-fold. This realization will ultimately have a huge impact on the state of the hobby once collectors are informed about what an 8.5 vs. 9.2 CGC graded copy really entails.

I mean it's like basically taking an authentic vase, that's in great condition, and rubbing off the dirt to increase its price from $100,000 to $200,000! For instance, if I asked a bunch of high end collectors to step into a room and handed them a nice looking CGC graded 8.0 copy of ASM #1, and said this will cost you $10,000. As they reached for their wallet, I tell them to hold on a second. I grab the book, erase a few dirt smudges and apply some minor pressing in front of everyone. I then grab the book and hand it over to a CGC grader. Since they have to go through the proper protocol and grade the book in front of them, they hand the book back to me with a 9.0 grade. I then turn around to the same potential buyer and say the book will now cost you $30,000. How many buyers would jump at the chance to pay that amount when they saw the procedure being performed first hand?!

I'm sick and tired of blaming CGC, dealers, etc. for what they perceive to be a legitimate cause, instead of bringing the truth to the masses. It's just too hard to investigate every little hole or crack. I'm not talking about putting down the main players for using this system to their advantage, but basically revealing what's behind the curtain so everyone can see. I can understand that CGC only grades the book in front of them, and I can even understand certain dealers using the current system to their benefit. I'm not even questioning how the book can go up in grade with this manipulation. But my point is that what does the CGC grade really mean, and should it have as much emphasis as whether or not a book has great QP, centered pages, great gloss, etc. There's no reason why an ugly looking 7.0 Fiction House copy with extremely faded colors should sell for more than a nice looking 5.0 copy that has great gloss, excellent presentation, but with a few non-color breaking creases, and a 1/4" tear. That's not CGC's fault, but ours for blindly following the grades given.

People should utilize CGC's grading to their own benefit and not the other way around. I truly believe that in time the CGC grade would matter to the potential buyer, but its significance would drop to maybe 25% to 50% of what the they're really looking for. When all is said and done, what makes the most sense is usually accepted by the collecting community. Hopefully, that day could be reached soon and people start educating themselves so they are aware of their surroundings.

Forever In My Heart

Yes, it's hard to believe that it's been 5 years. In so many ways it seems like yesterday... the day is so crystalized in my mind.

Yet in other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago and it has been a very long 5 years.

Time passes so quickly.

Treasury Comics Checklist with Scans

Here's a neat site. You'll have to deal with the annoying Angelfire popups, but it's worth the hassle.

Treasury Comics: Oversized Comics Checklist with Scans

Superman Returns... WOW!

It's kind of spooky hearing the voice of the late Marlon Brando speaking as Jor-El, Superman's dead father.

Here is the 2:33 international trailer...

Ghost Rider Trailer

Ghost Rider and the effects look pretty decent, but it is scheduled for February release.

Never a good sign.

It's The Pocket Comics' Fault

Way back in the day long before Masterworks reprints, trade paperbacks and the like, there were few ways a 9 year old Zipper could read Amazing Fantasy 15 and the first six issues of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Enter, the paperback-sized Pocket Comics by Pocket Books.

Each $1.95 issue contained exact reprints of the six issues of the glorious beginnings of Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Captain America and others.

I read these treasures over and over and over again until the spines cracked and the pages fell out. I practically memorized the first appearances of The FF, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Submariner and the Sandman to name a few.

The seeds of the obsession from which I suffer today were sown in 1977 when my eager hands clutched the first Pocket Comics.

At the time, the books reprinted in these volumes seemed like an impossibility... treasures that I would certainly never be able to afford. My God, at the time, the first issue of Fantastic Four probably would have cost more than $100. An incomprehensible sum to someone whose allowance was probably 50 cents a week.

Here we are, almost 30 years later, and I have every issue ever printed of the Fantastic Four. I liked Spider-Man, but for whatever reason, the FF resonated more with me and that's the series I slowly collected, issue by issue.

By the time I finished my Fantastic Four run, Spider-Man was the most popular comic on the planet and collecting the run -- in any sort of decent condition -- wasn't financially realistic.

(Of course, with my completionist nature, the notion of collecting only **some** issues never entered my mind.)

But, I have adapted my collecting and decided that if I couldn't have every issue of Spider-Man, I could get a few that I really wanted.

Of issues 1- 6, issue number 6 was always my favorite read... and I've always had an itch to have a decent copy of this issue.

The cover trumpets, Half-Man, Half-Reptile... The Lizard Will Take Over All Of The Earth Unless Spider-Man Alone Can Stop Him! And, The Marvel Age Of Comics Is Here!

How exciting it must have been to pick up one of these fresh off a news stand in 1963!

Well, recently I finally picked up my copy. Forty three years after it was on a newsstand and 29 years after I first read my Pocket Comic which contained every wonderful page of Face-To-Face With The Lizard!

Showing Off, Again.

Ok, I've shared pics of this this book before, but they were digital pics taken at an angle. So, I finally got a scan of it on a legal sized scanner (Shhh... don't tell my employer what I was doing back in the graphic design department at lunch.)

The scan isn't as crisp and bright as the book actually appears... I sense the scanner is on its last leg.

As you've probably surmised, this is one of my favorites.

My First Nedor

I've been drooling over all the juicy Nedors on the CGC Message Boards Gold Comics Section for a long time. The Schomburg war covers featured on many Nedor titles dovetail in nicely with my interest in the Action Comics war covers.

So, I finally picked up my first Nedor with a Schomburg cover. It's not a war cover, but it's a doozy anyway. Bondage, Headlights, Human Sacrifice, Satanic Half-Human, Half-Animal priests, KKK type robes and Schomburg... what more could a comic geek want?

Fighting Yank #11, March 1945