All Star Comics #51, DC Comics, February/March 1950
In Undervalued Spotlight #308 I introduced the now infamous Durajlija’s Equation for Iconic Golden Age covers (DEIGAC). Spotlight #314 contained the second book spit out by the equation and this week I’d like to get my first DEIGAC (pronounced Day-Gak!) post of 2017 into the books by presenting All Star Comics #51 as this week’s Undervalued Spotlight.
Everything is here, a striking cover featuring our fantastically named villains prominent to the right of the cover staring down a puny Green Lantern to the left. I will concede that an even smaller Hawkman is floating in on the right but we won’t dwell on minor details.
Examples abound of the Golden Age market moving towards stand out covers and there are so many more yet to be “discovered”. Personally I think this is one of the best covers in the whole All Star run. The Diamond Men from the world below look great, I’m surprised these guys didn’t go further as villains.
All Star #51 is a book I’d love to own, as a matter of fact I tried putting in several offers on a CGC 7.5 that’s up on Ebay. The owner and I went back and forth a few times but we ended up a couple hundred dollars apart.
As luck would have it a solid looking CGC 7.0 was in the recent December ComicConnect auction. I tracked the book sheepishly, lying in the weeds so nobody could see me. With a few hours left the book was at around $400. I knew I’d get it and get it cheap! I made my move late but that blasted auto time re-set kept putting the clock back to 3 minutes left every time I bid. This gave anyone else interested in the book 3 minutes to convince themselves they really wanted it. To make a long story short I tapped out at $1,600! Did not get it!
Gah! I went way over my price limit for the book but those 3 minutes gave me time to come up with reasons why I should bid again. So congrats to the winner, surely he was privy to DEIGAC!
Collecting Golden Age is a massive amount of fun, unfortunately the major keys are out of reach for 99% of us and collecting runs is next to impossible because of the value of the keys and because of the scarcity of these books. Luckily for us we can still amass a great Golden Age collection by focusing on things like great covers, character introductions, major characters presence, title strength etc. All Star Comics #51 delivers on all fronts here and you can add that it comes from the very late days of the DC Golden Age era of superheroes. These late 40s and early 50s books are becoming more and more sought after.
The 46th Overstreet price break for this book is $806/$1378/$1950 in the 8.0/9.0/9.2 grade splits.
Reasons to buy this comic book as an investment.
- Intro the Diamond Men
- Passes the DEIGAC test
i love those golden age covers Walt. compared to some silver age books, a lot of golden age is cheap. anyway. see you tomorrow.
I think this a good not great cover Walt, Despite your formula, I think you are trying too hard here.
Its a Gerber 5, and not as rare as many of the issues in the Run. ISSUES 1, 3, 19,20, 21,22, 25, 26, 41, 56 AND 57 are Gerber 6’s or 7,s…far rarer . Gerber 5…200-1000 estimated issues exist, Gerber 6. 50 to 200 and Gerber 7, 21 to 50.
Take a peak at the covers from #1 to #57, I think many surpass this one in capturing interest and passion.
Dave, what’s Gerber measured against DEIGAC ??
Besides I went through the other covers and this one struck me as one that will eventually differentiate itself. Remember Diamonds are forever.
DEIGAC ? Durajlija’s Ego Is Going Atta Control
Ouch! But, really Walt, I’m afraid I have to agree with Dave. There are other truly outstanding covers in that run, and, no offense, but I’ll go with Gerber any day over DEIGAC. And “intro of the Diamond Men” just doesn’t cut it considering the fact that they seem to have dead-ended with that issue. I would pick something like a Solomon Grundy appearance over these escapees from Cartier any day of the year.
cheers, mel
Well, in an effort to keep the peace… All of the selections in this column are a matter of opinion. I don’t think it is fair to say this one is “wrong” necessarily. Time will tell. I’d bet that any of the more compelling covers in this title (in higher grades) are good investments assuming the superhero comic market as a whole remains strong.
More importantly, I think the DEIGAC is good fun, so keep ’em coming.
Good point Eric. But, I don’t think disagreeing necessarily entails someone being “wrong.” We just have different ideas once in a while, and this is a forum to discuss those differences in a civilized fashion.
Not to change topics, but I just wanted to share this New Mutants speculative write up:
http://comicbookinvest.com/2017/01/10/new-mutants-movie-speculation-franchise-begins/
Regular commenting Responses to Walt’s undervalued spotlight, a Gerber 10…(Unique- less then 5 known number)…It seems the DEIGAC effect has moved the needle to a Gerber 9…(very rare…6 to 10 comments known to exist)
🙂
Now THAT is funny!
Eric you are now an honorary Disciple of DEIGAC ot DoD as I like to refer to it, thus you are DoD Eric. Thanks for sharing in the fun.
You sure know how to hit a guy where it hurts Dave…
Thanks Walt! Such an honor… 🙂
I agree, Mel — the debate and multiple opinions are a welcome part of this column and definitely add value to the discussion. All good stuff.
Charlie – Thanks for the link! Good info. The author pointed to a ton of comics there, kinda like betting on 1/3 of the roulette table every spin. But it would be fun to choose a few of them and see what happens.