What’s the date today? OK, November 20th 2023. This is what the “Toy Room” looks like at the new warehouse. I’ll take a picture at this angle at a future date, say mid-January, just to see how things are progressing. Trust me, any small sign of improvement will be a victory. We actually spent some time moving furniture around in the offices, trying to put our game faces on and get seriously down to the business of bringing the stuff in the warehouse to market. Next week I’ll include a pic of the office area.
Speaking of dates, or at lease dating things, I found my cover of the week near the top of the “going to the icecollectibles eBay auction” pile. First off, I love these very late Charlton issues, Ghost Manor #75 is from July 1984 and the title only lasted two more issues. These later Charltons, especially the ones from 1985, 1986 are really tough, especially in grade, because of the low print runs. I spotted the Ditko cover instantly but something seemed off, the guy’s pants, coat and hat screamed early 1960s, nor mid 1980s, so I checked comics.org and sure enough this cover is a reprint from Shadows From Beyond #50 published October 1966. Hey, I know my pants!
OK so I find it easy to date pants, I’ll have you know I also find it easy to date Kirby. Have a look at this Silver Surfer splash, from the 1978 Graphic Novel, the thing screams late 1970 Jack Kirby. I find Jack drew guys really skinny in the 1950s, then he went really cosmic in the 1960s, and then he seemed to exaggerate himself in the 1970s, I don’t want to talk about Kirby in the 1980s.
Speaking of dating, how was a young girl to know who was dating who in Hollywood in the early 1960s, there was no internet and TMZ hadn’t aired on TV yet. Check this ad out from the inside cover of Three Nurses #1, 1963. That’s a lot of glossy photos. I wonder if these photos were the old photo stock quality, this package must have weighted a ton.
Our weekly icecollectibles eBay auction produced some interesting results. I was watching the Amazing Spider-Man #3112 CGC 9.8 Signature Series with Stan Lee and Todd McFarlane with interest. There was a copy that sold back in August for $1,000 USD and I was afraid this copy would get caught in the big price slides that have been happening these past 3 months since that last sale. Our copy sold for $864 USD which is actually a bit above the May 2023 sale of $860. I am considering this a positive result for the book; it lost some ground over last sale but is still nestled within the two sales that have happened this year.
