E.C. Fan Addict THREAD 27 27

[Robot Man]

20 minutes ago, creaturefan95 said:

What issue of Tales from the Crypt?

28 But as luck would have it, I might be getting that one plus another one and a VOH from a guy later this week.

[creaturefan95]

22 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

28 But as luck would have it, I might be getting that one plus another one and a VOH from a guy later this week.

We were watching the same listing then, only I did so to try and justify buying this copy for $210, which would be the most that I have ever spent on a single comic, but I just could not pull the trigger:

[OtherEric]

9 minutes ago, creaturefan95 said:

We were watching the same listing then, only I did so to try and justify buying this copy for $210, which would be the most that I have ever spent on a single comic, but I just could not pull the trigger:

 

Thank you for reminding me that I'm far from alone in the "I don't like spending more than X" on a book group.  I see the prices some books go for and my mind just boggles.  Admittedly, my comfort level has inched up over the years... I figure I break the $200 barrier 2-3 times a year; but that's close to my max.  I can count the times I've spent $300 or more on one hand.

Luckily, there are lots of EC's available in the lower ranges still...

[Silver]

The last book I acquired was my 15th EC. I want many more 🤣

[OtherEric]

46 minutes ago, Silver said:

The last book I acquired was my 15th EC. I want many more 🤣

I'm at around 150, and I want many more too.  (I say "around" because I'm not sure if I should count pre-trend books, Mad 24-26 which still had an EC logo on the cover, or Picture Stories from the Bible that were actually from DC/ AA...)  The sheer level of quality they managed during the New Trend remains jaw dropping.

[Robot Man]

11 hours ago, creaturefan95 said:

We were watching the same listing then, only I did so to try and justify buying this copy for $210, which would be the most that I have ever spent on a single comic, but I just could not pull the trigger:

That was the one. I would have probably been ok with $200-225 on that copy. Stiff, I know, but it’s an early one and one I don’t see often. 

Crypts are the king of the New Trends right now. Unfortunately, they seem to be bringing stiff prices with no end in sight. A few years and that will be a deal. The price it went for was a steal. 

I only need about 5 more and figure I had better just pay up now before they are out of sight. I have been known to pay up on stuff that is really rare. Got to buy it when you see it. This isn’t a book that necessitates it though. 

The ones that will really hurt are the two COT and the Crime Patrol I need. 

[Silver]

EC’s seem to be going up in price in all grades. Has that been everyone else’s experience as well? For awhile the HG stuff seemed to have to real growth (check out GPA, many books are selling at the same level of 10 years ago) now though it seems like a lot of books are breaking old records. 

[Robot Man]

45 minutes ago, Silver said:

EC’s seem to be going up in price in all grades. Has that been everyone else’s experience as well? For awhile the HG stuff seemed to have to real growth (check out GPA, many books are selling at the same level of 10 years ago) now though it seems like a lot of books are breaking old records. 

I would agree with that. ECs, despite the numerous reprints, have always been VERY popular. For a while, right after the reprints started, they seemed to stagnate a little, but folks realized, there is nothing like owning the originals. People tend to focus on high grade but the low grade ones are steady sellers for me at shows even at above guide prices. For every collector who wants and can afford the high grade ones, there are 100 collectors eager to buy any copy. I'm mostly looking for nice presenting mid grade copies. Even solid lower grade on some. A lot more competition than just a year or so ago. So glad to have the most expensive ones out of the way.

[Robot Man]

I recently picked this one up for peanuts because the centerfold was missing. Hoping to find a coverless one. It will, at least, be a placeholder until I can upgrade.

[Robot Man]

Haven’t looked forward to receiving an EC in the mail in a long time as much as this one. I own ECs from noted collections such as Jerry Weist, Gary Arlington, Nicholas Cage as well as Johnny Craig and Al Feldstein and a couple Gaines copies. But this one is pretty special. From Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead’s personal collection. Being a big Dead fan and life time EC collector, a perfect fit.

Gary Arlington told me once that Jerry was a big comic book fan and especially ECs. He said that when Jerry got his first large royalty check he came to Gary to buy a complete EC collection. This is part of that collection. 

The collection was sold in title and genre lots at a big LA auction house a couple of years ago along with a lot of personal property. I didn’t even know about it until a friend told me about it a couple weeks later. They apparently sold with very little fanfare at fairly modest prices. 

The Crime Suspensestories lot recently showed up on EBay a few at a time. I apparently missed the first couple of auctions but finally bumped into them. 

They had gone for pretty reasonable prices. The seller concerned me a little as I thought I recognized him as a noted scammer. But I took a chance since they were graded and noted by the “other guys”. Apparently, CGC wouldn’t note them as a collection for some reason. 

So I took a shot on a few and got blown out of the water. Was real bummed until I did an EBay search and found a different seller with a few “buy it nows”. He had apparently had bought the humor lot. So I hit this one. My favorite Panic. Stoked to have it!

Anybody here get any of the other ones? Not sure if more will turn up but if so, I might try on a couple more. 

 

[jpepx78]

Hey now! According to court documents Garcia’s comic collection was assessed at $30000 in 1997. (Page 2 item 8)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/jerry-garcia-dead-mans-touch-green-0

There was a Bonham’s auction that sold off Garcia’s comic collection of mostly ECs in several lots. I’m not sure of the auction date. (2007?) There were multiple copies of some issues. The conditions looked decent and the prices seemed reasonable? The buyers premium is outrageous- 27.5% for first $3000 bid and 25% for over $3000 to $400000 bid! The EC lot with Crime Suspenstories 22 was probably the best deal.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25922/#/aa1=1&MR1_length=12&w1=list&m1=1

 

Edited July 15, 2020 by jpepx78

[Robot Man]

The Crime Suspenstories #22 in 2.5 went for $2100. (Most expensive). The #20 in 3.0 went for $700. But they were Jerry’s books...

Most were in the 2.0-5.0 range least expensive was #25 in 3.5 for $158. A decent deal I think. 

Will be interesting to see if any more turn up...

Edited July 15, 2020 by Robot Man

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Haven’t looked forward to receiving an EC in the mail in a long time as much as this one. I own ECs from noted collections such as Jerry Weist, Gary Arlington, Nicholas Cage as well as Johnny Craig and Al Feldstein and a couple Gaines copies. But this one is pretty special. From Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead’s personal collection. Being a big Dead fan and life time EC collector, a perfect fit.

 

Such a cool book and provenance!  I've wondered what happened to Jerry's comics in the past.

I've only got a couple EC's with noteworthy provenance, my Panic #6 is from Don & Maggie Thompson, and my Shock #6 is from Gary Arlington.  I really should get a Gaines File Copy one day, although my budget is such I would probably just get a later issue MAD so I can say I have one...

[Robot Man]

The guy I bought this from had a lower grade MAD #12 for $125. I believe. (it has since sold) A real reasonable price I thought but the cover is rather boring in a slab and I much prefered this one so I paid up a little more and took it. Since it appeared he might of been the one who bought the lot, I sent him a DM and asked if he had any other specific issues I wanted. Still waiting to hear back from him.

If you can find one, there were a few of these floating around at pretty cheap prices. Hey, it's a Gaines file copy...

[Hap Hazard]

I don't think I have shared this picture before, I laid out this large floor shot after I finished the last run I needed to complete my collection of every EC from

Pre-Trend, New-Trend and New Direction with Mad's up to issue 30. Tiny-Tot was the last EC run I needed to finish took about a year to find the last issue I needed.

No they are not all NM my average grade is probably VG/F and I have been slowly replacing the real low grade books when the opportunity arises.  I have everything but a couple

very rare give aways KO Punch etc. and the first EC Horror Annual, Tales of Terror. Started collecting EC's in the early 70's with the first EC reprints East Coast  comics.

[Robot Man]

Very impressive Hap! Quite the feat even back then. At one time, I did the same thing. The funny animals and romance were the hardest for me. 

When the reprints came out, I sold off most of them and bought stuff that wasn’t reprinted. Several years later I needed them back and got about 2/3rds before I sold them off again. 

I am currently back buying mostly just the New Trend issues and the romance. Got most all the expensive ones just filling in holes with solid, nicely presenting copies. It will be my last time, I promise! 

[Hap Hazard]

27 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Very impressive Hap! Quite the feat even back then. At one time, I did the same thing. The funny animals and romance were the hardest for me. 

When the reprints came out, I sold off most of them and bought stuff that wasn’t reprinted. Several years later I needed them back and got about 2/3rds before I sold them off again. 

I am currently back buying mostly just the New Trend issues and the romance. Got most all the expensive ones just filling in holes with solid, nicely presenting copies. It will be my last time, I promise! 

Thanks Robot Man, if you ever have a itch to sell your Tales of Terror one Annual let me know.

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, Hap Hazard said:

I don't think I have shared this picture before, I laid out this large floor shot after I finished the last run I needed to complete my collection of every EC from

Pre-Trend, New-Trend and New Direction with Mad's up to issue 30. Tiny-Tot was the last EC run I needed to finish took about a year to find the last issue I needed.

No they are not all NM my average grade is probably VG/F and I have been slowly replacing the real low grade books when the opportunity arises.  I have everything but a couple

very rare give aways KO Punch etc. and the first EC Horror Annual, Tales of Terror. Started collecting EC's in the early 70's with the first EC reprints East Coast  comics.

That is truly a thing of beauty.

If I might ask, how did you pick Mad #30 as your cut-off?  I considered 23 (last comic issue), 26 (last issue with EC logo), and 28 (last Kurtzman edited issue) before settling on 31 (last Kurtzman inventory stories).  Not sure where #30 came from, other than "Iconic cover"... which could be plenty of reason on its own.  Also, do you have the variant issues?  As far as I know, Impact 1, Mad 28, and Frontline Combat 9 all have variants (none of which I have yet...).

[Raze]

@OtherEric what are these “variants” you speak of?!?!? Ive never heard of these please share!

[EC ed]

4 minutes ago, Raze said:

@OtherEric what are these “variants” you speak of?!?!? Ive never heard of these please share!

I don't want to pre-empt @OtherEric, but if I may...I have a couple of photos already queued up in my repository...

Frontline Combat #9 has an orange and yellow "Civil War" variant...here they are together: