Silver age comics that are heating up 26 26

[Wreck-It Ralph]

9 hours ago, PKJ said:

Been suggested in multiple threads with no change. 

Nice profile picture is that a 930 on the left, what’s in the middle 328, 348, 355?

[WolverineX]

Hawkman 4 5.5 just sold for $1500.  Substantial bump with the movies news from Bad Robot. 

[piper]

On 3/22/2021 at 11:23 AM, october said:

$2400 for a 7.0?!?

https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-amazing-spider-man-50-marvel-1967-cgc-fn-vf-70-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122112-17040.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

I’m feeling like a broken record when I say that I’m glad that I already own a copy. 

Is any Marvel key not hot right now?

[piper]

12 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

Hawkman 4 5.5 just sold for $1500.  Substantial bump with the movies news from Bad Robot. 

I sold too early... 

[kimik]

3 hours ago, piper said:

I’m feeling like a broken record when I say that I’m glad that I already own a copy. 

Is any Marvel key not hot right now?

Hulk #1, TOS #39, JIM #83........ 

Edited March 24, 2021 by kimik

[Frank.Einstein]

On 3/22/2021 at 1:53 PM, skypinkblu said:

@Wreck-It RalphWelcome to the boards, it's nice to see new people interested in the hobby. 

In the 50's and 60's most comics (I never like to say all) were sent from the publisher to distribution warehouses. Those warehouses sent them to the newstands and candy stores/newspaper stores where they were sold to the public. Unsold comics could be returned to the distributer warehouses. So that they were not resold as new, they were marked as returns.  They were often sprayed with ink, sometime just a tiny bit, sometimes the books were fairly covered with ink.

Sometimes the logos were torn off to mark them as returns. I don't know if the  stores did that or the distribution centers. It was to prevent the books being resold.

Many of those "damaged" books were resold when they were discovered later sitting in piles at these centers. Sometimes just the top book in a pile was sprayed and a little ink leaked over the edges of the others. 

This spray was different from the books that had some ink that was over-sprayed at the manufacturer.

Most of the ink sprayed by the NY distributors (the only ones I'm really familiar with) was dark purple. Lots of times when you see manufacturer overspray, it seems to be red, but not always.

Almost 20 years ago, a big distribution warehouse on Long Island (in NY) was being sold on consignment by an eBay seller who started listing piles and piles of comics from that site. I spent a lot of hours driving out there, it was an amazing place to walk around. I had never seen books with the cords around the bundles before, all drowned in blue/purple ink.

 

Fascinating! Over the past 20 odd years (esp from 2004-2018) I have bought a lot of comics and a few mags from one seller who had/has access to a Marvel (and other publishers) distribution warehouse collection in the US, the exact location of which I am unaware of. The comics sound exactly like what you describe. Wonder if they are one in the same?

Edited March 24, 2021 by Frank.Einstein

[skypinkblu]

3 hours ago, Frank.Einstein said:

Fascinating! Over the past 20 odd years (esp from 2004-2018) I have bought a lot of comics and a few mags from one seller who had/has access to a Marvel (and other publishers) distribution warehouse collection in the US, the exact location of which I am unaware of. The comics sound exactly like what you describe. Wonder if they are one in the same?

The first time I contacted Lou, the person who was selling the books on eBay (the EBay name was Bakerstown) I had gone because he sold an Action 242 on eBay and a lot of Katy Keenes, he used to spread a bunch of random books on the floor, and sell the lot. I kept getting outbid and a friend was collecting Katy Keene and asking me to bid on them for her, so I got tired of being outbid and finally called him to ask if he would sell me a few of those and he invited me to come to the office. I had to bring 1k in "cash" which seemed like a LOT of money for comics to me at the time, so I also brought my husband the first time. Lou was very nice, so later, I just went when I had time by myself, my husband wasn't exactly enthralled with wandering around a comic warehouse for hours, lol..

When I first went, I think I was one of the first people who actually knew a tiny bit about comics to come in person. He spread out a bunch of books on a table, told me I could only buy 20, and had to leave the rest. Then he let me purchase all the books on the table, it was a test it seems, he was trying to find out what books were good, lol. He said he was having a great time watching me looking at the books and telling him what they were. I told him about Overstreet and Comics.org, etc. So he kept inviting me back.

He was really only interested in big sales in groups, but I was an exception. I didn't want my entire garage filled, although in retrospect, I probably should have done that, lol.

There were over 1 million books in the warehouse. He had them stacked on shelves on the floor, everywhere. I was trying to ignore the chews on some, the warehouse was damp. There were tons of the same issues, but there were some "gems". He found a coverless GA Cap, and a few AF15's, I didn't buy those because I'm not super pushy and  I wasn't offered them and he was friendly with Weiss auctions in LI, so he auctioned them there, I met him at a few of the auctions..

Lou,   was selling the books for the owners of the distribution center and  parceled out huge amounts to a few eBay sellers who were contacting him.. I don't know where you are, but there was an eBay seller out west who must have bought a huge part of the inventory, and Lou, seemed to have purchased a lot because a few years later, he was selling a ton on eBay. 

 . I only came home with storage size boxes of coverless books once or twice, and after I had pieces all over my floor, I got pickier;)  I had a lot of Classics Illustrated, things by Seaboard, some DCs, not too many, Charltons and Archies were a big part of what he had, but I was working very full time and not interested in having no room for my car in my garage.

 

I think Koch warehouse in Brooklyn, bought most of what was still there at the end of the year.

Action 252 (I can't find a picture of that one) which is now in a 5.0 slab, was in that first group, I still have that one.

Some were in nice shape, but most not so much. I found some old pictures in Photobucket.

I had about 10 of these.

Here is a picture of what the bundles of Classics looked like, this was one of the better ones. 

There were a few of these

 

and bunches of these

When I saw the Tom Terrific was listed as "scarce" and I had about 12 of them in front of me, I thought it was a lot of fun.

 

Edit, I did find a picture of this Action, you can see the ink lower left.

My apologies to the thread, I know this is out of context.

Edited March 24, 2021 by skypinkblu

[Bluemedgroup]

2 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

The first time I contacted Lou, the person who was selling the books on eBay (the EBay name was Bakerstown) I had gone because he sold an Action 242 on eBay and a lot of Katy Keenes, he used to spread a bunch of random books on the floor, and sell the lot. I kept getting outbid and a friend was collecting Katy Keene and asking me to bid on them for her, so I got tired of being outbid and finally called him to ask if he would sell me a few of those and he invited me to come to the office. I had to bring 1k in "cash" which seemed like a LOT of money for comics to me at the time, so I also brought my husband the first time. Lou was very nice, so later, I just went when I had time by myself, my husband wasn't exactly enthralled with wandering around a comic warehouse for hours, lol..

When I first went, I think I was one of the first people who actually knew a tiny bit about comics to come in person. He spread out a bunch of books on a table, told me I could only buy 20, and had to leave the rest. Then he let me purchase all the books on the table, it was a test it seems, he was trying to find out what books were good, lol. He said he was having a great time watching me looking at the books and telling him what they were. I told him about Overstreet and Comics.org, etc. So he kept inviting me back.

He was really only interested in big sales in groups, but I was an exception. I didn't want my entire garage filled, although in retrospect, I probably should have done that, lol.

There were over 1 million books in the warehouse. He had them stacked on shelves on the floor, everywhere. I was trying to ignore the chews on some, the warehouse was damp. There were tons of the same issues, but there were some "gems". He found a coverless GA Cap, and a few AF15's, I didn't buy those because I'm not super pushy and  I wasn't offered them and he was friendly with Weiss auctions in LI, so he auctioned them there, I met him at a few of the auctions..

Lou,   was selling the books for the owners of the distribution center and  parceled out huge amounts to a few eBay sellers who were contacting him.. I don't know where you are, but there was an eBay seller out west who must have bought a huge part of the inventory, and Lou, seemed to have purchased a lot because a few years later, he was selling a ton on eBay. 

 . I only came home with storage size boxes of coverless books once or twice, and after I had pieces all over my floor, I got pickier;)  I had a lot of Classics Illustrated, things by Seaboard, some DCs, not too many, Charltons and Archies were a big part of what he had, but I was working very full time and not interested in having no room for my car in my garage.

 

I think Koch warehouse in Brooklyn, bought most of what was still there at the end of the year.

Action 252 (I can't find a picture of that one) which is now in a 5.0 slab, was in that first group, I still have that one.

Some were in nice shape, but most not so much. I found some old pictures in Photobucket.

I had about 10 of these.

Here is a picture of what the bundles of Classics looked like, this was one of the better ones. 

There were a few of these

 

and bunches of these

When I saw the Tom Terrific was listed as "scarce" and I had about 12 of them in front of me, I thought it was a lot of fun.

 

Edit, I did find a picture of this Action, you can see the ink lower left.

My apologies to the thread, I know this is out of context.

No apologies needed.  As I've only been in the hobby for a little more than 3 years, I love reading stories like this.  It gives younger collectors hope as we all dream of finding something like this. We might never do, but that's why we do it.  #Thrillofthehunt.   

[ThothAmon]

On 3/22/2021 at 8:59 AM, gadzukes said:

With all of your questions, it sounds like you're seriously diving deeper into this wonderful hobby.  Some of the terms used are like speaking a new language.  Don't worry.... you'll be up to speed by your 200th posting.

For some of us it takes even more than that, in my case > 4381. 

[ThothAmon]

2 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

The first time I contacted Lou, the person who was selling the books on eBay (the EBay name was Bakerstown) I had gone because he sold an Action 242 on eBay and a lot of Katy Keenes, he used to spread a bunch of random books on the floor, and sell the lot. I kept getting outbid and a friend was collecting Katy Keene and asking me to bid on them for her, so I got tired of being outbid and finally called him to ask if he would sell me a few of those and he invited me to come to the office. I had to bring 1k in "cash" which seemed like a LOT of money for comics to me at the time, so I also brought my husband the first time. Lou was very nice, so later, I just went when I had time by myself, my husband wasn't exactly enthralled with wandering around a comic warehouse for hours, lol..

When I first went, I think I was one of the first people who actually knew a tiny bit about comics to come in person. He spread out a bunch of books on a table, told me I could only buy 20, and had to leave the rest. Then he let me purchase all the books on the table, it was a test it seems, he was trying to find out what books were good, lol. He said he was having a great time watching me looking at the books and telling him what they were. I told him about Overstreet and Comics.org, etc. So he kept inviting me back.

He was really only interested in big sales in groups, but I was an exception. I didn't want my entire garage filled, although in retrospect, I probably should have done that, lol.

There were over 1 million books in the warehouse. He had them stacked on shelves on the floor, everywhere. I was trying to ignore the chews on some, the warehouse was damp. There were tons of the same issues, but there were some "gems". He found a coverless GA Cap, and a few AF15's, I didn't buy those because I'm not super pushy and  I wasn't offered them and he was friendly with Weiss auctions in LI, so he auctioned them there, I met him at a few of the auctions..

Lou,   was selling the books for the owners of the distribution center and  parceled out huge amounts to a few eBay sellers who were contacting him.. I don't know where you are, but there was an eBay seller out west who must have bought a huge part of the inventory, and Lou, seemed to have purchased a lot because a few years later, he was selling a ton on eBay. 

 . I only came home with storage size boxes of coverless books once or twice, and after I had pieces all over my floor, I got pickier;)  I had a lot of Classics Illustrated, things by Seaboard, some DCs, not too many, Charltons and Archies were a big part of what he had, but I was working very full time and not interested in having no room for my car in my garage.

 

I think Koch warehouse in Brooklyn, bought most of what was still there at the end of the year.

Action 252 (I can't find a picture of that one) which is now in a 5.0 slab, was in that first group, I still have that one.

Some were in nice shape, but most not so much. I found some old pictures in Photobucket.

I had about 10 of these.

Here is a picture of what the bundles of Classics looked like, this was one of the better ones. 

There were a few of these

 

and bunches of these

When I saw the Tom Terrific was listed as "scarce" and I had about 12 of them in front of me, I thought it was a lot of fun.

 

Edit, I did find a picture of this Action, you can see the ink lower left.

My apologies to the thread, I know this is out of context.

[skypinkblu]

36 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

For some of us it takes even more than that, in my case > 4381. 

I still learn new stuff, EVERY day, it's amazing how much there is to learn and how many knowledgeable people there are here, it's one of the things I love about this hobby...the history.. So count me at 30,614 and counting;) 

[Math Teacher]

7 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

I still learn new stuff, EVERY day, it's amazing how much there is to learn and how many knowledgeable people there are here, it's one of the things I love about this hobby...the history.. So count me at 30,614 and counting;) 

I thought that I knew a lot about comics, but, once I came to these boards, I realized how minuscule my knowledge was. There are some people here that probably have forgot more than I have learned.

[KCOComics]

22 minutes ago, Math Teacher said:

I thought that I knew a lot about comics, but, once I came to these boards, I realized how minuscule my knowledge was. There are some people here that probably have forgot more than I have learned.

It's really incredible. 

This is place is such an amazing resource! 

[PKJ]

Now that I have finally landed an Amazing Adventures #1, you guys can start pumping it up, I mean if a mcu speculator  youtuber messes up Dr. Doom's name by one letter it will be worth 6 figures. In seriousness it is a book most folks do not realize the importance of.

 

I was surprised that BB28 5.0 ended under 5k, I would have went after it but there are some personal favorites after it I want to jump on.

[bc]

38 minutes ago, PKJ said:

Now that I have finally landed an Amazing Adventures #1, you guys can start pumping it up, I mean if a mcu speculator  youtuber messes up Dr. Doom's name by one letter it will be worth 6 figures. In seriousness it is a book most folks do not realize the importance of.

-bc

[Frank.Einstein]

On 3/22/2021 at 1:53 PM, skypinkblu said:

@Wreck-It RalphWelcome to the boards, it's nice to see new people interested in the hobby. 

In the 50's and 60's most comics (I never like to say all) were sent from the publisher to distribution warehouses. Those warehouses sent them to the newstands and candy stores/newspaper stores where they were sold to the public. Unsold comics could be returned to the distributer warehouses. So that they were not resold as new, they were marked as returns.  They were often sprayed with ink, sometime just a tiny bit, sometimes the books were fairly covered with ink.

Sometimes the logos were torn off to mark them as returns. I don't know if the  stores did that or the distribution centers. It was to prevent the books being resold.

Many of those "damaged" books were resold when they were discovered later sitting in piles at these centers. Sometimes just the top book in a pile was sprayed and a little ink leaked over the edges of the others. 

This spray was different from the books that had some ink that was over-sprayed at the manufacturer.

Most of the ink sprayed by the NY distributors (the only ones I'm really familiar with) was dark purple. Lots of times when you see manufacturer overspray, it seems to be red, but not always.

Almost 20 years ago, a big distribution warehouse on Long Island (in NY) was being sold on consignment by an eBay seller who started listing piles and piles of comics from that site. I spent a lot of hours driving out there, it was an amazing place to walk around. I had never seen books with the cords around the bundles before, all drowned in blue/purple ink.

 

Very interesting! I think that the collection I was buying from is different. They seem to be from about 1969 through to the early 1990s. The vast majority seem to be BA Marvels - long runs of ASM, Avengers, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man etc –  but also a lot of common and obscure magazines (Eerie, Martial Arts & Wresting mags). They seem to have an excess of distributor ink on them, and many copies are clearly from the outer bundle (with bundle marks). For example, he has sold a few hundred, or thousand, ASM 129s and 181s over the years. The freshness of them is a thing of beauty, the gloss, the flatness etc. He use to sell them in lots of ten (i.e. ASM 121-130) but in later years switched to individual issues.

[skypinkblu]

14 minutes ago, Frank.Einstein said:

Very interesting! I think that the collection I was buying from is different. They seem to be from about 1969 through to the early 1990s. The vast majority seem to be BA Marvels - long runs of ASM, Avengers, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man etc –  but also a lot of common and obscure magazines (Eerie, Martial Arts & Wresting mags). They seem to have an excess of distributor ink on them, and many copies are clearly from the outer bundle (with bundle marks). For example, he has sold a few hundred, or thousand, ASM 129s and 181s over the years. The freshness of them is a thing of beauty, the gloss, the flatness etc. He use to sell them in lots of ten (i.e. ASM 121-130) but in later years switched to individual issues.

I'm pretty sure there was a warehouse find in Ohio, but someone in that area would know more. There were several of them in different areas, but NY metro area was probably the place where most books were printed years ago. 

I lived in Mamaroneck NY for a long time and it's still the home of Archie Comics, small building tucked into a a street near the railroad.

When we had street fairs, some of the artists would show up.

Oh and one thing in common with the warehouse books I've seen, the condition might not be great, but the colors are spectacular. They were in the dark for all those years.

Edited March 25, 2021 by skypinkblu

[BakerFanOne]

On 3/23/2021 at 7:43 AM, Wolverinex said:

Hawkman 4 5.5 just sold for $1500.  Substantial bump with the movies news from Bad Robot. 

I actually speculated on this book in the 1990s.  I still have my one high grade copy - an unpressed recently certified universal 8.5.  I used to have a bunch of lower grade copies as they were only a few bucks a piece back then.  But glad to see Zatanna finally get her due!  If you were lucky enough to pick up a few copies lately, you might see a 300%+ profit in a week or so.  

[BakerFanOne]

On 3/22/2021 at 10:23 AM, october said:

$2400 for a 7.0?!?

https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-amazing-spider-man-50-marvel-1967-cgc-fn-vf-70-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122112-17040.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

We all like the Kingpin but it is pretty amazing the crazy price jumps on some recent books.  Many of us could have predicted that 1st appearances of key characters like Sgt. Fury 1, JIM 83, Strange Tales 110, Tales of Suspense 39, Daredevil 1, FF 48 and X-Men 1 were due for some price increases, but I have been amazed at the crazy price acceleration.  And then when we look at the price jumps in 1st appearances of key villains like JIM 85, FF5, and many Spideys like 3, 4, 6, 9. 13, 14, 50, etc . . . , it has been simply mind-blowing.  Prices are just about out of the reach for the average collector on the FF1, AF15, Spidey 1, Hulk 1 and X-men 1 which means folks are going "downstream" when they can.  Pretty soon all the bronze age keys will be out of reach except in the lower grades.  I find it hard to drop $3K for a VF ish Marvel Spotlight 5 or $5K for a decent GS X-men 1.  When or where this madness will stop is anyone's guess.  Or is this really the new norm and just the start of another crazy bitcoin/Gamestop like ride for comics?  Or just a repeat of history as this does remind me of the speculative craze in the early 1990s with Liefeld New Mutants, Jim Lee X-Men and McFarlane Spideys.  

[Roger66]

For those of you who haven't guessed or intuitively figured out by now, there is a lot of new money being parked in the collectible market.  Covid19 factors including rich folk not spending money on travel, fine wines, expensive dinners, clothing etc - are looking to park their money in collectibles.  What we are experiencing feels unprecedented for sure.  It is very easy if not simple to sit on the sidelines and call this a bubble ready to burst as opposed to continuing to collect and enjoy your comics.  Only time will tell where this hobby will be in a year or more - only time and not peanut gallery predictions.  My 2 cents is I am sitting with what I have collected and doubtfully buying any books at today's prices.  My cautionary advice for anyone starting off in this hobby as a SA collector of keys or those trying to claw back their long gone Silver Age Marvel Keys - is don't right now - move on and watch - the train has left the station and may or may not one day return.  Here is an excellent recent article in the NY Times that illuminates this further.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/style/spending-rich-people.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage