I went outside on Saturday night looking for the Aurora Borealis but didn’t see anything, maybe it was the big city lights, maybe I was looking south?
Our big Canadiana Auction will be running on eBay from May 19th to May 26th, some great lots are being listed so set your reminders. Our old pal Ron Hobbs dropped by last week to deliver a couple of nice tidbits for the Canadiana Auction, he also brought some beautiful pieces to show off (something he gets way too much pleasure doing if you ask me), check out his copy of Manhunt #2. He also had a beautiful copy of Diary Secrets #28 and a stunning CGC 7.5 copy of Cinderella Love #25, which I posted up on the ICE Instagram page. Ron’s a tough nut to crack, he simply refuses to entertain my very reasonable offers for the stuff, I think I just have to catch him after a bad streak at the race track.
Just to show Ron who’s boss I’ve decided to ignore his Manhunt #2 and choose Detective Comics #359 as our cover of the week, its a book a consignor has given us to actually sell, we will run on an upcoming icecollectibles eBay auction. Here’s a question, is this a classic cover? It is certainly a very recognizable cover, a cover that has been homaged countless times, the question I have is – is this a great cover, a classic cover? I like it when the 1st appearance of a character happens on the cover and on Detective Comics #359 Batgirl is front and centre. My vote is that it is an OK cover, one that is helped a lot by the importance of the book, it is not a classic cover.
From the pages of Detective Comics #359 we get our ad of the week. I got a bit of deja vu with this ad so apologies if I ran this in the past. I’d like to know how Captain Action got the rights to make Captain America, Batman, Superman and Lone Ranger outfits, I’d also like to know the collectability of this this toy, is it worth tons?
Just in case I did run that ad above before I’ll give you this beautiful ad from the back cover of Die Kitty Die #1 (problem is this one is giving me a deja vu too – all over again). Strange Adventures is a great comic shop out in Eastern Canada, Halifax Nova Scotia to be exact, hey Callum, I hope to make it out there one day). This ad is an homage to those Art Deco travel posters from the 1920s, gorgeous!
Our latest weekly icecollectibles eBay auction ended with some great results and not so great results, I was disappointed in our Amazing Spider-Man #78 CGC 7.0 which sold for $152.50 well below the $215 it one got in February, but when I look at a just in May result for a CGC 7.5 of $204 I don’t feel as bad. I was happy with how our raw copy of Batman #181 did, it earned $665 putting it close to the graded value, yes the magic of raw comics!!
Sorry to hear about your ASM#78 – that is a low price for what should be a book that would have got a big spike off the Spider-Verse movies (Not that the 1st app of the Prowler relates to the Ultimate Comics version of the Prowler…).
It correlates to the latest ComicLink auction I participated in..I ended up with 3 ASM’s (#59, 79, 86, 8.0 and 8.5s) at very historical low prices, I was a bit shocked I won! Now, I know that 4 instances of pre-#100 ASMs going for 30% less than FMV isn’t much of an sample size: but I will say, if early ASM slumps, well, for me that’s a warning of the entire market..early ASM are our blue chips, if they get decrease in prices…everyone run for the hills, panic, the hobby is DOOMED (and I’ll sit here calm and keep on buying)!
My favourite discovery & purchase for the week: Roy Thomas and Neal Adams joined forces after the Avengers Kree War run and did Amazing Adventures (Vol.2) issue #5 with the Inhumans story with the other half of the book being Black Widow drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Bill Everett (really enjoyed Colan and Everett doing Spider-man in Cap #137). A nice tight copy: $8.50. My hopes are high for this one folks, it’s ticking all my boxes.
Spider, ASMs have been on a slow slide like the rest of the Silver Bronze books but they seemed to drop less thank the others. Our ASM #2 we sold 2 weeks ago got about 98% of last sale so that was a sigh of relief, our ASM #300, bucked the last sale of $2601 and bounced back over $3000,another good sign. I’m like you, I think the sample size is too small for concrete conclusions, and I’m like you in reveling in the low prices as a buyer! And nice tight copies are the only way to go pal.
I too can agree thise late silver/early bronze Spidies in the 59-79 range were not stellar sellers compared to earlier or later issues. While the artwork by Romita was great, I found the storylines were not as exciting which may add to their lower prices. I loved the Anazing Adventures as well Spider, but for some reason they also don’t command very high prices and are a bargain (at least my customers found that to be true)! Love that Mountie back cover Walt! I wonder are there people who put their back covers on display?
Romita’s output of new villains from #51 and up was disappointing, maybe that weighs on the values of books from that part of the run. Yeah, that back cover is worthy of display, perhaps we need to feature great back covers now and again, nice one Gerald !
a celebration of back covers…
I could get behind that!
We always say down here that a good rear is to be admired & appreciated!!!