Happy Family Day fellow Canucks and happy Presidents Day to the US of A. It’s nice having a long weekend. Long ago I decided the Monday off is better than the Friday off. On a regular Friday we’re all feeling good enough already so getting it off as part of a three-day weekend diminishes the returns in my view, whereas most of us are miserable on a Monday, we need more three-day weekends!!
Sifting through this week’s “destined for eBay auction” pile was a joy, some of the mid 70s books and mags sent me down memory lane, I had to stay focused to the task at hand though because a stroll down memory lane is time consuming. My cover of the week is Amazing Spider-Man #41 featuring the first appearance of the Rhino. Though it’s a book our old friend Mike Huddleston is not impressed with the market seems to think different, don’t worry Mike, I’ve been telling people for decades to avoid the 35-cent price variant Star Wars #1 for two decades now and the books has appreciated tenfold at least. What drew me to this cover was just how tattered it was, it got me thinking about how strong the market is for very low-grade keys, I’d say this low end is one of the strongest sectors of the market.
Our ad of the week comes from Fawcett’s Hoppy #5, September 1946 and it features Mary Marvel peddling cheap plaid dresses. It would be cool to know the first time a superhero was used to sell products in a comic book. I remember Spidey selling Hostess Cupcakes in the 1970s and here we have Mary selling dresses in 1946, I’m thinking its Superman or maybe Captain Marvel, I’ll need to find an earlier example but for now we have 1946.
I know I ran this alcohol ad before on this column but I wanted to add these in because of our recent discussion on reoccurring ads. These ads are from Epic Illustrated #2, 3 and 4, I wish I had the run just to see how many were selling Champale.
Our splash of the week isn’t a splash but I’m hoping to make a splash when I start listing original art on a weekly basis in our eBay auctions. Here we have a Stan Goldberg page from Millie the Model #188, I hope these do well.
My favourite book from our just ended weekly icecollectibles eBay auction was this Tomahawk #116 featuring Neal Adams’ first cover. I’ve always loved this cover and I think it’s the background color that does it for me, such a powerful cover. I’d love to get my hands on a 9.4 White pager! This great looking CGC 8.0 sold for $167.50, a bargain!
Agree on the low/mid grade key comment Walt, with the constant & steady increase in prices (historically, notwithstanding pandemic outliers) the hobby can become expensive for the average man, forcing buyers to lower their sights. Hypothesis: lower grades may be able to be sold/traded quicker due to the larger market than the ultra high grade books that some chase.
Story time:
After 30 years of ownership I recently upgraded my Hulk #180 (should be an Undervalued spotlight, prices were low, but that was before the fantastically entertaining Deadpool/Wolverine trailer was released)…I went from a fine minus (5.5) to a very fine plus (8.5) and I listed my undercopy at FMV and it was sold in 18 minutes at asking price…it got me thinking – my gut says it’s a lot easier to sell my fn- at $700 then it will be to sell my VF+ at $2000. We often think about Return On Investment (well, i don’t I just think I like the short angry Canadian on the back page) but maybe liquidity is not being taken into account…these 9.8 nutters (soon to be 9.9 nutters due to CGC’s publicity stunt) have to find someone with deeeeep pockets whilst all i had to do was find someone who liked strange little Canadians (and don’t we all like them!)
I can’t get behind the low grade/common books regardless of the market. I don’t care about ownership as much as I care about aesthetics. I would rather have one nice book than ten beaters. This has kept me away from most of the mega-keys, because I can only afford them if they are in rough shape. But as Spider says, the liquidity makes these better for buying/selling/flipping.
I would bet Superman and Captain Marvel were selling things in the early forties.
You can easily find out about back covers from eBay. The last Champale ad is #5. I saw a Yukon Jack ad on a later back cover, you might want to pick that one up.
That Tomahawk has been on my radar forever, it is one of my favorite covers of all time, genius work by Adams. I think it is pretty esoteric, so like you I would aim for a higher grade to have for a long time. Given its scarcity I am not holding my breath.
yeah Chris, I tried, nope, no can do…soon as I see that Beat To Shit copy (that’s certified Australian Grading System lingo) I’m not putting it in my box!
I’ve been thinking about a strange practice I have – for Marvel I’m a high grade only guy, wanting VF but prefer VF/NM range…but then I switch over to DC and I don’t really know what I’m doing, so I will grab my Neal Adam’s and Jim Aparo books in mid-grade and then after reading them will upgrade when given the opportunity. It’s a completely different approach.Buy and try before buying better! Recently, Bernie Wrightson was a similar story; I bought a pile of Swamp Thing in various grades, mostly mid-grade, read the series, loved it and now am upgrading them all into much higher grades.
Low and Mid grade books give readers the ability to experience the art at a reduced cost and therefore should be celebrated.
an ironic thought:
Both ultra high and ultra low quality copies fill be with a sense of dread that I’ll damage them when handling them to read! It’s the middle ground where I feel comfortable
We’re all in agreement on the low grade stuff.
Extremes will do that to you Spider and these extremes both seem to cater to the investor/speculator, as in a 0.5 copy of some big key and/or a 9.8 copy of a more recent key. I’m still liking my 8.0s which are still a bit too high grade when talking good Silver Age books, for Golden Age I like a soft and supple 4.0 with nice page quality.
Meli, we’ll have to make sure we’re not bidding against each other if a CGC 9.4 White comes up for auction, I say the 1st guy that spots it gets dibs!
I will only add… whilst we all like the nicest comics we can get there are some who want the comic no matter what the condition. All the comics I put up that were poor to good sold like hotcakes at a fireman’s breakfast!
Oh yeah…of the Spidey books I kept… 41 didn’t make the cut… but my 5.0 copy did really well. I kept ASM 16 because of the DD tie in, 26,33,34 because I liked the covers, and 39 and 40. The cover to 39 I may have been Romita’s first but for me it’s the best as well, and 40 only because it’s the rest of the story.