Graded GA Archie Comics in Short Supply

[Holmes]

I am a big fan of Bob Montana and now that I am getting into CGC books i expected to find a lot of the issues with his covers (#41,#48 and #50 to name a few) but there are relatively few copies in the census and those that are graded seem to be mostly MID grade books. In digging a bit more I find that some of these books (especially #50) are just plain hard to come by in any condition slabbed OR raw! Archie comics were among the top selling books in the late 40's and early 50's. I wonder why solid grade copies of this book between #41 and #50 are in such short supply?

[TheWatcher]

Because 143ksk bought them all

[143ksk]

[Bruce1971]

 

Very nice. I got a 4.0 or so that has as good colours and gloss, but also a lot of creases. Still very happy with it.

 

Archie #50 is hard to come by because it is also a classic GGA cover. There are probably 3-4 times, maybe more, people looking for Archie #50 compared to most of the other early issues.

 

Bruce

[Scrooge]

I guarantee that Archie 50 is the only Archie issue on many want-lists.

[Holmes]

Beautiful book you lucky stiff :) . I have been lusting after a copy of #50 for a long time. I will be hunting for one at NYCC and if I can even find a mid grade RAW copy I will grab it. Thanks for sharing the scan!!

 

Mitch

[Bruce1971]

Beautiful book you lucky stiff :) . I have been lusting after a copy of #50 for a long time. I will be hunting for one at NYCC and if I can even find a mid grade RAW copy I will grab it. Thanks for sharing the scan!!

 

Mitch

 

Check these boards and Ebay as well. I know I have bought two off of these boards. The second one was to a boardie who outbid me on an Ebay copy, had a huge dust shadow so I only bid about half of what I would have payed minus the dust shadow.

 

As for grade, if I were you I would take any nice presenting copy and then just upgrade. Not like it's a hard book to get rid of.

 

Bruce

[nearmint]

I think Archie collectors like to read their books, and therefore are less likely to have their books slabbed. And yes, many are tough to find.

[Bunky Brian]

 

Boinnng !

[Forbush-Man]

 

Boinnng !

 

[chezhead]

why is #50 so popular and what does GGA mean?

[Bronty]

betty's boobs, sadly (wouldn't mind a copy myself though )

 

good girl art - kids back then would say artist so and so draws "good girls"

[chezhead]

well archie is staring right at them....

[143ksk]

Yes, he is

 

I don't think that any Archie after the first 10 issues is really scarce. Number 50 seems so due to its popularity. The real problem is finding them in high grade. Archies are a lot like Disneys in that they were very popular and usually read to death.

[comixcroz]

while we're on the subject, what do you think this book would reach at auction? there is only one 9.0 (single highest) with just 2 in 8.0 VF. Only 3 high grade copies ever seen at CGC. Third best is 5.0... I would imagine the hammer price to be pretty darn high considering the demand far outweighs the supply of higher grade copies.

 

any thoughts?

[143ksk]

I really don't know

 

There have been some pretty crazy Archie prices at auction lately, though...

[Bruce1971]

When I was in the market for Archie #50 I was willing to pay 3x guide for copies, at least based on last years guide, just in case there was a big price increase. Now I am not one of those collectors who will pay anything to get the highest graded copy of a book., so maybe it might be better to apply what I was willing to pay to an 8.0 to get a value.

 

I should also mention that to me this book is about the cover, the cover must present at at least average for the grade. I bid half of what I was willing to pay for a similar grade book on a copy with a big dust shadow on the front cover, but that killed the book for me. I don't have GPA, so not sure if those prices were aggressive or not, but I was happy to pay that as a collector. Book is way to cheap in the price guide IMO.

 

Bruce

[comixcroz]

there isn't much info on GPA. There was one 8.0 sale in 09 for $450 but I think its possible the market on this book has changed, maybe drastically since then. There is a recent recorded sale (Aug 2010) on a restored 4.5 for $200...

 

 

[Comicdey]

Just the market

 

changes daily

 

I love my mid grade archie 50

[Holmes]

If by "boing" you mean that Bob Montana was one of the great pin up artists EVER, I heartily agree. One of the great unsung comic creators along with Joe Simon!